Search PubMed⌕ Search

Biomedical subjects

F Piccinino

Publications and source records attributed to F Piccinino.

At least 55 records · Page 3Linked to original sources
PubMed1978

The significance of the Australia antigen (HBsAg) persistent healthy carrier "status": a long-term follow-up study of 34 cases.

Thirty-four persistent healthy carriers of HBsAg (serum HBsAg detectable for longer than 3 months with normal liver function tests and normal liver histology or slight aspecific abnormalities) were discovered by routine testing of household relatives of B virus hepatitis patients. The carriers were followed-up for 11 to 37 months by clinical control, liver function tests and liver needle biopsy. None carrier had previous jaundice. During the follow-up period, in 17 of the 34 subjects, was there no evidence of deterioration in either clinical state, liver function of pathological findings. In 5 of the 34 carriers, HBsAg disappeared from serum after a period ranging from 6 to 12 months. The remaining 12 cases developed clinical and histological picture of acute viral hepatitis after 6 to 29 months (mean 12 months). Of these 12 patients, 6 recovered and become HBsAg; 2 remained HBsAg healthy carriers despite normalization of biochemical and histological abnormalities; 3 progressed from the acute stage to antigen positive CAH. The remaining one case could not be followed-up after the acute hepatitis. Our data indicate that the outcome of the HBsAg carrier state is unpredictable and stress the need of long-term follow-up surveillance.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1977

Treatment of chronic active hepatitis with either prednisolone or corticotrophin: a controlled trial.

A total of 54 patients hospitalized for chronic active hepatitis were randomly treated, 29 with prednisolone (maintenance dose 15 mg/day) and 25 with depot synthetic corticotrophin (maintenance dose 1 mg/week, i.m.) and were followed up for 6 to 24 months or longer. In this series, young males predominated, the incidence of serum HBsAg positivity approached 80% in both treatment and no patient had initial evidence of cirrhosis or had autoimmune associated diseases. With either drug SGOT levels showed a decrease during the initial 12 months of therapy (p less than 0.05); initial jaundice, when present, had disappeared by the 3rd month of treatment. With both treatments globulins and gamma-globulins decreased significantly after 12 to 24 months of therapy. Serum HBsAg persisted in all but two cases. Serum liver biopsies showed the following evolutions of histological activity: 12 cases (22%) improved to the "inactive phase" (8 with prednisolone and 4 with corticotrophin); 19 (35%) improved to a lesser extent (8 with prednisolone and 11 with corticotrophin); 17 (32%) remained unchanged (11 with prednisolone and 6 with corticotrophin); 6 (11%) worsened (2 with prednisolone and 4 with corticotrophin). Morphological features of cirrhosis appearently developed in 15 patients (8 treated with prednisolone and 7 with corticotrophin) of whom 7 achieved improvement of histological aggressiveness concurrently. Differences between treatments were not significant. Side effects suggesting drug discontinuation occurred only in 6 cases.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1977

Liver histology in 34 "HPsAg long-term healthy carriers.

Thirty four out of 45 HBsAg long-term carriers with normal liver function tests, discovered among family members of patients with HBsAg positive liver diseases, have been investigated by liver biopsy. Of these 34, 12 had normal liver tissue and 8 mild non specific changes, such as focal Kupffer cell hyperplasia or mild lymphocytic infiltrates in the portal tracts on liver biopsy. Two subjects showed multiple histioid granulomata scattered in normal liver parenchyma. Of the remaining 12 cases, 8 showed some areas of pin-head necrosis and mild portal tracts infiltration and 4 showed some areas of focal parenchymal infiltration associated with portal tracts inflammation. We consider that these histological changes are very mild lesions within the spectrum of hepatitis. None of our cases had histological picture of Chronic liver disease. Consequently it appears that normal liver function tests may be of some values to exclude severe histological abnormalities.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1977

Acute viral hepatitis in Italy. Results of a collaborative study.

The etiological and clinical aspects of viral hepatitis were evaluated by a retrospective survey of patients hospitalized in 1972, 1973 and 1974 in 12 specialized medical centers scattered throughout Italy. The data refer to 2788 patients suffering from acute viral hepatitis who were hospitalized during the initial 10 days of jaundice. The majority of patients (90%) had not been treated with steroids. For each case, the clinical and biochemical data were recorded, coded, computerized and statistically analyzed. In our patient population viral hepatitis was more frequent among younger patients. We observed a high frequency of HBsAg positive hepatitis (40.7%) which was seldom associated to a history of parenteral exposure and showed an irregular geographical distribution. HBsAg positive hepatitis was similarly distributed between males and females. It was more frequent in patients older than 30 (60%) than in children (18-23%) and younger patients (42%). In our series, the frequency of HBsAg hepatitis found in surgeons (81.8%) and nursing personnel (66.3%), but not in physicians (41.2%), was greater than that of the entire sample due to their exposure to blood.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1975

Familial clustering of hepatitis B antigen and liver diseases in families with a high incidence of viral hepatitis.

In each of 23 families in which two or more cases of acute hepatitis-like jaundice (index cases) occurred, all family members were studied to evaluate HBAg clustering and the incidence of asymptomatic liver disease. There were 49 "index cases" of hepatitis-like jaundice: 38 cases of acute viral hepatitis, 5 of chronic agressive hepatitis and 6 of active cirrhosis. The overall number of members in these families (excluding index cases) was 170 and 155 of which were tested by clinical examination, laboratory tests and needle liver biopsy. In 27 out of the 155 subjects there was evidence of liver diseases (10 non icteric hepatitis cases, 12 CAH cases and 5 cirrhosis cases). HBAg was present in the serum of 19 of these patients, and twof the cirrhotic patients were positive. Furthermore, 33 of the 155 cases were healthy HGAg carriers showing no abnormality in liver function tests. In the majority of these carriers liver histology showed slight damage (pin-head necrosis or portitis) sometimes compatible with resolving viral hepatitis. A long-term follow-up of the HGAg carriers showed that three of these subjects progressed to acute viral hepatitis.

Acute Disease↗
PubMed1975

Differential diagnosis between benign and malignant biliary tract obstruction: discriminative usefulness of some clinical and laboratory data.

The data of 26 patients with obstructive jaundice caused by biliary tract stones were compared to those of patients with malignant obstructive jaundice in order to evaluate the diagnostic effectiveness of some laboratory tests in the differential diagnosis between these two conditions. The Fisher's discriminant analysis was employed. The combined evaluation of serum albumin and haptoglobin appeared to have the most satisfactory discriminative effectiveness, yielding a 54% rate of correct diagnosis, with a safety margin of 95%.

Alanine Transaminase↗
PubMed1975

The differential diagnosis between intrahepatic cholestatic jaundice and viral hepatitis during pregnancy.

Clinical and laboratory findings from 15 patients with icteric viral hepatitis during pregnancy (VHP) and from 22 patients with intrahepatic cholestasis during pregnancy (CJP) were evaluated statistically in order to find out which parameters might help in order to find out which parameters might help in differentiating the two diseases. Diagnosis was established by needle liver biopsy in all cases. The following data were considered: history, physical examination, erythrocyte sedimentation rate (ESR) serum cholesterol, prothrombin time, total serum bilirubin, SGOT, SGPT, serum alkaline phosphatase, serum protein, serum flocculation tests, BSP blood clearance and serum HB Ag. Vomiting, high GOT and GPT serum levels, and serum HB Ag positivity suggest VHP diagnosis. Otherwise a severe itching with scratching lesions, high ESR, elevated total cholesterol and serum alkaline phosphatase values mainly if occurring in the later stage of pregnancy are consistent with CJP diagnosis. When clinical and laboratory data from a jaundiced pregnant female do not allow diagnosis, this can be established only on the basis of needle liver biopsy.

Alanine Transaminase↗