Sistema Regional de Información
en línea para Revistas Científicas de América Latina,
el Caribe, España y Portugal

Objective: Determine the evaluation of Benign Paroxysmal Positional Vertigo (BPPV) in adults within the physiotherapeutic field. Material and methods. A descriptive investigation, of positivist paradigm with quantitative approach with a bibliographic review based on databases such as PubMed, MeHS, EBSCO, and Medline, published in English and Spanish during the period 2008-2018, was carried out, using as strategy the combination in the following descriptors: Adult AND BPPV OR “Vertigo, Benign Paroxysmal Positional” OR “Benign Recurrent Vertigo” OR “Benign paroxysmal Positional Vertigo” OR “Familial Vestibulopathy” OR “Recurrent Vertigo, Benign”. In total, 17 of the 66 scientific articles investigated, related to the objectives of the search classified according to the levels of evidence of Sackett, were included, as follows: 7 level I articles (41%), 3 level II articles (18%), 2 level III articles (12%), and 5 level V articles (29%). Results: It is of utmost importance to state the steps to follow when it is presumed of BPPV to obtain an accurate diagnosis. The BPPV is diagnosed by means of specific maneuvers to determine which semicircular channel is affected. Also, there are tests that the physical therapists may carry out to evidence its presence, but also, to determine the postural and functional implications this carries. Conclusion: Execute an initial evaluation sequence in a patient with symptoms that suggest BPPV means a difference and the keystone for a successful treatment improving both the neurophysiological aspect, as well as its daily functional performance.

This article presents the case of an 11-year-old female patient with an interatrialcommunication type ositum secundum who, during the percutaneous closurewith occlusive device type Amplatzer ®, suffers a serious complication dueto its migration to the pulmonary artery. She was taken to the emergencyoperations room, where an extraction of the device and repair of the interatrialcommunication without complications was performed, with excellent clinicalevolution

Occupational Therapy (OT) as a person-centered socio-health career is concerned with promoting health and well-being through occupation, whose main objective is to allow people to participate in activities of daily life (occupations) as throughout the life cycle. The OT has acquired over time a preponderant role in the concept of promotion, prevention, rehabilitation, inclusion and public health in general. This discipline has expanded to various areas of attention to people and has shown a positive impact on the health systems of various nations. This article aims to describe the history and evolution of OT in Costa Rica, its impact on public health, as well as the main challenges for vocational training that respond to the current and emerging social and health needs of the country's population.

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A field expedition in 1995 around the community of Bethel, in the shore of the Usumacinta River, Guatemala, produced the collecting of one fluid specimen of shrew that remained unidentified as a voucher at the mammal collection at San Carlos University in Guatemala City. Our target was to identify this specimen and make the morphological comparison with a series of species of shrews of northern Central America. We extracted, cleaned the skull, and conducted a morphological comparison of the Bethel specimen with five species (20 specimens) of shrews from Guatemala and Honduras, besides the comparison with the description of C. lacandonensis Guevara, León and Woodman 2014, from Chiapas, México. We also took 13 skull measurements and conducted a morphometric analysis. Morphology of the Bethel specimen fit well with the description of C. lacandonensis, especially U4 upper teeth aligned with unicuspid toothrow, with a presence of a medium gap between U3-P4 that makes U4 visible in labial and lateral view. Principal component and linear discriminant analysis also showed that Bethel specimen grouped well with C. lacandonensis. Bethel shrew specimen can be identified as C. lacandonensis, the second known locality for the species and the first record for Guatemala. The community of Bethel, in Guatemala, is located only 18 km south of the type locality at Yaxchilán archeological site, Chiapas, México. This is a poorly known species, which merits more research.

Oil palm plantations have become a major agricultural landscape in the Neotropics, especially in Colombia, the largest oil palm producer in the region. The Orinoco, or Llanos, region of eastern Colombia is predicted to increase expansion for palm oil acreage over the coming decades, with implications for biodiversity loss. Describing dietary diversity of frugivorous bats is a functional approach to understanding the effect of oil palm dominated landscapes on bat-fruit interactions. Our objective was to characterize the diet of the dominant (most abundant) bat species present in an oil palm landscape from the Colombian Llanos. We compared diet breadth of bat species on the basis of Levin’s index and we assessed differences in the frequency of seed consumption through Chi-square tests (χ2). We calculated diet overlap with a Morisita-Horn index. We characterized diet breadth and overlap for four taxa (three species and one species complex) of bats from 149 fecal samples and 344 individual bats, from which we identified 13 seed species. Dietary composition differed significantly among bat species, as did diet breadth. Diet breadth was highest in Carollia spp. and lowest in Sturnira lilium. The greatest degree of diet overlap ocurred between Artibeus lituratus and A. planirostris and the lowest overlap between S. lilium and all the other species. Considering the functional identity of the plants dispersed by bats in our sample, where most of them are pioneer species that colonize disturbed areas, it is fundamental to preserve habitats such as forest fragments that maintain bat assemblages with diverse diets in agriculturally disturbed landscapes. This may have important implications in future restoration process at these sites.

This work describes the echolocation pulses produced by Myotis velifer during postnatal development. The aim was to record the changes of these calls during the development of this bat species and investigate the underlying causes. Bat specimens were sampled in El Salitre cave, Morelos, Mexico, during May and June 2016, where juvenile bats were captured and sorted into five age classes. Forearm length was used as reference for offspring growth. Each juvenile bat was induced to fly and the echolocation calls produced were recorded using an ultrasound detector. Six quantitative characteristics of the echolocation pulses of each call were measured, which served as reference to explore the development of this system during growth through a linear regression. A steady increase in the frequency parameters associated with bat growth was observed, coupled with a decrease in the temporal parameters. The final pulse frequency was the only parameter that remained unchanged during postnatal growth. The major changes in the characteristics of echolocation pulses during postnatal growth in M. velifer follow the pattern observed in other species previously studied. These changes are likely related to the development of organs and muscles involved in the emission and reception of sound, and to the learning process involved in the use of this adaptation.

In the 1970’s, Oswald Mooser delivered to the Instituto de Geología, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, a fossil jaw recovered from the Chapala region, Jalisco, that he identified as Panthera onca. The collection label indicates doubts about this taxonomic assignment; an issue that remains unsolved. The aim of this work is to study the taxonomy and biogeographic implications of this material. With this aim, morphological and morphometric comparisons were made using fossil and current feline specimens. Additionally, a review of the fossil record of Pa. onca in Mexico was carried out using the material deposited in collections and reported in the literature. Our results indicate that the jaw from Jalisco belongs to a large Pleistocene form of jaguar historically called Pa. onca augusta. With the present record, there is a total of 10 paleontological localities in México where fossil jaguar records have been reported. Curiously, only one of these locations matches with the current distribution of this feline in North America, the San Josecito Cave in Nuevo León. With this information, there is evidence to confirm that the range distribution of the jaguar has been reduced significantly since the Pleistocene to the present.