Prevalence of urinary cotinine levels in children under 5 years of age during consultations for acute respiratory disease at the emergency department of the Universidad de La Sabana clinic.

BACKGROUND: Several environmental factors favour the occurrence of acute respiratory disease, which is the main reason for paediatric consultations in our country (Colombia). Tobacco smoke is considered a significant environmental pollutant with a great impact on health. The objective of this study is to estimate the prevalence of cotinine levels measured in urine, in children between 1 to 60 months of age who attended an emergency department with acute respiratory disease. METHODS: A cross-sectional study was conducted that included children between 1 and 60 months of age with acute respiratory disease who were admitted to the emergency department of the Universidad de La Sabana Clinic between April and July 2016. RESULTS: We included 268 patients and 36% were female. Of the total population examined, 33.96% showed positive results for urinary cotinine, of whom 97.8% had values between 10 and 100 ng/ml, which is considered positive for exposure to second-hand smoke. The principal pathology was recurrent wheezing in 43.96% of these cases. Regarding the presence of smokers at home, it is important to mention that in 54.95% of the children with positive urinary cotinine test was no related with smokers at home. And in 45.05% of positive urinary cotinine was evidence of smokers at home, being associated with the positive result P <  0.001 and smoking within the house P = 0.018; smoking when children were present did not have significant P = 0.105. The activities performed after smoking such as hand washing, change of clothes, eating, brushing teeth, did not influence the test result P = 0.627. CONCLUSIONS: A high prevalence of urinary cotinine was observed, which is associated with the presence of a smoker at home, and this relationship was independent of the activities performed by the smoker after smoking. In addition, a positive test for urinary cotinine was presented in some children without documented exposure to cigarette smoke inside the home, which may be explained by the presence of environmental cotinine. Therefore, it is necessary to perform educational interventions aimed at parents and caregivers who smoke.

Efectividad de la Técnica Red en el tratamiento del Linfedema asociado a mastectomía / Effectiveness of the Red Technique in the treatment of lymphedema associated with mastectomy

Resumen: Introducción: Las mujeres con cáncer de mama sometidas a mastectomía padecen de linfedema, problema debilitante y desagradable que afecta la calidad de vida. La fisioterapia es considerada como una opción de tratamiento con múltiples técnicas de intervención, a las que no todos los pacientes tienen acceso. Métodos: El presente estudio pretendió determinar los efectos de la Técnica RED en el tratamiento del Linfedema asociado a mastectomía. Resultados: se contó con la participación de 16 mujeres, 8 en el grupo control y 8 en el grupo experimental, que asistieron a consulta oncológica en el Hospital Universitario Hernando Moncaleano Perdomo de Neiva entre los meses de agosto y diciembre de 2015. En ambos grupos se aplicó un pre-test y pos-test con mediciones de edema, movilidad articular para movimientos de Flexión, Extensión, Abducción y Rotación Externa de hombro, Supinación, Flexión y Extensión de muñeca y sensibilidad superficial a partir del dolor y tacto. Conclusión: Las variables dolor, tacto y edema presentaron cambios significativos luego de la aplicación de la técnica; las propiedades tróficas y mecánicas de la piel se encontraron conservadas de manera inicial y final y la movilidad articular presentó cambios significativos en el pos-test del grupo experimental para los movimientos de abducción de hombro, rotación externa, supinación de antebrazo, flexión y extensión de muñeca.

Abstract: Introduction: Women with breast cancer undergoing mastectomy suffer from lymphedema, a debilitating and unpleasant problem that affects the quality of life. Physical therapy is considered as a treatment option with multiple intervention techniques, which not all patients have access to. The present study aimed to determine the effects of the RED technique in the treatment of lymphedema associated with mastectomy. Methods: 16 women participated, 8 in the control group and 8 in the experimental group, who attended an oncological consultation at the Hospital Universitario Hernando Moncaleano Perdomo de Neiva between August and December 2015. Results: In both groups A pre-test and post-test with edema measurements, joint mobility for Flexion, Extension, Abduction and External Shoulder Rotation, Supination, Flexion and Wrist Extension and superficial sensitivity based on pain and touch were applied. Conclusion: The variables pain, touch and edema presented significant changes after the application of the technique; The trophic and mechanical properties of the skin were initially and final preserved and the joint mobility incorporated significant changes in the post-test of the experimental group for the movements of shoulder abduction, external rotation, forearm supination, flexion and extension.

Stability of a biodegradable microcarrier surface: physically adsorbed versus chemically linked shells.

Mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) have gained increasing interest for tissue engineering and cellular therapy. MSC expansion on microcarriers (MCs) in stirred bioreactors has emerged as an attractive method for their scaled up production. Some MCs have been developed based on polyesters as a hydrophobic biodegradable core. However, most of these MCs are formulated by an emulsion/organic solvent evaporation (E/E) process using poly(vinyl alcohol) as a shell steric stabilizer, which is biocompatible but not degradable in vivo. Moreover, in most of these MCs, the polymer shell is only physically adsorbed at the particle surface. To the best of our knowledge, no study deals with the stability of such a shell when the MCs are in contact with competitive surfactants or with proteins contained in the culture medium. In this study, fully in vivo bioresorbable dextran-covered polylactide-based MCs were formulated using an E/E process, which allowed to control their surface chemistry. Different dextran derivatives with alkyne or ammonium groups were firstly synthesised. Then, on the one hand, some MCs (non-clicked MCs) were formulated with a physically adsorbed polysaccharide shell onto the core. On the other hand, the polysaccharide shell was linked to the core via in situ CuAAC click-chemistry carried out during the E/E process (clicked MCs). The stability of such coverage was first studied in the presence of competitive surfactants (sodium dodecyl sulfate-SDS, or proteins contained in the culture medium) using nanoparticles (NPs) exhibiting the same chemical composition (core/shell) as MCs. The results revealed the total desorption of the dextran shell for non-clicked NPs after treatment with SDS or the culture medium, while this shell desorption was greatly decreased for clicked NPs. A qualitative study of this shell stability was finally carried out on MCs formulated using a new fluorescent dextran-based surfactant. The results were in agreement with those observed for NPs, and showed that non-clicked MCs are characterized by poor shell stability in contact with a competitive surfactant, which could be quite an issue during MSC expansion. In contrast, clicked MCs possess better shell stability, which allow a better control of the MC surface chemistry, especially during cell culture.