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Background: The aim of this study was to compare the intravenous (IV) and caudal routes of administration of sufentanil for children undergoing orchidopexy and also to evaluate the effects on addition of caudal adrenaline and neostigmine., Materials and Methods: SIXTY PATIENTS SCHEDULED FOR ORCHIDOPEXY WERE DIVIDED INTO THE FOLLOWING GROUPS: 1) Group IVSu received IV 0.5 μg/kg sufentanil and caudal saline; 2) Group CSu received caudal 0.5 μg/kg sufentanil and IV saline; 3) Group CSuAdr received caudal sufentanil plus adrenaline 5 μg/ml (1:200,000) and IV saline; 4) Group CSuNeo received caudal sufentanil plus neostigmine, and IV saline; and 5) Group CSuNeoAdr received caudal sufentanil plus neostigmine plus adrenaline, and IV saline. Heart rate and mean blood pressure >15% was treated with increasing isoflurane concentration. Consumption of isoflurane, side effects, quality of sleep, time to first administration of analgesic, and number of doses of 24-h rescue analgesic were recorded., Results: Groups were demographically similar. Isoflurane consumption showed the following association: Group IVSu = Group CSuNeo = Group CSuNeoAdr < Group CSu = Group CSuAdr (P < 0.02). VAS for sedation on reversal of anesthesia showed the following association: Group CSuNeo = Group CSuNeoAdr < Group CSu = Group CSuAdr = Group IVSu (P < 0.005). Time to the first administration of dipyrone showed the following association: Group IVSu = Group CSu = Group CSuAdr (3-4 h) < Group CSuNeo = Group CSuNeoAdr (10-11 h) (P < 0.05). Number of doses of rescue analgesic showed the following association: Group IVSu = Group CSu = Group CSuAdr > Group CSuNeo = Group CSuNeoAdr (P < 0.005). Incidence of adverse effects was similar among groups., Conclusion: Caudal sufentanil alone was no better than when administered in the IV route, and would just be justified by the association of neostigmine, but not adrenaline. Neostigmine association resulted in better perioperative analgesia.

Rocuronium (ROC) is a neuromuscular blocking agent used in surgical procedures which is eliminated primarily by biliary excretion. A liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry (LC-MS/MS) method was developed and validated for analysis of ROC in human plasma. Separation of ROC and IS (verapamil) was performed using an endcapped C-18 column and a mixture of water:acetonitrile:trifluoracetic acid (50:50:0.1, v/v) as mobile phase. Aliquots of 100 μL of human plasma were extracted at pH 3, using dichloromethane. The lower limit of quantification of 5 ng/mL shows the high sensitivity of this method. Intra- and inter-assay precision (as relative standard deviation) was all ≤14.2% and accuracy (as relative standard error) did not exceed 10.1%. The validated method was successfully applied to quantify ROC concentrations in patients under surgical procedures up to 6h after the administration of the 0.4-0.9 mg/kg ROC. The pharmacokinetic parameter estimations of ROC showed AUC/dose of 563 μg min/mL, total clearance of 2.5 mL/min/kg, volume of distribution at steady state of 190 mL/kg and mean residence time of 83 min., (Copyright © 2013 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)

Background: Bullying has been considered as a traumatic experience that can lead to paranoid ideation in students (Campbell and Morrison, 2007). This study aimed to explore differences concerning experiences of childhood trauma, the display of social anxiety behaviours, paranoid ideation, and aggressive traits and behaviour in a mixed clinical population with and without persecutory delusions, between individuals who reported being victims of bullying versus those who did not., Method: A total of 61 individuals with diagnoses of paranoid schizophrenia and social anxiety disorder were given a battery of questionnaires that measured bullying experiences, childhood abuse and experiences of threat and subordination, paranoid ideation, social anxiety behaviours, shame, and aggressive traits and behaviours., Results: Data on the differences between the victims of bullying and non-victims, in terms of recalling being bullied, showed higher scores on childhood abuse, experiences of threat and subordination within the family, aggressive traits and higher display of persecutory symptoms and less social anxiety behaviours., Conclusion: Bullying is a traumatic phenomenon that is reported by people who suffer from persecutory delusions to a higher degree than those who do not. This study, thus, gives support to the idea that childhood abuse within the family is associated with bullying experiences and that a traumatic infancy may lead to the use of aggressive traits and behaviours to deal with a threatening environment (Bentall and Fernyhough,). This argument raises clinical issues regarding anger management and addressing bullying experiences in individuals with persecutory ideation., (Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.)

Ants can nest in a wide variety of substracts. This paper shows Syagrus romanzoffiana seed utilization by ants in an Atlantic secondary forest. We report 29 seeds occupied by small-bodied ants, with 27 of them showing at least two ant development stages. Although a large number of seeds were sampled, a low level of ant occupation was observed.

The Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale (EPDS) is the instrument most used worldwide for screening of Post-Partum Depression (PPD). The SRQ20 questionnaire has been largely used for screening of minor psychiatric disorders. This study aimed to compare the accuracy of the two instruments in screening for PPD. At the third-month follow-up home visit to infants of the 2004 Pelotas Birth Cohort, Southern Brazil, a sub-sample of 378 mothers was selected. Among other questions, EPDS and SRQ20 were applied by trained fieldworkers. Up to 15 days later, a mental health professional re-interviewed the mother (the gold standard interview). Sensitivity and specificity of each cutoff point were calculated for EPDS and SRQ20 and the results were plotted at a ROC curve. The areas under both curves were compared. Highest sensitivity and specificity cutoff were observed for EPDS >/= 10 (sensitivity 82.7%, 95%CI 74.0 - 89.4; specificity 65.3%, 95%CI 59.4 - 71.0) and for SRQ20 >/= 6 (sensitivity 70.5%, 95%CI 60.8 - 79.0%; specificity 75.5%, 95%CI 70.0 - 80.5%). Shape of ROC curves and areas under both curves were virtually identical (respectively, 0.8401 +/- 0.02 for EPDS and 0.8402 +/- 0.02 for SRQ20; p = 0.9). In conclusion SRQ20 showed to be as valid as EPDS as a screening tool for PPD at third month after delivery.

Objects: The objectives were to present magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and magnetic resonance spectroscopy (MRS) findings in three patients with deletion on mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) and nonclassical mitochondrial disorders (NCMD), correlating these findings with the percentage of deleted mtDNA., Results: Our study confirms the high prevalence of white matter (WM), basal ganglia, and posterior fossa lesions in NCMD, ranging from mild to severe involvement. The subcortical WM, caudate, thalamus, globus pallidus, and dorsal brain stem were more frequently affected. A lactate peak was the most frequent finding at the MRS. We found a correlation between the percentage of mtDNA deletion and degree of MRS abnormalities., Conclusions: Our findings showed that MRS is a useful investigational tool in patients with NCMD. Supplementary studies are necessary to elucidate the correlation of quantitative mtDNA deletion and neuroimaging phenotype.

A taxonomic survey on fungus-growing ants (Attini) was made at 14 beaches on Santa Catarina Island (SC), Brazil. The samplings were manual, in soil or litterfall, in the following habitats: sandy beach, herbaceous vegetation and shrubby vegetation. From 12 species of Attini (ten of Acromyrmex Mayr and two of Cyphomyrmex Mayr), the most frequent were Cyphomyrmex morschi Emery and Acromyrmex crassispinus Forel, collected, respectively, on eight and ten of the monitored beaches. Altogether, Sorensen's similarity coefficients were high (range: 0.59-0.80), in spite of the lower numbers of ant species on sandy beaches.