Summary
Revista Brasileira de Ginecologia e Obstetrícia. 1998;20(3):151-154
DOI 10.1590/S0100-72031998000300005
A retrospective study examining medical records of female prostitutes attending the STD/AIDS Reference Center in Vitória, Brazil from January/93 to December/96 was conducted. During this period, 180 women received medical and psychological care in this clinic. Mean age was 25.9 year (SD=6.8). Out of 180, 140 agreed to be tested for HIV, of whom 12 (8.6%) had a positive result. Among 157 women who agreed to be tested for syphilis, 144 (91.7%) had a negative result, while 13 (8.3%) had a positive one. According to the educational degree, 6 (3.3%) women were illiterate, 114 (63.3%) attended elementary school, 37 (20.6%) attended secondary school, 7 (3.9%) went to college and 16 gave no information. One hundred and forty-one patients (78.3%) were single, 17 (9.4%) married, 10 (5,5%) divorced and 4 (2.2%) widows. The frequency of condom use was: always, 56 (31.3%), sometimes, 93 (52.0%), and 30 (16.8%) never used condoms. Other STDs were reported by 89 (49.4%) women and 9 (5.0%) reported intravenous (IV) drug use. There was a significant difference between the HIV positive and the negative group only regarding IV drug abuse (p=0.031) and syphilis infection (p=0.014). The present study showed prevalence rates of HIV infection among prostitutes in Vitória much higher than those found in the general population. There is a pressing need to improve medical assistance and educational campaigns especially designed to reach this population of women, and focusing the importance of regular condom use and the risks associated with IV drug abuse.
Summary
Revista Brasileira de Ginecologia e Obstetrícia. 1999;21(4):201-205
DOI 10.1590/S0100-72031999000400004
Purpose: evaluation of the risk factors [lesion grade, seropositivity for type 1 acquired immunodeficiency virus (HIV-1) and association with pregnancy ] for relapse of human papillomavirus (HPV) induced lesions of the female genital tract. Patients and Methods: seventy patients with a clinical, colposcopic and cytologic diagnosis of HPV infection were studied. Clinical follow-up lasted at least 6 months after the initial treatment, thus permitting the evaluation of the therapeutic results. Twenty-seven of these patients were pregnant and 12 were seropositive for HIV-1. The remaining 44 patients were not in the pregnancy-puerperium cycle and 14 of them were HIV-1 positive. According to cytologic criteria, the cervical lesions were classified as changes associated with HPV or grade I cervical intraepithelial neoplasia (CIN I) (low grade lesions) or CIN II/III (high grade lesions). Data were analyzed statistically by the exact Fisher test, with the level of significance set at p<0.05. The therapeutic scheme for lesions limited to the uterine cervix was cryo- or electrocautery (EC), whereas topical 5-fluorouracil was used for the diffused lesions through the vaginal wall. For the lesions in the vulvoperineal region, 80% trichloroacetic acid was used, and when they were voluminous, EC was applied. Among the pregnant women, a cryocautery was used for lesions limited to the cervix and EC for diffuse lesions. Results: among the HIV-1-negative pregnant women there was an 87.5% rate of recurrence when the lesions were in the cervix-vagina, and no recurrence when the lesions were vulvoperineal. In contrast, seropositive pregnant women presented 100% recurrence regardless of the site of the lesion. Among nonpregnant HIV negative women, 20 and 24% recurrence was observed in the cervix-vagina and in the vulvoperineal region, respectively, as opposed to 87.5 and 100% recurrence, respectively, for the same regions among HIV positive women. The lesions associated with CIN showed a higher frequency of recurrence with increasing CIN grade and a synergistic effect with the association of HIV-1 and pregnancy. Conclusions: the recurrence rate for women treated for HPV-induced lesions is high and the association with pregnancy, HIV and increased grade of the intraepithelial lesions are synergistic factors in the determination of therapeutic failure. The site of implantation of HPV-induced lesions is of prognostic significance only when the infection is not associated with HIV.
Summary
Revista Brasileira de Ginecologia e Obstetrícia. 2006;28(6):345-351
DOI 10.1590/S0100-72032006000600005
PURPOSE: to evaluate association between CD4+ cell count and cervical intraepithelial lesion severity in HIV-infected women. METHODS: cross-sectional study of 87 HIV-infected patients which were confirmed by previous serologic examinations. All had cervical HPV diagnosed by polymerase chain reaction (PCR). All patients underwent anamnesis, physical examinations and colposcopy. Cervix biopsy was performed when indicated by colposcopical examination. Histopathological results followed Richart's classification, adapted by Wright, and CD4+ cell count and cervical intraepithelial lesion severity association was analysed by comparison of means using analysis using analysis of variance (ANOVA). RESULTS: among 60 biopsied women 24 were found (40.0%) with CIN I, eight (13.3%) with CIN II, three (5%) with CIN III, 14 (23.3%) with chronic cervicitis and 11 with cytopathic effect of HPV, without cell polarity loss. This corresponds to 35 (58.3%) women with intraepithelial lesion of low grade (CIN I + HPV) and 11 (18.3%) with intraepithelial lesion of high grade (CIN II + CIN III). There was no significant association between CD4+ cell count mean and cervical intraepithelial lesion severity (p=0.901). CONCLUSIONS: there was no association between CD4+ cell count and cervical intraepithelial lesion severity diagnosed by histopathological examination.
Summary
Revista Brasileira de Ginecologia e Obstetrícia. 2005;27(1):32-36
DOI 10.1590/S0100-72032005000100007
PURPOSE: to evaluate the prevalence of HIV infection in parturient women from maternity hospitals linked to the Public Health Service in Sergipe state (Brazil) using the rapid test, and to evaluate this strategy to introduce the protocol for adequate management of HIV patients. METHODS: cross-sectional study which included the training of all health personnel and enrollment of every parturient woman admitted to maternity hospitals linked to the Public Health Service of Sergipe in the Northeast of Brazil. They received instructions about HIV perinatal transmission, were asked to undertake the rapid test, independently of their knowledge about their HIV serologic status, and signed the term of free consent. Additional information about antenatal care and obstetric history was obtained. The test used was the DetermineTM - Abbott Laboratories, and we used the Health Ministry protocol for HIV infeccion prophylaxis. A database was created at Epi-Info 2002, and the prevalence was calculated in relation to all tests performed from January 2003 to March 2004. RESULTS: after 9215 performed tests, 39 HIV-seropositive patients (0.42%) were detected. Twenty-three of them (59%) had no previous knowledge about their seropositivity. Two patients that already knew their positive sorology status did not refer this condition to the health persomel. The Health Ministry protocol was used for all positive cases. Antenatal care attendance was high (89%) but only 32.5% of the patients had already been submitted to an HIV serologic test during pregnancy. CONCLUSIONS: HIV prevalence in pregnant women (0.42%) in Sergipe was similar to the average rate in Brazil. A large number of seropositive pregnant women did not know their serologic status at the moment of delivery. This indicates bad antenatal care performance and the necessity to keep using HIV rapid test at the moment of labor and delivery in order to reduce vertical transmission.
Summary
Revista Brasileira de Ginecologia e Obstetrícia. 2004;26(7):517-525
DOI 10.1590/S0100-72032004000700003
PURPOSE: to evaluate the experience of implementation of the Brazilian Prenatal and Birth Humanization Program (PHPN) in 2001 and 2002, through a population descriptive study. METHODS: the study was performed through documental analysis and using data generated by SISPRENATAL, comparatively evaluating the indicators concerning criteria for prenatal follow-up in different states, regions and period. RESULTS: until the end of 2002, 3983 municipalities joined the Program (72% adhesion) and, among them, 71% reported results, constituting a data base of 720,871 women. In 2002 only 28% of the pregnant women were already registered, 25% before 120 days of pregnancy. Nearly 22% of the women had six prenatal visits, 6% had the post-partum visit and the compulsory tests performed, only 4% had also the HIV test and were vaccinated against tetanus, and 12% had two examinations performed for syphilis. There were important regional variations, generally showing better indicators for the Southeast and South regions. CONCLUSIONS: although the indicators of quality of care showed an improvement from 2001 to 2002, the recorded low percentages attest the need for permanent evaluations and new interventions with the aim of improving the quality of this care, especially in the North and Northeast regions.