Epidemiologic Profile of Patients Transplanted With Hematopoietic Stem Cells in a Reference Service in the State of Rio Grande do Norte, Brazil.

BACKGROUND: Hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (HSCT) consists of the intravenous infusion of healthy hematopoietic stem cells to restore the medullary and immunologic function of patients affected by a series of hematologic, oncologic, immunologic, malignant and nonmalignant inherited or acquired diseases, with the possibility of cure or increase of disease-free survival. OBJECTIVE: To characterize the epidemiologic profile and the cases of death of patients who underwent HSCT. METHODS: This is a cohort quantitative study, nested with a retrospective, descriptive, and analytical study of a hospital-based cohort that included the patients who underwent HSCT at a referral service in the state of Rio Grande do Norte, a region of northeastern Brazil. RESULTS: There was a slight male prevalence (52.94%), the age of the patients ranged from 2 to 73 years old, 18.38% were brown, 47.06% were married, 15.07% were students, 78.31% had a diagnosis of multiple myeloma, 93.38% developed gastrointestinal toxicities, all patients received chemotherapeutic treatment, 54.78% had allogeneic HSCT, and the cause of the most recorded deaths was septic shock (48.19%). CONCLUSIONS: This study showed relevant scientific evidence on the clinical and epidemiologic profile of patients who underwent HSCT. In general, sociodemographic data are similar to national and international research results.

Chronological Factors of the Process of Donation and Classification of Corneal Tissue.

INTRODUCTION: The quality of corneal tissue is influenced by several factors inherent to the recipient, donor, donation process, and transplantation that may primarily or secondarily interfere in the survival of a corneal graft. OBJECTIVE: The objective of this study was to identify the factors inherent to the donation process, specifically related to the harvesting and processing of tissue and to the donor, that may interfere with the quality of corneal tissue. MATERIALS AND METHODS: This was a cross-sectional, descriptive, and analytical study carried out from January to April 2015 at the Onofre Lopes University Hospital, Natal/RN, Brazil. A survey of the keratoplasties performed between the years 2010 and 2014 was carried out, totaling 258 donated corneas. RESULTS: The mean age of donors was 42.08 years, ranging from 2-80 years. As for quality, 64.45% of the corneas were classified as good, 23.05% as regular, 11.33% as poor, and 1.17% as excellent. The mean time between death and preservation was approximately 7 hours and 15 minutes, and the mean time elapsed until use was 10 days after immersion in preservation medium. DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSIONS: Factors inherent in the donation process that may interfere with the quality of the corneal graft correspond to factors of a chronological nature: donor age and time elapsed between death and preservation of the graft.

Epidemiological Profile of Patients Undergoing Urgent Corneal Transplant in a Referral Center in Northeastern Brazil.

BACKGROUND: The purpose of the study was to characterize the epidemiological profile and average time on the waiting list of patients undergoing an urgent corneal transplantation (CT) in a referral center in the state of Rio Grande do Norte, northeastern Brazil. METHODS: This cross-sectional study included cases of urgent corneal transplants performed in a referral center from January 2010 to December 2014. Data were collected between January and March 2015. RESULTS: Seventy-four cases of emergency CT were analyzed. Of these, 69.4% were male, over the age range from 8 to 92 years. There were 38 transplants occurring in the right eye, 55.4% with tectonic purpose, 25.7% with optical purpose, and 18.9% therapy purpose. The main indications for patient inclusion in an emergency were the perforation (52.7%) and corneal ulcer unresponsive to medical treatment (33.8%). Interstitial keratitis was the most common diagnosis (74.3%), responsible for all prioritized cases in line for corneal ulcer unresponsive to treatment. The average length of the waiting line to perform the urgent CT was 9.03 days. CONCLUSIONS: In this study, there was a predominance of male patients and patients >50 years old, which corroborates the results of other studies with similar results. Perforation was the main indication to include the patient on the urgency list (52.7%). There is a need for further research to improve public health policies on the process of corneal transplantation as well as raising awareness of the importance of organ donation.

The phase-resolved photoacoustic method to indicate chemical assignments of paracetamol.

In this work, the phase-resolved photoacoustic method was applied to provide specific information on the chemical assignments of paracetamol in the near-infrared region. Two broad bands, centered at 1370 and 1130 nm, were well-resolved using this method, making it possible to assign the peaks centered at 1398, 1355 and 1295 nm to a C-H combination from a CH3 structure and the peak at 1305 nm to a C-H combination from the aromatic ring. This information represents a new finding in chemical studies regarding this medicament.