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INTRODUÇÃO: O diagnóstico de epilepsia em mulheres pode desencadear mudanças de comportamento social, emocional e sexual. Estudos já comprovaram que mulheres em idade fértil com epilepsia apresentam comprometimento no desenvolvimento das atividades diárias e na qualidade de vida devido às suas especificidades. OBJETIVO: Avaliar a função sexual nas mulheres em idade fértil com epilepsia. MÉTODOS: Trata-se de um estudo tipo transversal, descritivo e analítico com abordagem quantitativa. Serão analisados dois grupos de mulheres: grupo exposto: com epilepsia e grupo não-exposto: sem epilepsia. A coleta de dados se dará através de aplicação de questionários de dados socioeconômico, demográfico e clínico, Beck ansiedade e depressão, Whooqol-bref para avaliar qualidade de vida, FSFI para função sexual e FGSIS para autoimagem da genitália. Para análise dos dados, utilizaremos testes de associação ou verificação de diferenças entre grupos paramétricos e não paramétricos. A variável dependente "função sexual" será testada para comparação com as variáveis independentes. Serão considerados p< a 0,05 como medida de significância. RESULTADOS ESPERADOS: Espera-se que fatores associados a disfunção sexual em mulheres em idade fértil com epilepsia possam ser identificados.

PURPOSE To evaluate Sexual Function Scores in women of childbearing age with epilepsy. METHOD Cross-sectional study and comparison of two groups, one with and the other without epilepsy. The instruments used were: semi-structured socioeconomic, demographic and clinical questionnaire; Beck Anxiety and Depression Inventories; Word Health Organization Quality of Life (WHOQOL-brief); Female Sexual Function Index (FSFI); and Female Genital Self Image Scale (FGSIS). Statistical analysis was performed using Fisher's Exact Test, Chi-Square, Mann-Whitney, and Spearman's Correlation, considering p

Purpose To evaluate the effect of contralateral electrographic involvement on memory performance (measured by neuropsychological and Wada memory testing) in patients with epilepsy associated with unilateral mesial temporal sclerosis (MTS). Methods We studied 51 patients with medically-refractory epilepsy associated with unilateral MTS (27 women, 30/51, left MTS) submitted to prolonged non-invasive video-EEG monitoring and bilateral Wada testing. According to ictal electrographic involvement, patients were classified as: Contralateral ictal involvement, when one or more seizures evolved with rhythmic activity in the temporal region contralateral to the MTS or exclusive ipsilateral ictal involvement if all seizures showed ictal EEG activity exclusively on the MTS side. Wada testing involved a twelve-item memory paradigm. Wada memory asymmetry score was calculated for each patient subtracting the number of recalled items after injection on the lesion side from the number of recalled items after contralateral injection. Expected asymmetry (EA) was considered if Wada memory asymmetry > 0, and Symmetrical or Reversed memory asymmetry (S-RA) when ≤ 0. Neuropsychological testing was applied in the 51 patients and in 40 healthy controls. Verbal Memory was evaluated with the Rey Auditory Verbal Learning Test (RAVLT), considering the number of recalled items on immediate recall after the initial five consecutive encoding trials (RAVLT 6), a post-interference delayed (30 min) recall (RAVLT 7), and recall after 7 days. Nonverbal memory was tested with Wechsler Memory Scale-III (WMS-III) Faces subtests 1 e 2. Results Groups did not differ in demographic, clinical and video-EEG monitoring variables. S-RA was observed more frequently in the group with contralateral ictal involvement (57.2% vs. 27.0%; p: 0.03). Logistic regression analysis considering demographic, clinical, hippocampal volume and video-EEG monitoring variables showed contralateral ictal involvement as the only independent variable associated with S-RA (coefficient = 1.32, p = 0.029, odds ratio 3.77; 95% CI 1.1–12.47). Additionally, the patient group with contralateral ictal EEG involvement displayed worse verbal and nonverbal memory scores compared to healthy controls. Conclusion In this cohort of unilateral MTS patients, contralateral ictal involvement was associated with decreased memory performance on Wada and on neuropsychological testing.

To estimate HIV-1 seroprevalence in the general population of Salvador, Bahia, Brazil, we conducted a cross-sectional survey of 3,437 residents from 1998 to 2000. Subjects were drawn from 30 sentinel areas representing a wide range of living conditions. Plasma samples were screened for HIV-1 antibodies by ELISA and confirmed by immunofluorescent assay. Subtype determination by HMA was performed after proviral DNA amplification. Phylogenetic analysis using parsimony was performed with the neighbor-joining method. Overall HIV-1 seroprevalence was 0.55% (19/3,446): 0.8% for men and 0.36% for women. Seroprevalence was higher in the 31-45-year age group (1%) and among persons with family income less than twice the minimum wage (0.78%) as compared to 0.33% for the higher income group. Syphilis was detected in 37% of HIV seropositive individuals. Phylogenetic inferences identified 10 samples as subtype B in the env region and 2 samples with Benv/Fgag/Fpol and Fenv/Bgag. Age > 30 years, male gender, and income < 2 times the minimum wage were identified as risk factors for HIV-1 infection. Extrapolating the proportion of seropositive individuals to Salvador, the number of HIV-1 infected individuals was estimated at 13,750. A seroprevalência do HIV-1 na população geral de Salvador, Bahia, Brasil, foi estimada em estudo de corte transversal com 3.437 indivíduos entre 1998-2000, residentes de 30 áreas sentinelas com ampla va-riedade de condições de vida. Realizou-se uma triagem para anticorpos anti-HIV-1 por ELISA e confirmados por imunofluorescência. A determinação do subtipo foi realizada por HMA, após amplificação do DNA proviral. As análises filogenéticas foram realizadas com PAUP utilizando os algoritmos neighbor-joining. A seroprevalência do HIV-1 foi de 0,55% (19/3.446): 0,8% para os homens e 0,36% para as mulheres. A seroprevalência foi mais alta no grupo de 31-45 anos (1%) e entre as pessoas com renda familiar inferior a dois salários mínimos (0,78%). A sífilis foi diagnosticada em 37% dos participantes HIV soropositivos. A análise filogenética identificou 10 amostras como subtipo B na região env, e duas amostras Benv/Fgag/Fpol e Fenv/Bgag. Idade > 30 anos, sexo masculino, renda < 2 salários mínimos se comportaram como fatores de riscos para a infecção por HIV-1. Se extrapolarmos a proporção de soropositivos para Salvador, o número de infectados pelo HIV seria 13.750.

Vasculitic syndromes are a group of disorders characterized by inflammation of the blood vessels. They include polyarteritis nodosa (PAN), Churg-Strauss syndrome (CS), and Wegener granulomatosis (WG) that differ on type, size, and location of the involved vessels. We report a rare case of granulomatous vasculitis leading to ureteral stenosis in the absence of other systemic manifestations of the disease. The patient was a 56-year-old woman who began to complain of left lumbar pain, nocturia, and dysuria. Computed tomography scan demonstrated a large abdominal mass with ureteral compression. A tissue specimen obtained by laparotomy revealed the presence of a chronic inflammatory process with fibrosis, granulomatous reaction, extravascular eosinophilia, and prominent vasculitis. She was put on corticosteroids and azathioprine with a decrease of the tumoral mass. This incompletely classified vasculitis was an unexpected cause of the abdominal mass.

Lipodermatosclerosis (LDS) is a clinical condition characterized by the appearance of hardened, painful, and hyperchromic plaques on the legs. We describe three patients with diffuse connective tissue diseases (DCTD) who developed this clinical condition. The first one was a systemic lupus erythematosus patient with secondary antiphospholipid syndrome; the second patient had a superposition of DCTD (rheumatoid arthritis, Sjögren's syndrome, morphea); and the last one had been diagnosed with CREST 10 years earlier but had more recently developed primary biliary cirrhosis. Although its etiopathogenesis is unknown, LDS has been frequently seen in association with venous insufficiency. Its recognition by professionals who deal with DCTD is very relevant since it is characterized by thickening of the skin, similar to scleroderma. Its identification can avoid the inadvertent use of medications such as penicillamine and immunosuppressants, which have potentially serious side effects.