Biomedical subjects
Publications and source records attributed to A Bertolini.
The diagnostic iter of a case of Streptococcus mitis endocarditis is reported. Bacterial endocarditis was diagnosed in a 32-year-old patient following ultrasound cardiography and microbiological tests. The paper stresses the importance of ultrasound cardiography in the diagnosis of bacterial endocarditis.
An extremely severe hypovolemic shock was produced in urethane-anesthetized rats by massive bleeding. In such preterminal conditions (mean arterial pressure = 19-25 mmHg; pulse pressure = 10-18 mmHg; death of all saline-treated animals in 26.16 +/- 3.18 min) the i.v. injection of protirelin tartrate (TRH-T) within 5 min after shock induction promptly and dose-dependently improved arterial pressure, pulse pressure and respiration, the dose of 4 mg/kg ensuring survival for 402.01 +/- 39.45 min without the need for the restoration of blood volume. The injection of TRH-T 20 min after shock induction, on the other hand, was ineffective. The concurrent administration of morphine (2.5 mg/kg i.v.) partially antagonized the effect of TRH-T; however, if the dose of the peptide was increased, its effect was restored. The effect of TRH-T in haemorrhagic shock was associated with a significant increase in the volume of residual circulating blood. The present data (i) confirm that TRH-T improves cardiovascular function and greatly prolongs survival in an otherwise irreversible model of haemorrhagic shock; (ii) show that this effect is associated with mobilization of residual blood and that respiratory function is greatly improved as well; (iii) indicate that the anti-shock effect of TRH-T is partially antagonized by morphine in a surmountable way. Finally, on the basis of our results, it appears that TRH-T has to be given rapidly after shock induction to be effective.
Using the agar dilution technique, we examined the in vitro antibacterial activity of 5-fluorouracil and norfloxacin alone and in association against several bacterial strains. When administered in association, the two drugs did not antagonize each other in tests carried out on strains both sensitive and resistant to penicillins, cephalosporins, aminoglycosides, tetracyclines; furthermore their respective antibacterial properties remained largely unimpaired. The cytotoxic activity and the antitumoral effect of a combination of 5-fluorouracil and norfloxacin was determined in cultured tumor cells, and in mice bearing Ehrlich ascites carcinoma. No significant interference with the cytotoxic activity and antitumoral activity of 5-fluorouracil was observed.
Forty-nine infants with symptomatic vascular rings and slings, ranging in age from 20 days to 12 months, required surgical intervention between 1973 and 1984. The following anomalies were present in our patients: double aortic arch with left descending aorta (14), double aortic arch with right descending aorta (6), anomalous innominate artery (13), right aortic arch with aberrant left subclavian artery (4), left aortic arch with aberrant right subclavian artery (10), aberrant left pulmonary artery (pulmonary sling) (2). All the babies had symptoms related to compression of the trachea and/or esophagus. Four patients required temporary tracheostomy in the early postoperative period; 1 patient, affected by a pulmonary sling, required tracheal resection and anastomosis, for severe tracheomalacia. There was one hospital death in a patient with severe tracheal compression from an anomalous innominate artery and brain damage as a result of metabolic problems. Forty-eight patients survived and follow-up ranged from 3 months to 11 years. For each type of vascular anomaly encountered, and based on personal experience, we have outlined a diagnostic scheme allowing an accurate morphological definition and a subsequent surgical procedure.
In guinea-pigs and rats, ACTH-(1-24), i.m. injected in a dose-range of 10-150 micrograms/kg, dose-dependently antagonized the cholestatic effect of morphine (15 mg/kg i.m.). In guinea-pigs, however, the effect of morphine (66 +/- 7.7% bile flow) was only partially antagonized even by the highest dose of ACTH-(1-24) (89.21 +/- 3.4%), while in rats it was completely prevented by the dose of 75 micrograms/kg of ACTH. In morphine-dependent rats, ACTH-(1-24), injected i.p. at doses of 50, 100 and 150 micrograms/kg, dose-dependently increased the number of fecal pellets during the first 3 hr after treatment. These results show that ACTH antagonizes morphine in vivo at the biliary and intestinal level, and further support the idea that ACTH-MSH peptides are physiological antagonists of opioids.
The incidence of nosocomial infections (NI) and the related risk factors in a Department of Pediatric Cardiovascular Surgery were studied, during a 6 months period. 155 successive admissions were considered. Nosocomial infections were 17 (11%), nosocomial colonizations 18 (11.6%). The most important risk factors for nosocomial infections were: age, cyanosis, duration of hospitalization, hospitalization in Intensive Care Unit and central venous catheter only as a risk factor for sepsis. The most important risk factors for nosocomial colonizations were: tracheal intubation and central venous catheter. In 4 cases the NI was related to nosocomial colonization (2 sepsis, 1 pneumonia, 1 wound infection). The most frequently isolated microorganisms were Pseudomonas aeruginosa and Staphylococcus spp. The Authors found that a longer than 5 days period of antibiotic prophylaxis did not reduce the incidence of nosocomial infections.
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Rats were treated with alpha-difluoromethylornithine (DFMO), an irreversible inhibitor of ornithine decarboxylase (ODC), at a dose of 200 mg/kg/day SC, either prenatally (to the mothers, on days 16 to 20 of gestation) or neonatally (to the pups, on days 1 to 10 after birth). At this dose level neither maternal reproductive performance (prenatal treatment) nor gain in body weight on the part of offspring were affected. Earlier developmental alterations were rapidly overcome. Prenatally-treated rats proved less active than controls in the open field, performed better in passive avoidance retention (both preweaning and postweaning), and had a shorter post-ejaculatory interval in the male copulatory test. Postnatally-treated rats performed better than controls in two-way active avoidance conditioning, and in passive avoidance retention (as adults). Reproductive performance of the treated female offspring was similar to that of controls. ODC activity in brains of DFMO-exposed offspring was substantially inhibited throughout treatment (-72 to -41%, compared with respective controls), but showed a strong rebound after termination of treatment (up to +400%, compared with respective controls). These results show that partial inhibition of ODC activity during a limited period of the perinatal life has no adverse effect on the overall behavioral development of rats: indeed, some performances are actually improved. This being the most likely due to a rebound ODC hyperactivity after termination of treatment, when brain maturation is still in progress.
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Pregnant rats were exposed to cigarette smoke or injected with nicotine twice daily on days 1 to 20 of gestation. In the smoke-exposed rats, weight gain during pregnancy was significantly reduced. On the other hand no significant effect was observed on delivery rate, litter size, weight of offspring, percent weight of the brain, number of dead fetuses, offspring mortality during lactation and ratio of males to females. No gross malformation was detected. The offspring were trained for avoidance conditioning when 60 days old: the number of rats satisfying the criterion of learning at the end of conditioning was quite similar in the three groups, but the rate of avoidance acquisition was significantly greater in the offspring of the dams exposed to cigarette smoke.
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In a rat model of extremely severe hemorrhagic shock, invariably leading to death within 30 min, the i.v. bolus injection of ACTH-(1-24) at the dose of 160 micrograms/kg produced a dramatic and sustained reversal of the shock condition, with normalization of mean arterial pressure, pulse pressure and respiratory rate, and with survival of all rats at the end of the observation period (2 h). Such effect was neither prevented nor reduced by the bilateral anesthetization of carotid bodies, suggesting that chemoreceptors of these structures are of no relevance in the complex mechanism of the ACTH-induced reversal of hemorrhagic shock.