In the May 2010 issue of Clinics

In this issue of CLINICS, we open a new section entitled " Bringing Ideas Together " in which experienced authors will contribute a measure of speculative thought on apparently unrelated themes in medical practice. This section will only occur when a sufficiently interesting article is offered to us. In this issue, a paper by Pereira et al. on the imbalance between thyroid hormones and the dopaminergic system as possible central central factors in the pathophysiology of restless legs syndrome is offered for discussion. Comments, letters and editorials are welcome, subject of course to peer evaluation. In this issue we publish ten original clinical science papers, one review and three case reports. Otsuki et al. note that proprietary sevoflurane is diluted in water, whereas a generic sevoflurane (Sevocris) is produced with propylene glycol as a stabilizing additive. They investigated whether the original and generic sevoflurane preparations differed in terms of their minimum alveolar concentration values and hemodynamic effects in aporcine experimental model: their results indicate that the propylene glycol added sevoflurane can be used as safely as the water diluted sevoflurane, regarding hemodynamic and pulmonary effects. Senne et al. assessed the influence of Nd: YAG laser unilateral posterior capsulotomy on visual acuity and perception of difficulties with vision-related daily life activities through an interventional survey with 48 patients aged between 40 and 80 years, with uni-or bilateral pseudophakia, posterior capsule opacification and visual acuity equal to or less than 0.30 (logMAR) in one eye. All the patients were submitted to posterior capsulotomy by Neodymium: Yttrium-Aluminium-Garnet (Nd: YAG) laser, resulting in a significant improvement of visual acuity in the capsulotomized eye and, according to the subjects' perception, a reduction of difficulty in most vision-dependent daily activities. Heldwein et al. endeavored to identify the most cited articles in general surgery published by Brazilian authors between 1970 and 2010, over which the Brazilian output of surgical research increased 21-fold. Out of 1,713 articles, they identified 9 classics (more than 100 citations received), the majority of which were the result of international cooperation. Takara et al. compared the measurements of spirometric peak expiratory flow (PEF) from five different PEF meters and to determine whether their values are in agreement. Comparisons were performed in 68 healthy, sedentary and insufficiently active subjects, aged from 19 to 40 years old, using Air Zone®, Assess®, Galemed®, Personal Best® and Vitalograph® peak flow meters. No agreement was found between the …