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Biomedical subjects

C Marchesi

Publications and source records attributed to C Marchesi.

At least 91 records · Page 5Linked to original sources

Different effects of metoclopramide and domperidone on arginine-vasopressin secretion in man.

This study was performed in order to investigate the dopaminergic mechanism involved in the control of arginine-vasopressin (AVP) secretion in normal men. Plasma AVP concentrations were measured before and after the administration of an i.v. bolus of 10 mg metoclopramide or domperidone to twelve healthy males. Metoclopramide, a cerebral and peripheral antagonist of dopaminergic receptors, significantly stimulated AVP secretion, whereas domperidone, a dopamine antagonist which does not cross the blood-brain barrier, was without effect. These data suggest that metoclopramide stimulates the release of AVP by blocking dopaminergic receptors in structures located inside the blood-brain barrier. Alternatively, it is possible that the stimulation of AVP release induced by metoclopramide does not occur through inhibition of dopamine receptors but rather through interaction with other neuroendocrine pathways.

Adult↗

Electrocardiographic monitoring: temporal versus spatial information and data processing.

In the diagnosis of ischemic heart disease, long-term electrocardiographic recording has several distinct advantages. It allows one to relate patient symptoms to cardiac disturbances and to detect asymptomatic events, furnishes the whole spectrum of electrocardiographic alterations accompanying ischemic attacks, reveals the possible ischemic genesis of dysrhythmias, and is the most suitable method to assess the acute and chronic effectiveness of treatment and the evolution of the disease. In addition to its valuable application in the screening and follow-up of ambulatory patients, its use in the Coronary Care Unit is of great interest, being in this context much more sensitive than visual electrocardiographic monitoring. In spite of these advantages, Holter monitoring has several limitations: the recording and replay systems are below recommended standards; the analysis of a single lead is responsible in most systems for the low sensitivity in detecting ischemia occurring in unexplored regions; the period of 24-48 hours, usually adopted for Holter monitoring, may not be sufficient for screening patients with suspected myocardial ischemia due to the unpredictable spontaneous variability of the disease; a common standard of analysis is still lacking and a reliable computerized analysis is needed to manage data overflow. In conclusion, although further research and technical developments are desired to improve reliability and data processing, the role of Holter monitoring appears essential in the ambulatory screening of patients with suspected ischemia for a better characterization of patients with ascertained myocardial ischemia, and for the evaluation of treatment and of the evolution of the disease.

Angina Pectoris, Variant↗

Clinical application of monitoring techniques: hemodynamic monitoring.

In the diagnosis of myocardial ischemia continuous hemodynamic monitoring may contribute to detection of transient ischemia, to definition of location and to elimination of its pathogenesis, and to characterization of hemodynamic response to ischemia. It can be helpful in investigating the significance of negligible, non specific and/or short-lasting electrocardiographic changes accompanying typical anginal symptoms. Simultaneous right ventricular and left ventricular pressure monitoring gives information regarding biventricular interaction during episodes of transient ischemia: an early left ventricular dysfunction, with or without a late right ventricular impairment, a selective right dysfunction, and a simultaneous left ventricular and right ventricular impairment all represent the hemodynamic patterns associated with left, right and biventricular ischemia respectively. Monitoring of hemodynamic parameters related to myocardial oxygen consumption and the study of their changes preceding the onset of ischemia during both spontaneous and provoked episodes of ischemia, may help in identifying whether functional or organic factors or both are involved in the pathogenesis of transient ischemia in individual patients. Two principal hemodynamic patterns appear to be associated with transient ischemia: a) left ventricular and/or right ventricular impairment, usually beginning shortly before the onset of electrocardiographic changes, followed by a rapid recovery and often an overshooting, b) a sudden and sustained increase in systolic pressure and heart rate, simultaneous with the onset of ST-T changes. In both cases, the 'excitatory' pattern appears to be unrelated to pain.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)

Coronary Disease↗

Electrocardiogram blood pressure and systolic time intervals long term monitoring in ambulant patients.

Ambulatory monitoring of the intra arterial blood pressure (IBP), through the Selyg-Oxford System, has been used so far primarily for studies on hypertension. Aim of our study is to explore the possibility of obtaining from IBP indications useful to extend its field of application. The study will investigate: the usefulness of the continuous monitoring of the systolic time intervals (STI), measured from IBP as ventricular performance indicators, the increasing of specificity of the ECG allowed by the simultaneous beat by beat estimate of the STI's, the possibility of achieving the same information from non invasive peripheral pressure transducers. In this paper we are presenting the results obtained from the combined analysis of the STI's, ECG and IBP in a first series of 13 patients, selected out of 50 on the basis of the highest number of episodes of IBP variations, to allow the evaluation of the algorithms performances in severe conditions.

Blood Pressure↗

The intraarterial blood pressure monitoring in the evaluation of patients with dizziness and/or fainting.

Ambulatory blood pressure (BP) monitoring has been extensively utilized, so far, for studying BP profile and hypotensive treatment in arterial hypertension. In this paper, preliminary data will be reported from a clinical study on the possible contribution of the combined ECG and BP monitoring in clarifying mechanisms of dizziness in patients with multiple or complex cardiovascular problems. Results are shown of three patients with ischaemia, arrhythmias and/or episodes of hypotension, and of three patients with borderline hypertension and marked fluctuations of BP.

Arrhythmias, Cardiac↗

Computer system for analysis of ST segment changes on 24 hour Holter monitor tapes: comparison with other available systems.

The accuracy of a computer system that was developed for the analysis of ST segment changes recorded on Holter ambulatory electrocardiographic monitoring tapes was compared with conventional visual scrutiny, beat by beat analog printouts and a commercial J point trend system. The program calculates and plots multiple electrocardiographically derived variables in a high temporal resolution trend format. Fifty tapes of good recording quality obtained from 19 patients (13 with chronic stable angina and 6 with variant angina) were assessed visually and with the computer system; of these, 20 were analyzed by all four techniques. In the 50 tapes, 629 episodes of diagnostic ST segment changes (all true positive results) were identified by using the computer system. In contrast, only 507 were identified by visual scrutiny; none of these 507 episodes was missed by computer analysis. On the 20 tapes assessed using computer, visual, beat by beat analog and J point trend system analysis, 268, 221, 230 and 178 episodes, respectively, were documented. For the four techniques, false negative and positive results were 0, 47, 38 and 90 and 0, 10, 6 and 24, respectively. The results indicate that, of the systems assessed in this study, the computer program provides the highest accuracy for detection of transient ST segment changes. This is probably accreditable to the compact presentation of multiple electrocardiographically derived variables, allowing a detailed quantitative assessment of 24 hour tapes. It is of particular value for pathophysiologic and pharmacologic studies.

Angina Pectoris↗

Unreliability of conventional visual electrocardiographic monitoring for detection of transient ST segment changes in a coronary care unit.

Visual monitoring at the central station of coronary care units (CCUs) may not adequately assess the presence and frequency of transient asymptomatic ST segment changes in patients with unstable angina. We have performed continuous 24-h electrocardiographic recordings over a total period of 50 days in 10 patients admitted to our CCU with frequent attacks of angina at rest. Over the corresponding period, at the central monitoring station (6 beds), the nursing-staff detected only 31 transient ischaemic episodes (27 with ST elevation, 4 with depression, 9 of which were asymptomatic). By contrast the retrospective analogue analysis of tapes identified 213 ischaemic episodes: 143 with ST elevation (greater than or equal to 0.2 mV) and 70 with ST depression (greater than or equal to 0.2 mV); usual CCU monitoring failed to report changes during 13 episodes (8 with ST elevation, 5 with depression) accompanied by anginal pain. When the tapes were played back in real time on a CCU monitoring scope, a cardiologist (who had the option of interrupting the play-back whenever tired) recognized 48% of the episodes when presented in groups of 4 and randomly positioned on the screen together with 2 other electrocardiographic tracings not related to the study; he recognized 92% of the episodes when only one ECG was presented on the screen. Thus conventional visual monitoring in a CCU considerably underestimates the incidence of transient ischaemic ST segment changes, some of which were accompanied by pain. This low rate of detection is the result of the presentation on the central monitoring station of several ECGs and of fatigue.

Adult↗

Effect of lysine vasopressin on basal and TRH stimulated TSH and PRL release in normal men.

In order to test the possible effects of lysine vasopressin (LVP) on basal and TRH stimulated TSH and PRL release, an iv bolus of LVP (0.06 IU/kg bw) was injected alone or just before TRH (20 or 400 micrograms iv) in 18 normal male subjects. The administration of LVP modified neither the basal secretion of TSH and PRL nor the TSH and PRL release induced by 20 or 400 micrograms TRH. These data suggest that in humans, vasopressin is not involved in the control of TSH and PRL release at the anterior pituitary level.

Adult↗

Prevalence of migraine and muscle tension headache in depressive disorders.

This study was undertaken in order to evaluate the prevalence of headache and its subtypes (migraine, muscle tension headache, cluster and psychogenic headache) in a population of 160 depressed patients. Headache was present in 83 subjects (51.9%); 36 (22.5%) were affected by migraine, 39 (24.4%) by muscle tension headache, six (3.7%) by psychogenic headache and two (1.2%) by cluster headache. No significant differences in the prevalence of migraine and muscle tension headache were observed among patients with major depression, bipolar depressive disorder and dysthymic disorder. These data speak against a specific correlation among subtypes of headache and depressive disorders.

Adult↗

Temperament and personality features in patients with major depression, panic disorder and mixed conditions.

METHOD: Forty-two patients with Panic Disorder (P), 18 with Major Depression (MD), 35 with both conditions (MIX) and 45 healthy subjects (C) were tested with the Tridimensional Personality Questionnaire and the Structured Interview for DSM-III-R Personality Disorders. RESULTS: A different prevalence of Dependent (P = 16.7%, MD = 5.6%, MIX = 41.4%, C = 2.1%) (P < 0.001), Obsessive-Compulsive (P = 4.8%, MD = 27.8%, MIX = 3.4%, C = 0%) (P < 0.001) and Histrionic (P =23.8%, MD = 0%, MIX = 31%, C = 4.2%) (P = 0.001) personality disorders (PD) was found among groups. Harm Avoidance (HA) (P < 0.001) and Reward Dependence (RD) (P <0.001) were higher in patients than in controls. As expected the patients with comorbid conditions (MIX) showed higher HA levels (P < 0.01) and a greater prevalence of PDs, particularly of Cluster C compared to patients with pure disorders. CONCLUSIONS: This study suggests that high HA and RD scores are associated with P, MD and MIX, and the former dimension is even higher in MIX patients.

Adolescent↗

Relationships between Tridimensional Personality Questionnaire Dimensions and DSM-III-R personality traits in Italian adolescents.

The predictions of Cloninger's neurobiologic learning model on the relationships between novelty seeking (NS), harm avoidance (HA), reward dependence (RD), and persistence (P) and the traditional DSM-III-R personality disorders (PDs) were tested on a sample of 2,889 (1,475 males and 1,414 females) Italian high school students aged 16 to 18 years, using the Structured Clinical Interview for DSM-III-R Personality Disorders-self-report (SCID-II) and the Tridimensional Personality Questionnaire (TPQ). All relationships were in the predicted direction for antisocial, narcissistic, avoidant, and obsessive-compulsive PD alone, and at least two were in the predicted direction for schizoid, histrionic, borderline-explosive, dependent, and passive-aggressive PD. Eight of nine relationships were in the predicted direction for NS, but only seven of nine for HA and RD. This study provides substantial support for Cloninger's neurobiologic learning model as a useful tool to describe and classify personality variants and, because of the supposed neurochemical implications, to link personality traits to the underlying neurochemical and neuroanatomic substrate.

Adolescent↗