[Clinical manifestations in patients with computerized tomography diagnosis of neurocysticercosis]. / Manifestações clínicas de pacientes com diagnóstico de neurocisticercose por tomografia computadorizada.

A survey was conducted in the urban area of Lages using patients who had been submitted to a computed tomography of the skull in the period of March-December, 1996, for different reasons. Forty-two patients with a provisional diagnosis of neurocysticercosis, and 57 negatives were personally interviewed by one of the authors (Pfuetzenreiter), using a semi-structured procedure. More individuals with a provisional diagnostic of neurocysticercosis reported clinical manifestations related to this infection than those found negative. This difference is more marked among women, except in relation to convulsions, more frequently reported by men (19.05%) than by women (7.14%). The greater percentage of inactive forms (83.33%) and a longer history of perceived symptoms among those positives suggest that the condition is not new.

[Theory and practice of alternative practice]. / Teoria e prática das práticas alternativas.

So-called alternative medical practices, now favored in Brazil, are discussed in terms of their methods and rationale. Cursory inquiries show that personal choices of diagnostic and therapeutic systems is made, usually, on the basis of family tradition, cultural inheritance, and fashion, and not upon a critical examination of the principles upon which the alternatives are based. In general, a syncretic approach combining conflicting elements from different systems is adopted. In contrast, the author shows that the actual differences between the systems lie in their foundations principles, not in their practices.

[Identification of wild rodents as hosts of Angiostrongylus costaricencis in southern Brazil]. / Identificação de roedores silvestres como hospedeiros do Angiostrongylus costaricensis no sul do Brasil.

Increasing number of human cases of abdominal angiostrongyliasis has been diagnosed in the south of Brazil. The main definitive host of Angiostrongylus costaricensis in Central America is the cotton rat (Sigmodon hispidus) that does not occur in South America, except in the north of Colombia, Peru and Venezuela. Rodents were captured in the endemic area in Rio Grande do Sul (RS) and definitive hosts were identified for the first time in Brazil: Oryzomys nigripes and Oryzomys ratticeps. O. nigripes is a small wild rodent and it appears to be the main definitive host of A. costaricensis in the highlands of RS, Brazil's southernmost State.