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J J Calva-Mercado

Publications and source records attributed to J J Calva-Mercado.

6 recordsLinked to original sources

[The use of beverages and food at home during acute infantile diarrhea: an ethnographic study in a rural Mexican area].

A structured interview was applied through a personal interview to 142 peasant mothers aimed at exploring some beliefs about childhood diarrheal disease and the use of home-made beverages and feeding habits during the illness. The majority answered they used to give a herbal tea (90%) or a rice-based beverage (77%) to their child with diarrhea. Only 18% mentioned the use of oral rehydration packages. Sixty-three percent avoid certain foods while 25% withhold all food, usually for more than 24 hours, to a sick child. It is justified to assess the clinical efficacy of a rice-powder solution in the prevention of severe dehydration, as well as to promote an uninterrupted diet based on locally accepted and available foods, in the home management of a child with acute diarrhea.

Acute Disease↗

[Efficacy of a rice-based beverage for the management of dehydration caused by acute diarrhea in children].

We tested the clinical efficacy of a rice-powder gruel (RPG) as an oral rehydration solution in a randomized clinical trial, comparing it with oral rehydration salts (ORS) prepared as recommended by WHO. RPG was prepared as mothers do it in a rural area, according to previous ethnographic work. RPG has sugar but no sodium or other electrolytes. Seventy patients under 5 years old with mild to moderate dehydration due to acute diarrhea were included in the trial. Ninety-two percent of children were successfully rehydrated with RPG and 91% of children were successfully rehydrated with ORS. Patients in the study group required less time to rehydrate and presented a reduction in fecal output as compared with the control group. We propose that the rice-powder gruel should find its place as a first line of treatment at the home level, when oral rehydration salts are not available, to prevent dehydration in the child affected with acute diarrhea, and that its use should be closely linked to no suspension or rapid reintroduction of oral feeding to provide an external source of sodium and other nutrients.

Acute Disease↗

Leukocyturia in women with diabetes and its clinical implications.

BACKGROUND: Urinalysis is one of the most common studies performed on the diabetic patient at every visit. The presence of leukocyturia is relatively common but it is not clear what the attitude of the physician toward this particular finding should be. The main objective of the present study was to investigate the clinical significance of leukocyturia in diabetic women. METHODS: Ninety-eight diabetic women (84.7% type 2) aged 57 +/- 13 years who were being seen at the diabetic out-patient clinic were randomly selected. All patients underwent a clinical and gynecologic examination and a urinalysis. A Papanicolaou smear and a urine culture were also obtained. RESULTS: The overall prevalence of leukocyturia (>5 cells/high power field (hpf)) was 46.5%. Patients with urinary tract infections (UTI) were 7.5 times more likely to have leukocyturia, while a leukocyte count <5cells/hpf predicted the absence of UTI in 96% of the women. In the comparison of patients with and without leukocyturia, we found that proteinuria (p = 0.06) and bacteriuria (p <0.002) were more common in the women with leukocyturia. A significant association with leukorrhea was not demonstrated. The empirical use of antibiotics was 12 times more frequent in the patients with leukocyturia. CONCLUSIONS: A urinary culture should be requested in all diabetic patients with leukocyturia. The possibility of a UTI is remote when leukocyturia is absent.

Adult↗

[An epidemic of primary bacteremia due to an endemic strain of Serratia marcescens in an intensive care unit].

An outbreak of Serratia marcescens bacteremia detected in the intensive care unit (ICU) of a tertiary care center on the last days of October, 1985, is described. The rate of primary S. marcescens nosocomial bacteremia during the pre-epidemic period (January-September 1985) was 6.25 per cent; and for the post-epidemic period compared with the epidemic were significantly different (p < 0.0001). The outbreak strains belonged to the biotype A8b, which has been endemic in our hospital. The responsible organism exhibited an unusual antimicrobial resistance pattern associated to the presence of a specific plasmid (greater than 50 kilobases), which showed similar fragments after restriction endonuclease digestion. No specific risk factors were identified in the case-control study. The outbreak was probably related to a greater influx of infected patients, resulting in less careful infection control measures, due to the emergency situation which suffered the hospital after the earthquakes in 1985. The unusual high rate of blood isolation of S. marcescens at the ICU was the first sign of the outbreak. The prompt reinforcement of infection control policies facilitated its resolution.

Bacteremia↗