Sterling, R., Checkley, W., Gilman, R., Cabrera, L., Sterling, C., Bern, C., Miranda, J.,

PeerJ. 2014; 2: e381.

Abstract

Background. Longitudinal investigations into the origins of adult essential hypertension have found elevated blood pressure in children to accurately track into adulthood, however the direct causes of essential hypertension in adolescence and adulthood remains unclear.

Methods. We revisited 152 Peruvian adolescents from a birth cohort tracked from 0 to 30 months of age, and evaluated growth via monthly anthropometric measurements between 1995 and 1998, and obtained anthropometric and blood pressure measurements 11–14 years later. We used multivariable regression models to study the effects of infantile and childhood growth trends on blood pressure and central obesity in early adolescence.

Results. In regression models adjusted for interim changes in weight and height, each 0.1 SD increase in weight for length from 0 to 5 months of age, and 1 SD increase from 6 to 30 months of age, was associated with decreased adolescent systolic blood pressure by 1.3 mm Hg (95% CI −2.4 to −0.1) and 2.5 mm Hg (95% CI −4.9 to 0.0), and decreased waist circumference by 0.6 (95% CI −1.1 to 0.0) and 1.2 cm (95% CI −2.3 to −0.1), respectively. Growth in infancy and early childhood was not significantly associated with adolescent waist-to-hip ratio.

Conclusions. Rapid compensatory growth in early life has been posited to increase the risk of long-term cardiovascular morbidities such that nutritional interventions may do more harm than good. However, we found increased weight growth during infancy and early childhood to be associated with decreased systolic blood pressure and central adiposity in adolescence.

Keywords: Developmental origins, Lifecourse, Hypertension, Blood pressure, Obesity, Growth and development, Child development, Cohort studies, Peru

Scliar, MO., Gouveia, MH., Benazzo, A., Ghirotto, S., Fagundes, NJ., Leal, TP., Magalhães, WC., Pereira, L., Rodrigues, MR., Soares-Souza, GB., Cabrera, L., Berg, DE., Gilman, RH., Bertorelle, G., Tarazona-Santos, E.

BMC Evol Biol. 2014 Sep 30;14:174

Abstract

BACKGROUND:

Archaeology reports millenary cultural contacts between Peruvian Coast-Andes and the Amazon Yunga, a rainforest transitional region between Andes and Lower Amazonia. To clarify the relationships between cultural and biological evolution of these populations, in particular between Amazon Yungas and Andeans, we used DNA-sequence data, a model-based Bayesian approach and several statistical validations to infer a set of demographic parameters.

RESULTS:

We found that the genetic diversity of the Shimaa (an Amazon Yunga population) is a subset of that of Quechuas from Central-Andes. Using the Isolation-with-Migration population genetics model, we inferred that the Shimaa ancestors were a small subgroup that split less than 5300 years ago (after the development of complex societies) from an ancestral Andean population. After the split, the most plausible scenario compatible with our results is that the ancestors of Shimaas moved toward the Peruvian Amazon Yunga and incorporated the culture and language of some of their neighbors, but not a substantial amount of their genes. We validated our results using Approximate Bayesian Computations, posterior predictive tests and the analysis of pseudo-observed datasets.

CONCLUSIONS:

We presented a case study in which model-based Bayesian approaches, combined with necessary statistical validations, shed light into the prehistoric demographic relationship between Andeans and a population from the Amazon Yunga. Our results offer a testable model for the peopling of this large transitional environmental region between the Andes and the Lower Amazonia. However, studies on larger samples and involving more populations of these regions are necessary to confirm if the predominant Andean biological origin of the Shimaas is the rule, and not the exception.

Bayer, A., Danysh, H., Garvich, M., Gonzálvez, G., Checkley, W., Alvarez, M., Gilman, R.

Disasters. 2014 Apr; 38(2)

During the 1997–98 El Niño Southern Oscillation (ENSO), Tumbes, Peru received 16 times the annual average rainfall. We explored how Tumbes residents perceived the ENSO’s impact on basic necessities, transport, healthcare, jobs and migration. Residents needed more time to rebuild housing, recover agriculture, livestock and income stability, and return to eating sufficient animal protein. Although large-scale assistance minimized the ENSO’s effects, residents needed more timely support. Residents’ perspectives on their risks to flooding should be considered to generate effective assistance.

Matson R, Rios CT, Chavez CB, Gilman RH, Florin D, Sifuentes VL, Greffa RC, Yori PP, Fernandez R, Portocarrero DV, Vinetz JM, Kosek M.

Am J Trop Med Hyg. 2008 Mar;78(3):492-8.

We evaluated a PCR-RFLP of the ribosomal internal transcribed spacer 2 region (ITS2) to distinguish species of Anopheles commonly reported in the Amazon and validated this method using reared F1 offspring. The following species of Anopheles were used for molecular analysis: An. (Nys.) benarrochi, An. (Nys.) darlingi, An. (Nys.) nuneztovari, An. (Nys.) konderi, An. (Nys.) rangeli, and An. (Nys.) triannulatus sensu lato (s.l.). In addition, three species of the subgenus Anopheles, An. (Ano.) forattini, An. (Ano.) mattogrossensis, and An. (Ano.) peryassui were included for testing. Each of the nine species tested yielded diagnostic banding patterns. The PCR-RFLP method was successful in identifying all life stages including exuviae with small fractions of the sample. The assay is rapid and can be applied as an unbiased confirmatory method for identification of morphologic variants, disputed samples, imperfectly preserved specimens, and life stages from which taxonomic keys do not allow for definitive species determination.

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Santivañez SJ, Gutierrez AM, Rosenzvit MC, Muzulin PM, Rodriguez ML, Vasquez JC, Rodriguez S, Gonzalez AE, Gilman RH, Garcia HH; Cysticercosis Working Group in Peru.

Am J Trop Med Hyg. 2008 Jul;79(1):89-92.

A molecular PCR study using DNA from 21 hydatid cysts was performed to determine which strain type is responsible for human infection in Peru. The mitochondrial cytochrome c oxidase subunit 1 (CO1) gene was amplified in 20 out of 21 samples, revealing that all but 1 sample (19/20, 95%) belonged to the common sheep strain (G1). The remaining samples belonged to the camel strain (G6). The G1 genotype was most frequently found in human cases of cystic hydatid disease (CHD) in Peru. Local control measures should focus primarily on decreasing dog and sheep infection rather than intermediate reservoirs.

Asayag CR, Garay CR, Sanchez GM, Angeles CC, Baca CJ, Evans C, Yori PP, Kosek M.

Am J Trop Med Hyg. 2008 Oct;79(4):473.

 

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