Biomedical subjects
Publications and source records attributed to E Occhipinti.
12 patients with pituitary tumors were studied with VEP, to demonstrate involvement of the optic chiasma. In 3 patients VEP was recorded pre- and post-surgery to evaluate a modification in the shape and latencies of the potentials. 2 patients were studied only pre-surgery, the other 7 post-surgery. The utility of this test is discussed.
An investigation was made on the relationship between music practice and musculo-skeletal disorders among piano students, with the main aim of developing health education programmes that would improve the performance and health of the students. The investigation covered three areas: (a) Analysis of study organization and main musculo-skeletal complaints achieved by a questionnaire distributed to all piano students at the Milan Conservatory. (b) Vocational electromyographic analysis of the effort exerted by the various muscle groups of the trunk, of the shoulder and shoulder blade girdle, and of the arm during performance of a standard set of piano exercises, an unseen passage and a passage of maximum difficulty. This analysis was made on a sample of six subjects. (c) A series of preventive measures was developed on the basis of a critical assessment of the results (38% of the students practised for excessively long periods without breaks; 62% had from 1 to 5 complaints, the most affected sites being the spine and the trapezius muscles). These consisted largely of a health education programme aimed at helping the students to suitably organize practice and rest periods and in instructing them in appropriate exercises for relaxation and stretching of overused muscle groups and strengthening the supporting muscle groups. Changes in lifestyle were also suggested.
In order to standardize the results of different biomechanical studies concerning stresses on lumbar discs, it may be useful to estimate the disc dimensions of the examined subjects and to refer the stress values to a unit surface area (square centimeter). The association between anthropometric parameters and discal areas at the L3-L4, L4-L5 and L5-S1 levels, examined by computed axial tomography, was studied in a group of 32 subjects (16 male; 16 female) with the aim of estimating lumbar disc areas with a simple method. Bony structure weight, which is computed by an equation that takes into account the diameters of the wrist, elbow, knee, and ankle and the stature, is the anthropometric parameter best associated with the areas of lumbar discs. The wrist diameter also shows a good association with the same areas. On the contrary, the association between body weight and disc areas was found to be less adequate for this purpose. The equations of the relative regression lines are reported as well as the criteria for their practical applications.
Multiple sclerosis rarely may present as a focal cerebral mass with clinical features and computed tomographic scan appearances of cerebral tumor. Distinguishing between these can be difficult or impossible. We report a case of a multiple sclerosis plaque involving the parietal lobe with mass effect; clinical and radiological features had led to a diagnosis of cerebral tumor.
Explore the source record for details and available documents.
Explore the source record for details and available documents.
We report two cases of basicranial chondrosarcomas. Intracranial chondrosarcomas are particularly rare, amounting to 0.15% of all intracranial tumours. Their most frequent location is the skull base (76.19%), and more precisely the middle cranial fossa, as they arise from the spheno-occipital synchondrosis. Some intracerebral chondrosarcomas have also been reported. We also refer shortly to another kind of malignant cartilaginous neoplasm that was recently identified by Lichtenstein and Bernstein (1959). This is the mesenchymal chondrosarcoma. Fifteen cases of this have been reported.
Explore the source record for details and available documents.
Early traumatic epilepsy, whose frequency is rather high, especially in children, is usually characterized by focal motor seizures (57%) or by generalized seizures (43%). The association of both running and laughing fits in the same patient on the contrary is quite exceptional, as only three cases have been reported in literature. There are no observations about temporal lobe epilepsy, nor, particularly, about running or laughing fits in early traumatic epilepsy. We report here the interesting case of a boy whose early traumatic epilepsy manifested itself as temporal lobe epilepsy characterized by running and laughter.
Explore the source record for details and available documents.
Explore the source record for details and available documents.
Explore the source record for details and available documents.
Explore the source record for details and available documents.
The Authors report their experience in using water-soluble contrast medium in ventriculographies having carried out 102 ventriculographies partly with Dimer X and partly with "Uromiro 300". Their conclusions are practically similar to those already reported by the many Authors who have written on this subject: 1) facility of examination particularly in urgent cases; 2) excellent neuroradiological definition of the cases; 3) possibility of obtaining a selective ventriculography; 4) indication especially in space-occupying lesions of the posterior cranial contrast medium; 6) possibility of reducing complication rate by carefully carrying out the examination and by avoiding the use of excessive quantities of contrast. In particular the Authors describe some useful methods for obtaining better technical results from the examination and reducing the complication rate.
Explore the source record for details and available documents.
Explore the source record for details and available documents.
With a view to initiating epidemiological studies aimed at demonstrating the causal or concausal role of certain working activities in degenerative diseases of the coxo-femoral articulations, the authors report data from a radiological study of a reference population and the necessary conditions for their correct use. Statistical analysis of the descriptive features leads to some interesting observations on the evolution with age of the radiological picture of the coxo-femoral joints (and on the aging of these joints). There was an increase with advancing age of some of the alterations that are characteristic of degenerative articular processes, such as sclerosis and osteophytosis. Reduction of articular "rima", however, occurs suddenly between the ages of 36 and 45 and does not seem to subsequently undergo any statistically significant evolution.