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Degenerative spinal disease is the leading cause of low back pain and sciatica in the general population. It is an important cause of absenteeism and increased expenses. Its incidence increases in people subjected to tasks that overload the spine, such as construction workers. Instrumented arthrodesis is a frequent practice with satisfactory results for its resolution. To date, in our country, we haven't found statistical data on this group of work-related patients. Our objective was to evaluate laboral impact generated by instrumented lumbosacral arthrodesis in construction workers. We did a retrospective, descriptive, comparative and monocentric study. Construction workers' patients with degenerative low back pain and instrumented lumbar or lumbosacral arthrodesis who were operated between January 2005 to August 2018 were included. Clinical and imaging evaluation and follow-up for a period of 18 to 24 months. find more Assessed with the Oswestry Disability Index (IDO) and the Visual Analog Pain Scale (VAS). The sample was analyzed in groups according to the functions at the time of returning to work, retirement or dismissal. We evaluated 139 patients. Mean age 42 years, degenerative spinal disease of the lumbosacral segment, 66.9% of the sample without postoperative complications resumed the same pre-surgical activity. Post-surgical IDO and VAS scores were worse in patients discharged, retired, and/or requalified. Patients under 42 years of age, without postoperative complications who improved more than 1 Oswestry category, returned to their usual tasks with satisfactory results in the medium and long term.This study assessed the causes of visual impairment over a decade in Buenos Aires City. This is a retrospective case series where we reviewed the database of visual disability certificates issued by the Buenos Aires City Ministry of Health between 2009 and 2017. In Argentina, visual disability is defined as a visual acuity = 20/200 in the better eye, or a corresponding visual field of less than 20 degrees in the less impaired eye. The database included the following variables year of issue, age, gender, and cause of visual disability. Between 2009 and 2017 a total of 7656 subjects were certified as legally blind. The mean age of the sample was 57 ± 21 years and 52.1% were females. The emission was near 700 certificates per year. The age distribution showed that 62.8% of certificates were from patients older than 50 years and that only 6.6% were given to subjects under 20. The leading causes of visual disability in Buenos Aires City were age-related macular degeneration (ARMD) with a rate of 15.5%, degenerative myopia (14.4%), primary open-angle glaucoma (11.3%) and diabetic retinopathy (6.6%). In subjects younger than 50, degenerative myopia was the first cause of visual disability. Interestingly in Argentina, where the prevalence of myopia is low, degenerative myopia is found to be the major cause of visual disability in middle-aged adult subjects. Population and clinical methods to avoid this preventable disease should need to be implemented as a matter of urgency.The COVID-19 social isolation period entailed changes in daily habits and routines, testing the adjustment abilities of the population to address unusual situations. Given that the activities of daily living require a normally functioning cognitive system, the study of cognitive-functional interaction under social isolation is relevant. The object of this work was to obtain information on the cognitive-functional impact of social isolation, analyze the changes induced in daily routines and habits, and assess the cognitive adjustment of the adult population to the isolation requirements. We carried out an online adult population survey, that combined multiple choice or binary questions following a Likert ordinal scale, performing a percentage analysis as well as a principal component analysis of the results. We surveyed 1095 subjects, 68% of which were residents of the Buenos Aires Metropolitan Area (AMBA), of an average age of 52.7 ± 12.8 years, and 15.6 ± 2.2 years of education. All age groups reported attention and memory impairment, more significant in lower age groups and women. The principal component analysis showed an associated correlation of the functional challenge brought about by social isolation on the executive system, with the negative impact on cognitive functions such as attention and memory. Social isolation significantly impacted on the attentional, mnesic and executive cognitive systems, ratifying the role of cognitive abilities in the generation of means and strategies to overcome unusual situations, and highlighting the importance of cognitive-functional interaction.There are few data regarding the repercussion in the pulmonary function of patients who had severe or critical COVID-19 pneumonia. The objective was to describe these patients' pulmonary function and establish an association with the severity of the disease (patients with severe or critical pneumonia), the presence of comorbidities, the tomographic involvement and the persistence of dyspnoea. Fifty-five patients were included, 40 (73%) male, media of age 54.9 (11.6) years old and body mass index (BMI) 33.1 (6.09) kg/ m2. Fifty (90%) had 1 comorbidity, obesity 67%, arterial hypertension 36%, and diabetes mellitus 35%. Twentyfive (45%) had critical pneumonia. Fifteen (27%) had a spirometric alteration that suggested restriction and 32 (58%) had gas exchange defect. The latter had forced volume capacity (FVC), forced expiratory volume in the first second (FEV1) and carbon monoxide diffusion capacity (DLCO) values significantly lower. Ninety percent presented some degree of involvement in the chest CT scan, ground glass-opacities the most frequent finding. A moderate negative correlation was found between the severity of the tomographic involvement and the DLCO levels. Thirty patients (55%) referred some degree of dyspnoea. Patients with this symptom had DLCO and KCO values below those who did not have dyspnoea 70.5 vs. 85.1 p = 0.02 and 88 vs. 104 p = 0.02. The presence of abnormal gas exchange is the main characteristic of patients with pulmonary sequelae due to COVID-19. Our study does not show either predictor of evolution towards pulmonary sequelae or an association with the severity of the disease.A multicenter registry that included adults hospitalized for COVID-19 was carried out in various provinces of Argentina, from March to October 2020. The objectives were to describe the epidemiological characteristics, clinical manifestations, treatments, complications and risk factors, need for admission to critical care units and mortality. The registry included information on 4776 patients in 37 health centers in Argentina. Of them, 70.2% came from the city of Buenos Aires and from Buenos Aires Province; 52.3% were men. The mean age was 56 years (SD 20.3). Of them, 13.1% stated that they were health personnel. The median time of symptoms at the time of hospitalization was 3 days (CI 1-6). The most frequent comorbidities were hypertension in 32.4% and diabetes mellitus in 15.8%. The most frequent symptoms were cough 58%, odynophagia 23.3%, myalgia 20.5% and fever / low-grade fever 19.9%. The hospital stay had a median of 8 days (CI 4-15). A 14.8% of the patients required critical care, while 3.2% who also required it, were not transferred to a closed unit due to adequacy of the therapeutic effort. The most frequent complications in critical care were cardiovascular events (54.1%), septic shock (33.3%), renal failure (9.7%) and pneumonia associated with mechanical ventilation (12.5%). Overall mortality was 12.3%. Old age, dementia and COPD behaved as independent predictors of mortality (p less then 0.001, 0.007 and 0.002 respectively) in the multivariate analysis.Cancer patients are exposed to more complications from COVID-19 than non-cancer patients. We report a cohort of 74 cancer patients (87.8% with solid neoplasia and 12.2% with hematological diseases) with COVID-19 infection admitted to a tertiary medical cancer center in Argentina. Pulmonary infiltrates were diagnosed at admission in 78.3% (N = 58) of the cases. COVID-19 infection was hospital-acquired in 20 (27.0%) patients. Thirty-nine patients (52.7%) received anticancer therapy within the 30 days prior to COVID-19 diagnosis; one was on radiation therapy. Twenty-four (32.4%) patients were admitted in the intensive care unit (ICU) and 18 (75.0%) required mechanical ventilation. All cause in-hospital mortality was 32.4% (N = 24) and ICU mortality was 62.5% (N = 15). Mortality under mechanical ventilation was 72.2% (N = 13). In the univariate analysis age, neutrophil count, neutrophil/lymphocyte index, D-dimer, ferritin, smoking, and nosocomial acquired infection were associated with in-hospital mortality. There were no statistically significant differences in mortality related to disease stage for solid tumors, neither cancer treatment within 30 days of COVID-19 diagnosis. Age and smoking were associated with mortality in the multivariate analysis. The adjusted odds ratios (95 CI) for age = 65 years and smoking were 8.87 (1.35-58.02) and 8.64 (1.32 - 56.64), respectively. Our experience can be useful for other institutions that assist cancer patients during the pandemic.The objective of this study was to reveal how the COVID-19 pandemic process affected the number of visits to an emergency department of a highly complex hospital located in the Ciudad Autónoma de Buenos Aires, to explore the characteristics and reasons for consultation. The monthly number of visits between January 2019 and December 2020 was analyzed. The data showed a strong decrease in the number of visits (176 370 in 2019 and 95 421 in 2020), with an abrupt drop after the lockdown disposal (In aprilshowed the maximum reduction 77.1%), and the different stages are reflected in the evolution (a consequence of quarantine), yielding a global annual reduction of 45.9%. The number of patients admitted by ambulances increased (5.1% in 2019 to 10.4% in 2020; p less then 0.05), and consequently, the number of patients in the more complex sector (area B 2019 5.3%, 2020 11.5%; p less then 0.01), as well as unscheduled hospitalizations from 6.8% (95% CI 6.7-6.9) to 12.1% in 2020 (95%CI11.8-12.3), p less then 0.01. The five most frequent reasons for consultation in 2020 were fever (5.1%), odynophagia (4.7%), abdominal pain (2.6%), cough (1.8%) and headache (1.8%), probably all related to COVID-19. In conclusion, the number of emergency department visits decreased by half compared to the previous year.The rapid spread of the SARS-CoV-2, the causative agent of the emergent pandemic disease COVID-19, requires the urgent commitment of the immunology community to understand the adaptive immune response developed by COVID-19 convalescent patients and individuals vaccinated with different strategies and schemes, with the ultimate goal of implementing and optimizing health care and prevention policies. Currently, assessment of SARS-CoV-2-specific immunity is mainly focused on the measurement of the antibody titers and analysis of their neutralizing capacity. However, a considerable proportion of individuals lack humoral responses or show a progressive decline of SARS-CoV-2-specific neutralizing antibodies. In order to study the cellular response of convalescent patients and vaccinated individuals, we have developed the "COVID-T Platform", an optimized strategy to study SARS-CoV-2-specific T cell responses. This platform allows assessment of the nature, magnitude and persistence of antigen-specific T-cell immunity in COVID-19-convalescent patients and vaccinated individuals.