Análisis comparativo de complicaciones agudas posquirúrgicas entre legrado y la aspiración manual endouterina en el aborto guiados por ultrasonido intraoperatorio vs. técnica habitual a ciegas / Comparative analysis of acute post-surgical complications of sharp legrado and intraoperative ultrasound-guided endo-uterine manual vacuum aspiration in abortion vs. the standard blind technique

Introducción: El legrado uterino o la aspiración manual endouterina en el aborto es una técnica que se realiza a ciegas, guiada por signos subjetivos. El uso de ultrasonido transoperatorio para guiar la evacuación no está descrito en la técnica original, pero hay algunos estudios que avalan su uso para realizar el procedimiento y asegurar su finalización de forma inequívoca, disminuyendo las complicaciones agudas. Material y métodos: Estudio retrospectivo, con muestreo censal (pacientes que acudieron al servicio de noviembre del 2003 a julio del 2013 a quienes se les realizó legrado uterino o aspiración manual endouterina con y sin guía ultrasonográfica transoperatoria); tamaño de la muestra: 221 pacientes. Se formaron 2 grupos por conveniencia según la intervención realizada (con y sin ultrasonido): grupo 1 (50 pacientes) y grupo 2 (174 pacientes). Se registró: edad, semanas de gestación, procedimiento realizado, indicación del procedimiento y complicaciones (perforación, sangrado, infección o dolor). Con estos datos se construyeron bases de datos multivariables para evaluar y analizar la tendencia; con las variables cuantitativas se efectuaron pruebas de estadística descriptiva; con los datos cualitativos se realizaron histogramas comparativos y la prueba de chi cuadrada para evaluar si existía o no diferencia significativa entre los grupos con significación para p ≤ 0,05. Resultados: No se encontró diferencia significativa para perforación e infección, pero sí hubo diferencia significativa (p ≤ 0,05) de sangrado entre los grupos, con una incidencia de 2,38% (grupo 1) y de 16,75% (grupo 2). Conclusiones: El ultrasonido intraoperatorio es seguro, de bajo costo y con capacidad de reducir el sangrado significativamente

Introduction: Uterine legrado or endo-uterine manual vacuum aspiration is performed blindly and guided by subjective signs. The use of intraoperative ultrasound to guide legrado is not described in the original technique but there are some studies that support its use with a view to unequivocally decreasing acute complications. Material and methods: Retrospective study. Sampling census (patients who attended the department from November 2003 to July 2013 who underwent uterine legrado or endo-uterine manual vacuum aspiration with or without intraoperative ultrasound guidance), sample size: 221 patients. Two groups were formed by convenience according to the procedure performed (with and without ultrasound): Group 1 (50 patients) and group 2 (174 patients). The following data were recorded: age, gestational age, procedure performed, indication for the procedure and complications (perforation, bleeding, infection or pain), which were used to construct multivariate databases for trend assessment and analysis. Descriptive statistics tests were conducted with quantitative variables, while comparative histograms and the chi square test were performed on qualitative data to assess whether there are significant differences between the groups with significance defined as P≤.05. Results: No significant difference for perforation or infection was found but there was a significant difference (P≤.05) in bleeding between the groups with an incidence of 2.38% (group 1) and 16.75% (group 2). Conclusions: Intraoperative ultrasound is safe, inexpensive and significantly reduces bleeding

Análisis de la relación entre habilidades cognitivas e hipoacusia sensorial severa unilateral / Analysis of the relationship between cognitive skills and unilateral sensory hearing loss

OBJETIVO: Analizar la asociación de competencias cognitivas en sujetos con hipoacusia unilateral severa versus sujetos con audición normal. MÉTODOS: Participaron 40 adultos; 20 pacientes, 10 de cada género, con hipoacusia unilateral sensorial severa y 20 sujetos sanos pareados al grupo de estudio. Las habilidades cognitivas se midieron con la batería Woodcock Muñoz-revisada y los procesos centrales auditivos con pruebas psicoacústicas monoaurales. Se realizaron gráficas de caja y prueba t de Student para muestras relacionadas con significación p ≤ 0,05. RESULTADOS: Al comparar el desempeño en las pruebas palabra filtrada y bisílabos comprimidos, se encontró diferencia estadísticamente significativa p ≤ 0,05, con mayor variabilidad de respuesta en los hipoacúsicos, los cuales también tuvieron mejor desempeño cognitivo en las subpruebas inversión de números, aprendizaje visual auditivo, análisis y síntesis, formación de conceptos y palabras incompletas. CONCLUSIONES: Los hipoacúsicos presentaron bajo desempeño en palabra filtrada y bisílabos comprimidos, y mayor habilidad para memoria, razonamiento y procesamiento auditivo. Es importante realizar pruebas complementarias, tales como procesos centrales auditivos y habilidades cognitivas que permitan establecer estrategias de habilitación, rehabilitación y terapéuticas con la finalidad de optimizar y estimular las habilidades de los sujetos con hipoacusia unilateral

OBJECTIVE: To analyse cognitive skills in patients with severe unilateral hearing loss versus those in subjects with normal hearing. METHODS: 40 adults participated: 20 patients (10 women and 10 men) with severe unilateral hearing loss and 20 healthy subjects matched to the study group. Cognitive abilities were measured with the Spanish version of the Woodcock Johnson Battery-Revised; central auditory processing was assessed with monaural psychoacoustic tests. Box plots were drawn and t tests were performed for samples with a significance of P≤.05. RESULTS: A comparison of performances on the filtered word testing and time-compressed disyllabic word tests between patients and controls revealed a statistically significant difference (P≤.05) with greater variability among responses by hearing impaired subjects. This same group also showed a better cognitive performance on the numbers reversed, visual auditory learning, analysis synthesis, concept formation, and incomplete words tests. CONCLUSIONS: Patients with hearing loss performed more poorly than controls on the filtered word and time-compressed disyllabic word tests, but more competently on memory, reasoning, and auditory processing tasks. Complementary tests, such as those assessing central auditory processes and cognitive ability tests, are important and helpful for designing habilitation/rehabilitation and therapeutic strategies intended to optimise and stimulate cognitive skills in subjects with unilateral hearing impairment

Analysis of the relationship between cognitive skills and unilateral sensory hearing loss. / Análisis de la relación entre habilidades cognitivas e hipoacusia sensorial severa unilateral.

OBJECTIVE: To analyse cognitive skills in patients with severe unilateral hearing loss versus those in subjects with normal hearing. METHODS: 40 adults participated: 20 patients (10 women and 10 men) with severe unilateral hearing loss and 20 healthy subjects matched to the study group. Cognitive abilities were measured with the Spanish version of the Woodcock Johnson Battery-Revised; central auditory processing was assessed with monaural psychoacoustic tests. Box plots were drawn and t tests were performed for samples with a significance of P≤.05. RESULTS: A comparison of performances on the filtered word testing and time-compressed disyllabic word tests between patients and controls revealed a statistically significant difference (P≤.05) with greater variability among responses by hearing impaired subjects. This same group also showed a better cognitive performance on the numbers reversed, visual auditory learning, analysis synthesis, concept formation, and incomplete words tests. CONCLUSIONS: Patients with hearing loss performed more poorly than controls on the filtered word and time-compressed disyllabic word tests, but more competently on memory, reasoning, and auditory processing tasks. Complementary tests, such as those assessing central auditory processes and cognitive ability tests, are important and helpful for designing habilitation/rehabilitation and therapeutic strategies intended to optimise and stimulate cognitive skills in subjects with unilateral hearing impairment.

Evaluation of the protective effect of thiamine pyrophosphate based on the biochemical analysis of rabbit foetuses at 30 days of gestation.

This study evaluated the effects of thiamine pyrophosphate (PPT) on the biochemical profiles of full-term rabbit foetuses that were subjected to experimental ischemia followed by 24h reperfusion. A total of 16 gestating rabbit dams were divided into two groups, one of which was treated by administering PPT and subjected to a process ischemia. During this interval, fetal blood samples were drawn from each dam (in the ischemia group) at 0, 15 and 45min. Ischemia for 15 and 45min was not associated with changes in lactate levels of the Ischemia group foetuses. However, in the foetuses in the reperfusion groups without PPT lactate levels were significantly higher after 15 and 45min of arterial occlusion compared to time zero. These results demonstrate that PTT alters some acute and some longer-term biochemical outcomes of uterine ischemia perhaps important in preserving energy metabolism under hypoxic conditions.

The selective inhibition of the D1 dopamine receptor results in an increase of metabolized dopamine in the rat striatum.

Our aim was to study the specific role of the postsynaptic D(1) receptors on dopaminergic response and analyze the metabolized dopamine (DA) in the rat striatum. We used male Wistar rats to evaluate the effects of different doses of a D(1) agonist (SKF-38393) and a D(1) antagonist (SCH-23390), and their co-administration. The levels of DA and L-3, 4-dihydroxyphenylacetic acid (DOPAC) were measured using high performance liquid chromatography. The systemic injection of SKF-38393 alone at 1, 5 and 10 mg/kg did not alter the DA and DOPAC levels or the DOPAC/DA ratio. In contrast, injection of SCH-23390 alone at 0.25, 0.5 and 1 mg/kg significantly increased the DA and DOPAC levels, as well as the DOPAC/DA ratio, compared with the respective control groups. The co-administration of SCH-23390+SKF-38393 did not alter the DA or DOPAC levels, but it did significantly inhibit the SCH-23390-induced increase of the DA and DOPAC levels. The SCH-23390+SKF-38393 and the SCH-23390-only groups showed an increase in the DOPAC/DA ratio. The co-administration of SCH-23390+PARGYLINE significantly decreased the DOPAC levels and the DOPAC/DA ratio compared with the control and SCH-23390 groups. Taken together, our results showed that selective inhibition with SCH-23390 produced an increase in metabolized DA via striatal monoamine oxidase. These findings also contribute to the understanding of the role of postsynaptic D(1) receptors in the long-loop negative feedback system in the rat striatum.

Serotonin and 5-hydroxy-indole-acetic acid contents in dorsal raphe and suprachiasmatic nuclei in normal, malnourished and rehabilitated rats under 24 h of sleep deprivation.

It has been discussed that serotonin (5-HT) could be involved in the effects of sleep deprivation (SD) and/or malnutrition (M) on the sleep-wake cycle. The aim of this work was to study the effects of the M, SD and its interaction on 5-HT and 5-hydroxy-indole-acetic acid (5-HIAA) contents in the dorsal raphe (DR) and the suprachiasmatic nuclei (SCN), two sleep-wake cycle regulators. Forty-eight puppets rats were obtained from mothers fed with low or normal casein diet. They were allocated in 3 groups (n=16 each): prenatal/postnatal casein malnutrition (6/6%), prenatal casein malnutrition/nutritional casein rehabilitation (6/25%) and prenatal/postnatal casein well-nourished state (25/25%). When rats were 60 days old, 24 animals were exposed to sleep deprivation by means of forced locomotion during 24 h. The remaining 24 were kept under normal conditions of sleep-wake cycle. Then, all animals were sacrificed by decapitation. DR and SCN were dissected and processed to determine the 5-HT and 5-HIAA contents by means of HPLC. It was observed that 6/6% rats showed a 5-HT increase (DR p<0.011; SCN p<0.019) as well as in SD (DR p<0.0008; SCN p<0.0009) with respect to 25/25% rats. No differences were found in 6/25% rats. Therefore, 5-HIAA decreased significantly in both nuclei in all the groups, notably in M+SD animals (DR p<0.001; SCN p<0.001). We conclude that the sleep-wake cycle disruptions produced by chronic M and SD are mediated in part by a synergistic effect on 5-HT in the DR-SCN pathway, perhaps due to a delay in the development of such brain structures.

Development of isolation-induced vocal behavior in normal-hearing and deafened guinea pig infants.

Infants in many different animal species require auditory information from conspecifics to learn appropriate responses to important environmental and social cues. Isolation calls are emitted by infant guinea pigs in contexts of social separation from their mothers. The aim of the present study was to examine the ontogeny of the isolation calls in normal-hearing and deafened infant guinea pigs, from 2 to 40 days postpartum and to determine the role of hearing maternal vocalization in infant guinea pig vocal responses in contexts of social proximity and isolation. Female newborn pigmented guinea pigs (Cavia porcellus) were housed with their birth mother and siblings. Water and dry food were available ad libitum. One day postpartum, the cochlea of infants in the experimental group was destroyed. The control group consisted of normal-hearing female siblings. Vocalizations from infants in the experimental and control groups were recorded for 6 minutes when with the mother before isolation, 6 minutes when alone, and then 6 minutes when with the mother after reunion. Recordings were made 5 days per week from 2 to 40 days after birth. The duration of calling was calculated for each 6-minute period of recording. Results demonstrated that deaf infants vocalize more than normal-hearing infants during social isolation from their mothers. Vocal activity of isolated deaf and normal-hearing infants decreased substantially over development, almost disappearing by the end of the study period. These results indicate that maternal vocal behavior modulates the vocal responses of guinea pigs early in infant development and supports other evidence that the guinea pig offers a viable model for investigating audition in deaf and normal-hearing human infants.

Potenciales evocados auditivos de tallo cerebral en rana catesbeiana / Brainstem auditory evoked responses on rana catesbeiana

Se estudió la sensibilidad de la vía auditiva a través del registro de los potenciales auditivos de tallo cerebral en 10 anfibios sanos de la especie Rana catesbiana. Las respuestas auditivas se efectuaron a 70, 50, 40 y 30 dB NA, en dos grupos de diferente peso. El primero de 17 a 27 gr y el otro grupo de 36 a 86.5 gr, los electrodos fueron insertados subcutáneamente y la estimulación fue por clicks en campo libre dentro de una cámara sonoamortiguada. A 70 dB las respuestas fueron de dos ondas en los primeros milisegundos, a 50 dB la onda II se separó en dos subcomponentes (IIa y IIb). El umbral electrofisiológico se estableció en 40 dB