Auriculoterapia: tratamento complementar em atletas com lesão de esforço repetitivo ­ estudo piloto / Auriculotherapy: complementary treatment in athletes with repetitive stress injury ­ pilot study / Auriculoterapia: tratamiento complementario en deportistas con lesión por esfuerzo repetitivo - estudio piloto

Introdução: a auriculoterapia objetiva a estimulação de pontos na orelha visando o reequilíbrio das energias, acarretando melhora de patologias. As lesões por esforço repetitivo (LER) são frequentemente encontradas na realidade de um atleta de alto rendimento, deste modo, a busca por tratamentos diferenciados e eficazes para auxiliar na recuperação das lesões possibilita a inserção de técnicas diferenciadas, a exemplo das técnicas complementares. Objetivo: o estudo objetiva avaliar a eficácia da auriculoterapia como tratamento complementar em LER. Métodos: trata-se de um estudo piloto, experimental, não randomizado e não cego. A pesquisa foi realizada com 10 atletas de alto rendimento, da Fundação Municipal de Desportos da cidade de Blumenau-SC, divididos em dois grupos, um grupo recebeu tratamento de fisioterapia convencional e auriculoterapia e o outro apenas fisioterapia convencional. Participaram atletas de ambos os sexos e de diferentes modalidades. As avaliações foram realizadas semanalmente após os atendimentos, utilizando questionário para avaliação de dor, sintomas e utilização de medicações. Para auxiliar a avaliação, foram realizadas imagens por termografia para avaliação do processo inflamatório, as fotos foram realizadas antes e após o tratamento. Resultados: os resultados encontrados sugerem melhora em ambos os grupos, todavia, o grupo onde houve associação da fisioterapia convencional e auriculoterapia apresentou melhoras significantes em relação ao outro grupo, além disso, apresentaram redução no uso de medicações e diminuição no processo inflamatório avaliado pela termografia. Conclusão: a auriculoterapia se mostrou um importante aliado ao tratamento convencional e pode ser uma opção para tratamento complementar em LER. PALAVRAS-CHAVE: Auriculoterapia; Termografia; Fisioterapia.

Introduction: Auriculotherapy treatment aims to stimulate points in the ear aiming at the rebalance of energies, resulting in improvement of pathologies. When talking about repetitive strain injuries (RSI) they are often found in the reality of a high performance athlete; the search for differentiated and effective treatments to assist in the recovery of injuries allows the insertion of differentiated techniques, such as techniques complementary. Objective: the study aims to evaluate the effectiveness of auriculotherapy as a complementary treatment in RSI. Methods: this is a pilot, experimental, non-randomized and non-blind study. The research was carried out with 10 high performance athletes, from the Municipal Sports Foundation of the city of Blumenau-SC, divided into two groups, one group received conventional physiotherapy and auriculotherapy treatment and the other only conventional physiotherapy. The evaluations were performed weekly after the consultations, using a questionnaire to assess pain, symptoms and medication use. To assist the evaluation, thermographic images were taken to evaluate the inflammatory process, the photos were taken before and after treatment. Results: the results found suggest improvement in both groups, however, the group where there was an association of conventional physical therapy and auriculotherapy showed significant improvements in relation to the other group. In addition, they showed a reduction in the use of medications and a decrease in the inflammatory process evaluated by thermography. Conclusion: auriculotherapy proved to be an important ally to conventional treatment and may be an option for complementary treatment in RSI.

Introducción: El tratamiento de auriculoterapia tiene como objetivo estimular puntos en la oreja buscando el reequilibrio de energías, resultando en mejoría de patologías. Cuando se habla de lesiones por esfuerzo repetitivo (LER) a menudo se encuentran en la realidad de un atleta de alto rendimiento; la búsqueda de tratamientos diferenciados y eficaces para ayudar en la recuperación de las lesiones permite la inserción de técnicas diferenciadas, tales como técnicas complementarias. Objetivo: el estudio pretende evaluar la eficacia de la auriculoterapia como tratamiento complementario en RSI. Método: se trata de un estudio piloto, experimental, no aleatorizado y no ciego. La investigación fue realizada con 10 atletas de alto rendimiento, de la Fundación Municipal de Deportes de la ciudad de Blumenau-SC, divididos en dos grupos, un grupo recibió fisioterapia convencional y tratamiento de auriculoterapia y el otro sólo fisioterapia convencional. Las evaluaciones se realizaron semanalmente después de las consultas, utilizando un cuestionario para evaluar el dolor, los síntomas y el uso de medicamentos. Para ayudar a la evaluación, se tomaron imágenes termográficas para evaluar el proceso inflamatorio, las fotos fueron tomadas antes y después del tratamiento. Resultados: los resultados encontrados sugieren mejoría en ambos grupos, sin embargo, el grupo donde hubo asociación de fisioterapia convencional y auriculoterapia mostró mejorías significativas en relación al otro grupo. Además, mostraron reducción en el uso de medicamentos y disminución del proceso inflamatorio evaluado por termografía. Conclusión: la auriculoterapia demostró ser un importante aliado del tratamiento convencional y puede ser una opción de tratamiento complementario en la RSI. PALABRAS CLAVE: Auriculoterapia; Termografía; Fisioterapia.

Single-Nucleotide Variants in the AIM2 - Absent in Melanoma 2 Gene (rs1103577) Associated With Protection for Tuberculosis.

Tuberculosis (TB) remains a serious public health burden worldwide. TB is an infectious disease caused by the Mycobacterium tuberculosis Complex. Innate immune response is critical for controlling mycobacterial infection. NOD-like receptor pyrin domain containing 3/ absent in melanoma 2 (NLRP3/AIM2) inflammasomes are suggested to play an important role in TB. NLRP3/AIM2 mediate the release of pro-inflammatory cytokines IL-1ß and IL-18 to control M. tuberculosis infection. Variants of genes involved in inflammasomes may contribute to elucidation of host immune responses to TB infection. The present study evaluated single-nucleotide variants (SNVs) in inflammasome genes AIM2 (rs1103577), CARD8 (rs2009373), and CTSB (rs1692816) in 401 patients with pulmonary TB (PTB), 133 patients with extrapulmonary TB (EPTB), and 366 healthy control (HC) subjects with no history of TB residing in the Amazonas state. Quantitative Real Time PCR was performed for allelic discrimination. The SNV of AIM2 (rs1103577) is associated with protection for PTB (padj: 0.033, ORadj: 0.69, 95% CI: 0.49-0.97). CTSB (rs1692816) is associated with reduced risk for EPTB when compared with PTB (padj: 0.034, ORadj: 0.50, 95% CI: 0.27-0.94). Serum IL-1ß concentrations were higher in patients with PTB than those in HCs (p = 0,0003). The SNV rs1103577 of AIM2 appeared to influence IL-1ß release. In a dominant model, individuals with the CC genotype (mean 3.78 ± SD 0.81) appeared to have a higher level of IL-1ß compared to carriers of the T allele (mean 3.45 ± SD 0.84) among the patients with PTB (p = 0,0040). We found that SNVs of AIM2 and CTSB were associated with TB, and the mechanisms involved in this process require further study.

Photoinduced charge recombination in dipolar D-A-A photonic liquid crystal polymorphs.

A hexylalkoxy dipolar D-A-A molecule [7-(4-N,N-(bis(4-hexyloxyphenyl)amino)phenyl)-2,1,3-(benzothia-diazol-4-yl)methylene]propane-dinitrile, (C6-TPA-BT-CN) has been synthesized and the photophysics studied via femtosecond transient absorption spectroscopy (FsTA) in toluene and in amorphous and liquid crystalline spherulite thin films. Two spherulite macromolecular crystalline phases (banded, and non-banded) were observed through concentration dependent, solution processing techniques and are birefringent with a negative sign of elongation. A dramatic change in the electronic absorption from blue in amorphous films to green in spherulites was observed, and the molecular orientation was determined through the combined analysis of polarized light microscopy, X-ray diffraction, and scanning electron microscopy. FsTA was performed on amorphous films and show complex charge recombination dynamics, and a Stark effect, characterized from the combined TPA+˙ and [BT-CN]-˙ spectroscopic signatures at 450 nm and 510 nm and identified through spectroelectrochemistry. Radical cation dynamics of TPA+˙ was observed selectively at 750 nm with >503.3 ps (18%) recombination kinetics resulting in a rather significant yield of free charge carriers in amorphous films and consistent with previous reports on energetically disordered blend films. However, photoexcitation on large, non-banded spherulites areas (>250 µm) reveal average monoexponential charge recombination lifetimes of 169.2 ps from delocalized states similar to those observed in amorphous films and are 5× longer-lived than previous reports [Chang et al., J. Am. Chem. Soc., 2013, 135, 8790] of a related methyl-DPAT-BT-CN whose amorphous thin films were prepared through vapor deposition. Thus, the correlation between the microstructure of the blend film and the photoinduced radical pair dynamics described here is critical for developing a fundamental understanding of how dipolar states contribute to the charge carrier yield in a disordered energy system.