International Latin American Survey on Pediatric Intestinal Failure Team.

There is little data on the experience of managing pediatric Intestinal Failure (IF) in Latin America. This study aimed to identify and describe the current organization and practices of the IF teams in Latin America and the Caribbean. An online survey was sent to inquire about the existence of IF teams that managed children on home parenteral nutrition (HPN). Our questionnaire was based on a previously published European study with a similar goal. Twenty-four centers with pediatric IF teams in eight countries completed the survey, representing a total number of 316 children on HPN. The median number of children on parenteral nutrition (PN) at home per team was 5.5 (range 1-50). Teams consisted of the following members: pediatric gastroenterologist and a pediatric surgeon in all teams, dietician (95.8%), nurse (91.7%), social worker (79.2%), pharmacist (70.8%), oral therapist (62.5%), psychologist (58.3%), and physiotherapist (45.8%). The majority of the centers followed international standards of care on vascular access, parenteral and enteral nutrition, and IF medical and surgical management, but a significant percentage reported inability to monitor micronutrients, like vitamins A (37.5%), E (41.7%), B1 (66.7%), B2 (62.5%), B6 (62.5%), active B12 (58.3%); and trace elements-including zinc (29.2%), aluminum (75%), copper (37.5%), chromium (58.3%), selenium (58.3%), and manganese (58.3%). Conclusion: There is wide variation in how IF teams are structured in Latin America-while many countries have well-established Intestinal rehabilitation programs, a few do not follow international standards. Many countries did not report having an IF team managing pediatric patients on HPN.

La retina para el médico no oftalmólogo / The retina for the non-oftalmologist doctor

La retina es un tejido fundamental en el órgano de la visión. En este artículo hacemos una revisión sobre la anatomía y fisiología de esta estructura así como sobre las principales patologías que la pueden afectar, entre ellas: desprendimiento de retina, retinopatía diabética y la enfermedad macular relacionada con la edad. Aunque actualmente contamos con técnicas médicas y quirúrgicas seguras y efectivas para el manejo de estas patologías, aún representan un reto para la ciencia médica, y en estados avanzados comprometen seriamente la función visual, por ello es de gran importancia que el médico general tenga claros los conceptos básicos sobre el diagnóstico de estas enfermedades, para realizar una remisión adecuada y así poder evitar al máximo secuelas visuales en el paciente. En este artículo revisamos libros de texto reconocidos y empleando MEDLINE, algunos artículos representativos sobre este tema, para mostrar un panorama general del estado actual, clínico e investigativo, del diagnóstico y tratamiento de las enfermedades más importantes que afectan la retina y el vítreo. [Varón CL, Jaramillo S, Tello A. La retina para el médico no oftalmólogo. MedUNAB 2010; 13:31-37].

The retina is a fundamental tissue of the visual organ. In this article we make a review of the anatomy and physiology of this structure as well as the main pathologies that may affect it like: retinal detachment, diabetic retinopathy, and age related macular degeneration. Although currently there are safe medical and surgical alternatives for the management of these diseases, they still represent a challenge for the medical science, and in advanced stages they seriously compromise visual function. For this reason it is of vital importance that the primary care physician has clear concepts about the diagnosis of these diseases, to perform an adequate referral, avoiding visual sequelae as much as possible. In this article we reviewed recognized textbooks and using MEDLINE we found some representative articles on this subject. We provide an overview of the current clinical and research status on the diagnosis and treatment of the most important diseases affecting retina and vitreous. [Varón CL, Jaramillo S, Tello A. The retina for non-ophthalmologist physician. MedUNAB 2010; 13:31-37].

Trichromatic red-green-blue camera used for the recovery of albedo and reflectance of rough-textured surfaces under different illumination conditions.

Photometric-stereo techniques are based on the fact that image intensity depends upon the orientation of the surface with regard to the source of the illumination and its spectral reflectance. They are of special interest when dealing with rough surfaces because they usually present shadowed regions where sudden illumination changes might be found. In the present work we introduce an extension of the four-source photometric-stereo algorithm to color images that is able to recover the surface spectral reflectance of objects captured with a red-green-blue (RGB) camera. This method allows image rendering, even for rough-textured surfaces, under different directions of the impinging illumination. In addition, the introduction of spectral recovery techniques applied to the albedo and spectral reflectance from rough surfaces offers the possibility of image rendering for scenes captured under sources of illumination differing in spectral distribution. Using albedo instead of RGB information helps to avoid any shadows or highlights that might falsify results. One of the advantages of this spectral-based photometric-stereo method is that it can recover not only the albedo values, but also the spectral reflectance spectrum of an object's surface on a pixel-by-pixel basis, as can be done with more complex hyperspectral imaging devices involving a camera coupled to an extensive set of narrowband filters.

Unsupervised illuminant estimation from natural scenes: an RGB digital camera suffices.

A linear pseudo-inverse method for unsupervised illuminant recovery from natural scenes is presented. The algorithm, which uses a digital RGB camera, selects the naturally occurring bright areas (not necessarily the white ones) in natural images and converts the RGB digital counts directly into the spectral power distribution of the illuminants using a learning-based spectral procedure. Computations show a good spectral and colorimetric performance when only three sensors (a three-band RGB camera) are used. These results go against previous findings concerning the recovery of spectral reflectances and radiances, which claimed that the greater the number of sensors, the better the spectral performance. Combining the device with the appropriate computations can yield spectral information about objects and illuminants simultaneously, avoiding the need for spectroradiometric measurements. The method works well and needs neither a white reference located in the natural scene nor direct measurements of the spectral power distribution of the light.