The effects of HIV/AIDS and antiretroviral drugs on vitamin D metabolism are still mostly unknown. This was a cross-sectional study to estimate the prevalence of vitamin D deficiency and identify its association with the clinical and metabolic parameters among 214 HIV-positive female patients on antiretroviral therapy (ART) in Brazil. The prevalence of vitamin D deficiency (< 30 ng/ml) was 40.65% (87/214). Hypercholesterolemia, high LDL-c, duration of use of current antiretroviral regimen, hypertriglyceridemia, body mass index, age, hypertension, time with AIDS ≥ 10 years and hyperglycemia were selected for multivariate analysis (p < 0.20). After this analysis, hypercholesterolemia and use of current antiretroviral regimen ≥ 3 years remained independently associated with vitamin D deficiency. There was an inverse statistically significant correlation between total cholesterol and serum 25(OH)D levels. High prevalence of vitamin D deficiency was found among HIV-positive women on ART and was independently associated with its prolonged use and with hypercholesterolemia.

SUMMARYA cross-sectional study with internal comparison groups was conducted to describe sociodemographic characteristics, as well as verify the association between the type of antiretroviral treatment used and hyperglycemia and hyperlipidemia, with special attention to the use of HIV protease inhibitors. The data was obtained through an interview questionnaire, as well as blood and urine samples that were collected for the laboratory exams. A total of 418 patients were interviewed. 46 of these, however, met the exclusion criteria. The sample was therefore composed by 372 HIV positive patients, attended at the laboratory of the Correia Picanço State Hospital for the collection of blood, to estimate the HIV viral load and/or TCD4 cell counts from August to November 2000. The association between the variables was tested using the chi-square test and the p-value. A multiple logistic regression analysis was carried out to adjust for potential confounding factors. A greater frequency of patients with high glucose levels was observed among those making use of antiretroviral therapy without protease inhibitors, but the number of patients limited the comparisons. An association was verified between the total serum cholesterol level and the use of HIV protease inhibitors (p = 0.047) even after controlling for age. An association was also observed between the triglyceride levels and the use of HIV protease inhibitors, which remained after adjustment for age, sex and creatinine levels (p < 0.001). The levels of glucose and TSH, the presence of proteinuria and the practice of physical activity were not associated either with the levels of cholesterol or with the levels of tryglicerides thus they were not confounders of the associations described.

Abstract. After the emergence of the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV)/acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS), the number of visceral leishmaniasis (VL)-HIV/AIDS coinfections has increased worldwide. Herein, we assessed the usefulness of an rK39-based immunochromatographic test (rK39 ICT) (DiaMed-IT LEISH ® ; DiaMed AG, Cressier-sur-Morat, Switzerland) and a latex agglutination test (KAtex; Kalon Biological, Guildford, United Kingdom) for urinary antigen detection to diagnose VL in 15 HIV/AIDS patients from northeastern Brazil. VL diagnosis was based on clinical findings, cytology, serology, parasite DNA, and/or urinary antigen detection. VL was confirmed in seven out of 15 HIV/AIDS patients. Only three patients were positive in bone marrow cytology, three patients were conventional polymerase chain reaction (PCR) positive, while six were real-time PCR positive. All patients were direct agglutination test (DAT) (Royal Tropical Institute, Amsterdam, The Netherlands) positive; of these, four were positive by rK39 ICT and five by KAtex. Large-scale studies are needed to validate the use of the KAtex in the national public health laboratory network in Brazil, aiming at improving the diagnosis of VL in HIV/AIDS patients in this country.

Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Acinetobacter spp. and Klebsiella spp. are three of the pathogens most frequently involved in infections of cancer patients, and the production of b-lactamases is a major mechanism of resistance due to its wide diversity of existing enzymes. Therefore, the aim of the present study was to investigate the microbiological profile and data related to patients and infections, and to search for b-lactamase genes in bacterial isolates from hospitalized cancer patients in a hospital in Recife, Pernambuco, Brazil. A total of 169 isolates were recovered between 2012 and 2014, of which 58 were P. aeruginosa, 36 were Acinetobacter spp. and 75 were Klebsiella spp. A high percentage of carbapenem resistance was observed in P. aeruginosa and Acinetobacter spp. Among the carbapenem-resistant bacteria, the bla SPM-1 gene was detected in P. aeruginosa (35.5 %) and Acinetobacter spp. (3.8 %), while bla KPC was detected in P. aeruginosa (25.8 %) only. Among the third-and fourth-generation cephalosporin-resistant strains, in Klebsiella spp. we detected the genes bla TEM (30.6 %), bla CTX-M (58.3 %) and bla KPC (5.6 %), and in Acinetobacter spp. only bla TEM (25.9 %). This the first report of an Acinetobacter baumannii bla SPM-1 gene carrier that has been isolated in Brazil. The most frequent cancer types were bowel tumour [14.8 %; 95 % confidence interval (CI 95 % ) 9.8-21.1 %], breast cancer (13.6 %; CI 95 % 8.8-19.7 %) and prostate cancer (11.2%; CI 95 % 6.9-17.0 %). These results therefore provide knowledge of susceptibility profile and resistance mechanisms and thus can contribute to the strategic formulation of hospital infection control plans and the rational use of antimicrobials, reducing mortality from infection levels in cancer patients. frequency and severity of infections may be related to the use of potent cytotoxic drugs and increasingly invasive diagnostic tools (Maschmeyer & Haas, 2008;Wang et al., 2011). INTRODUCTIONGiven this vulnerability among patients with cancer, this population is more susceptible to community and healthcare-associated infections (HAIs). According to a recent survey by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), one in 25 hospitalized patients [4.0 %; 95 % confidence interval (CI 95 % ), 3.7-4.4] is battling an HAI, defined as those infections acquired in hospital or healthcare service unit that first appear 48 h or more after hospital admission or within 30 days after discharge following in-patient care (Revelas, 2012;Magill et al., 2014). Other causes for concern in many healthcare centres for patients with cancer are the high bacterial resistance rates and the rise of opportunistic multidrug-resistant (MDR) pathogens such as Pseudomonas aeruginosa and Acinetobacter baumannii (Pongas et al., 2012;Fukuta et al., 2013;Marín et al., 2014).Gram-positive bacteria are described as the most frequent cause of HAIs in cancer patients, especially through bloodstream infection (Wisplinghoff et al., 2003;Maschmeyer & Haas, 2008;Wang et al., 2011; Kosmidis & Chandrasekar...

Common in four continents, visceral leishmaniasis (VL) is an important but neglected disease. Human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infection increases the risk of developing VL in people from leishmaniasis-endemic areas, with worse prognosis when there is coinfection. We conducted a cross-sectional study to determine the prevalence of HIV/VL coinfection in patients admitted in three referral hospitals for HIV/acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS) in Pernambuco, Brazil, and to compare epidemiological, clinical, and laboratory characteristics among HIV/VL coinfected and HIV mono-infected individuals. The sample consisted of HIV patients aged 18 years or more, in a period of data collection of 6 months. We performed four Leishmania tests-polymerase chain reaction (PCR), direct agglutination test, rK39, and latex agglutination test-and individuals with at least one positive test were considered coinfected. The HIV/VL coinfection prevalence we found was 16.9%. We observed large variation in prevalence according to the Leishmania test used, with low coincidence of positive tests. The most frequent symptoms found were weight loss (75.6%), fever (67.6%), and cough (55.3%). When we compared HIV/VL coinfected and HIV mono-infected groups we did not observe statistically significant differences. Low educational level (P = 0.004) and pallor (P = 0.009) were more frequent in the coinfected group. Serum albumin level was higher in coinfected individuals (P = 0.