Morphologic changes of the fifth phalange secondary to smartphone use.

BACKGROUND: The use of smart phones is now part of the daily routine throughout the world. Morphological alterations have been described associated with telephone holding technique, as well as clinically significant alterations related to their use. OBJECTIVE: The objective was to determine the macroscopic morphological changes due to smartphone use in the fifth finger of the hand with which the smartphone is commonly used. METHODS: University students were invited to participate. Photographs of the dorsal region of both hands were taken using a millimeter paper as background. After calibrating the ImageJ software, photographs were analyzed in pairs obtaining areas of asymmetry. Sociodemographic information and technique of use was collected through a survey. The data were analyzed using SPSS ver. 20. RESULTS: A total of 143 participants were included. The mean age was 20 years. No significant differences were found between the area of asymmetry and the miniferet of both fingers of the subjects compared with age, gender, BMI, daily time of use, years using a smartphone or the type of holding technique. CONCLUSIONS: No asymmetric changes were evident between left and right small fingers in relation to the holding technique of a smartphone in a young adult population.

25 años de Iatreia / 25 years of Iatreia

Ante todo mi saludo afectuoso a todos los presentes, y de manera muy especial a quienes de una u otra manera han puesto su granito de arena para que Iatreia, la revista de nuestra facultad, haya logrado de manera ininterrumpida llegar a su volumen n° 25, convirtiéndose en importante herramienta de comunicación y difusión del conocimiento en nuestro campo.Y para celebrar esta efeméride nada mejor que hacer un breve recuento sobre los cinco lustros de su existencia, empezando por recordar que fue creada durante la administración de los Dres. Luis Javier Giraldo Múnera, Decano, e Ignacio Ceballos Velásquez, vicedecano, y que su primer Comité Editorial estuvo compuesto por los doctores Fernando Zambrano Ulloa MD (QEPD), Javier Molina López MD, Tiberio Álvarez Echeverri MD, Gonzalo Mejía Vélez MD, Ignacio Ceballos Velásquez MD y Federico Díaz González MD, y por los licenciados Juan José Hoyos Naranjo –periodista y escritor- y Amparo Restrepo Moreno –Bibliotecóloga. El doctorAlberto Betancur Arango, lingüista y profesor de Ginecología, fue quien propuso el nombre Iatreia, palabra griega que significa medicina.

Ley 100: ¿Salud para todos? / Law 100: Health for all?

Hace algunos años, el filósofo alemán ErnstJünger nos hacía una seria advertencia a laque no le prestamos suficiente atención; decíaentonces Jünger: "la influencia cada vez mayorque el Estado está empezando a ejercer en los servicios médicos, casi siempre con pretextossociales, es algo que resulta sospechoso y que incita a la máxima cautela" (La emboscadura, 1988). Y unos cuantos años después, tristemente nos hemos dado cuenta de que sus inquietudes estaban plenamentejustificadas, pues la aprobación y puesta enmarcha de la Ley 100, nos han evidenciado los alcances de la ambición del Estado en relación con el aprovechamiento de nuestro trabajo, esgrimiendo precisamente pretextos sociales.

Direct imaging of transient molecular structures with ultrafast diffraction.

Ultrafast electron diffraction (UED) has been developed to study transient structures in complex chemical reactions initiated with femtosecond laser pulses. This direct imaging of reactions was achieved using our third-generation apparatus equipped with an electron pulse (1.07 +/- 0.27 picoseconds) source, a charge-coupled device camera, and a mass spectrometer. Two prototypical gas-phase reactions were studied: the nonconcerted elimination reaction of a haloethane, wherein the structure of the intermediate was determined, and the ring opening of a cyclic hydrocarbon containing no heavy atoms. These results demonstrate the vastly improved sensitivity, resolution, and versatility of UED for studying ultrafast structural dynamics in complex molecular systems.

Respiratory phase detection and delay determination for breath-by-breath analysis.

The delay between air flow and gas concentration signals is generally assumed to be constant within a breath as well as from breath to breath, but it was not possible to examine the constancy of the delay with the delay determination techniques so far available. Thus we developed new methods for respiratory phase detection and delay determination. The presented algorithm for the detection of the start of inspiration and expiration (phase detection) replaces the generally used valve assembly with two pneumotachographs. Now, the pneumotachograph is used in a bidirectional mode, but with a volume criterion for phase detection replacing the less reliable threshold criterion. To measure the delay between flow and gas concentration signals, a test gas is periodically injected as a marker. This test gas contains less N2 than ambient air. Therefore, the delay is determined as time between the moment of injection and the drop of N2. These two methods rendered it possible to examine delay variations and their consequences. The investigation of various breathing patterns demonstrated that the usually assumed errors caused by delay uncertainty are underestimated. We suggest reliance on a breath-by-breath delay determination to account for delay variations.