Subcoracoid impingement after ossification of the subscapularis tendon.
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Calcinosis↗
Biomedical subjects
A Serra
Publications and source records attributed to A Serra.
Auditory brainstem response in postmenopausal women treated with hormone replacement therapy: a pilot study.
OBJECTIVE: To research the nongenital audiological target for gonadal steroids in postmenopausal women who are treated with hormone replacement therapy. DESIGN: Fifty postmenopausal volunteers were treated with hormone replacement therapy. Women with an intact uterus had sequential weekly transdermal estradiol plus nomegestrole acetate 5 mg orally for 12 days per month or a continuous daily oral dose of conjugated estrogen 0.625 mg and medroxyprogesterone acetate 5 mg tablet. Eighteen surgically postmenopausal women received a weekly transdermal estradiol system. Twenty-five postmenopausal volunteers-5 with a natural menopause and 10 with a surgical menopause-and 20 premenopausal normally cycling women were used as a control group. Each woman performed auditory brainstem response by auditory-evoked potentials for waves I, III, and V and for interpeak I-III, I-V, and III-V intervals. RESULTS: Women who were treated with hormone replacement therapy showed wave latencies and interpeak latencies shorter than those for postmenopausal women in the control group (p < or = 0.05), overlapping those of the premenopausal women (p > 0.05). Women who were treated with estrogen replacement therapy showed shorter time latencies than those treated with combined hormone replacement therapy (p < or = 0.05). CONCLUSIONS: Our data suggest that fluctuating hormone levels cause changes in auditory brain-stem response waves, even if the exact mechanism of activity of the gonadal steroids is not clear. However, we believe that estrogen may influence the neuronal plasticity, the metabolic levels of neurotransmitters, and thus the neuronal conduction time into the audiological system.
Administration, Cutaneous↗
Red cell filterability and erythrocyte membrane microviscosity during ticlopidine treatment.
The effects of 10 days' treatment with 500 mg/day ticlopidine on the filterability of red blood cells in suspension and on the microviscosity of the red blood cell membrane was evaluated in 11 patients with vascular atherosclerosis. The results show ticlopidine to be effective in influencing the rheological measures of red cell filterability and membrane microviscosity: filterability was increased and microviscosity was decreased. Ticlopidine also decreased the extent of fluorescence polarization. These results are discussed regarding possible mechanisms of action of ticlopidine.
Arteriosclerosis↗
A specific spontaneous leucocyte cycle in chronic myelogenous leukemia.
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Bone Marrow Cells↗
[The importance of chest radiograph in the diagnosis of Scimitar syndrome]
OBJECTIVE: To emphasize the importance of chest X-Rays in the diagnosis of Scimitar Syndrome. This anomaly is usually characterized by the presence of anomalous venous drainage of the right lung to the inferior vena cava, abnormal bronchial segmentation, and alterations of pulmonary artery and right lung vascularization.METHODS: The authors report a case of Scimitar Syndrome in an 8 year-old-child, discussing its diagnostic methods and surgical treatment.RESULTS: The child presented good outcome after surgical therapy, with an uneventful follow-up.CONCLUSION: The Scimitar Syndrome is a rare anomaly, which may present few clinical manifestations. The chest X-Ray is a very relevant tool in the screening of this disease, since it discloses a persisting right paracardiac image, as a result of abnormal right pulmonary venous drainage to inferior vena cava ("Scimitar sign").
Journal Article↗
[Calcifications from cardiac etiology in chest radiography]
OBJECTIVE: Children s chest X-ray calcification images can be related to pulmonary, mediastinal and rarely cardiac parenchymatous pathology. This report describes cases of cardio thoracic calcifications. We emphasize the importance of chest X-ray to track thoracic calcifications. In spite of the fact that it is rare, the cardiac etiology must be considered due to the possibility of surgical treatment.METHODS: Regarding the period from 1988 to 1997 the authors reviewed the chest X-rays of 2108 patients. In 3 of them thoracic calcifications of cardiac etiology were observed.RESULTS: Of these three patients, two were 7 years old and the third was 3 years old. Case 1 presented a calcification in the right atrium topography caused by a heart tumor of Fibroma type. In case 2 the calcification was in the pulmonary trunk, presenting as a calcified aneurysm of the ductus arteriosus. In case 3 the child had pulmonary stenosis and the chest X-ray showed a calcified image on the left cardiac boards caused by a thrombo in the right ventricle wall.CONCLUSION: The authors emphasize the importance of chest X-ray in the diagnosis of thoracic calcifications, and comment that in spite of the being rare, the cardiac causes should be considered due to the possibility of surgical treatment.
Journal Article↗
Dyschromatopsia in diabetes mellitus and its relation to metabolic control.
In 102 insulin-dependent diabetic patients without retinopathy and with visual acuity 20/20, the Farnsworth-Munsell 100-Hue test was performed, and glycosylated hemoglobin (GlHb) levels were determined. In 70% of the patients, a dyschromatopsia in the yellow-blue axis (tritanopia) was found. No correlation existed between duration of diabetes and tritanopia. On the other hand, the degree of this visual defect was positively correlated with GlHb levels. Thus, dyschromatopsia might be associated with poor metabolic control. It is suggested that dyschromatopsia is a consequence of hypoxia at the neuroepithelial level. The high levels of GlHb could be a contributory cause of hypoxia by reduction of both oxygen release capacity and erythrocyte deformability.
Adolescent↗
Tracheostomy care.
The author considers airway maintenance in the care of adult patients by providing a clinical overview of the pre- and post-operative requirements of tracheostomy care, including complications and the longer term implications that can arise immediately after tracheostomy surgery.
Adult↗
[Specialist assessments and Law Decree 626/94 on operators employed at VDT/PCs].
Within the context of the health protection of employees working with monitors and personal computers, we evaluated the capacity of certain ophthalmologic tests, which can be used by corporate medical doctors even if they have not received specific ophthalmologic training, to identify ophthalmologic-visual conditions which should be referred to a specialist. 278 employees working with computers underwent a complete ophthalmologic test including contrast sensitivity, the red-green test, the dynamic acuity and the mesopic test. Two groups (with and without ocular pathologies) whose characteristics indicated the need of a specialist examination were then chosen, and the correlation and predictive capacities of the single tests or their combination was then evaluated with regard to the two groups. The model developed through a discriminating analysis vaunts a predictive sensibility above 95%, thus allowing to identify almost all persons in the sample group who should be referred to a specialist when used to identify those afflicted solely by refraction alterations, while it drops to 66% with a specific figure of 89% when non-refractive ocular pathologies coexist. The figures indicate that certain evaluation tests can be used to efficiently screen visual functionality by the corporate medical doctor. The authors offer suggestions on the need for a correct and carefully considered strategy to adopt for the screening of visual function.
Adult↗
[Clonidine hallucinations: description of a clinical case].
Authors report a case of hallucinations related to clonidine treatment in an elderly man with hypertension and renal failure. The symptoms appeared shortly after treatment is starting. The hallucinations disappeared after clonidine withdrawal. Implications for clinical practice are evocated.
Adrenergic alpha-Agonists↗
[Crossed aphasia: description of a case].
We describe a new case of crossed aphasia in a right-handed patient with a right hemispheric lesion. A right-handed man, 76 year-old, developed a sudden left hemiparesis with sensitive impairment and mutism. He has neither family history of left handeness or ambidexterity or vascular risk factors. CT cerebral scan showed a large infarct of the middle cerebral artery on the right side, with haemorrhagic suffusion. Cerebral MRI and EEG-cartography confirmed the indemnity of the left hemisphere. Aphasia studies confirmed a mutism with spared verbal comprehension, but alexia was present. A year later, left hemiparesis was recovered but aphasia remained. Crossed aphasia is rarely seen. It is caused by a right hemispheric lesion in right-handed subjects. Fluency is most commonly impaired. At onset, mutism is the common symptom, which evolves to expressive aphasia. Several hypothesis have been raised about the possible mechanisms involved. The few number of PET or SPECT studies performed in these patients have disclosed extensive areas of hypometabolism in the right hemisphere, that exceed the size of the image observed with CT scan or MRI.
Aged↗
[Acute kidney failure in systemic vasculitis associated with antineutrophil cytoplasmic antibodies (ANCA) in aged patients].
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Acute Kidney Injury↗
[Rapid-detection GBM-ANCA ELISA. An emergency tool for the early diagnosis of type I and II rapidly progressive glomerulonephritis].
Rapidly progressive glomerulonephritides (RPGN) are forms of necrotizing glomerulonephritis associated with anti-glomerular basement membrane (anti-GBM) and anti-neutrophil cytoplasmic antibodies (ANCA) against the antigens proteinase-3 (anti-PR3) and myeloperoxidase (anti-MPO). RPGN have a course of rapid progression to renal failure. We compared the results from the semiquantitative ELISAs for anti-GMB antibodies, PR3-ANCA and MPO-ANCA and the indirect immunofluorescence technique (IIF) against a new rapid assay (30 minutes) for the same antibodies in patients with clinically suspected RPGN. The semiquantitative ELISAs for anti-GBM antibodies and PR3-ANCA and MPO-ANCA have a proven diagnostic significance in patients with RPGN I and III. There were no significant differences between the ANCA-GBM screening test and the results from the semiquantitative ELISAs (p > 0.05). We did not find significant differences between the results for PR3-ANCA and MPO-ANCA from the ANCA-GBM screening test with C-ANCA and P-ANCA IIF values (p > 0.05). We also corroborated that the ANCA-GBM screening test is a diagnostic tool for RPGN I and III as useful as the semiquantitative ELISAs and the IFF technique. The ANCA-GBM ELISA screening test is a tool as useful as the semiquantitative ELISA against anti-GBM antibodies for diagnosis of RPGN I. The comparison of the screening ELISA with the IIF technique and the semiquantitative ELISAs against PR3-ANCA and MPO-ANCA showed similar utility for diagnosis of RPGN III. The advantages of the new screening assay are that three antibodies are tested at the same time, yielding results in only 30 minutes.
Adolescent↗
Unfavorable effect of photodynamic therapy for late subretinal neovascularization with chorioretinal anastomoses associated with idiopathic multiple serous detachments of the retinal pigment epithelium.
PURPOSE: To describe a case of a 46-year-old woman with an asymptomatic history of unilateral multiple serous detachments of the retinal pigment epithelium (PED) in the right eye, treated with photodynamic therapy (PDT) with verteporfin for recent onset of subfoveal choroidal neovascularization (CNV) with chorioretinal anastomoses (CRA). METHODS: Case report. RESULTS: Fluorescein and indocyanine green (ICG) angiography, performed with a Heidelberg scanning laser ophthalmoscope (SLO), demonstrated a predominantly classic foveal choroidal neovascular membrane associated with a PED and 1 one retinal and 2 two venous chorioretinal anastomoses. The left fundus was normal. PDT therapy was performed according to standard techniques. Three PDT treatments were performed at an interval of 3 months. Three months after the second PDT, visual acuity dropped to 20/200, with an enlargement of the neovascular network. One month after the third treatment, visual acuity deteriorated further and the CRA appeared enlarged, associated with a dense fibrotic reaction in the centere of the lesion. CONCLUSIONS: This clinical observation demonstrates that idiopathic serous detachments of the retinal pigment epithelium may represent predisposing changes to CNV development, and in the case CNV is associated with CRA, PDT may be unsuccessful.
Arteriovenous Fistula↗
Molecular diagnosis of A gamma hereditary persistence of fetal hemoglobin using polymerase chain reaction and oligonucleotide analysis.
By combining the polymerase chain reaction (PCR) of the gamma globin gene promoters with synthetic oligonucleotide analysis we have diagnosed the -196 C----T and the -117 G----A substitutions in heterozygous carriers of non deletional A gamma HPFH from two unrelated Italian families. The identification of the beta-thalassemic defect in a compound heterozygote for -196 A gamma HPFH/beta thalassemia allows us to discuss the effect of this gamma promoter mutation on the globin chain synthetic pattern, and to make a comparison with the mutation at the -117 position.
Base Sequence↗
Deletion and non deletion hereditary persistence of fetal hemoglobin in Italy.
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Chromosome Deletion↗
[Assignment of strains of the mesophilic Aeromonas group isolated from feces to their corresponding hybridization groups (genus, species)].
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Aeromonas↗
Screening of beta-thalassemia mutations by PCR and ASO analysis in an Italian population of mixed geographic origin.
We used the polymerase chain reaction (PCR) and allele-specific-oligonucleotide hybridization (ASO) or restriction enzyme analysis (RE) to investigate the molecular defect in 100 Italian subjects heterozygous for beta-thalassemia, members of 50 couples at risk for the disease: 93 out of the 100 alleles studied were identified after investigating 9 known mutations. The mutation was identified in both members of the couple in 43/50 cases; in the remaining 7 couples the defect was identified only in one subject. The PCR-ASO or-RE method is a suitable, though still complex, approach to prenatal diagnosis of beta-thalassemia in a population with heterogeneous molecular defects.
Alleles↗