Ivan IV, el Terrible, ¿padeció de un síndrome del lóbulo temporal? / The possible temporal lobe syndrome of Ivan IV the Terrible

Ivan IV "The Terrible" was the first Tsar of all Russias and was crowned in 1547. He extended Russian territories and opened the route to Siberia in successful campaigns against Tartars. He increased his personal power to the point of generating an autocracy that isolated him progressively from the council of Boyars. He had a complex personality and his acts were impregnated by a profound religiousness, episodes of rage, mood changes and a sense of "personal fate". All these traits configure the controversial "temporal lobe personality". The possible association between these personality traits and the eventual epilepsy that Ivan IV could suffer, is discussed. This association is called "temporal lobe syndrome". Considering the mood changes, with severe irritability and episodes of control loss alternated with feelings of guilt, sadness and isolation, another possibility is that the Tsar had an affective bipolar disorder or, less probably, a personality disorder.

Colitis ulcerosa y embarazo / Evolution of ulcerative colitis in pregnancy

Background: The evolution of ulcerative colitis in pregnancy is far from clear. While some authors state that the disease aggravates during this period, others do not share this opinion. Aim: To assess the evolution of ulcerative colitis in pregnancy. Patients and methods: A paired case-control design was used in which 15 women, with diagnosed ulcerative colitis at the moment of becoming pregnant, were followed for 12 months and the activity of the disease was compared with that of the 12 months preceding the pregnancy. The activity of the disease in the period preceding the pregnancy was gathered retrospectively from the patient's charts. Results: The mean age of the first ulcerative colitis crisis was 24 years. It was moderate in 49 percent and severe in 35 percent of women. During pregnancy 55 percent of women did not have a crisis, compared with 26.7 percent during the period preceding pregnancy (relative risk of not having a crisis during pregnancy of 1.7). During both periods, seven women had digestive complications, whereas extra digestive complications were not observed in 60 percent of patients during pregnancy and 11.8 percent of patients during the preceding period. Perinatal results were similar to those of the general population. Conclusions: In our group of patients the evolution of ulcerative colitis was better during pregnancy, reflected by a lower number of crisis

Mortalidad por accidentes de tránsito en Chile, 1994: una aproximación epidemiológica / Mortality due to traffic accidents in Chile during 1994: an epidemiological approach

Traffic accidents are one of the most important public health problems in the world and produce social, work and human resources losses. Data were obtained from death certificates in which the cause of death was a traffic acciden. All death certificates obtained by the National Institute of Statistics during 1994 were used. Social, demographic and seasonal variable were recorded. During 1994 there were 1679 deaths due to traffic accidents (81 percent male), with a rate of 19.6 per 100,000 inhabitants. Gender specific risks were 19.62 and 4.48 for men and women, respectively. Mean age at the moment of death was 39 years old. Fifty three percent of deceased people were single, 42 percent married and 5 percent widowers. Ten percent had not formal education, 48 percent had basic education, 23 percent college education and 6.5 percent university education. Seventy seven percent of fatalities ocurred in urban areas. The risk of death of traffic accidents was 7.02 per 100,000 inhabitants in the metropolitan region. The information obtained in the present study may help to generate preventive strategies to control deaths caused by traffic accidents