Browsing by Author "Correia, M"
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- An Uncommon Cause of Recurrent Dysphagia and Chest Pain in an Adolescent BoyPublication . Craveiro Costa, R; Patena Forte, J; Correia, M; Borges, C; Faria, HAn 11-year-old boy was brought to the emergency department with a week-long history of widespread pain in his upper abdomen that worsened with deep breathing and eating, sialorrhea, food impaction sensation, and a recent fever. Ten months prior, he had similar symptoms and was diagnosed with a pharyngeal phlegmon. He was treated with antibiotics and dexamethasone. In the current episode, he presented with mild elevation of inflammatory markers, a slight deviation of the trachea on chest X-ray, and a tubular esophageal duplication was identified on a thoracic CT, with its opening observed during the endoscopic study. The patient was admitted for further treatment with fluids, analgesia, and antibiotics, and showed improvement over the next seven days with no significant incidents. Esophageal duplications are a rare congenital anomaly and their exact cause is unknown. Typically found in the posterior mediastinum and lower esophagus, they can cause symptoms such as pain, dysphagia, regurgitation, and malnutrition. Surgical or endoscopic resection can be a treatment option for these malformations.
- Autoimmune hepatitis: trust in transaminasesPublication . Brissos, J; Carrusca, C; Correia, M; Cabral, JA rational and appropriate evaluation of liver biochemical tests is essential, given the increased number of abnormal laboratory results in asymptomatic patients. Critical judgement allows early diagnosis in the absence of typical clinical signs. Autoimmune hepatitis is a rare disease with high clinical variability. We present a child investigated for unexplained increase in aminotransferases, discovered accidentally 2 months earlier in a standard laboratory panel approach. She was asymptomatic and no physical signs of chronic or acute liver disease were found. Laboratory investigation showed hypergammaglobulinaemia with selective elevation of IgG and a positive anti-liver cytosol type 1. Severe interface hepatitis was found on liver biopsy and treatment was initiated with steroids and azathioprine with good response. This case highlights the importance of trusting in any serum aminotransferase abnormality, even in asymptomatic children and emphasises the value of clinical suspicion and specific immunosuppressive therapy in prognosis.
- Complex Congenital Heart Disease: The Influence of Prenatal DiagnosisPublication . Correia, M; Fortunato, F; Martins, D; Teixeira, A; Nogueira, G; Menezes, I; Anjos, RINTRODUCTION: Complex congenital heart disease is a group of severe conditions. Prenatal diagnosis has implications on morbidity and mortality for most severe conditions. The purpose of this work was to evaluate the influence of prenatal diagnosis and distance of residence and birth place to a reference center, on immediate morbidity and early mortality of complex congenital heart disease. MATERIAL AND METHODS: Retrospective study of complex congenital heart disease patients of our Hospital, born between 2007 and 2012. RESULTS: There were 126 patients born with complex congenital heart disease. In 95%, pregnancy was followed since the first trimester, with prenatal diagnosis in 42%. There was a statistically significant relation between birth place and prenatal diagnosis. Transposition of great arteries was the most frequent complex congenital heart disease (45.2%), followed by pulmonary atresia with ventricular septal defect (17.5%) and hypoplastic left ventricle (9.5%). Eighty-two patients (65.1%) had prostaglandin infusion and 38 (30.2%)were ventilated before an intervention. Surgery took place in the neonatal period in 73%. Actuarial survival rate at 30 days, 12 and 24 months was 85%, 80% and 75%, respectively. There was no statistically significant relation between prenatal diagnosis and mortality. DISCUSSION: Most patients with complex congenital heart disease did not have prenatal diagnosis. All cases with prenatal diagnosis were born in a tertiary center. Prenatal diagnosis did not influence significantly neonatal mortality, as already described in other studies with heterogeneous complex heart disease. CONCLUSION: prenatal diagnosis of complex congenital heart disease allowed an adequate referral. Most patients with complex congenital heart disease were not diagnosed prenatally. This data should be considered when planning prenatal diagnosis of congenital heart disease.
- Kalirin: a novel genetic risk factor for ischemic strokePublication . Krug, T; Manso, H; Gouveia, L; Sobral, J; Xavier, JM; Albergaria, I; Gaspar, G; Correia, M; Viana-Baptista, M; Simões, RN; Pinto, AN; Taipa, R; Ferreira, C; Fontes, JR; Silva, MR; Gabriel, JP; Matos, I; Lopes, G; Ferro, JM; Vicente, AM; Oliveira, SACerebrovascular and cardiovascular diseases are the leading causes of death and disability worldwide. They are complex disorders resulting from the interplay of genetic and environmental factors, and may share several susceptibility genes. Several recent studies have implicated variants of the Kalirin (KALRN) gene with susceptibility to cardiovascular and metabolic phenotypes, but no studies have yet been performed in stroke patients. KALRN is involved, among others, in the inhibition of inducible nitric oxide synthase, in the regulation of ischemic signal transduction, and in neuronal morphogenesis, plasticity, and stability. The goal of the present study was to determine whether SNPs in the KALRN region on 3q13, which includes the Ropporin gene (ROPN1), predispose to ischemic stroke (IS) in a cohort of Portuguese patients and controls. We genotyped 34 tagging SNPs in the KALRN and ROPN1 chromosomal region on 565 IS patients and 517 unrelated controls, and performed genotype imputation for 405 markers on chromosome 3. We tested the single-marker association of these SNPs with IS. One SNP (rs4499545) in the ROPN1-KALRN intergenic region and two SNPs in KALRN (rs17286604 and rs11712619) showed significant (P < 0.05) allelic and genotypic (unadjusted and adjusted for hypertension, diabetes, and ever smoking) association with IS risk. Thirty-two imputed SNPs also showed an association at P < 0.05, and actual genotyping of three of these polymorphisms (rs7620580, rs6438833, and rs11712039) validated their association. Furthermore, rs11712039 was associated with IS (0.001 < P < 0.01) in a recent well-powered genomewide association study (Ikram et al. 2009). These studies suggest that variants in the KALRN gene region constitute risk factors for stroke and that KALRN may represent a common risk factor for vascular diseases.
- Mitochondrial haplogroup H1 is protective for ischemic stroke in Portuguese patientPublication . Rosa, A; Fonseca, BV; Krug, T; Manso, H; Gouveia, L; Albergaria, I; Gaspar, G; Correia, M; Viana-Baptista, M; Simões, RM; Pinto, AN; Taipa, R; Ferreira, C; Fontes, JR; Gabriel, JP; Matos, I; Lopes, G; Ferro, JM; Vicente, AM; Oliveira, SABACKGROUND: The genetic contribution to stroke is well established but it has proven difficult to identify the genes and the disease-associated alleles mediating this effect, possibly because only nuclear genes have been intensely investigated so far. Mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) has been implicated in several disorders having stroke as one of its clinical manifestations. The aim of this case-control study was to assess the contribution of mtDNA polymorphisms and haplogroups to ischemic stroke risk. METHODS: We genotyped 19 mtDNA single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) defining the major European haplogroups in 534 ischemic stroke patients and 499 controls collected in Portugal, and tested their allelic and haplogroup association with ischemic stroke risk. RESULTS: Haplogroup H1 was found to be significantly less frequent in stroke patients than in controls (OR = 0.61, 95% CI = 0.45-0.83, p = 0.001), when comparing each clade against all other haplogroups pooled together. Conversely, the pre-HV/HV and U mtDNA lineages emerge as potential genetic factors conferring risk for stroke (OR = 3.14, 95% CI = 1.41-7.01, p = 0.003, and OR = 2.87, 95% CI = 1.13-7.28, p = 0.021, respectively). SNPs m.3010G>A, m.7028C>T and m.11719G>A strongly influence ischemic stroke risk, their allelic state in haplogroup H1 corroborating its protective effect. CONCLUSION: Our data suggests that mitochondrial haplogroup H1 has an impact on ischemic stroke risk in a Portuguese sample.
- Sequestro pulmonar intralobar com malformação cardíaca associadaPublication . Correia, M; Bettencourt, A; Nunes, MA; Tomé, T
