Religious affiliation and the intention to choose psychiatry as a specialty among physicians in training from 11 Latin American countries.

The worldwide scarcity of psychiatrists makes the identification of the factors associated with the intention to choose this specialty an important issue. This study aims to evaluate the association between religious affiliation and the intention to choose psychiatry as a specialty among medical students from 11 Latin American countries. We conducted a cross-sectional, multi-country study that included first- and fifth-year students of 63 medical schools in 11 Latin-American countries between 2011 and 2012. The main outcome and measures were the intention to pursue psychiatry as a specialty over other specialties (yes/no) and religious affiliation (without: atheist/agnostic; with: any religion). A total of 8308 participants were included; 53.6% were women, and the average age was 20.4 (SD = 2.9) years. About 36% were fifth-year students, and 11.8% were not affiliated with any religion. Only 2.6% had the intention to choose psychiatry; the highest proportion of students with the intention to choose psychiatry was among students in Chile (8.1%) and the lowest among students in Mexico (1.1%). After adjusting for demographic, family, academic as well as personal and professional projection variable, we found that those who had no religious affiliation were more likely to report the intention to become a psychiatrist [OR: 2.92 (95%CI: 2.14-4.00)]. There is a strong positive association between not having a religious affiliation and the intention to become a psychiatrist. The possible factors that influence this phenomenon must be evaluated in greater depth, ideally through longitudinal research.

[Placental chorangioma: clinic-pathological approach of a case in Colombia]. / Corangioma placentario: enfoque clínico-patológico de un caso descrito en Colombia.

Chorangioma is a tumor of vascular origin placental, the most frequent among primary placental non-trophoblastic tumors; however, it is found in about 1% of placental pathology case studies. Chorangioma represents a benign neoplasm with proliferation of capillaries and villous stroma associated to multiple gestations, preeclampsia and birth defects in the fetus. This paper reports the case of a 38-year pregnant woman (29 gestation weeks). She had eleven pregnancies, nine deliveries and one abortion. During perinatal assessment patient showed severe polyhydramnios and acute fetal distress. The histopathologic examination of the placenta showed a mass with hemorrhagic areas. The microscopic examination revealed proliferation of small fetal capillary vessels and CD34-positive immunostain. Histopathological study of primary non-trophoblastic tumors should differentiate chorangiosis from other entities, as the chorangiomatosis and choriocarcinoma, and this study should report the presence or absence of mesenchymal dysplasia because it is associated with genetic diseases. This neoplasm is associated with processes of fetal-placental hypoxia that must be assessed in patients with a history of fetal growth restriction, preeclampsia and multiple gestations.