Análisis del factor de impacto de las revistas científicas latinoamericanas / Impact factor of Latin American medical journals

Background: Latin American medical journals have a low impact factor. Higher quality articles originated in Latin American countries are published in North American or European journals. Aim: To analyze the impact factor of Latin-American journals according to the language of publication. Material and methods: The data base of periodic journals of the Thomson ISI (Journal of Citation Report) in the year 2004 was used for the analysis. Four countries with more than one journal in the data base of the Thomson ISI were included (Argentina, Brazil, Chile and Mexico). Results: Few Latin-American journals are included in the Thomson ISI data base. The mean impact factor was 0.76 (0.23-3.2) for eight Mexican journals, 0.66 (0.10-2.1) for eight Chilean journals, 0.39 (0.06-0.7) for five Argentinian journals and 0.41 (0.09-1.1) for 16 Brazilian journals. The mean impact factor for 11 journals written in English was 0.74 (0.12-2.1), 0.53 (0.09-3.2) for 18 bilingual journals and 0.28 (0.06-0.56) for eight journals written in native language. The differences between countries and languages were not statistically significant. Conclusions: The journal impact factor was similar in the four countries studied. A non-significant higher impact factor was observed in Latin-American journals published in English.

Hiperhomocistinemia: fisiopatología e implicaciones médicas / Hyperhomocysteinaemia: physiophatology and medical implications

La homocisteína es un aminoácido intermediario formado por la conversión de metionina a cisteína. La homocistinuria o la hiperhomocistinemia son los desórdenes relacionados con mayor frecuencia a este aminoácido, siendo el primero una alteración autosómica recesiva, mientras que en el segundo múltiples factores condicionan tal alteración, siendo los más importantes los genéticos y nutricionales.En los últimos años interés especial ha tomado tal alteración debido a su involucro creciente en patologías trombóticas y la identificación de que la hiperhomocistinemia perse representa un factor de riesgo independiente en la aterogénesis acelerada de múltiples padecimientos. En esta revisión se mencionan los aspectos fisiopatológicos y las implicaciones clínicas de la hiperhomocistinemia, así como el diagnóstico y tratamiento de la misma.