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Women in prison have high risk for non-communicable diseases both in relation to men in prison and in relation to women in the general population. This study documented the health disparities related to diseases among women in prison and in the general female population in Brazil. Women in prisons (WP) < 30 years old had a prevalence of hypertension (PR = 4.5; 95% CI 3.4–6.1), cardiovascular disease (PR = 4.4; 95% CI 2.4–7.9) and asthma (PR = 3.0; 95% CI 2.3–3.8) higher than general female population in Brazil in the same age group. Women in prison > 50 years old also presented asthma prevalence (PR = 4.3; 95% CI 2.9–6.3) higher than the general female population in Brazil in the same age group. These women in prison, overwhelmingly young, could be mistaken for an elderly population in Brazil. Actively responding to early disease in these women can reduce overall health costs and improve health care for this population that may have limited access to health care outside of prison. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The HIV epidemic affects men who have sex with men (MSM) disproportionally in Brazil, and pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) is effective for preventing HIV in this population. However, low perceived risk of HIV may influence the acceptability and decision to use PrEP. This study estimated the association between self-perception of HIV risk and acceptability of daily oral PrEP among Brazilian MSM. Respondent-driven sampling (RDS) was used for behavioral and biological surveillance to recruit 4,176 MSM 18 years or over in 12 Brazilian cities in 2016. Results were weighted using Gile's estimator in RDS Analyst software. Adjusted odds rations (OR) with 95% confidence intervals were calculated using multivariate logistic regression. Acceptability of daily oral PrEP was high (69.7%) among the 3,544 MSM available for analysis. Most participants self-reported low or moderate risk of HIV infection (67.2%) and a small proportion (9.3%) reported high risk. A dose–response relationship was observed between acceptability of PrEP and self-reported risk: PrEP acceptability was 1.88 times higher (OR 1.8; 95% CI: 1.24–2.85) among MSM whose perceived risk of HIV infection was low or moderate, and 5 times higher (OR 5.68; 95% CI: 2.54–12.73) among those who self-reported high risk compared to MSM reporting no HIV risk. MSM with the highest risk perception of HIV reported higher rates of PrEP acceptability. Given the availability of daily oral PrEP in the public health care system in Brazil, we suggest emphasizing counseling about self-perception of HIV risk as part of routine HIV prevention services. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Non-metastatic locally advanced breast carcinoma (LABC) treatment involves neoadjuvant chemotherapy (NCT). We evaluated the association of clinical–pathological data and immunoexpression of hormone receptors, HER2 and Ki67, and new biomarkers, RPL37A, MTSS1 and HTRA1, with pathological complete response (PCR) or tumour resistance (stable disease or disease progression), disease-free survival (DFS) and cancer-specific survival (CSS). Methods: This is a retrospective study of 333 patients with LABC who underwent NCT. Expression of MTSS1, RPL37A and HTRA1/PRSS11 was evaluated by immunohistochemistry in TMA slides. Cutoff values were established for low and high tumour expression. ROC plotter evaluated response to NCT. Chi-square test for factors related to PCR, and Kaplan–Meier test and Cox model for factors related to DFS and CSS were prformed. Results: The mean follow-up was 70.0 months and PCR rate was 15.6%. At 120 months, DFS rate was 32.5% and CSS rate was 67.1%. In multivariate analysis, there was an association between: (1) necrosis presence, intense inflammatory infiltrate, ER absence, HER2 molecular subtype and high RPL3A expression with increased odds of PCR; (2) lymph node involvement (LNI), high Ki67, low RPL37A and high HTRA1 expression with increased risk for NCT non-response; (3) LNI, high proliferation, necrosis absence, low RPL37A and high HTRA1 expression with increased recurrence risk; (4) advanced LNI, ER negative tumours, high HTRA1, low RPL37A expression and desmoplasia presence with higher risk of cancer death. Conclusion: RPL37A is a potential biomarker for response to NCT and for prognosis. Additional studies evaluating HTRA1 and MTSS1 prognostic value are needed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of AIDS & Behavior is the property of Springer Nature and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of AIDS & Behavior is the property of Springer Nature and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Tumor Banks were created to organize the collection, storage and distribution of biological samples from oncological patients, facilitating its use in cancer research. To ensure the quality of the samples from our bank, we implemented standard operating procedures international. In order to evaluate the influence of cold ischemia time (time between surgical removal of the specimen and the snap freezing of the sample) on the quality of the samples (evaluated by measurement integrity of their RNA), collected during 10 months two tumor samples from each donor, one with up to 30 min of cold ischemia and other with exact 45 min, totaling 100 different donors and 200 samples, 40 from each of the following organs: breast, thyroid, stomach, lung and colorectum. We extracted total RNA from the samples and with the aid of a Bioanalyser, evaluate their quality, comparing it with cold ischemia times in different organs. Among the samples up to 30 min and the samples with exact 45 min, we respectively found 63 (64.3 %) and 36 (36 %) with intact RNA, 11 (11.2 %) and 17 (17 %) partially degraded and 24 (24.5 %) and 47 (47 %) degraded ( p < 0.001). Thyroid and colorectal samples were more sensitive to variations in cold ischemia time ( p = 0.006 and p = 0.03, respectively). Stomach and lungs were less sensitive ( p = 0.919 and p = 0.384, respectively). We concluded that the cold ischemia time up to 30 min was more efficient to maintain the integrity of RNA in most samples, and that RNA degradation varied according to the different topographies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Prospective studies of the effects of long-standing haemodialysis (HD) on quality of life (QOL) show conflicting results. We investigated how QOL progresses over time in HD patients and what factors are associated with this evolution. We included chronic HD patients over the age of 18 from a single unit, who had never had transplants and survived the first 3 months of treatment. Ninety-two patients were followed for 2 years, and the SF-36 questionnaire was administered at baseline and every 12 months. Comorbidity was assessed at baseline using the Khan index. We used repeated-measures analysis of variance to establish changes in QOL and stepwise linear regression to identify continuous variables that could explain variations of SF-36 sub-scales. Then, according to the rate of change of QOL, we stratified the sample to identify the association between categorical variables and the evolution of QOL. There was a higher (better) final score related to social functioning (63.8 vs. 75.0; P < 0.01), role-emotional (39.7 vs. 63.1; P < 0.01) and mental health (63.1 vs. 69.0; P < 0.01) in the all-sample analysis, and in two other domains in low-comorbidity patients: physical functioning (56.7 vs. 63.5; P = 0.01) and bodily pain (56.7 vs. 66.5; P < 0.01). Creatinine ( r = 0.09; P = 0.04) and age ( r = −0.03; P = 0.02) were correlated with the evolution of general health and bodily pain, respectively. There were more women who presented deteriorated physical function than men (50.0 vs. 21.2%; P < 0.01). There was improvement of QOL mental domains over time. However, the physical aspects improved only in low-comorbidity patients. More women than men worsened regarding physical functioning. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Obtaining samples of populations at risk for HIV challenges surveillance, prevention planning, and evaluation. Methods used include snowball sampling, time location sampling (TLS), and respondent-driven sampling (RDS). Few studies have made side-by-side comparisons to assess their relative advantages. We compared snowball, TLS, and RDS surveys of men who have sex with men (MSM) in Forteleza, Brazil, with a focus on the socio-economic status (SES) and risk behaviors of the samples to each other, to known AIDS cases and to the general population. RDS produced a sample with wider inclusion of lower SES than snowball sampling or TLS—a finding of health significance given the majority of AIDS cases reported among MSM in the state were low SES. RDS also achieved the sample size faster and at lower cost. For reasons of inclusion and cost-efficiency, RDS is the sampling methodology of choice for HIV surveillance of MSM in Fortaleza. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To determine operational and analytical characteristics of respondent-driven sampling (RDS) in international settings and to explore factors that may affect recruitment of most-at-risk populations using RDS, we reviewed HIV biological and behavioral surveillance studies that used this method outside of the United States. We identified 123 eligible studies, 59 from Europe, 40 from Asia and the Pacific, 14 from Latin America, seven from Africa and three from Oceania. Studies collectively recruited 32,298 participants between 2003 and 2007; 53% of studies were conducted among injecting drug users, which generally had faster recruitment compared with studies among sex workers. All but 13 studies reached ≥90% of their intended sample size, and six studies failed to reach equilibrium for key variables. This review has shown that RDS is an effective technique, when designed and implemented appropriately, to sample most-at-risk populations for HIV biological and behavioral surveys. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]