ABSTRACT Objective: Hypoparathyroidism is characterized by parathyroid hormone deficiency and hypocalcemia. It has been demonstrated that these patients may also present psychiatric symptoms and decrease of quality of life. The aims of this study were to evaluate the presence of psychopathological symptoms in a cohort of patients with hypoparathyroidism and compare to a control group. Subjects and methods: Patients were submitted to a cross-sectional Symptom Checklist-90-R (SCL-90-R) questionnaire that evaluates psychopathological symptoms by means of the Global Severity Index (GSI), Positive Symptoms Total (PST) and Positive Symptom Distress Index (PSDI). A score based in the positive symptoms was calculated (T-score). The test group was composed of patients with hypoparathyroidism, and control by thyroidectomized patients without hypoparathyroidism. A correlation between the presence of psychological symptoms and clinical features was analyzed. Results: The study included 57 patients with a mean age of 51.1 ± 16.4 years; 20 as a control and 37, test group. There were no differences between groups regarding gender, mean age and age at diagnose. Hypoparathyroidism patients presented higher GSI index than the control group (p = 0.038). Mean T-score of the test group was as elevated as 58.2 ± 5.3 (reference range < 55). No correlation of the number of psychological symptoms to clinical and laboratorial parameters was observed. Conclusion: Patients with hypoparathyroidism attending our outpatient clinics presented an increase in the number of self-report of psychological symptoms when compared with a control group. However, no correlation with hypocalcemia and clinical parameters was observed. Future studies are necessary to evaluated if the absence of PTH play a role on it.

The aim of this work is to obtain polymer precursors based on styrene copolymers with distinct degrees of sulfonation, as an alternative material for fuel cell membranes. Acetyl sulfate was used to carry out the sulfonation and the performance of the polyelectrolyte was evaluated based on the content of acid polar groups incorporated into the macromolecular chain. Polymeric films were produced by blending the sulfonated styrene-indene copolymer with poly(vinylidene fluoride). The degree of sulfonation of the polymer was strongly affected by the sulfonation reaction parameters, with a direct impact on the ionic exchange capacity and the ionic conductivity of the sulfonated polymers and the membranes obtained from them. The films produced with the blends showed more suitable mechanical properties, although the conductivity of the membranes was still lower than that of commercially available membranes used in fuel cells.