Universidade de Pernambuco

About: Universidade de Pernambuco is a education organization based out in Recife, Brazil. It is known for research contribution in the topics: Population & Medicine. The organization has 6147 authors who have published 6948 publications receiving 73648 citations.

Tubal ligation regret and related risk factors: findings from a case-control study in Pernambuco State, Brazil

Abstract: A case-control study was carried out at a public teaching hospital in Recife, Pernambuco State, Brazil in 1997 to investigate risk factors among women who feel regret after undergoing sterilization through tubal ligation. The study compared sterilized women who had requested or undergone a tubal reversal with women who were also sterilized but had not undergone this surgery, nor had requested to do so. Women showing a significantly greater probability of regret were those sterilized at a young age, those who had not themselves made the decision to undergo surgery , those for whom the sterilization was carried out up to the 45th day after childbirth and those who had acquired knowledge about contraceptive methods after the tubal ligation procedure. Having had a deceased child, a partner with no children prior to the current union or a change of partner after the tubal sterilization procedure were also associated to the request for or submission to tubal sterilization reversal. It is necessary to assess women's psycho-socio-demographic profiles, their reasons for requesting tubal ligation and to advise the patient about family planning in order to reduce rates of post-sterilization regret.

Chronic hepatitis C infection: Influence of the viral load, genotypes, and GBV‐C/HGV coinfection on the severity of the disease in a Brazilian population

Abstract: The distributions of the different genotypes of the hepatitis C virus (HCV) and GBV-C virus (GBV-C/HGV) vary geographically and information worldwide is still incomplete. In particular, there are few data on the distribution of genotypes (and their relationship to the severity of liver disease) in South America. Findings are described in 114 consecutive patients from Northeast Brazil (median age 52 years, range 18-72 years) who had abnormal levels of serum aminotransferases and seropositivity for HCV RNA. The patients were recruited from an outpatient clinic between November 1997 and April 1998. Quantitative HCV RNA and GBV-C/HGV RNA estimations were carried out by double-nested polymerase chain reaction (PCR) using primers from the 5'-untranslated regions (UTRs) of the genomes. HCV genotypes were determined by restriction fragment length polymorphism (RFLP) analysis with 5'-UTR primers and by PCR with type-specific 5'-UTR primers. GBV-C/HGV-RNA genotypes were determined by RFLP with specific 5'-UTR primers and phylogenetic trees were constructed using the Neighbour-Joining and Drawtree programs. Histological features were graded and staged according to international criteria. Of the 114 patients, 35 (30.7%) patients had cirrhosis and 22 (27.8%) had mild, 51 (64.6%) had moderate, and 6 (7.6%) had severe chronic hepatitis. Median HCV viral load was 10(6) genome equivalents per millilitre (range 10(4)-10(9)/ml). Frequencies of genotypes were 5.3% type 1a, 44.7% type 1b, 3.5% type 2, 41.2% type 3, and 5.3% mixed types. GBV-C/HGV-RNA was detected in the sera of 12 (10.5%) patients and was distributed among three phylogenetic groups. There were no significant differences between patients with the predominant HCV genotypes (1b and 3) with respect to gender, age group, viral load, severity of liver disease, or coinfection with GBV-C/HGV.

Giant magnetoimpedance effect in a thin-film multilayer meander-like sensor

Abstract: A meander-like magnetic sensing element based on the giant magnetoimpedance (GMI) effect was prepared by using optical lithography and sputtering deposition techniques. The structure of the sensing element consists of layers of Permalloy (Py = Ni81Fe19), titanium (Ti), and copper (Cu) with composition [Py(100 nm)/Ti(6 nm)]4/Cu(400 nm)/[Py(100 nm)/Ti(6 nm)]4. The GMI was investigated at room temperature under applied magnetic fields (H) varying in the range of ±4.0 kOe in both longitudinal and transversal geometries. The amplitude Iac and frequency f of the ac electrical current were varied in the range of 0.35–6.50 mA and 0.1–20 MHz, respectively. The overall dc electrical resistance of the sensing element was found to be 45.6 Ω. The sensing element yielded a GMI of 53.5% for H ≃ 5.0 Oe and f = 7.0 MHz, and the corresponding maximum average sensitivity of about 5 Ω/Oe. The sensing element was used for measuring the local Earth magnetic field ( H l o c a l = 0.26 ± 0.03 Oe) yielding a value close to the on...