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Biomedical subjects

F Carandente

Publications and source records attributed to F Carandente.

At least 19 recordsLinked to original sources

Blood pressure patterns in normal pregnancy and in pregnancy-induced hypertension, preeclampsia, and chronic hypertension.

OBJECTIVE: To compare the 24-hour blood pressure (BP) pattern in physiologic pregnancy, pregnancy-induced hypertension, preeclampsia, and chronic hypertension. METHODS: We investigated four groups of women with singleton pregnancy: 73 controls, 48 patients with pregnancy-induced hypertension, 38 with preeclampsia, and 53 with mild to moderate chronic hypertension. The 24-hour BP monitoring was performed longitudinally in controls and in patients with chronic hypertension, and at the time of diagnosis in those with pregnancy-induced hypertension or preeclampsia. RESULTS: Nineteen thousand eight hundred seventy-two BP measurements were analyzed. In controls, the mean values of BP indices were lower than those first reported in nonpregnant women, and the acrophase was always localized in the first part of the afternoon. In pregnancy-induced hypertension and especially in preeclampsia, besides the obvious quantitative increase in BP, circadian BP oscillations were less pronounced than in controls, and the severity of hypertension seemed to favor the loss of diurnal rhythm. Conversely, in chronic hypertension, circadian oscillations were the same as in controls. CONCLUSION: Standardized 24-hour BP monitoring during pregnancy allows quantitative and qualitative evaluations of the hypertensive status. However, if such a technique is used routinely in every clinical setting, we should establish specific thresholds of normality for pregnancy.

Adult

[An analysis of the variability in the heart rate in relation to the presence of transient ischemia and to its physiopathological mechanism].

To assess the differences in the pathogenesis of cardiac ischemic events and the role of the autonomic nervous system, we studied the electrocardiographic measures of tonic vagal activity during 24-hour Holter monitoring. We tested the circadian rhythm of the power in the high frequency energy (HF: 0.15-0.40 Hz) of the normal R-R interval power spectrum, the daily percent of successive normal R-R greater than 50 ms (pNN50) and the roots mean square of successive difference of normal R-R intervals (MMSD) in patients with coronary artery disease of comparable angiographic severity. Group A consisted of 5 patients (mean age 62 +/- 8) with chronic stable angina and Group B of 5 patients (mean age 61 +/- 8) with variant angina. Characteristic anginal pattern, typical ST changes during ischemic events on Holter monitoring and angiographic evidence of vasoconstriction induced by hyperventilation distinguished the 2 groups. Mean Cosinor analysis showed the presence of a significant circadian rhythm of HF only in Group A with a peak in the early morning hours (phi at 03.45, % rhythm 50.0, p less than 0.03); a significant reduction of parasympathetic activation was also found in Group B (MSSD: 27.8 vs 15.4, p less than 0.05; pNN50: 2.9 vs 0.6, p less than 0.05). These results suggest a different pattern in circadian variation of HF and lower degree of time and frequency domain of heart rate variability, as a marker of vagal tone in patients with high susceptibility to coronary vasospasm.

Angina Pectoris, Variant

Circadian rhythmicity in the rat exocrine pancreas: chronomorphological patterns.

Circadian rhythmicity of the structural morphometric model of rat endocrine pancreas has been studied in 24 Wistar female rats, four months old, kept in LD 12:12. The following parameters were evaluated: the volume fractions of nucleus and cytoplasm of exocrine cells, the size distribution and number in unit tissue volume of acinar cell nuclei, the mean nuclear diameter, the shape coefficient of glandular acini (that is the ratio acinar area/perimeter2 which indicates the shifting of structures from circularity). A statistically significant circadian rhythm was demonstrated for the shape coefficient of glandular acini. Results obtained in the present experiment are compared with data recorded in a previous study.

Animals

Circadian rhythmicity of acid secretion and electrical function in intact and injured rat gastric mucosa--the relation of timing to ulcerogenesis.

Alteration of electrical function in mammalian gastric mucosa is considered as an indicator of gastric barrier rupture. Measurements of transmucosal potential difference (PD) and electrical resistance (R) have documented such alterations to a variety of mucosal damaging agents. This study was designed to test whether the rat gastric mucosa exhibits circadian rhythms in acid secretion and electrical function and whether the damage produced by a mucosal acting agent (butyric acid) is also circadian-stage dependent. Mucosa was isolated from the gastric body of male rats standardized from birth to a light-dark regimen. Circadian rhythms of acid secretion and PD and R with acrophases during the dark hours were documented. Administration of butyric acid produced circadian-stage dependent damage with an acrophase also during the dark-phase span. Thus, in this experimental model, measurements of electrical function represented a poor index of gastric mucosal susceptibility to damaging agents. The authors discuss the possibility that rhythms other than those related to electrical function may better define mucosal vulnerability to ulcerogenesis.

Animals

Circatrigintan hormonal and skin surface temperature rhythms following hysterectomy.

Starting 2.5 weeks after removal of her uterus, but not of her ovaries, a 34-year-old, clinically healthy woman contributed a daily blood sample at 0900 and measured her skin surface temperature on her right breast above the nipple and just below the right breast daily for the ensuing 2 months. In aliquots of serum stored frozen, luteinizing hormone (LH) and follicle-stimulating hormone (FSH) were determined in the United States; these hormones and prolactin, estradiol (E2), progesterone, testosterone, dehydroepiandrosterone-sulfate (DHEA-S), cortisol, triiodothyronine (T3), free thyroxine (T4), and free testosterone were determined in Italy. Hormonal data were analyzed by least-squares rhythmometry with and without the data obtained around the FSH-LH surge, to assess any circatrigintan variation. Technically, there is good agreement between the rhythm characteristics of the series of determinations made in Italy and the United States. A circatrigintan rhythm is thus quantified for LH, FSH, prolactin, E2, progesterone, and testosterone. Analyses of the differential skin surface temperature (DST) between the two sites were carried out to examine the usefulness of this variable as a marker rhythm for a noninvasive assessment of the time of ovulation. Features as prominent as the LH and FSH surge, which would render the noninvasive assessment of ovulation time more reliable, were not found in the DST of the subject under the conditions examined, even if a circatrigintan component is demonstrable for DST and some of the hormones examined after hysterectomy.

Adult

Circadian changes in human natural killer-cell activity.

The circadian changes in natural killer (NK) activity of peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PDM) were studied in five clinically healthy, diurnally active, nocturnally resting women. Data on spontaneous NK-cell activity were complemented by data on the chronosusceptibility to in vitro inhibition by 1 X 10(-6) M cortisol and by the rhythmometric evaluation of rectal temperature and plasma cortisol as potential circadian markers. In April-July, 1985, blood was drawn at 4-hr intervals for 24 hr starting at 0800 hr. Cells were immediately separated and assayed for NK activity using K 562 cultured cells as a target and a 4-hr 51Cr-release assay. Circadian variations of the spontaneous NK activity were apparent; the maximum of the activity occurred in the morning or in the early afternoon. In individual subjects, peak-to-through differences were 50% or more of the 24-hr mean. Chronosusceptibility to cortisol (20 hr incubation prior to the cytotoxic assay) was ecphasic with respect to the spontaneous NK-cell activity, with a maximum in the evening or night. Data obtained by immunofluorescence using specific anti-NK cell monoclonal antibodies confirm the occurrence of a higher number of phenotypically identifiable NK effectors in the morning vs. other circadian stages. Our data confirm previous findings and extend their scope to immunopharmacology emphasizing the need for time-qualified investigations on immune coordination in vivo.

Adult

Circadian rhythms of acid secretion and electric parameters in rat gastric mucosa in vitro.

In male Wistar rats standardized from birth in LD 12:12 conditions (with light from 0700 to 1900 hr), samples of mucosa from the body of the stomach were isolated in vitro and mounted in a Ussing-type chamber. Spontaneous secretion of the hydrogen ion (H+)during 45 min of incubation was measured. Some electric parameters [transmucosal potential difference (PD) and electrical resistance (R)] were detected in the gastric mucosa both during H+ secretion and during inhibition of acid secretion by cimetidine. The variables studied were analyzed with the single cosinor method, and all revealed a circadian rhythm with acrophases during the dark span. The higher values of PD and R found during the dark hours are unrelated to acid secretion and may indicate a greater efficiency of ionic pumps and a limited passive permeability.

Animals

Circatrigintan rectal temperature and endocrine rhythms of clinically healthy, menstrually cycling women.

Rectal temperatures were measured automatically every 10 min for part or most of two menstrual cycles in ten clinically healthy young women, 20-30 years of age, with a wearable instrument, the Polychronor. Occasional malfunction of the instrumentation resulted in corresponding gaps in the series. Data were examined by chronograms, plexograms, and chronobiologic serial sections computed with the fit of a 24-hr period, population-mean cosinor, and linear-nonlinear least-squares analyses. Single cosinor-derived circadian parameters were next fitted with a cosine curve of a period equal to the number of days of the corresponding intermenstruum. Second-order infradian inferential statistics were calculated next; the first day of menstruation was used as acrophase reference. A population-mean cosinor at the intermenstrual period yields a temperature acrophase of -279 degrees, with the 95% confidence interval extending from -254 degrees to -312 degrees. Since the intermenstruum differs in different subjects and/or in different menstrual cycles of a given woman, this acrophase corresponds to different time intervals from the first day of menstruation in different cases. This acrophase thus indicates the relative timing within the menstrual cycle of overall high rectal temperatures. On four subjects in four stages of their menstrual cycle, plasma was also obtained at 2-hr intervals around the clock. Ten hormones were determined. The sparse endocrine sampling along the menstrual cycle notwithstanding, a circatrigintan rhythm in all hormones investigated was demonstrated for a woman 26 years of age. At the period corresponding to the intermenstrual interval, the acrophases for T3, cortisol, FSH, testosterone, DHEA-S, T4, and LH occurred before the circatrigintan rectal temperature acrophase, whereas the acrophases for prolactin, estradiol, and progesterone occurred near or shortly after the rectal temperature acrophase. Whereas earlier circatrigintan mapping of adult women had been summarized on a group basis, this study allows individualized circatrigintan rhythm assessment. Circatrigintan, like circadian and circannual, acrophase and amplitude relations do not necessarily imply causal relations, yet they are an indispensable quantitative reference standard for the study of basic mechanisms and for diagnosis and intervention, including endeavors in planned parenthood that might take into account the organism's dynamics with multiple frequencies.

Adult

Circadian rhythm of the in vivo migration of neutrophils in psoriatic patients.

Neutrophil chemotaxis in ten subjects with psoriasis was evaluated in vivo by the quantitative skin-window technique using autologous serum and in vitro using a modified Boyden technique. The in vitro chemotaxis values of the psoriatics were significantly lower (P less than 0.01) than those of healthy controls. When measured in vivo, however, we found that, after 9, 12, and 24 h, the values of the migrating polymorphonuclear leukocytes (PMNL) of psoriasis patients were only slightly and non-significantly lower than normal values. Analysing the in vivo chemotaxis data by a chronobiological method, we demonstrated statistically significant circadian rhythms in nine of the ten psoriasis patients. In seven of the patients, we found that the population had a significant rhythm, with the acrophase at -328 degrees. Our in vitro and in vivo values are in agreement with previously published values. However, there was a definite circadian rhythm of migration that we could not demonstrate in normal controls. We consider that our data reveal a significant and important difference between neutrophil chemotaxis in vivo in normal subjects and that in patients with psoriasis.

Adult

Chronobiology principles and methods of studying biological rhythms.

In studying many diseases we meet with periodic phenomena. The appearance of some symptoms and the relevant remissions often have a cyclic pattern. The temporal structure of living organisms is at the root of these phenomena: the correct intermodulation, in terms of time, of the biological variables, realizes the conditions of well being. If the harmony between the biological rhythms is disturbed for some reason, the subjects find themselves in the state of proneness to disease or of overt disease. To evaluate this different situation it is necessary to follow the biological phenomena during the time and estimate, with correct statistical methods, the periodicity, the relevant parameters and the ratios. So research has to be completed with a sufficient number of measurements of pertinent variables and of the variables to be utilized as marker rhythms. For this purpose, autorhythmometry and automatic monitoring can help greatly. Evaluation of the parameters and ratios between the biological rhythms pertinent to the studied disease and marker rhythms constitute the ground on which the discussion and conclusions of the research have to be founded.

Body Temperature

[Circadian periodicity and stomach ulcer. An animal experiment model for the detection of rhythm factors in the genesis of civilization diseases].

Against the background of clinical experience attesting to the role of the circadian and circannual rhythm stage in gastric ulcerogenesis, animal experiments provide a model where by circadian stage and sex are both revealed as determinants of gastric ulcerogenesis. Experiments on the genetically mesor-hypertensive Okamoto rat demonstrate the critical interaction of multiple loads in ulcerogenesis, in keeping with a report by Glavin and Mikhail. While stimulation by single loads of a certain intensity--immobilization, food deprivation or cooling--did not regularly lead to the production of gastric ulcers, the combination of these same loads did so as a function of circadian state at the beginning of exposure time.

Animals