Introduction: Breast cancer is a global public health problem and the most common cancer among women. In Peru it is the second leading cause of cancer death in women. Mammography is the most common diagnostic tool; though breast self-examination is easy, inexpensive, and noninvasive. Objectives: To determine the frequency of breast self-examination in Peruvian women of childbearing age, and sociodemographic factors associated with this practice. Design: Analysis of secondary sources based on the Population and Family Health Survey (ENDES, Peru) 2008, a probabilistic, stratified and multistage sample study that investigated population dynamics and maternal and child health, including questions on breast self-examination performance. Setting: Urban and rural areas in all departments of Peru, including Lima. Participants: Nine thousand seven hundred and twenty-four women aged 20 to 49. Inte...

La macroglobulinemia de Waldenström (MW) es una rara neoplasia hematológica, caracterizada por la proliferación linfoplasmocitaria, con producción monoclonal de inmunoglobulina M (IgM) e infiltración medular. Comunicamos el caso de un paciente de raza negra, con MW, quien presentó compromiso oftalmológico, con manifestaciones fundoscópicas, neurológicas, citopenia y síntomas constitucionales, derivados de la infiltración tumoral y de la gamapatia monoclonal. Asimismo, lesiones osteolíticas, raras en la MW. Se realiza una revisión de la literatura acerca de los criterios diagnósticos, epidemiología, fisiopatología y clínica de esta enfermedad muy poco informada en nuestro país.

Systemic lupus erythematosus is a disease that affects women predominantly, with variable manifestations. This is a case report on a young male patient that debuts with lupus arthropathy, variety Jaccoud’s arthropathy. We review the clinical characteristics of lupus in males and the differences with the disease in females.

Introduction: Internal medicine specialty is challenged in remaining competitive in the complex health system. Low public awareness of the capabilities and competence of the internists is one of these challenges. Objectives: To determine patients’ knowledge and perceptions on both internal medicine and medical internist roles. Design: Transversal, descriptive and analytical study. Settings: Arzobispo Loayza Hospital, Edgardo Rebagliati Hospital, and a private clinic. Participants: Adult patients attended at the three hospitals’ internal medicine services. Interventions: The patients solved a self-administered and anonymous questionnaire in September 1-15, 2008. Main outcomes measures: Level of knowledge on internal medicine and internists and perception of confidence. Results: Five hundred patients answered the questionnaire, 42,8% at Loayza Hospital, 40% at Rebagliati Hospital, and ...

Objectives: To determine the frequency of Bartonellosis in the district of Ocalli,Luya, Amazonas, and to describe treatment outlines at the Ocalli’s Health center.Design: Observational, transverse and retrospective study. Setting: District ofOcalli, province of Luya, department of Amazonas. Patients: Persons with Carrion’sDisease. Interventions: Review of acute anemic febrile records and follow-up ofBartonellosis cases at Ocalli’s Health Center between January 1998 and December2008. Main outcome measures: Prevalence and treatment outlines for Carrion’sDisease. Results: In 111 registered cases of Bartonellosis the average age was15,7 years. The most affected age group was from 2 to 7 years with 47 (42,3%)patients; 61 (54,9%) patients were female. The prevalence was 25,4 cases per1000 and the death rate 2,7%. In the acute phase, 82 (73,9%) patients wereregistered, other 12 (10,8%) ...

Mr. Editor We consider important the observation and contribution made regarding the scientific production in Human Resources in Health in Peru. The study in reference had as one of its objectives to characterize the scientific production around the national research agenda on Human Resources in Health (period 2011-2014). This agenda included 30 specific research topics grouped in two areas: health education and health work (1). The search strategies employed used the descriptors called Medical Subject Headings (MeSH) for the SCOPUS database and the descriptors in Health Sciences (DeCS) for the LILACS database. In this last structured vocabulary, the descriptors related to Human Resources in Health are 'Human Resources in Health' and 'Personal Health', which were used in the construction of our search strategy.

Introducción. Existe limitada evidencia acerca de la exposición al hantavirus en el Perú. Los casos sintomáticos y estudios de seroprevalencia en febriles y población asintomática provienen de la región Loreto; sin embargo, existen grupos ocupacionales expuestos a los reservorios en regiones sin circulación conocida del virus. Objetivo. Determinar la frecuencia de anticuerpos contra el hantavirus en arroceros de un valle ubicado en una zona subtropical del Perú. Métodos. Estudio transversal en una muestra aleatoria de 250 agricultores de arroz obtenida en 2010 en el valle Alto Mayo (región San Martín), que incluyó la obtención de una muestra de sangre en cuyo suero se determinó la presencia de anticuerpos inmunoglobulinas G (IgG) mediante ELISA indirecto, y anticuerpos inmunoglobulinas M (IgM) mediante ELISA de captura. Resultados. I...

No description

Introduction. Instruments in Spanish with known psychometric properties are required to measure the attitudes of medical students towards scientific activities. Objectives. To determine the psychometric properties of three instruments to measure attitudes towards scientific research, perceptions about barriers to research and attitudes towards scientific reading. Methods. A cross-sectional study was performed in 311 medical students from an university in Peru. The instruments used the Likert scale of six responses. A confirmatory analysis was performed by modeling structural structures. Results. The instrument on attitudes towards scientific research resulted in three factors, the first (9 items, coefficient α = 0.888), the second (8 items, α = 0.847) and the third (3 items, α = 0.653). Perceptions of barriers to research are evaluated with two factors, one with 6 items (α = 0.779) a...

Introduction. Scientific literacy comprises skills to explain phenomena scientifically, evaluate science and interpret its results. Validated tools in different languages are needed to ensure their correct measurement. Objective. To adapt and validate, to Peruvian Spanish, an instrument to measure scientific literacy skills in medical students. Methods. The cultural adaptation of the Test of Scientific Literacy Skills (TOSLS) into Spanish had six steps. First, an independent, simultaneous translation from English into Spanish was performed. Then, both translations were synthesised and back-translated, followed by comparison with the original version and back-translation. This was followed by a pilot test and a cross-sectional study with medical students in Lima, Peru. The last step involved psychometric evaluation using the Rasch model. The instrument consisted of 28 multiple-choice ques...

Introduction. Tacna is a region with very high risk of tuberculosis transmission; however, the diagnostic performance of direct smears in their healthcare centers is 1.5%. Objectives. To describe the knowledge, perceptions and practices about detection of respiratory symptomatic subjects. Design. Cross sectional study. Setting. Health care centers of Tacna Regional Health Directorate. Participants. Health professionals including physicians and nurses. Interventions. A structured self-administered, anonymous questionnaire, developed by the authors, based on the current "Technical Standard for Comprehensive Management of People Affected by Tuberculosis", was applied to 178 health professionals (physicians and nurses). Main outcome measures. Absolute and relative frequency of adequate knowledge, perceptions and practices on detection of respiratory symptomatic subjects. Results. In the stud...

Objectives. To analyze the scientific production framed in the National Research Agenda 2011-2014. Design. Bibliometric research using SCOPUS, LILACS and LIPECS databases. Setting National Health Institute, Lima, Peru. Unit of analysis. Original article with at least one researcher with a Peruvian institution affiliation or whose study population or part of it, came from Peru and framed on any issue of national research agendas. Main outcome measures. Bibliometric indicators of production. Results. Out of the 882 publications retrieved, 215 (24.4%) were admitted to the analysis. The national research agendas with more scientific production were tuberculosis and STD-HIV/AIDS that included 78 and 59 articles respectively. The most common language of publication was English (69.8%). The articles were published in 90 scientific journals. Peruvian institutions with the highest number of signa...

Competency-based learning in scientific research in the medicine faculties has been the subject of several theoretical approaches and many implementation experiences worldwide. We present the experience of an private university located in the city of Lima, Peru. This university has implemented a strategy of «research-based teaching» in conjunction with «research-oriented teaching» in order to incorporate the achievement of competences for scientific research in the curricular design. The experience is added to those described in medical schools, but with the appropriateness regarding the context of medical education in Peru. The implementation of the curricular strategy has generated unforeseen challenges in the formulation of the intervention, which are described for consideration in new scenarios. The experience is based on a conceptual framework that can serve as a reference for i...

Esta investigación tuvo como objetivo identificar rol que cumple la responsabilidad de la responsabilidad social universitaria en una universidad pública, en relación a la necesidad de conocer su contribución en la sociedad. El enfoque de la investigación fue un estudio cualitativo mediante un diseño de estudio de casos. Se realizó el acopio de la información documental y normativa mediante el estatuto universitario y con el marco temático encontrado se realizó el análisis documental en relación con las categorías de la responsabilidad social universitaria centradas en gestión, académico, investigación, y extensión. Se elaboró la guía de entrevistas que se aplicaron a los miembros de la comunidad universitaria, y esta información se confrontó con la información documental en función a convergencias y divergencias. El primer hallazgo importante encontrado, es que el...

La presente investigación surgió en base a la necesidad de conocer los efectos de la planificación y control en el aprendizaje del software AutoCAD de los estudiantes del Centro de Extensión y Proyección social – Universidad Nacional de Ingeniería, RIMAC 2012; se planteó como objetivo explicar el efecto de la planificación y control en el aprendizaje del software AutoCAD en los estudiantes. La investigación utilizó un enfoque cuantitativo, del tipo sustantivo, bajo un diseño cuasi experimental, el método utilizado fue hipotético deductivo, en un escenario experimental, sobre una población de 175 estudiantes inscritos en el periodo de Mayo a Junio del 2012, de donde se extrajo una muestra de 60 estudiantes. Se definió la variable independiente planificación y control, y la variable dependiente aprendizaje del software AutoCAD, los datos se recogieron utilizando únicamen...

Se cuenta con limitada evidencia sobre la exposición al hanta virus en el Perú, los casos reportados y estudios de seroprevalencia en febriles y población asintomática provienen de la región Loreto, sin embargo, existen grupos ocupacionales expuestos a los potenciales reservorios del hantavirus en regiones sin circulación conocida del virus. Determina la frecuencia de anticuerpos contra el hanta virus en agricultores de arroz de un valle ubicado en una zona tropical del Perú. Realiza un estudio transversal en una muestra de 250 agricultores de arroz captada en 2010 en el valle Alto Mayo de la región San Martín. Se determinó la presencia de anticuerpos IgG mediante ELISA indirecto, y anticuerpos IgM mediante ELISA de captura. Aplicamos un cuestionario estructurado de características del hogar y trabajo vinculadas a exposición con roedores. No se encontraron agricultores con an...

Introduction. Excess weight is a growing phenomenon in the adolescent population, however, studies on the lipid profile in Peruvian adolescents are scarce. Objective. To identify the patterns of triglycerides/HDL cholesterol ratio and lipid profile in schoolchildren without metabolic syndrome in urban areas of an Andean region of Peru. Methods. Secondary analysis database from the study «Frequency of Metabolic Syndrome in residents of an Andean region of Peru». Of 586 students from the original study, 19 were excluded because they had a diagnosis of Metabolic Syndrome. The levels of glucose, total cholesterol, high density cholesterol (HLD), low density cholesterol (LDL) and triglycerides were analyzed. Non-HDL cholesterol was calculated by the difference between total cholesterol and HDL. The triglyceride / HDL cholesterol index (Tg / HDL-C) is the ratio between the serum concentratio...

Objective: To evaluate the sociodemographic and academic characteristics associated with sleep quality among School of Human Medicine students. Materials and methods: A cross-sectional study was carried out in a randomly selected sample of 184 School of Human Medicine students from a private university located in the city of Lima, Peru. The study was conducted between June and July 2022, a period of gradual return to in-person classes. The participants completed an anonymous virtual survey containing questions on sociodemographic and academic factors as well as the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI). This instrument comprised seven parameters with scores ranging from 0 to 21, where a good sleep quality was established from 0 to 5 points. The outcome was dichotomous (good and poor sleep quality), so binary logistic regression was used to evaluate the associated factors. Results: Female...

Background: The epidemiology course is taught in the 5th year of undergraduate Academic Professional School of Human Medicine, Faculty of Medicine of the San Marcos University. One of the outcomes at the end of this course is research that usually will not be published. Objectives: To determine the percentage of research produced during the course of epidemiology and published in biomedical journals during the period 2003-2009. Design: Bibliometric study. Setting: Epidemiology Section, Institute of Tropical Medicine, Universidad Nacional mayor de San Marcos, Lima, Peru. Bibliographic material: Research work published. Methods: Papers elaborated in the epidemiology course and published in biomedical journals during the period 2003-2009. Main outcome measures: Number of research papers produced and published in biomedical journals. Results: From 110 research works 13 (11.8%) were published...

In this study, we propose a new hybrid method based on artificial neural networks to forecast daily extreme events of PM2.5 pollution concentration. The hybrid method combines self-organizing maps to identify temporal patterns of excessive daily pollution found at different monitoring stations, with a set of multilayer perceptron to forecast extreme values of PM2.5 for each cluster. The proposed model was applied to analyze five-year pollution data obtained from nine weather stations in the metropolitan area of Santiago, Chile. Simulation results show that the hybrid method improves the performance metrics when forecasting daily extreme values of PM2.5.