São Paulo medical journal = Revista paulista de medicina
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Children and adolescents who live in situations of social vulnerability present a series of health problems. Nonetheless, affirmations that sensory and cognitive abnormalities are present are a matter of controversy. The aim of this study was to investigate aspects to auditory processing, through applying the brainstem auditory evoked potential (BAEP) and behavioral auditory processing tests to children living on the streets, and comparison with a control group. ⋯ The results showed that the study group (children and adolescents) presented poor performance in the behavioral auditory processing tests, despite their unaltered auditory brainstem pathways, as shown by their normal results in the BAEP test.
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Meningoencephalitis early in life, of any etiology, is a risk factor for development of subsequent sequelae, which may be of physical, psychiatric, behavioral or cognitive origin. Anomia is a language abnormality frequently found in such cases, and other language deficits are rarely described. The aim of this study was to describe the cognitive and linguistic manifestations following a case of herpetic meningoencephalitis in a 13-year-old patient with eight years of schooling. ⋯ The patient underwent a speech-language audiology assessment nine months after the neurological diagnosis. The battery of tests included the Montreal-Toulouse Language Assessment test protocol (MT Beta-86, modified), the description from the Cookie Theft task of the Boston Diagnostic Aphasia Examination (BDAE), an informal assessment of the patient's logical and mathematical reasoning, and the neuropsychological subtests from the WAIS-III scale, which assess working memory. The patient presented mixed aphasia, impairment of short-term memory and working memory, and dyscalculia. This case also presented severe cognitive and linguistic deficits. Prompt diagnosis is crucial, in order to enable timely treatment and rehabilitation of this neurological infection and minimize the cognitive deficits caused by the disease.
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Case Reports
Video laparoscopic intervention for an interstitial pregnancy after failure of clinical treatment.
Interstitial pregnancy is a rare form of ectopic pregnancy for which the best therapeutic course of action has yet to be determined. Surgical intervention entails a high risk of hemorrhage due to the great vascularization of the cornual region of the uterus. Case descriptions facilitate the analysis of results and aid clinicians in determining the most appropriate course of action in these situations. ⋯ In a patient with an ultrasound diagnosis of interstitial pregnancy, clinical treatment using methotrexate was chosen. However, after one week, there was a marked decline in the serum level of the β subunit of chorionic gonadotropin hormone, although an ultrasound examination revealed embryonic cardiac activity. A second dose of the chemotherapy was administered. Embryonic cardiac activity persisted 48 hours later. Video laparoscopy was performed to achieve right-side cornual resection, which resulted in satisfactory resolution of the case.
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Injuries are an important cause of morbidity during adolescence, but can be avoided through learning about some of their characteristics. This study aimed to identify the most frequent injuries among adolescents attended at an emergency service. ⋯ Although the injuries were of low severity, preventive attitudes need to be incorporated in order to reduce the risks and provide greater safety for adolescents.