Biomedical subjects
Publications and source records attributed to G Luisetto.
The calcitonin (CT) concentration has been determined in the serum of 17 patients with different pituitary diseases. More or less elevated levels were found in 7 of them. No definite correlation has been observed between the immunoreactive CT and the different pituitary hormones.
The clinical picture of hyperparathyroidism has gone toward deep modifications in the last few decades, and currently this disease is more frequently asymptomatic. So, the question is raising concerning which patients have to be operated, due to the substantial benignity of the disease and the lack of well defined symptoms. Classical indications for surgery have been formulated more than a decade ago and are as follows: calcemia higher than 3 mmol/L, previous episode of life threatening hypercalcaemia, reduced creatinine clearance, nephrolithiasis, hypercalciuria, osteoporosis. In the last years other indications have been added, on the basis of clinical and epidemiological studies that have contributed to broaden our knowledgement on the evolution and compliances of the disease. Among these, the following data have to been kept in mind: history of previous atraumatic fractures, vertebral osteopenia (Z-score < -2), vitamin D deficiency, perimenopausal status, neuromuscular or psychical disturbances.
During 7 months of calcitriol treatment in eight CAPD patients, significant increases in serum creatinine and daily excretion of this substance in dialysis fluid were observed, but there was a significant decrease in creatinine in the urinary daily output. When therapy was stopped, creatinine levels fell to baseline in serum and peritoneal fluid, and urine values continued to decrease as previously observed. Dynamometric performance showed a significant increase during treatment, which remained after drug withdrawal. These findings suggest that the transient increase of serum creatinine during calcitriol treatment may be a result of an increased production and release of this metabolite from muscle.
We studied the reproducibility in vitro and in vivo of a new bone densitometer (HOLOGIC QDR-1000, software version 4.03) which uses an x-ray source at two different levels of energy. Short and long term coefficient of variation (c.v.) in vitro is less than 0.5%. In vivo c.v. is less than 1% in normal body weight subjects and less than 3% in obese subjects. The ingestion of 500 mg of calcium element did not modify bone mineral density (BMD), while 1000 mg determined an increase of BMD equal to 2.6% and 1.5% in the two subjects examined. The increase of water thickness on a three femoral heads phantom caused a progressive reduction of bone mineral content (BMC) and BMD until 12.1% less than basal value and an increase of c.v. from 0.1% to 1%. The addition of oil to water at different percentages determined a slight increase of both BMC and BMD, till 3.5% with 66% of oil in water, if compared with the values obtained with water alone. The reduction of soft tissue around the bone determined a progressive decrease of BMD reaching 3.4% less than basal value when the reduction was 30%.