Proximal gastric vagotomy. A comparative study between the standard technique and the extended technique associated with denervation of the greater curvature.

Forty-six patients in the postoperative period of proximal gastric vagotomy (PGV) for duodenal ulcer (DU) were studied comparatively to verify whether the dividing of the gastroepiploic nerves (Rosati's maneuver) can reduce or not the occurrence of recurrent ulcer as it was proposed. Twenty-one patients who underwent PGV associated with Rosati's maneuver (PGV-R) were compared to 25 after standard PGV (PGV-S), according to several criteria: (1) clinical evaluation; (2) pre and postoperative basal and pentagastrin-stimulated gastric acidity; (3) postoperative basal and pentagastrin-stimulated serum pepsinogen; (4) postoperative basal and sham feeding-stimulated serum gastrin; (5) postoperative endoscopy; (6) endoscopic Congo red test. Both groups were similar (P greater than 0.05) as to age, sex, levels of preoperative gastric acidity and had a 24.4 month average follow-up (12 to 58 months). There has been no significant difference between the techniques studied as to clinical, secretory, morphological or hormonal gastric tests, although PGV-R proved more effective in reducing basal gastric acidity than PGV-S (P less than 0.05). We concluded that Rosati's maneuver does not improve the results obtained with PGV, although it provided greater reduction of basal gastric acidity than PGV-S.

Prevalence of human parvovirus (B19) and rubella virus infections in urban and remote rural areas in northern Brazil.

Sera from inhabitants of Belém, Pará (542 sera), Brazil and of members of 3 Brazilian tribes--Tiriyo/Alto Paru (near Surinam) (212 sera), Xicrin (128 sera), and Mekranoiti (121 sera)--of different age and sex groups were tested for the presence of specific antibody against human parvovirus (B19) (RIA) and rubella virus (latex agglutination test). Parvovirus (B19) IgG was found in 42.6% of the population sample from Belém but in only 4.7 to 10.7% of the members of the tribes. Rubella virus antibody was found in 72.7% of the sera from Belém but approaching a prevalence of 85-90% in age groups above 20 years. In the tribes rubella virus antibody was detected in 36.9 to 72.6% of all sera. There were remarkable sex differences of antibody prevalence in several age groups of the population from Belém and of the tribal populations. About a quarter of the skin rashes in Belém that were not attributable to infections with rubella, measles, or arboviruses were caused by recent B19 infections.

Fifth disease in children living in Belém, Brazil.

Acute sera from two children suffering from an illness with an erythematous rash were positive for B 19 virus specific IgM antibody, as tested by a capture radioimmunoassay. The first patient, a two year old boy, presented with a cutaneous rash of six days duration, the second was a four year old girl, sister of the first patient, who was examined at the same time and had a three day history of cutaneous rash.