Biomedical subjects
Publications and source records attributed to C Marino.
The usual aids to diagnosis--such as symptoms and antinuclear antibodies--do not reliably distinguish this important entity from idiopathic SLE. Age, sex, and antibody type are often clues, but in some cases, only time and clinical course will tell.
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This study provides a guideline to a dynamic approach toward the diagnosis of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). Bile production, fibrinogen synthesis, Mallory body, fibrinogen ground-glass and abnormal glycogen bodies as a reflection of "clone" selection, and hepatitis B virus (HBV) antigen expression in tumor cells can be considered as markers for the morphological diagnosis of HCC. The demonstration in tumor cells of these diagnostic features requires a careful screening of routinely stained preparations in search of suggestive, characteristic, specific, or pathognomonic features further supplemented by ancillary techniques, such as histochemistry, immunocytochemistry, and electron microscopy.
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DSM III-R acknowledges that delusional disorder and mood disturbance can coexist. The aim of the study is to analyze mood disturbances occurring within a delusional disorder. An external validator, as the increased familial risk of psychiatric disorder, is also added to clarify the relationship between the two diagnostic areas. We found a high frequency of mood disturbances in our patients (50.7%). We were able to identify a proportion of delusional patients affected by a recurrent form of mood disturbance (35.2%); in about 42% of these patients the onset of the mood disturbance preceded the onset of the delusional disorder by a considerable interval of time. Our hypothesis is that, in these cases, the observed mood disturbance could represent a codiagnosis of true mood disorder. This hypothesis is partly supported by familial data.
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Some recent findings report that the area 5q11.2-13.3 of chromosome 5 segregates with schizophrenia in an uncle-nephew pair (Bassett et al 1988). However, linkage studies between chromosome 5 markers loci and schizophrenia lead to different results: Sherrington et al (1988) found a positive linkage, whereas other groups of researchers found evidence against linkage (Kennedy et al 1988; St. Clair et al 1989; Detera-Wadleigh et al 1989; McGuffin et al 1990; Aschauer et al 1990; Crowe et al 1991). We have studied five Italian pedigrees segregating schizophrenia using a map of four markers for the chromosomal region 5q11.2-13.3. Linkage analyses revealed negative lod scores, and thus no evidence for linkage was obtained in our Italian families.
A reduction of gallbladder emptying in response to neural or hormonal stimulation has been reported in patients with diabetes mellitus. Decreased gallbladder emptying may be a key factor in the pathogenesis of gallbladder stones. Few drugs, if any, are able to stimulate gallbladder emptying. However, in a previous study we demonstrated that erythromycin, a macrolide antibiotic, stimulates gallbladder emptying and motilin release in healthy human subjects by an atropine-sensitive pathway. Therefore, the present study was designed to evaluate the effect of erythromycin on gallbladder emptying and motilin release in diabetic patients with or without cardiac autonomic neuropathy (AN). Thirteen diabetic patients, six with AN, and 10 healthy subjects were enrolled in the study protocol. Gallbladder emptying was determined by sonography after ingestion of a standard meal and during infusion of erythromycin alone or together with 6 micrograms/kg/hr atropine. We found that 100 mg/hr erythromycin caused a significant reduction in gallbladder volume in both healthy subjects and diabetic patients. The ejection fraction (mean +/- SE) of 45.3 +/- 8.2% and 37.3 +/- 5.0% was similar. The presence of AN had no influence on gallbladder emptying induced by erythromycin. Basal motilin plasma levels were 111.5 +/- 14.5 pmol/liter in diabetic patients and 63.3 +/- 6.0 pmol/liter in healthy subjects (P < 0.01). However, patients with AN had higher (130.0 +/- 11.9 pmol/liter) motilin plasma levels than patients without (74.0 +/- 9.4 pmol/liter, P < 0.01). Erythromycin administration caused an approximately twofold increase in plasma motilin concentrations in healthy subject and patients without AN, but did not stimulate motilin release in neuropathic patients.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)
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1. The behaviour of total acid soluble, short chain esterified and free carnitine in the liver, heart, muscle and brain of chick embryos between 11th and 21st day of development and of 8 and 180-day-old chicks is described. 2. Total acid soluble carnitine fluctuates around the same levels in the brain, liver and muscle until 18th day of development, whereas it attains a peak on that day in the heart. At hatching compared to 18th day, it suddenly increases three times in the muscle, drops not significantly in the heart and brain, but sharply in the liver (-40%). However the levels are always higher than those of the grown chick in the brain but lower in the other tissues. 3. Free carnitine levels are almost constant in all tissues during the embryonic life; if compared to adult ones, they are very much lower in the liver, heart and muscle, but higher in the brain, even in 8 day-old chick. 4. Short chain esterified, carnitine reaches a maximum on 18th day of egg incubation in the liver, brain and heart; in the muscle it stays on constant levels until this day and then rapidly increases so that at hatching it doubles the values. 5. The short chain esterified to free carnitine percentage ratio peaks in all tissues on 18th day of development, attaining figures which are well above those determined in the grown chick.
The myeloproliferative disorders comprise a group of related diseases, including polycythemia vera, essential thrombocythemia, chronic myelogenous leukemia, myelofibrosis, and myeloid metaplasia. An increase in circulating platelets is associated with thrombotic phenomena affecting the arterial and venous circulation. In this article, the authors describe a case in which the initial manifestation of myeloproliferative disease was gangrene of the fingers.
Osteoarthritis is differentiated from rheumatoid arthritis by age at onset, duration of morning stiffness, pattern of joint involvement, and radiographic findings. Distinguishing between the diseases can be challenging, because they have some symptoms in common. Therapy for osteoarthritis is aimed at relief of symptoms; treatment of active rheumatoid arthritis is more aggressive, aimed at controlling or modifying the disease. Both diseases may cause great pain and disability in elderly patients, so prompt diagnosis and treatment are essential.
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We report on our experience with acyclovir (Zovirax) capsules for the symptomatic treatment of chickenpox in two children and an adult.
Dry mouth in the elderly is a common occurrence with multiple etiologies. It is not a normal phenomenon of aging and, therefore, an attempt at elucidating its cause should be made. Sjögren's syndrome may occur, and it is diagnosed by labial biopsy. Medications are also frequently associated with dry mouth, and dosages may need to be adjusted or the drug discontinued if symptoms are severe. Strategies for management of dry mouth are explored.
Benzoylation of D-galactono-1,4-lactone with 2.2 mol of benzoyl chloride, at -23 degrees, gave the 2,6-dibenzoate (2, 62%). Tin(IV) chloride-catalyzed glycosylation of 2 with 1,2,3,5,6-penta-O-benzoyl-alpha,beta-D-galactofuranose (1) afforded 2,6-di-O-benzoyl-5-O-(2,3,5,6-tetra-O-benzoyl-beta-D-galactofuranosyl)-D - galactono-1,4-lactone (4, 70%), HO-3 of which was benzoylated to give 5. The structure of 4 was confirmed by its conversion into crystalline beta-D-Galf-(1----5)-D-Gal-ol (8). Reduction of the lactone function of 5 with di-isoamylborane followed by debenzoylation gave beta-D-Galf-(1----5)-D-Galf (7). A by-product of the condensation of 1 with 2 was characterized as 2,6-di-O-benzoyl-3,5-di-O-(2,3,5,6-tetra-O-benzoyl-beta-D-galactofuranos yl)-D- galactono-1,4-lactone (9), which was converted, as for 5, into beta-D-Galf-(1----3)[beta-D-Galf-(1----5)]-D-Galf (13).
1. The incubation of human fresh circulating lymphocytes with insulin leads to modifications in the behaviour of the pyruvate dehydrogenase complex (PDH) when the contact medium is supplemented with 50 microM Ca2+ and Mg2+. 2. To investigate the mechanism involved in the PDH responsiveness to insulin in circulating lymphocytes and the role of Ca2+ and Mg2+ in this process, the PDH activity was assayed in lymphocytes combined with insulin and/or a number of substances whose mechanism of action is partially known. 3. Of these some have been seen to mimick insulin effects on PDH, whereas other were tested for the first time in this study.
Blood concentrations of various amino acids were measured in schizophrenic patients and control subjects. Significantly higher blood concentrations of glycine, glutamate, and serine were found in the schizophrenic patients. Glycine was abnormally elevated in subjects with paranoid or undifferentiated schizophrenia, but not in disorganized patients. Since glutamate, glycine, and serine play a complex role in the regulation of N-methyl-D-aspartate (NMDA) receptors, which are important in the control of normal cognitive processes, we hypothesized that the elevated levels of these amino acids might disrupt the normal functioning of NMDA receptors and might be involved in the pathophysiology of schizophrenia.