lunes, 30 de marzo de 2015

Doctors' awareness concerning primary immunodeficiencies in Brazil. - PubMed - NCBI

2015 Mar 18. pii: S0301-0546(15)00029-4. doi: 10.1016/j.aller.2014.09.002. [Epub ahead of print]

Doctors' awareness concerning primary immunodeficiencies in Brazil.

Dantas EO1, Aranda CS2, Rêgo Silva AM3, Tavares FS4, Severo Ferreira JF5, de Quadros Coelho MA6, de Siqueira Kovalhuk LC7, Roxo Júnior P8, Toledo EC9, Porto Neto AC10, de Sousa Vieira HM11, Takano OA12, Nobre FA2, Sano F13, Nudelman V14, de Farias Sales VS15, Silva Segundo GR16, Villar Guedes HT17, Félix E2, Marques SM17, Mazzucchelli JT2, Wandalsen NF18, Pinto JA19, Paes Barreto IC20, Silva MR21, Rullo VE21, Franco JM22, Damasceno E2, Fahl K14, de Moraes-Pinto MI2, Del Nero DL23, Moraes LS12, Condino-Neto A24, Vilela MM25, Góes H26, Schisler KL27, Miranda E28, Goudouris ES29, Costa Carvalho BT2.

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Abstract

BACKGROUND:

PIDs are a heterogeneous group of genetic illnesses, and delay in their diagnosis is thought to be caused by a lack of awareness among physicians concerning PIDs. The latter is what we aimed to evaluate in Brazil.

METHODS:

Physicians working at general hospitals all over the country were asked to complete a 14-item questionnaire. One of the questions described 25 clinical situations that could be associated with PIDs and a score was created based on percentages of appropriate answers.

RESULTS:

A total of 4026 physicians participated in the study: 1628 paediatricians (40.4%), 1436 clinicians (35.7%), and 962 surgeons (23.9%). About 67% of the physicians had learned about PIDs in medical school or residency training, 84.6% evaluated patients who frequently took antibiotics, but only 40.3% of them participated in the immunological evaluation of these patients. Seventy-seven percent of the participating physicians were not familiar with the warning signs for PIDs. The mean score of correct answers for the 25 clinical situations was 48.08% (±16.06). Only 18.3% of the paediatricians, 7.4% of the clinicians, and 5.8% of the surgeons answered at least 2/3 of these situations appropriately.

CONCLUSIONS:

There is a lack of medical awareness concerning PIDs, even among paediatricians, who have been targeted with PID educational programmes in recent years in Brazil. An increase in awareness with regard to these disorders within the medical community is an important step towards improving recognition and treatment of PIDs.