Letícia Feldens

Voluntary HIV counseling and testing during prenatal care in Brazil.

OBJECTIVE Voluntary HIV counseling and testing are provided to all Brazilian pregnant women with the purpose of reducing mother-to-child HIV transmission. The purpose of the study was to assess characteristics of HIV testing and identify factors associated with HIV counseling and testing. METHODS A cross-sectional study was carried out comprising 1,658 mothers living in Porto Alegre, Brazil. Biological, reproductive and social variables were obtained from mothers by means of a standardized questionnaire. Being counseling about HIV testing was the dependent variable. Confidence intervals, chi-square test and hierarchical logistic model were used to determine the association between counseling and maternal variables. RESULTS Of 1,658 mothers interviewed, 1,603 or 96.7% (95% CI: 95.7-97.5) underwent HIV testing, and 51 or 3.1% (95% CI: 2.3-4.0) were not tested. Four (0.2%) refused to undergo testing after counseling. Of 51 women not tested in this study, 30 had undergone the testing previously. Of 1,603 women tested, 630 or 39.3% (95% CI: 36.9-41.7) received counseling, 947 or 59.2% (95% CI: 56.6-61.5) did not, and 26 (1.6%) did not inform. Low income, lack of prenatal care, late beginning of prenatal care, use of rapid testing, and receiving prenatal in the public sector were variables independently associated with a lower probability of getting counseling about HIV testing. CONCLUSIONS The study findings confirmed the high rate of prenatal HIV testing in Porto Alegre. However, women coming from less privileged social groups were less likely to receive information and benefit from counseling.

Barreiras, para a notificação pelo pediatra, de maus-tratos infantis

OBJECTIVES: to determine factors interfering with the reporting of child abuse by pediatricians to children protection services. METHODS: cross sectional observation study. A random sample of pediatricians from Porto Alegre was selected among the 990 registered in the local pediatricians society. Social and demographic variables, professional background, knowledge concerning child abuse were obtained through the application of anonymous questionnaires. Descriptive and multivariate analyses were utilized to determine factors associated to the failure in reporting. RESULTS: ninety seven pediatricians were selected and 92 agreed to participate of the study. Of these, 80 (86.9%) identified some case of child abuse, and 63 (78.7%) reported at least one case. The majority of pediatricians admitted fear of legal involvement, demonstrated adequate knowledge of the issue and low confidence in child protection entities. Insufficient knowledge (OR = 3.94), working exclusively in the private sector (OR = 6.33) were the factors associated to the failure in reporting. Following adjustments, insufficient knowledge was significantly associated to result OR = 5.06 (95%CI = 1.45 - 17.59). CONCLUSIONS: a high rate of identification and reporting of child abuse through pediatricians was determined. Continuous education programs, improvement of protection services, professional support to the private sector could increase child abuse identification and reporting.

Prevalência das síndromes inflamatórias sistêmicas em uma unidade de tratamento intensivo pediátrica terciária

Objective: To assess the prevalence of systemic inflammatory syndromes on admission to a tertiary-care university pediatric intensive care unit (ICU), and relate this to length of hospital stay, risk of death and mortality rate. Methods: Cross-sectional, prospective, observational study, including all patients admitted to the Hospital de ClInicas de Porto Alegre (HCPA) ICU between August 1st 1999 and July 31st 2000. Patient demographic variables were considered together with the risk of mortality on admission, co-morbidities, length of hospital stay and ICU outcome, in addition to variables that characterize the systemic inflammatory syndromes (systemic inflammatory response syndrome, sepsis, severe sepsis and septic shock). Results: We studied 447 admissions of 388 patients; 54% were male, with a median age of 20 months. The prevalence of systemic inflammatory response syndrome (SIRS) was 68%: 2/3 infectious (sepsis, severe sepsis or septic shock) and 1/3 non-infectious. Risk of mortality scores for patients with infectious SIRS were higher than for those with non-infectious SIRS (6.75% [P25=2.25 - P75=21.3] vs. 2.35% [P25=1.1 - P75=6.7]; p=0) and increased according to SIRS severity (2.9; 10.85, 43.9%; p<0.05). The observed mortality was 12% for patients with SIRS and 5.8% for those without SIRS (p=0.057); the observed mortality for infectious SIRS was 14.9% and for non-infectious 6.3% (p=0.041). The period spent in ICU for infectious SIRS was longer than for non-infectious cases: 3 days (P25=2 - P75=7) vs. 2 days (P25=1.5 - P75=4); p=0.006. Conclusions: The prevalence rate of patients with systemic inflammatory response syndrome upon admission to HCPA pediatric intensive care unit was elevated, with a predominance of infectious syndromes, responsible for longer stays, increased risk of mortality and increased mortality of patients during the period evaluated.

There is an association between disease location and gestational age at birth in newborns submitted to surgery due to necrotizing enterocolitis

OBJECTIVES To evaluate if there are differences regarding disease location and mortality of necrotizing enterocolitis, according to the gestational age at birth, in newborns submitted to surgery due to enterocolite. METHODS A historical cohort study of 198 newborns submitted to surgery due to necrotizing enterecolitis in a tertiary hospital, from November 1991 to December 2012. The newborns were divided into different categories according to gestational age (<30 weeks, 30-33 weeks and 6 days, 34-36 weeks and 6 days, and ≥37 weeks), and were followed for 60 days after surgery. The inclusion criterion was the presence of histological findings of necrotizing enterocolitis in the pathology. Patients with single intestinal perforation were excluded. RESULTS The jejunum was the most commonly affected site in extremely premature infants (p=0.01), whereas the ileum was the most commonly affected site in premature infants (p=0.002), and the colon in infants born at term (p<0.001). With the increasing gestational age, it was observed that intestinal involvement decreased for the ileum and the jejunum (decreasing from 45% to 0% and from 5% to 0%, respectively), with a progressive increase in colon involvement (0% to 84%). Total mortality rate was 45.5%, and no statistical difference was observed in the mortality at different gestational ages (p=0.287). CONCLUSIONS In newborns submitted to surgery due to necrotizing enterocolitis, the disease in extremely preterm infants was more common in the jejunum, whereas in preterm infants, the most affected site was the ileum, and in newborns born close to term, it was the colon. No difference in mortality was observed according to the gestational age at birth.