Publications by authors named "Marcia Alves"

Background: The global prevalence of Human Papillomavirus (HPV) infection is approximately 12%, which significantly contributes to the development of cervical cancer as HPV is a key driver of tumorigenesis. However, the precise mechanisms by which HPV promotes carcinogenesis and the involvement of additional components in this process remain poorly understood.

Objective: Given the evidence supporting the critical role of serine proteases in carcinogenesis, we investigated their contribution to cervical cancer development in the context of HPV-mediated carcinogenesis.

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The objective of this study was to investigate the chemical composition of Syzygium aromaticum essential oil (SAEO), both as its toxicity and biological activities on Corynebacterium diphtheriae. The essential oil (EO) was obtained by hydrodistillation and verified by GC-MS. The main chemical components were eugenol (48.

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Objective: To provide insights into the potential benefits of goal-directed therapy guided by FloTrac in reducing postoperative complications and improving outcomes.

Methods: We performed a systematic review and meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials to evaluate goal-directed therapy guided by FloTrac in major surgery, comparing goal-directed therapy with usual care or invasive monitoring in cardiac and noncardiac surgery subgroups. The quality of the articles and evidence were evaluated with a risk of bias tool and GRADE.

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Giant parathyroid adenomas (GPA) are a benign cause of primary hyperparathyroidism (PHPT) that might present similarly to parathyroid carcinomas (PC). Rarely, PHPT can present with a parathyroid crisis, a life-threatening decompensation with severe hypercalcemia.  A 77-year-old woman presented with lethargy and muscle weakness.

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Background: Randomized controlled trials (RCTs) and observational studies have compared the efficacy and safety of transcatheter aortic valve replacement (TAVR) and surgical aortic valve replacement (SAVR) in patients with severe aortic stenosis.

Objectives: Compare TAVR and SAVR in patients with different surgical risks, population characteristics, and different transcatheter prosthetic valves.

Methods: An overview of systematic reviews (SRs) was conducted following a structured protocol.

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Background: A novel virulent bacteriophage infecting phytobacteria Pseudomonas cichorii (P. cichorii) was isolated from leafy vegetables in Brazil. P.

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Proteins are inherently unstable, which limits their use as therapeutic agents. However, the use of biocompatible cosolvents or surfactants can help to circumvent this problem through the stabilization of intramolecular and solvent-mediated interactions. Ionic liquids (ILs) have been known to act as cosolvents or surface-active compounds.

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Objective: To describe the process of cross-cultural adaptation for the use in Brazil of the everyday discrimination scale (EDS) and the heightened vigilance scale (HVS) applied in the Longitudinal Study of Adult Health (ELSA-Brasil).

Methods: Conceptual, item and semantic equivalence analyses were conducted by a group of four epidemiologists; evaluation of measurement equivalence (factorial analysis of configural, metric and scalar structures, according to sociodemographic characteristics) and reliability. A total of 11,987 participants responded to the discrimination scale, and a subsample of 260 people participated in the test-retest study.

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Psoriasis is an inflammatory skin disease characterized by keratinocyte proliferation and inflammatory cell infiltration induced by IL-17. However, the molecular mechanism through which IL-17 signaling in keratinocytes triggers skin inflammation remains not fully understood. Pyruvate kinase M2 (PKM2), a glycolytic enzyme, has been shown to have non-metabolic functions.

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Objective: The aim of this study is to develop and validate a novel clinical report form in the format of a structured interview to enable the characterization of the Portuguese population of the Baixo Vouga region with different subtypes of nodular thyroid pathologies (NTyPs).

Materials And Methods: A structured interview was developed and to the best of our knowledge, this is the first structured interview built and validated for that purpose in Portugal.

Results: This structured interview enables the identification of possible correlations between each subtype of nodular lesions and sociodemographic data, consumption habits and lifestyle, endocrine history, and family predisposition.

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Article Synopsis
  • The study investigates risk factors in pregnant women that may lead to the failure of lifestyle interventions for managing gestational diabetes (GD), emphasizing the need for early surveillance.
  • It includes a review of women diagnosed with GD in either the first or second trimester, analyzing those who received lifestyle versus pharmacological treatment (like metformin or insulin).
  • Key predictors for needing medication in GD include maternal age, previous GD history, and fasting glucose levels for early diagnoses, while factors like BMI and glucose tolerance test results were significant for later diagnoses.
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Article Synopsis
  • Subclinical hypothyroidism (SHT) often stems from conditions like Hashimoto's thyroiditis (HT) and isolated hyperthyrotropinemia (IH), with ongoing debates about the need for treatment.
  • A retrospective study of 39 pediatric patients with SHT aimed to compare clinical and treatment parameters between those with HT and IH, revealing a notable prevalence of thyroid ultrasound changes and higher levothyroxine doses in the HT group.
  • Findings suggest that females are more affected by HT, which also correlates with higher levothyroxine needs and a lower likelihood of treatment discontinuation, especially linked to high levels of anti-thyroid peroxidase antibodies.
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Occupational stress has been the object of research in different populations. The aim of this study is to analyze the association between psychosocial job stress and quality of life of nutritionists working in public hospitals in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Cross-sectional study in public hospitals with nutritionists working as civil servants and CLT.

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Objective: To evaluate the influence of maternal pre-pregnancy body mass index (BMI) and gestational weight gain (GWG) on blood glucose levels at diagnosis of gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM) and obstetric/neonatal outcomes.

Methods: Retrospective cohort study including 462 women with GDM and singleton pregnancy delivered in our institution between January 2015 and June 2018 and grouped according to BMI/GWG.

Results: The diagnosis of GDM was more likely to be established in the 1 trimester (T) in women with obesity than in normal-weight (55.

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Introduction: Cardiovascular disease is an important cause of morbidity and mortality in individuals with type 1 diabetes (T1D). The American Diabetes Association (ADA) has the ADA risk-assessment tool for cardiovascular risk (CVR) prediction in individuals with T1D. This study aims to evaluate the prevalence of novel and traditional cardiovascular risk factors (CVRF) and the CVR by the ADA risk-assessment tool: 10-year risk for diabetes complications in young adults with T1D.

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Phenylketonuria (PKU) is an autosomal recessive disease caused by deficient activity of human phenylalanine hydroxylase (hPAH), which can lead to neurologic impairments in untreated patients. Although some therapies are already available for PKU, these are not without drawbacks. Enzyme-replacement therapy through the delivery of functional hPAH could be a promising strategy.

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Introduction: Many studies have shown an association between decreased serum magnesium (Mg) levels and poor glycemic control and dyslipidemia in individuals with type 1 diabetes (T1D). Few studies evaluated the association between magnesium (Mg) levels and diabetic retinopathy (DR) in individuals with type 1 diabetes (T1D).

Methods: Retrospective study of adults with T1D, with an ophthalmological evaluation and a serum Mg level determination.

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Thyroid cancer's incidence has increased in the last decades, and its diagnosis can be a challenge. Further and complementary testing based in biochemical alterations may be important to correctly identify thyroid cancer and prevent unnecessary surgery. Fourier-transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy is a metabolomic technique that has already shown promising results in cancer metabolome analysis of neoplastic thyroid tissue, in the identification and classification of prostate tumor tissues and of breast carcinoma, among others.

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Background: Health care personnel (HCP) worldwide are at-risk for contracting the novel Coronavirus disease (COVID-19). Among health care personnel, nurses are at a particularly high risk due to the physical proximity and duration of time spent providing direct care. Documenting accurate rates of COVID-19 infection and deaths among nurses worldwide has been problematic, and many countries such as the USA have no systematic mechanism for collecting this information.

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Head and neck squamous cell carcinoma remains challenging to treat with no improvement in survival rates over the past 50 years. Thus, there is an urgent need to discover more reliable therapeutic targets and biomarkers for HNSCC. Matriptase, a type-II transmembrane serine protease, induces malignant transformation in epithelial stem cells through proteolytic activation of pro-HGF and PAR-2, triggering PI3K-AKT-mTOR and NFKB signaling.

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Virtual microscopy (VM) is a widely used teaching method in Medical Education in many developed countries. In Brazil, however, this is not the case for most medical schools, considering Brazilian social inequality and uneven access to technology. Recently, the Covid-19 pandemic has also challenged Universities to seek and make a transition toward more effective methods of full-time online education.

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Background: In view of the costly methods currently available for the assessment of body adiposity, anthropometric obesity indicators have proven effective in predicting cardiovascular risk.

Objective: To investigate the discriminatory power of body fat indicators for cardiovascular risk screening among shift workers.

Methods: Cross-sectional study with male employees of an iron ore extraction company.

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Background: Oral squamous cell carcinoma (OSCC) remains a challenging cancer to treat despite all the advances of the last 50 years. Kallikrein 5 (KLK5) is among the serine proteases implicated in OSCC development. However, whether the activity of KLK5 promotes carcinogenesis is still controversial.

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