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Prevalence and diagnostic comparison of helicobacter pylori and non-helicobacter pylori helicobacter infections in patients undergoing upper gastrointestinal endoscopy with gastric biopsy in Algarve, Portugal
Publication . Mateus, Teresa Letra; Aguieiras, Catarina; Louro, Ricardo; Peixe, Bruno; Calhindro, Mauro; Nunes, Francisco José Viegas Cortez; Queirós, Patrícia; Castelo-Branco, Pedro
H. pylori infects over half of the global population and is associated with various gastric and extra-gastric diseases. Other species, such as zoonotic non-Helicobacter pylori Helicobacters (NHPHs), have shown similar associations with gastritis and MALT lymphoma and H. pylori-negative cases with gastric disease have been identified, including gastric MALT lymphoma, chronic gastritis, and gastroduodenal ulcers. Accurate identification of these species is of great relevance but remains challenging using conventional diagnostic methods. This cross-sectional study aimed to determine the prevalence of H. pylori and NHPH infections, comparing standard histological protocols with molecular techniques. Between December 2024 and February 2025, 54 adult patients undergoing upper gastrointestinal endoscopy (UGE) with gastric biopsy in three hospitals in Algarve, Portugal were recruited. Endoscopic assessment was performed, and gastric biopsies were collected for histological and molecular analysis. DNA was extracted from antral biopsies and analyzed by conventional PCR to detect H. pylori and NHPH. H. pylori diagnostic techniques were compared, descriptive plus statistical analysis was performed, and p-values < 0.05 were considered to be statistically significant. Fifty-four patients were included in the study, with 51.9% of them presenting symptoms. Endoscopic gastritis was observed in 66.7% of patients, while histological gastritis was present in 88.9%, with statistically significant differences between the two diagnostic techniques (p = 0.004). Helicobacter spp. were identified in 44.4% (24/54) of the patients. H. pylori was detected in 42.6% of the patients by Modified Giemsa stain and in 33.3% by PCR. H. bizzozeronii was found in 35.9% of the patients, with 22.2% showing mixed infections. This study reveals a significant prevalence of Helicobacter spp. in patients from the Algarve region, with both H. pylori and zoonotic H. bizzozeronii detected. This is the first report of H. bizzozeronii DNA detection in gastric biopsies via PCR from patients undergoing UGE in Portugal, highlighting the need to consider NHPH in clinical diagnosis. It is important to include molecular methods in routine diagnostics and the need for broader studies to assess regional and national trends in Helicobacter infections besides H. pylori.
Editorial 49
Publication . Baião Gato, Maria Assunção; Cruz, Ana Rita
Issue 49 of CIDADES, Comunidades e Territórios (CITIES, Communities and Territories) features a thematic dossier titled “Between the digital and the urban: readings of the changing space” coordinated by Isabel Carvalho, Sílvia Leiria Viegas, Adriana Nascimento, and Tamara Egler. Digital media are increasingly reshaping how urban life is experienced, represented, and studied. This dossier offers a glimpse into these transformations through 6 articles, 2 essays, and 3 additional contributions exploring the relationship between technology, art and politics. Overall, the authors reflect on how technopower and polarization dynamics take place, namely with reference to a few case studies, while discussing how urban resistance and reconfiguration can be organized around collective initiatives and social movements. These contributions underscore how digital media can enable new forms of knowledge production and civic engagement, inviting researchers to reconsider the boundaries between analysis, intervention, and collaboration in contemporary urban studies.
Diversity, interculturalism & community building in the Algarve: preliminary findings for imagining a digital road map of hope
Publication . Viegas, Sílvia Leiria
The Algarve is the first Portuguese region with more immigrants per inhabitant, and the second with the highest rate of immigration, after Greater Lisbon. These immigrants bring with them different cultures, traditions, religious beliefs and customs, and face many barriers to local integration. Indeed the Algarve is a diverse reality with various forms of social discrimination and spatial segregation affecting many, including economic and forced migrants. The aim of the article is to identify the urban specificities of the region; the accounts of these immigrants about their living conditions, especially in terms of housing and employment, their support activities and cultural interactions; and the digital media that transmit and amplify perceptions of threat, but also make visible (self-)representations and opportunities. Another aim is to provide a political-philosophical lens for the production of a digital road map. Following Freire’s and Harvey’s ideas of hope, the reflections intersect with an exploratory empirical socio-spatial and digital recognition of Faro (and Estoi) and Loulé (and Quarteira). The article argues that intercultural dialogues, interactions and relationships based on local experiences and situated knowledge can help us imagine alternatives and more just worlds. Conclusions discuss the analytical guidelines of this digital road map (in terms of urban layers, migrant dots, digital fluxes) and the guidance it provides to support diversity, interculturalism and community building.
A interseccionalidade como lente para o diálogo com o espaço urbano e o digital: Leituras sobre gênero, raça e classe no eixo Sul-Sudeste brasileiro
Publication . Fontes Leite, Gabriella; Viegas, Sílvia Leiria
O artigo aborda a ideia norteadora de interseccionalidade, com ênfase em três marcadores intercruzados — gênero, classe, raça —, em diálogo com o espaço urbano e o digital. Começa com uma apresentação da região selecionada para a leitura do tema, o eixo Sul-Sudeste brasileiro, para explicar, sob perspetiva histórica, lógicas de opressão e privilégio contemporâneas e sua relação com a materialidade; e as tecnologias digitais como lugar de mediação e reprodução destes processos. O objetivo é usar esta lente interseccional para perceber práticas urbanas relacionadas com mulheres pobres e racializadas, e como esta realidade se relaciona com as suas representações midiáticas. Para tal, recorre-se à construção de um quadro teórico-conceitual estruturante, assente numa revisão bibliográfica crítica sobre essa ideia de interseccionalidade e sua relação com a discriminação e o privilégio; à construção de um quadro empírico sobre desigualdades no acesso digital e seu impacto em termos de acesso aos benefícios das tecnologias; à seleção de plataformas digitais, concretamente de redes sociais que informem sobre performances identitárias para a escolha de casos de estudo ilustrativos; e à análise de casos concretos para aprender, por um lado, com paradigmas de exclusão, opressão e invisibilidade e, por outro lado, com casos de resistência inspiradora conducentes a um feminismo digital apontado para inclusão (social, espacial, urbana) e transformação social.
The importance of a definite diagnosis for rational treatment and prognosis of head and neck tumors
Publication . Ferlito, Alfio; Nadal, Alfons; Stenman, Göran; Zidar, Nina; Hellquist, Henrik; Slootweg, Piet J.; Simpson, Roderick H. W.; Cardesa, Antonio
Benign and malignant head and neck tumors are common worldwide and cause mortality and morbidity with variations in population prevalence. Obviously, a correct diagnosis is of paramount importance for choosing the appropriate treatment and offering a correct prognosis.
There are many types of diagnoses, such as provisional or working diagnosis, diagnosis by exclusion, diagnosis ex juvantibus, provocative diagnosis, direct diagnosis, deductive diagnosis, physical diagnosis, laboratory diagnosis, differential diagnosis, clinical diagnosis, cytologic diagnosis, frozen-section diagnosis, molecular diagnosis, pathologic diagnosis, and final or permanent section diagnosis [1]. In particular, a qualitative diagnosis is made by a pathologist, whereas a quantitative diagnosis, such as the identification of a mass lesion and the estimation of tumor volume using 3D imaging, is provided by a radiologist using modern imaging techniques, including CT or MRI.