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Biomedical subjects

B Costantino

Publications and source records attributed to B Costantino.

6 recordsLinked to original sources
PubMed1996

Ethical aspects of using "marginal" kidneys for transplant.

The continuing demand for transplantable organs leads to ongoing debates about organ procurement, even with arguments in favour of xenotransplantation as a valid alternative. This article examines the management of kidneys with major anatomical anomalies, almost one-quarter of those available for transplantation in our experience: the decision-making is considered from a scientific and an ethical standpoint. Surgical techniques include primary revascularization (PR) and/or bench-top reconstructions (BR). The results, examined for 1311 normal grafts (Group I) and 362 grafts presenting major anatomical anomalies (Group II), all transplanted for the first time, showed almost the same rates of failures due to surgical causes in these two groups. No operative mortality was associated with any of the vascular techniques, BR being easier and safer than PR. Graft survival at 1 year is the same for Group I and Group II (85% versus 84%, respectively). An ethical allocation system ought to take into account the experience of the transplant surgeon for maximizing outcome and minimizing cost and risk for transplantation.

Ethics, Medical↗
PubMed1995

Safe utilization and long-term follow-up of 368 marginal kidneys.

Three-hundred sixty-eight grafts of 1701 KTs performed during a 25-year period showed major anatomical anomalies: 358 kidneys presented an abnormal vascular supply, 8 organs had a double ureters, 2 were indivisible horseshoe kidneys. The outcome of these MKs is virtually identical (84%) to those obtained with transplant of normal grafts (85%). The advantages of ex vivo arterioplasty have been advocated.

Anastomosis, Surgical↗
PubMed1993

Discrimination of moving events which accelerate or decelerate over the listening interval.

Grantham [Grantham, J. Acoust. Soc. Am. 79, 1939-1949 (1986)] has proposed that subjects are able to resolve the velocity of a moving sound source simply by determining the distance traveled and the time required to complete the movement. In the current experiment, subjects were able to discriminate between accelerated and decelerated movements which were identical on both parameters; that is, the accelerated and decelerated movements began and ended at the same locus and required the same amount of time to be completed. The minimum duration required to discriminate between these two movement patterns was 310 and 90 ms, respectively, for displacements of 9 degrees and 18 degrees. These results suggest that, under some conditions, the perception of velocity in the auditory modality may be based upon something more than a simple comparison of the total distance traveled and the time required to complete the movement.

Acoustic Stimulation↗
PubMed1993

Auditory and visual localization performance in a sequential discrimination task.

Four subjects were tested in a two-alternative, forced-choice, three down-one up adaptive paradigm in which two 200-ms signals were presented sequentially with a 200-ms interstimulus interval. The subject's task was to indicate whether the second stimulus was to the right or left of the first. Tests were conducted with 57 dB (A-weighted), 1.0-kHz high-pass noise, the minimum audible angle (MAA) task, and with lights emitting 620 nm at a luminance level of 200 mL, the minimum visible angle (MVA) task. Localization performance in the MAA task was equal to or better than that obtained in the MVA task for all regions of the frontal field with only one exception, presentations at 0 degrees azimuth. The implications of these results are discussed.

Acoustic Stimulation↗
PubMed1989

Treatment of stage I breast cancer: the NSABP experience.

The results of two clinical trials carried out by the National Surgical Adjuvant Breast and Bowel Project are presented. A total of 559 histologically node-negative patients were randomised and assigned treatment in the two protocols. In the oestrogen receptor-negative patients with breast cancer, treatment with methotrexate and 5-fluorouracil produced a 31% reduction in treatment failure at 4 years when compared to no systemic treatment. In the oestrogen receptor-positive patients, treatment with tamoxifen produced a 26% reduction in treatment failure at 4 years in comparison to placebo treatment. In both protocols, this benefit was observed both in patients aged under and over 50 years.

Adult↗