Editorial de la revista número 3 del año 2016

Abstract

Amalia Luna updates the biological therapies used in metastatic melanoma. These new therapeutic strategies have improved patient prognosis either by blocking the MAPK mitogenic pathway (BRAF and MEK inhibitors) or by unlocking antitumor lymphocyte activation (ipilimumab, nivolumab, and pembrolizumab).

Sudden death triggered by exercise or immediately after exercise affects 1 in 80,000 to 200,000 athletes per year. Diego Iglesias reviews its causes and preventive measures.

Álvaro Vallejos Narváez, from the Fundación Universitaria de Ciencias de la Salud (Bogotá, Colombia), evaluates the pharmacology learning experience through peer teaching as an additional strategy to lectures. More knowledgeable students act as tutors, reinforcing knowledge in a playful way under the guidance of the course instructors.

The pleomorphic adenoma is the most common benign tumor of the salivary glands; it is usually solitary, and its main location is the parotid gland. Agustín Martínez Font presents a case of a patient with pleomorphic adenoma in both lobes of the parotid gland.

The Hospital Italiano in Medline section includes commentary on two articles. Javier Benchimol presents the creation of the Institutional Registry of Elderly Patients with Hip Fractures (RIAFC). The aim is to prospectively record the risk factors for hip fracture in the elderly, as well as diagnosis, treatment, follow-up, and survival. Juan Ignacio Rojas reviews the importance of early detection of progressive brain atrophy in patients with multiple sclerosis. A reduction in brain size greater than 0.4% per year is associated with a more aggressive course and worse prognosis.

Older adults have an increased risk of postoperative cognitive dysfunction, which prolongs hospitalization, and loss of autonomy that may lead to institutionalization upon discharge. Maximiliano Smietniansky describes a comprehensive geriatric assessment tool for detecting risks for practices and procedures (DRIPP), considering organ-specific reserve (cognitive, respiratory, cardiac, and renal), functional performance, and frailty level.

In the Dermatological Iconography section, Aldana Soledad Vacas presents a case of Laugier-Hunziker syndrome, characterized by cutaneous and mucosal hyperpigmented lesions. It is essential to differentiate it from other pigmentary disorders such as Peutz-Jeghers syndrome, which is associated with gastrointestinal polyps and a risk of neoplasms.

In the Art and Human Nature section, Carlos Musso and Paula Enz address malevolence, understood as the voluntary harmful act, through the work Invisible Cities by Italo Calvino.

Carla Giménez introduces new synthetic biology techniques that are already being used at the Institute of Basic Sciences and Experimental Medicine of the University Institute for cell reprogramming and cell type purification. These techniques use synthetic RNA molecules capable of recognizing, by complementarity, the gene of interest to be activated (CRISPR-on system), or synthetic messenger RNAs with a complementary sequence to the characteristic target microRNA of the cell to be purified.