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T Rodrigo

Publications and source records attributed to T Rodrigo.

9 recordsLinked to original sources
PubMed1999

[Evaluation of the tuberculosis control programs of the autonomous regions of Spain].

BACKGROUND: After the resurgence of tuberculosis in the eighties, several institutions pushed to rapidly create tuberculosis programs and to improve the effectiveness of those in existence. The objective of this paper is to evaluate the programs of the Autonomous Communities of Spain. MATERIAL AND METHODS: A questionnaire was sent to 17 Autonomous Communities and two cities Ceuta and Melilla. A table with minimum objectives was made in order to evaluate the impact of each program. The study period was 1996. RESULTS: The percentage of answers was 100%. Fourteen Autonomous Communities (82%) confirmed they have a tuberculosis program, but with important limitations. There are 3.8 public health workers per 1,000 cases of tuberculosis. Eleven Autonomous Communities had active surveillance, but only 4 know adherence rates to tuberculosis treatments, 3 had supervised treatments, and 3 know diagnostic delays. Ten know results about the percentage of cases with revised contacts. 70% of 19 revised programs did not fulfill the recommended basic objectives. CONCLUSIONS: Tuberculosis control in Spain is not adequate for a developed country. An improvement of the programs in needed, with increase of resources and with reference support centers which would carry out annual evaluations.

Catchment Area, Health↗
PubMed1999

Breast cancer: do histopathology reports provide adequate information for patient care?

INTRODUCTION: Many studies have shown that certain pathologic features correlate with risk of recurrence, development of nodal and distant metastases, long term survival and multicentricity of breast carcinoma. Such information is useful in selection of appropriate therapy and prognostication. OBJECTIVE: To determine the proportion of histopathology reports of breast carcinoma that provide essential pathologic prognostic information. METHOD: All (110 mastectomy and 25 lumpectomy) cases of breast carcinoma reported during 79-month period from January 1992 were assessed for inclusion of tumour size, information on excision margins and 8 microscopic features. Mastectomy reports were evaluated for information on axillary lymph node status. RESULTS: 9.6% of reports assessed included all relevant features. All 110 mastectomy reports gave information on axillary lymph node status. Tumour size was included in 91.1% of reports. Excision margins were commented on in 36% of lumpectomy reports. Of the microscopic features assessed, tumour type was included in 98.5% and histologic grade in 66.7%. In formation on other features ranged from 28.1% for inflammatory infiltrate at the tumour-host interface to 69.1% for nipple invasion. CONCLUSION: Reporting on basic prognostic information falls short of the ideal. Provision of guidelines will help to ensure the inclusion of relevant histopathologic prognostic information.

Breast Neoplasms↗
PubMed1998

A single pathological grading system for breast carcinoma should be adopted in Sri Lanka.

INTRODUCTION: Histologic grading of breast cancer is related to prognosis and management of patients. The grading systems used are the initially formulated subjective methods, and the more recently described objective Nottingham system. In Sri Lanka there is lack of uniformity in histopathology reporting of breast cancer. All methods used employ 3 grades. If histologic grading is to be of clinical relevance, it is important that the grades of different systems correlate with one another. OBJECTIVE: To determine if the three grades of the Nottingham system correlate with those of the other systems. SETTING: Department of Pathology, Faculty of Medicine, Colombo. METHOD: 54 breast carcinomas were graded using the Nottingham system by reviewing histology slides. The Nottingham grading was compared with the original grading mentioned in the histology report. RESULTS: The original reports included 35 tumours graded with systems other than Nottingham. 45.7% of these tumours did not correspond with the subsequent Nottingham grade. 40% had to be upgraded from grade II to III. When the 19 tumours originally graded using the Nottingham system were re-evaluated using the same system, there was concurrence in 89.5% of the cases. CONCLUSION: Our results indicate a failure of other grading systems to correlate with the corresponding Nottingham grade in a high proportion of cases. We recommend the adoption of a single, objective grading system such as the Nottingham method by all clinicians in Sri Lanka.

Breast Neoplasms↗
PubMed1997

Blocking in the spatial domain.

An initial series of experiments with rats in a swimming pool established that they could find a hidden platform the location of which was defined in terms of 3 or 4 landmarks and that, when trained with all 4, any subset of 3 (or even, after a sufficient number of swimming trials, 2) landmarks was sufficient to produce accurate performance. When only one landmark was present during testing, however, performance fell to chance. Two additional experiments demonstrated a significant blocking effect: If rats were first trained to locate the platform with 3 landmarks, they did not learn to use a 4th landmark added to their initial set of 3.

Animals↗
PubMed1997

Characteristics of tuberculosis patients who generate secondary cases.

OBJECTIVE: To determine the characteristics of smear positive tuberculosis (TB) patients who generate secondary TB cases. METHODS: Those smear positive TB patients detected by the Barcelona Tuberculosis Program between 1990-1993, and for whom contact studies had been performed, were studied. We analyzed the predictive role of the variables: age, sex, intravenous drug use (IVDU), the presence of the acquired immune deficiency syndrome (AIDS), human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infection, radiology pattern, district of residence, history of imprisonment, alcoholism, smoking, history of TB, treatment compliance and the number of secondary cases generated. Statistical analysis was based on the logistic regression model, calculating the odds ratios (OR) with 95% confidence intervals (CI). RESULTS: Of the 1079 patients studied, 78 (7.2%) had generated only one secondary case, and 30 (2.8%) two or more. The variables associated with generating two or more secondary cases were: IVDU (P < 0.001; OR = 4.06; CI: 1.80-9.15), cavitary radiology pattern (P = 0.002; OR = 3.69; CI: 1.62-8.43), and age (P = 0.016; OR = 0.98; CI: 0.96-0.99). When we examined those who had generated one or more secondary cases, the following variables were significant: IVDU (P = 0.043; OR = 1.75; CI: 1.02-3.02), cavitary radiology pattern (P < 0.001; OR = 3.07; CI: 1.98-4.77) and age (P < 0.001; OR = 0.98; CI: 0.97-0.99). CONCLUSION: The study of the contacts of smear positive TB patients allows us to detect an important number of secondary cases. Young adults, those with cavitary radiology pattern, and IVDU are more likely to generate secondary cases.

AIDS-Related Opportunistic Infections↗
PubMed1994

Effects of pre-exposure to the same or different pattern of extra-maze cues on subsequent extra-maze discrimination.

In two experiments, rats learned a spatial discrimination between maze arms defined by their relationship to a variety of extra-maze cues. Prior exposure to the actual arms between which animals were required to discriminate tended to retard subsequent learning (by comparison with a control group either given no pre-exposure to the extra-maze cues or exposed only to arms pointing in the opposite direction), whereas prior exposure to arms intermediate between those used in discrimination training tended to facilitate subsequent learning. These results are consistent with the suggestion that pre-exposure will facilitate discrimination learning when it reduces the associability of features or elements common to the stimuli between which animals are required to discriminate, more than it reduces the associability of the features or elements unique to each.

Animals↗
PubMed1993

[A prevalence study of tuberculous infection in the schoolchild population in the 1st year of general basic education in Logroño].

OBJECTIVE: To find the extent and spread of endemic tuberculosis in La Rioja and assess its tuberculosis control programme. DESIGN: Prevalence study. SETTING: Both public and private EGB (general basic education) schools in Logroño. PATIENTS AND OTHERS PARTICIPANTS: All students registered for the first year of EGB. MEASUREMENTS AND MAIN RESULTS: A tuberculin test, consisting of two international units (IU) of PPD-23 with tween 80, was carried out. We obtained a prevalence of tubercular infection of 1.12 +/- 0.58%, with a 95% confidence interval and standard error calculated at 0.29%. CONCLUSIONS: The rate of prevalence of tubercular infection in children doing the first year of EGB in La Rioja is high, as seen in the high rates of incidence and carriers. The findings support the appropriateness of continuing with this type of study, for two reasons. The first is the need to establish the annual risk of infection (ARI) in order to monitor how endemic tuberculosis evolves in our community and assess the tuberculosis control programme. The second reason is that, by checking infected children, it becomes possible to prevent or treat new cases of tuberculosis and find possible unknown sources and future reservoirs of infection.

BCG Vaccine↗