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Biomedical subjects

G Cavallini

Publications and source records attributed to G Cavallini.

At least 145 records · Page 8Linked to original sources
PubMed1985

Serum PABA and fluorescein in the course of Bz-Ty-PABA and pancreolauryl test as an index of exocrine pancreatic insufficiency.

Forty-six subjects (20 chronic pancreatitis, 7 chronic liver disease, 7 recovered from acute pancreatitis, 2 Crohn's disease, and 10 healthy controls) classified by S-C test as having normal pancreatic function (26 subjects), or moderate (10 subjects) and severe (10 cases) pancreatic insufficiency, were given, on different days, 1 g of oral PABA or 348 mg of oral fluorescein dilaurate. At the 1st, 2nd, and 4th hours (PABA) and the 2nd, 4th, and 6th hours (fluorescein) serum samples were taken for assay. In the presence of severe exocrine pancreatic insufficiency, the sensitivity of the fluorescein serum levels was higher than that observed for the PABA (100% and 80%, respectively), and quite similar to that shown by the urinary tests (100% and 70%, respectively). On the contrary, in presence of moderate pancreatic insufficiency, both the urinary test (pancreolauryl and (PABA) give a sensitivity higher than that found in the serum tests (30-40% and 10-30%, respectively). The parallel combination of both the serum or urinary tests does not significantly improve the sensitivity of the single test. These results suggest that the serum PABA and serum fluorescein tests can be valid choice when a prolonged urinary collection is difficult, i.e., in children and in elderly patients. However, the slight diagnostic gain does not justify the routine use of both urinary and serum tests.

4-Aminobenzoic Acid↗
PubMed1985

Plasma levels of lactoferrin in children suffering from cystic fibrosis.

Plasma levels of lactoferrin (LF) have been found to be increased in a few patients with cystic fibrosis (CF). This study was aimed at investigating plasma LF levels in children with CF (26 cases) and in controls (C) (19 cases). Plasma LF was measured by a radioimmunoassay method. Plasma LF levels were not significantly different in CF and in C, even though 10 CF patients showed LF levels above the mean + 2 SD value of the controls. Neither the duration of the disease nor the age of the controls was correlated with LF or with the exocrine pancreatic capacity. A significant relationship between the presence of an acute lung inflammation and LF levels was found. This study shows that LF is increased in CF only in the presence of an acute inflammatory state. Further studies are necessary to establish the usefulness of an LF assay as an index of the presence of an acute inflammatory process.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1985

Association of chronic alcoholic liver and pancreatic disease: a prospective study.

Seventy-two chronic alcoholics, 40 (all males) with chronic pancreatitis and 32 (23 males and nine females) with liver cirrhosis, were submitted to liver biopsy, endoscopic retrograde cholangiopancreatography and secretin-caerulein test in order to assess a possible liver involvement in chronic pancreatitis and viceversa, and to evaluate the existence of any relationship between the diseases of these two organs. Chronic pancreatitis patients were younger than cirrhotic patients and drank more than the cirrhotic females. Twenty-nine of the 40 patients had abnormal liver histology, five had micronodular cirrhosis and were older than the others. No relationship was found between the degree of pancreatic impairment and the type of liver injury. Five liver cirrhosis patients had an endoscopic retrograde cholangiopancreatography picture consistent with chronic pancreatitis; two were females with an alcohol intake lower than the one of the other females. In conclusion the association of chronic pancreatitis and liver cirrhosis was observed in a minority of cases, with the same percentage in the two groups, even if the cirrhotic subjects were older than the pancreatitics. Therefore we can postulate that different factors have roles in the pathogenesis of alcoholic cirrhosis and of chronic alcoholic pancreatitis. The association of the two diseases in two women with a relatively low alcohol intake supports this hypothesis.

Adult↗
PubMed1984

Carbenoxolone and prostaglandin E2 and F2 alpha gastric juice levels in man.

The purpose of the present study is to evaluate the effect of carbenoxolone after a non-oral administration on the levels of prostaglandins E2 and F2 alpha in gastric juice. The gastric secretion of 6 healthy volunteers (in basal conditions and after administration of a stimulus of 6 micrograms/kg weight of pentagastrin i.m.) was studied before and after seven days of treatment with 150 mg b.i.d. of carbenoxolone suppository. Concentration and output of prostaglandins E2 and F2 alpha (measured by radioimmunoassay), hydrochloric acid, pepsin and N-acetylneuraminic acid in gastric juice were determined. Compared to control values, no statistically significant difference in acid, pepsin or prostaglandin F2 alpha content, or in gastric juice volume, was observed after treatment. However a significant increase was observed in the concentration and output of prostaglandin E2 after administration of pentagastrin. The concentration and output of N-acetyl-neuraminic acid increased significantly only in basal conditions in carbenoxolone-treated subjects. The present study suggests that the cytoprotective action of carbenoxolone on gastric mucosa in man could be due to an increased prostaglandin E2 activity. This effect is observed after rectal administration, therefore suggesting that carbenoxolone also has a systemic action.

Carbenoxolone↗
PubMed1984

Is the 14C-triolein breath test useful in the assessment of malabsorption in clinical practice?

A 14C-triolein breath test was carried out on 49 subjects suffering from chronic pancreatitis or from other digestive diseases, and its results were compared with the daily fecal fat excretion. The 14CO2 peak excretion was abnormal in all the subjects with a fecal fat excretion above 14 g/day, whereas individual values of 14CO2 peak excretion in subjects without steatorrhea and with a fecal fat excretion ranging from 7.1 to 14 g overlapped. The lowest value observed in patients not suffering from steatorrhea was chosen as the lower normal limit of 14CO2 peak excretion. A test sensitivity as high as 64% was attained. The correlation between fecal fat and 14CO2 peak excretion was highly significant (r = 0.802; p less than 0.0001), and it followed a negative exponential function. Therefore, small variations in the 14CO2 peak excretion can be associated with a wide range of fecal fat excretion. Well-compensated diabetes secondary to pancreatitis did not interfere with the results of the test. In conclusion, in our experience this test proved to be a qualitative diagnostic tool with a low sensitivity.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1984

Long-term outcome of acute necrohemorrhagic pancreatitis. A 4-year follow-up.

This long-term follow-up of 27 patients treated with conservative surgery for necrohemorrhagic pancreatitis (NHP) showed that an almost complete recovery of the exocrine function is achieved within 4 years after discharge, while about half of the patients presented still abnormal endocrine function. The morphological sequelae, pointed out by endoscopic retrograde pancreatography in almost 50% of the cases, remained unchanged during the follow-up period. Therefore, these data seem to exclude an evolution of NHP towards chronic pancreatitis.

Acute Disease↗
PubMed1984

Leukocyte adherence inhibition assay in immunodiagnosis of colon cancers.

35 colon cancer patients and 80 control subjects were submitted to tube leukocyte adherence inhibition test (LAI test), where leukocytes do not adhere to glass in the presence of an antigen to which they are sensitized. The test was performed with the Thomson method; washed leukocytes and 3M KCl tissue extracts were used (as source of antigens colon and unrelated cancer extracts, as control normal colon). Non-adherent cell difference was evaluated by a non adherence index (NAI), indexes higher than 25 were regarded as positive, lower as negative. The test proved to be a high selective test, which can reliably single out the earliest (A and B Dukes' stages) and less differentiated cancers.

Antigens, Neoplasm↗
PubMed1983

Reliability of the Bz-Ty-PABA and the pancreolauryl test in the assessment of exocrine pancreatic function.

The reliability of the para-aminobenzoic acid (PABA) test (performed in the conventional manner, i.e. without control day) and of the pancreolauryl test was assayed in respect of the exocrine pancreatic capacity measured by using the secretin-caerulein test in 57 subjects, 22 of which were suffering from chronic pancreatitis. When 50 and 20% urinary excretion of the orally administered Bz-Ty-PABA and pancreolauryl, respectively, were chosen as the lower normal limits, the PABA test showed a specificity quite similar to that of the pancreolauryl test (97 and 95%, respectively) despite the lack of a control day test, but a lower sensitivity (39 vs. 83%). The association of both tests was not advantageous compared with the pancreolauryl test alone.

4-Aminobenzoic Acid↗
PubMed1983

Lactoferrin concentration in the parotid saliva of patients with chronic pancreatitis.

Lactoferrin is present in pancreatic juice, and greatly increased concentrations are found in the pancreatic juice of patients with chronic pancreatitis. It is not known whether these high levels of lactoferrin represent a genetically determined defect predisposing to the later development of chronic pancreatitis or are simply a consequence of the disease. In view of the morphological and functional similarities between the pancreatic and parotid glands, we have measured the immunoreactive lactoferrin concentration in pure parotid saliva of 30 patients with chronic calcific pancreatitis, 26 controls, 5 patients with proven pancreatic cancer, 2 patients with Sjögren's disease and 2 patients with chronic recurrent parotitis. No difference in the lactoferrin concentration was detected between control subjects and patients with chronic pancreatitis or pancreatic cancer. Raised levels were found in the 4 patients with parotid gland disease. These findings suggest that increased lactoferrin secretion is confined to the exocrine pancreas in patients with chronic pancreatitis and is thus probably a phenomenon secondary to the disease.

Calcinosis↗
PubMed1983

Evolution of pain in chronic relapsing pancreatitis: a study of operated and nonoperated patients.

A group of 191 patients with chronic relapsing pancreatitis was followed for about 10 years. Ninety-three of them were selected for surgery because of incapacitating painful relapses or persistent pain and were submitted to side-to-side pancreaticojejunostomy. Ninety-eight were selected for medical management. Seventeen patients died during the follow-up. The cumulative probability of pain relief, 10 years after clinical onset of the disease was 62.9% in the patients who had been submitted to surgery and 42.8% in the nonoperated patients. In the operated group, no case of further relapse was observed after a 3-year pain-free interval, but in the nonoperated group some patients complained of further painful relapses. Complete and lasting alcohol withdrawal and/or steatorrhea were significantly associated with a more favorable result in the patients who had been submitted to surgery. However, the relationship between alcohol consumption, exocrine pancreatic insufficiency, and pain behavior did not reach statistical significance in the nonoperated patients. In patients selected for and submitted to surgery, whose disease before surgery was severe because of a high frequency of painful relapses, the chance of pain relief was similar to, and to some extent higher than, that observed in patients not selected for surgery and suffering from a mild or moderate disease. Alcohol withdrawal and exocrine pancreatic insufficiency have been confirmed as being adjunctive factors toward lessening pain in patients who had been submitted to pancreaticojejunostomy.

Adult↗
PubMed1983

Serum primary bile acids in chronic alcoholic pancreatitis.

Since cholestasis is a common, although poorly recognized, complication of chronic pancreatitis, and bile acids seem to be a sensitive index of cholestasis, fasting and post-prandial s-cholic and s-chenodeoxycholic acids were determined by radioimmunoassay in 48 chronic alcoholic pancreatitis patients (CP) and 22 healthy controls (C). Patients were grouped as follows: chronic pancreatitis with and without cholestasis; chronic pancreatitis operated on or not. A statistically significant increase in both CA and CDCA was observed in CP with cholestasis vis-a-vis C. In the CP without cholestasis and with normal biliary tract the average CA and CDCA values were also higher than in C, even though the difference was not statistically significant. No difference was observed between patients submitted or not submitted to pancreojejunostomy. The CA/CDCA ratio was increased in all CP subgroups, even in the patients without cholestasis, with significant difference only for some samples. Thus an increase in serum bile acids can be detected.

Alcoholism↗
PubMed1982

[Hypotheses on the tumoral nature of fibrocystic mastopathy. Review of bibliographic data and experimental immunologic tests].

The literature on fibrocystic mastopathy has been reviewed and it is noted that, if considered to be a dyplasia pure and simple, it is hard to fit the disease into the biphasic framework of cancer growth; its histopathological picture and development are very suggestive of cancer, it has the same experimental models as breast cancer; there are episodic contradictory results when it is submitted to immunological testing. On these bases, 16 cases of fibrocystic mastopathy have been put through the LAI test according to Thompson. It was found that the disease is antigenic in its clear stage, and that the pictures preceding and following it have a typical immunological index (NAI). With these and reported data, it is concluded that there are sound experimental bases for hypothesising that in its clear stage, fibrocystic mastopathy is a benign tumour of the breast.

Animals↗
PubMed1982

Calcium and parathyroid hormone behaviour after exogenous secretin infusion in man.

The response of serum calcium, PTH, CT and gastrin to an infusion of secretin (3 CU/kg/h) over a period of 90 min was studied in ten healthy males and two female patients with hypoparathyroidism. In the healthy males serum calcium, after a transient fall, significantly increased at 45 min after the onset of the infusion (P less than 0.001). Serum iPTH rose significantly within 5 min whereas serum CT and gastrin concentrations did not change. The two hypoparathyroid patients did not show any variations in either serum iPTH or calcium. These findings suggest that infusion of pharmacological doses of secretin into normal subjects modifies serum calcium, and that this change is due to PTH release.

Calcitonin↗
PubMed1982

Duodenal ulcer in chronic relapsing pancreatitis.

Frequency of duodenal ulcer in patients with chronic pancreatitis is still controversial. This study aims to prospectively investigate the frequency of duodenal ulcer in a group of 190 patients (162 males and 28 females) affected by chronic relapsing pancreatitis admitted to our department between 1970 and 1979. 41 cases (21.5%) were endoscopically observed (22% of the males and 17.9% of the females; male:female ratio 1.2:1). Drinking habits, cigarette consumption, presence of pancreatic calcifications and surgery did not affect the frequency of duodenal ulcer. Exocrine pancreatic insufficiency, as fecal fat excretion higher than 7 g/day, seems to be linked with an increased frequency of duodenal ulcer (exact Fisher's test: p = 0.0586). Moreover, duodenal ulcer was present in about one third of the patients who afterwards died, but it was the cause of death in only 1 case. Even if a prospective control population is lacking, the male:female ratio of duodenal ulcer in chronic pancreatitis seems to be different from that observed in a comparable hospitalized group (1.2:1 vs. 2.4:1) and from that reported in literature in the general adult population.

Alcohol Drinking↗