Validation of the Social Phobia and Anxiety Inventory for Children (SPAI-C) in a sample of Brazilian children.

The purpose of the present study was to examine the factor structure and psychometric properties of the Social Phobia and Anxiety Inventory for Children (SPAI-C), an instrument developed in the United States and applied to a sample of Brazilian schoolchildren. The process included the translation of the original material from English into Portuguese by two bilingual psychiatrists and a back translation by a bilingual physician. Both the front and back translations were revised by a bilingual child psychiatrist. The study was performed using a cross-sectional design and the Portuguese version of the SPAI-C was applied to a sample of 1954 children enrolled in 3rd to 8th grade attending 2 private and 11 public schools. Eighty-one subjects were excluded due to an incomplete questionnaire and 2 children refused to participate. The final sample consisted of 1871 children, 938 girls (50.1%) and 933 boys (49.8%), ranging in age from 9 to 14 years. The majority of the students were Caucasian (89.0%) and the remainder were African-Brazilian (11.0%). The Pearson product-moment correlation showed that the two-week test-retest reliability coefficient was r = 0.780 and Cronbach's alpha was 0.946. The factor structure was almost similar to that reported in previous studies. The results regarding the internal consistency, the test-retest reliability and the factor structure were similar to the findings obtained in studies performed on English speaking children. The present study showed that the Portuguese language version of SPAI-C is a reliable and valid measure of social anxiety for Brazilian children.

Validation of the Social Phobia and Anxiety Inventory for Children (SPAI-C) in a sample of Brazilian children

The purpose of the present study was to examine the factor structure and psychometric properties of the Social Phobia and Anxiety Inventory for Children (SPAI-C), an instrument developed in the United States and applied to a sample of Brazilian schoolchildren. The process included the translation of the original material from English into Portuguese by two bilingual psychiatrists and a back translation by a bilingual physician. Both the front and back translations were revised by a bilingual child psychiatrist. The study was performed using a cross-sectional design and the Portuguese version of the SPAI-C was applied to a sample of 1954 children enrolled in 3rd to 8th grade attending 2 private and 11 public schools. Eighty-one subjects were excluded due to an incomplete questionnaire and 2 children refused to participate. The final sample consisted of 1871 children, 938 girls (50.1 percent) and 933 boys (49.8 percent), ranging in age from 9 to 14 years. The majority of the students were Caucasian (89.0 percent) and the remainder were African-Brazilian (11.0 percent). The Pearson product-moment correlation showed that the two-week test-retest reliability coefficient was r = 0.780 and Cronbach's alpha was 0.946. The factor structure was almost similar to that reported in previous studies. The results regarding the internal consistency, the test-retest reliability and the factor structure were similar to the findings obtained in studies performed on English speaking children. The present study showed that the Portuguese language version of SPAI-C is a reliable and valid measure of social anxiety for Brazilian children.

[A comparative study of cytological and histological studies of the thyroid gland]. / Vergleichende Untersuchung zytologischer und histologischer Befunde der Schilddrüse.

We compare the results of fine-needle aspiration cytology of the thyroid gland with postoperative histological findings in 533 patients with thyroidectomy operated on between 1987 and 1994. The classification of the cytological preparations followed the proposal of Weiss and Pilz [35] with the groups 0-IV. In group 0 the most frequent findings were cystic changes in multinodular goitre or malpuncture, respectively. The groups I and II contained cases with multinodular goitre, thyroiditis and follicular adenomas, but 4 carcinomas too. The group III comprised particularly follicular adenomas and carcinomas (8 cases). Both cases in group IV were carcinomas. In group III (cytologic group with suspicious findings) there were 65 cases with false positive results of the cytologic investigation resulting in a specificity of 86.4%. 4 out of 14 thyroid carcinomas could not be detected by cytologic preparations corresponding to a sensitivity of 71.4% for carcinomas. The false negative rate for thyroid carcinomas in group II was caused by regression areas in the center of the tumors (3 cases) as well as one microcarcinoma. Preoperative fine-needle aspiration cytology of the thyroid gland reduces the number of patients operated on for multinodular goitre or cold nodules especially in cases suspicious of carcinoma.

Evaluation of immune parameters in depressed patients.

The association between depression and altered immunological activities has repeatedly been suggested, but experimental data show contradictory results. In this work, cellular and humoral immunological activities were evaluated in patients presenting major depression, unipolar subtype. Natural killer cell activity (NKCA) was significantly reduced in patients as compared to healthy controls (p < 0.001). However, lymphocyte mitogenic responses and immunoglobulin titers (IgG, IgM, and IgA) were similar for all samples. Hematological, hormonal, and nutritional variables presented normal values in patients and in controls. A familial history of depression was related to lower NKCA and higher phytohemagglutinin responses (p < 0.01). These data suggest possible differential inhibition of cellular immune responses in depressed patients.