Biomedical subjects
Publications and source records attributed to G Roccatagliata.
The effects of Baclofen, a gabamimetic drug, have been studied in 4 patients affected by Huntington's Chorea. The biochemical bases of Chorea are discussed in relation to the HVA modifications in the cerebrospinal fluid induced by the drug. Some interesting data on the extrapyramidal physiology may be achieved with further investigations in a greater group of patients.
CSF values of dopamine and serotonine metabolites (homovanillic acid and 5-hydroxy-indoleacetic acid) have been studied in 4 patients suffering from late dyskinesia due to neuroleptics. Trazodone (which acts on all monoaminergic systems, namely noradrenergic, dopaminergic and serotoninergic) induced a marked clinical improvement associated with CSF HVA increase and 5-HIAA decrease. The Authors suggest that involuntary movements could be due to an impairment of 5-HT e DA link.
16 patients with organic depression were treated with low doses of trazodone (100 mg/day) by i.v. infusion. This drug was shown to have a marked antidepressant and anxiolytic action and did not produce any significant side-effects. The authors suggest that on the basis of the diminished 24-hour urinary excretion of 5-HIAA, trazodone seems to have an antiserotonin action at low doses.
Two patients with Huntington's chorea are reported whose psychiatric and neurological symptoms greatly improved after treatment with L-dopa. In both cases the basal values of CSF HVA were markedly decreased, being increased by the treatment with L-dopa.
CSF metabolites of dopamine (HVA), norepinephrine (MHPG) and serotonine (5HIAA) in 9 patients affected by Huntington's Chorea before and after therapy with phenotiazine derivatives (Fluphenazine) have been studied. A close relationship seems to exist between therapeutical results and CSF HVA modifications: improvement of choreatic movements is associated with marked increase in CSF HVA values. Biochemical bases of Huntington's Chorea are discussed.
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.
BACKGROUND: Periodic paralysis is a well known complication of thytotoxicosis in Chinese and Japanese patients, but has been considered extremely rare in caucasians. PATIENTS AND METHODS: Between 1991 and 1996, we admitted 8 caucasian patients to our Hospital due to thyrotoxic periodic paralysis. We retrospectively analysed their clinical manifestations. RESULTS: All the patients were males. Their attacks started at night or early after awakening, frequently triggered by a high carbohydrate diet and physical exertion. Myalgias and flaccid weakness predominated over proximal leg muscles, sparing bulbar and respiratory musculature. Reflexes were brisk at the onset of the attack and reduced or absent during the course of the episode. Prior to diagnosis patients presented 1-5 attacks of thyrotoxic periodic paralysis each lasting 1-96 hours. Hypokalemia was documented in 6 patients. The episodes of periodic paralysis led to the diagnosis of a previously unsuspected thyrotoxicosis in 6 patients. In the other 2 patients the diagnosis of the thyroid dysfunction preceded the periodic paralysis. Attacks resolved after treatment of the hyperthyroid state. CONCLUSIONS: Thyrotoxic periodic paralysis is an under-diagnosed but probably frequent complication of hyperthyroidism in caucasians. Early recognition of the attacks is essential to investigate and treat the underlying thyroid dysfucntion whose symptoms are usually mild. The episodes of periodic paralysis resolve with the correction of the hyperthyroidism.
The scope of the work is to list and analyse, after a historical introduction on the subject, the principle clinical characteristics of "Huntington's Disease". The epidemiological aspects, those clinical-semeiotical, the course of the disease and the type of after affects of Huntington's Diseases are examined. The more significant details of the natural history of the chorea maior, as emerge from the literature, are compared with those that result from the study of the thirty cases of this chronic disease. In particular the following are analysed, the genetic aspects, the character of the psycho-organic deterioration of the chronic chorea, the psychiatric component and various clinical-semeiotical formalities, how the disease begins, its course, its duration, etc. The authors conclude pointing out the particular character of the dementia of Huntington's Disease, (of the pre-frontal type), the strong psychopathological incidence and the particular formalities of hereditary transmission of the mendelian type of this singular disease.
As a preliminary approach to an epidemiological investigation of Huntington's disease, the authors report the incidence of admissions of these patients to both Neurological and Psychiatric Departments in Genoa and surrounding region from 1930 to 1977. The number of patients (84 cases) and their family history (225 cases of Chorea in the ancestors) suggest a prevalence of Huntington's disease remarkably higher (about 28 cases out of 100,000 inhabitants) than it is usually estimated. Further studies are however required to assess the distribution of the disease in the whole population of the region.
The imputation that a clinically solitary nodule is a suspicious sign of carcinoma has been the cause of too many surgical procedures as well as the subject of much controversy. This study evaluated the effectiveness of fine needle aspiration (FNA) biopsy cytology in diagnosing the uninodular goiters in 286 patients who presented with clinically solitary nodules. The final diagnoses in these cases included carcinoma (4.7%), adenoma (6.3%), autonomous nodule (11.0%), colloid goiter (45.8%), colloid cyst (17.4%) and chronic thyroiditis (13.4%). The proportion of patients with cancer in this group was the same as in patients with multinodular and diffuse goiters. These findings call attention to (1) the fact that any thyroid disease may appear as a uninodular goiter and (2) the frequency with which lymphocytic thyroiditis was cytologically diagnosed, even in cases with negative antibody titers. The cytologic diagnosis of benign disease has contributed to a reduction in the number of unnecessary surgical procedures; only 24.1% of our patients with uninodular goiters underwent surgery.
Explore the source record for details and available documents.
The cerebral ventricular size of 15 patients with chronic schizophrenia and 20 age and sex matched controls, has been measured on the basis of the TC scan examination. The schizophrenic patients underwent also a psychometric evaluation by means the WAIS and PM 38 tests. The ventricular size was larger in patients than in normal controls. A significant positive correlation between ventricular measures and the PM 38, some WAIS' sub-tests scores and WAIS Det. % index has been demonstrated and discussed.
Explore the source record for details and available documents.