Endoscopic Treatment for Vesicoureteral Reflux in Recurrent Urinary Tract Infections in Kidney Transplant: Experience of One Center.

Vesicoureteral reflux (VUR) after renal transplantation in adult patients has been reported. In renal transplant recipients, symptomatic urinary tract infection can cause high morbidity despite improved immunosuppressive and antibiotic treatment. In our country there have been few reported cases about use of copolymer of dextranomer and hyaluronic acid (DX-HA) injection in a renal transplant. We present 3 cases of recurrent or complicated infections with evidence of high-grade VUR, which were treated with DX-HA. Only 1 case had a partial remission; however, there were no episodes of urinary tract infection in 12 months of follow-up. Suburethral injection is an endoscopic treatment modality with low morbidity in our country.

Respiratory Rate Detection by a Time-Based Measurement System / Detección de frecuencia respiratoria mediante un sistema de medida basado en el tiempo

Abstract: This paper proposes a system that converts a time-modulated signal from a resistive sensor into a digital signal with the goal to estimate the respiratory rate of a subject. To detect breathing, a known method based on a nasal thermistor, which detects temperature changes near the nostrils, is used. In this work, the thermistor mounted in a Wheatstone bridge, forms a RC circuit which is connected directly to a microcontroller, without using any analog circuit or analog-digital converter. Thus, whenever the subject breathes, it causes a fractional change in resistance x (∆R/R 0) on the thermistor, and this produces a time-modulated signal that is directly digitized with the microcontroller. Measurements were made on 23 volunteers, obtaining changes of x > 0.01. The temperature resolution was 0.2 °C, and the time response was 0.8 s, mainly limited by the thermistor properties; these features were enough to obtain a well-defined waveform of the breathing, from which was easy to estimate the respiratory rate by a compact, low cost and low power consumption system. Unlike interface circuits based on voltage or current amplitude, with this kind of interface, the self-heating of the sensor is avoided since the thermistor does not require any voltage or bias current.

Resumen: Este trabajo propone un sistema que convierte una señal modulada en tiempo, proveniente de un sensor resistivo, en una señal digital con el fin de estimar la frecuencia respiratoria de un sujeto. Para detectar la respiración se utilizó el método basado en un termistor nasal, el cual detecta los cambios de temperatura cerca de las fosas nasales. En este trabajo, el termistor, montado en un puente de Wheatstone, forma un circuito RC que se conecta directamente a un microcontrolador, sin necesidad de usar ningún circuito analógico, ni conversor analógico-digital. Así, cada vez que el sujeto respire, provoca un cambio fraccional de resistencia x (∆R/R 0) en el termistor, y esto produce una señal modulada en tiempo que se digitaliza directamente con el microcontrolador. Se hicieron medidas en 23 voluntarios, obteniendo cambios de x > 0.01. Se obtuvo una resolución en temperatura de 0.2 °C y un tiempo de respuesta de 0.8 s, limitado principalmente por las propiedades del termistor utilizado. Estas características demostraron ser suficientes para obtener una forma de onda de la respiración bien definida, de la cual es sencillo estimar la frecuencia respiratoria mediante un sistema compacto, de bajo costo y bajo consumo de energía. A diferencia de los circuitos de interfaz basado en la amplitud de tensión o corriente, con este tipo de interfaz se evita el autocalentamiento del sensor, ya que el termistor no requiere ningún voltaje o corriente de polarización.

The prevalence of BRCA1 and BRCA2 mutations among young Mexican women with triple-negative breast cancer.

Various guidelines recommend that women with triple-negative breast cancer should be tested for BRCA1 mutations, but the prevalence of mutations may vary with ethnic group and with geographic region, and the optimal cutoff age for testing has not been established. We estimated the frequencies of BRCA1 and BRCA2 (BRCA) mutations among 190 women with triple-negative breast cancer, unselected for family history, diagnosed at age 50 or less at a single hospital in Mexico City. Patients were screened for 115 recurrent BRCA mutations, which have been reported previously in women of Hispanic origin, including a common large rearrangement Mexican founder mutation (BRCA1 ex9-12del). A BRCA mutation was detected in 44 of 190 patients with triple-negative breast cancer (23 %). Forty-three mutations were found in BRCA1 and one mutation was found in BRCA2. Seven different mutations accounted for 39 patients (89 % of the total mutations). The Mexican founder mutation (BRCA1 ex9-12del) was found 18 times and accounted for 41 % of all mutations detected. There is a high prevalence of BRCA1 mutations among young triple-negative breast cancer patients in Mexico. Women with triple-negative breast cancer in Mexico should be screened for mutations in BRCA1.