[Terrorist attacks and short-long time psychiatric morbidity]. / Impacto de los atentados terroristas en la morbilidad psiquiátrica a corto y largo plazo.

BACKGROUND: The victims of terrorist attacks have a lower level of mental health than general population. However this effects has been only demonstrated in short term after the terrorist attack. METHODS: 2998 people from 544 families who have suffered a terrorist attacks. General Health Questionnaire-28 (GHQ-28) as a psychopathological screening was used in 1094 people. This sample was divided in direct victims (DV), direct victims' relatives (DVR) and people who meet these two conditions (DVRDV). RESULTS: 39.6% of the sample were probable psychiatric cases. Psychiatric prevalence was higher in DRVDV (54.5%) and DV (52.0%) than in DRV and general population (10-25%). The sample presented worse level of mental health than the general population in short term (0-2 years) (DVR 40%, DV 66.7%, DRVDR 75%) and in long term 18-20 años) (DVR 35.70%, DV 37%, DRVDR 37.5%). CONCLUSION: Both those suffering a terrorist attack as well as their family members have worse levels of mental health than the general population in both the short and long term.

Impacto de los atentados terroristas en la morbilidad psiquiátrica a corto y largo plazo / Terrorist attacks and short-long time psychiatric morbidity

Introducción. Las víctimas de atentados terroristas tienen niveles de salud mental inferiores a la población general. La mayoría de las investigaciones que soportan esta afirmación son de estudios realizados a corto plazo. Métodos. Se entrevistó a 2.998 personas pertenecientes a 544 familias de víctimas de 426 atentados terroristas. Unas 1.094 entrevistas incluyeron el General Health Questionaire28 (GHQ-28) como instrumento de screening de patología psiquiátrica. Se dividió la muestra por sus distintas características en víctimas directas (VD) familiares de víctimas directas (FV) y víctima directa además de familiar de víctima directa (VDFV). Resultados. El 39,6 por ciento de la muestra estudiada eran probables casos psiquiátricos. La prevalencia era más alta en VDFV (54,5 por ciento) y VD (52,0 por ciento). Teniendo en cuenta el tiempo transcurrido desde el atentado FV, VD y VDFV presentaban peores niveles de salud mental que la población general tanto a corto plazo (0-2 años) (FV 40 por ciento, VD 66,7 por ciento, VDFV 75 por ciento) como a largo plazo (hasta 18-20 años) (FV 35,70 por ciento, VD 37 por ciento, VDFV 37,5 por ciento). Conclusiones. Tanto las personas que sufren un atentado terrorista como sus familiares tienen peores niveles de salud mental que la población general a corto y a largo plazo (AU)

Trypanosoma cruzi arginine kinase characterization and cloning. A novel energetic pathway in protozoan parasites.

This work contains the first description of a guanidino kinase in a flagellar unicellular parasite. The enzyme phosphorylates L-arginine and was characterized in preparations from Trypanosoma cruzi, the ethiological agent of Chagas' disease. The activity requires ATP and a divalent cation. Under standard assay conditions (1 mM L-arginine), the presence of 5-fold higher concentrations of canavanine or histidine produced a greater than 50% enzyme inhibition. The base sequence of this enzyme revealed an open reading frame of 357 amino acids and a molecular weight of 40,201. The amino acid sequence shows all of the characteristic consensus blocks of the ATP:guanidino phosphotransferase family and a putative "actinin-type" actin-binding domain. The highest amino acid identities of the T. cruzi sequence, about 70%, were with arginine kinases from Arthropoda. Southern and chromosome blots revealed that the kinase is encoded by a single-copy gene. Moreover, Northern blot analysis showed an mRNA subpopulation of about 2.0 kilobases, and Western blotting of T. cruzi-soluble polypeptides revealed a 40-kDa band. The finding in the parasite of a phosphagen and its biosynthetic pathway, which are totally different from those in mammalian host tissues, points out this arginine kinase as a possible chemotherapy target for Chagas' disease.