BACKGROUND Polypharmacy in psychiatry is becoming the rule rather than the exception. Using more drugs at same time usually occurs where single drugs are considered insufficiently effective. SUBJECTS AND METHODS The sample consisted of 216 patients: 85 from Sarajevo, and 44 and 87 respectively from Mostar and Tuzla. All schizophrenic patients who were hospitalised in three University Centers of F/BiH (Sarajevo, Tuzla, Mostar) on a particular day are included in the study. This included patients of both sexes (131 (60.65%) males and 85 females (39.35%)), 20-60 ages, who were on antipsychotic treatment with an established diagnosis of schizophrenia by the treating psychiatrist. The research was performed in the year 2004. The census of patients was conducted simultaneously in all three Centers, using a questionnaire in which all routine prescribed antipsychotics were registered, as the common method of the administration, and the doses as well saving as data for other medications that were simultaneously prescribed to the patients that day. RESULTS Within the total sample the most frequently applied classical antipsychotics were haloperidol, promazine and from the group of new antipsychotics clozapine. The most frequently used other medications were biperidine and diazepam. The administration of all medication was followed through recording of individual doses, daily doses and frequency of administration. There are statistically significant differences regarding the frequency of biperidine use between the centers (p=0.008). CONCLUSION In three University Clinical Centers of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina (Sarajevo, Tuzla and Mostar), the applied rule is that more drugs in the treatment of schizophrenic psychosis and doing polypharmacy is the inevitable approach to treatment. The concept behind the polypharmacy is based on the fact that antipsychotic drugs do not cover all the symptoms of schizophrenic psychosis, and that additional medications may correct iatrogenic side effects caused by antipsychotic drugs. It is expected that the new atypical antipsychotics will treat much broader symptoms of psychosis and will not cause extrapyramidal side effects, as do the typical antipsychotics.

Forage legumes besides contributing to increase the supply of high protein content forage are also good cover for the soil surface. Among the legumes with high potential forage, the genus Lotus has been outstanding. This research aimed to selectnative rhizobia efficient in fixing nitrogen with Lotus glaber, from soil samples of five localities of Rio Grande do Sul. A total of 259 rhizobia isolates were obtained, which were evaluated based on colony morphology and in vitro melanin production. Among them, 15 isolates were selected for the evaluation of the symbiotic nitrogen fixation efficiency in greenhouse experiments and genetically characterized by genomic DNA fingerprinting, PCR amplification with BOX and ERIC primers. Only five isolates produced melanin. Nine isolates were more efficient than strain SEMIA 830, which is authorized for the production of commercial inoculants of L. glaber in Brazil. In relation to the genetic characterization, the isolates have shown no similarity with the commercial strains, indicating that in the soils of Rio Grande do Sul there are autochthonous rhizobia capable of efficient symbiotic nitrogen fixation with L. glaber, which might be recommended for field evaluations, aiming a future production of inoculants for this legume in Brazil.

Neste estudo foram analisados os resultados obtidos do diagnóstico de cisticercose no Centro de Imunologia do Instituto Adolfo Lutz (IAL), no período de março/2007 a julho/2010. A detecção de anticorpos específicos em 522 amostras de soro e líquido cefalorraquidiano (LCR) foi realizada pelas técnicas de imunofluorescência indireta (IFI) e hemaglutinação indireta (HAI). A frequência de amostras reagentes foi de 11,0% no LCR e 8,2% no soro. Em 50% das amostras não houve informações sobre suspeita clínica de neurocisticercose dos pacientes, sendo disponíveis nos 18,3% e 16,4%, em amostras, respectivamente, de LCR e soro. Nas amostras de paciente com suspeita de neurocisticercose, a positividade foi de 22,6% (LCR) e de 18,4% (soro). Houve associação entre a suspeita clínica e a positividade dos testes (p>0.05). A maioria das amostras testadas foi proveniente do Estado de São Paulo, e 16,9% de amostras de LCR e 35,9% de amostras séricas foram enviados de outros Estados do país. Os ensaios de IFI e HAI apresentaram teste de concordância Kappa de 86%. Pela indisponibilidade de kits de reagentes diagnósticos de cisticercose em amostras de LCR no mercado, os testes in-house produzidos no IAL têm sido de grande relevância para os serviços de saúde pública.