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Biomedical subjects

A Quattrini

Publications and source records attributed to A Quattrini.

118 records · Page 7Linked to original sources
PubMedDate not supplied

[The problem of private insurance for patients with epilepsy (author's transl)].

324 epileptics were questioned about their approach to private insurance. Only 9,26% of them were covered by a life or accident insurance policy: 3,70% had life insurance, 3,70% accident insurance and 1,86% both. None of the patients had declared his disability to the insurance company. In 6,17% of the 324 epileptic cases an insurance policy had been taken out by their parents. In comparison about 35% of the Italian population in general are insured. A questionnaire was sent to 20 insurance companies; only 5 of them replied, saying that as far as accidents were concerned, they considered epileptics uninsurable. As for life insurance, policies can be contracted at increased premiums, according to the individual case (including the severity of the illness). Physicians must give epileptics fuller information about their insurance plans because, if their illness is detected after an accident, they will find themselves not covered by insurance. Government intervention is called for with the setting-up of special funds for this purpose.

Cost Control↗
PubMedDate not supplied

[The driving license and epilepsy (author's transl)].

Italy is one of the few countries in Europe with no legislation specifically concerning driving licenses and epilepsy. We made a survey of 321 epileptics all over 18 years of age; 80,4% of them had epilepsy (temporal lobe). 47,7% of the 321 had a driving license, 2,8% had their license withdrawn because of epilepsy. The frequency of attacks among those with licenses was as follows: 52,9% rarely had attacks (1 every 2 years or even less often), 17,7% had attacks yearly and 29,4% had frequent attacks (1 a month, 1 a week or even daily). About 2% of the patients examined had had accidents because of attacks; none of the accidents were very serious. In spite of the lack of legislation, a high number of patients has driving license. However our investigations have shown that they were careful in their driving and scrupulous about treatment and medical check-ups. The main problem is that epileptics with a driving license may encounter serious difficulties with insurance companies if they have a car accident. It is to be hoped that in Italy appropriate measures are taken parallel to those of other European Countries.

Accidents, Traffic↗
PubMedDate not supplied

[Institutionalized epileptic patients in the "Marche" region (preliminary data) (author's transl)].

The purpose of this survey was to gather information about long stay epileptic patients in 16 institutions of the "Marche" region. The 203 institutionalized subjects were examined and the information fed into computer. All the patients, in addition to epilepsy, had psychiatric and or neurological handicaps, which were often more disabling than their epilepsy (with difficult social adjustment in most cases). The socio-economic level of the families was usually rather low. Ths survey showed satisfactory as well as unsatisfactory aspects of rehabilitation facilities, equipment, medical and para-medical staff, in these institutions. The deficiencies were mostly caused by the lack of coordination and programming at regional level. Each institution, in effect, acted independently.

Epilepsy↗
PubMedDate not supplied

[Genetic, polyphysiographic, CT and therapeutic aspects (author's transl)].

Genetic, clinical, polyphysiographic and therapeutical aspects were investigated in a 37 year old patient suffering from: sporadic and localized segmentary myoclonia (present during rest and increasing slightly during movement), cerebellar syndrome, marked hypoacusia, hyper-reflexia of the lower limbs, spike and polyspike EEG discharges and massive myoclonia during photostimulation. A dominant autosomic inheritance of this syndrome was suggested by the occurrence of a more serious and rapid, yet similar, illness in the mother and by EEG alterations in an 8 year old son. The Authors suggest that, from the clinical point of view, they are dealing with an atypical Ramsay-Hunt syndrome (MCD) with signs of Pierre-Marie Heredoataxia. This supports the possibility, however rare, of intermediate forms between MCD and Heredoataxia. The patient underwent polyphysiographic investigations under the following conditions: i) without therapy; ii) with diphenylhydantoin; iii) with phenobarbital; iv) with sodium dipropyl-acetate; v) with clonazepam. The above investigations confirmed the previously described alterations, during wakefulness or sleep, observed in cases of Unverricht-Lundborg syndrome (PME) and Ramsay-Hunt syndrome (MCD). Clonazepam was found to be the most effective drug in attenuating myoclonia, in reducing the EEG spike activity and in reorganizing the phases and cycles of sleep.

Adult↗
PubMedDate not supplied

[Bromocriptine in Parkinsonian syndromes. Results obtained in a group of patients treated for 8 months].

Antiparkinsonian treatment with L-Dopa gives rise to a number of problems: I) lack of initial response in a few cases; II) side-effects; III) becoming less effective after the first few years of treatment. Consequently, various drugs have been tried to replace, or combine with, L-Dopa. Among those drugs bromocriptine has been described the most effective. Twelve patients suffering from severe parkinsonism, all being intolerant to L-Dopa, have been treated with Bromocriptine. They fell into stage V of the Hoehn and Yahr's scale after 8 days of complete withdrawal of therapy with L-Dopa. Benefit and side-effects have been assessed as follows: a) L-Dopa alone; b) bromocriptine alone; c) combination of a and b. A daily dose of 30 mg of bromocriptine was given for 4 months. This was then reduced to 15 mg with the addition of L-Dopa for another 4 months. The results were: I) bromocriptine scored higher in all patients except one; II) bromocriptine has been consistently less effective than L-Dopa; III) side-effects were similar to those of L-Dopa but less frequent; IV) the combined effect of the two drugs was superior to each drug given alone.

Aged↗
PubMedDate not supplied

[Therapeutic effects of taurine in epilepsy: a clinical and polyphysiographic study (author's transl)].

A study was carried out after i.v. administration of 200 mg/Kg of taurine on 37 epileptic patients in whom frequency and duration of seizures was considerable. Twenty-two subjects were given taurine for 15 consecutive days and then, once a week for a period of 6 weeks. In 5 control cases, the daily dosage wascontinued up to the 30th day; in 5 more, up to the 45th day and finally, in 5 up to the 60th day. Out of 37 patients 15 had temporal lobe epilepsy, 10 were cases of Lennox-Gastaut syndrome, 5 had generalised epilepsy, either convulsive or non-convulsive, 4 had H.H.E. syndrome and three brothers had myoclonic familial progressive epilepsy. In each group the results were similar and may be summarised as follows: I) both interictal activity and electroclinical seizures were reduced by about 30% within the first 10 days of administration; II) between the 30th and 45th day the ictal and interictal activity returned to its initial values; III) after this period, on the 60th day, values were similar to the initial ones; IV) as far as interictal activity is concerned, the same effect was found during nocturnal sleep; V) no significant changes were noticed in nocturnal sleep cycles and stages; VI) there was no apparent evidence that any phase of sleep might facilitate any improvement. Improvement was observed in about 50% of the cases (21) both physically and psychologically. The physical improvement was noticed above all in the appearence of the skin while the psychological improvement was mostly related to both attention and memory. Any pathological aspect of personality did not appear to be modified.

Adolescent↗
PubMedDate not supplied

Peripheral neuropathy in scleroderma.

Nervous system involvement is rare in progressive systemic sclerosis (PSS). We present a clinical pathological and immunological study of two patients with peripheral sensory motor neuropathy and PSS. In both, the sural nerve biopsies showed axonal degeneration with increased endoneurial connective tissue. There were also clusters of myelinated fibres indicating axonal regeneration. Only mild microangiopathic changes were evident in the endo, peri and epineurial vessels. By Western immunoblots, patients' sera contained a band of reactivity to a protein from peripheral nerve identified as collagen type I. Primary involvement of the peripheral nerves during PSS is very unusual. Abnormal production of collagen tissue and presence of microvascular disease are considered to be two possible causes of neuropathy. We think that our results suggest the important role of the connective tissue proliferation in the pathogenesis of PSS neuropathy.

Adult↗