Enteric nervous system in preservation, reperfusion, and rejection of the pig small bowel.
Explore the source record for details and available documents.
Adenosine↗
Biomedical subjects
G Rossi
Publications and source records attributed to G Rossi.
Neoral increases bioavailability versus oral Sandimmune after porcine small bowel transplantation.
Explore the source record for details and available documents.
Administration, Oral↗
Hepatitis B and C virus-induced diseases and acute rejection after liver transplantation.
Explore the source record for details and available documents.
Acute Disease↗
A process for the recovery of strontium from the urine of patients injected with 89Sr.
89Sr is a beta emitter used for palliation of pain in patients with metastatic bone cancer. After each intravenous administration, up to 80% of the isotope is eliminated in the urine. A simple chemical process is described, which permits the recovery and purification of the 89Sr from the urine.
Bone Neoplasms↗
Conventional plain-film radiology, ultrasonography and CT in jejuno-ileal perforation.
PURPOSE: To evaluate conventional radiography, US and CT in identifying jejuno-ileal perforation. MATERIAL AND METHODS: We retrospectively reviewed the findings of conventional radiography, US and CT in 13 consecutive patients with surgically proven jejuno-ileal perforation. RESULTS: The site of perforation was the ileum in 10 cases and the jejunum in 3 cases. Free gas was identified in 6 cases (46%) while indirect findings of perforation were found in 7 (54%). The jejunal perforations were diagnosed by indirect findings in all 3 cases. The ileal perforations were diagnosed by direct findings in 6 cases and indirect findings in 4 cases. CONCLUSION: Conventional radiology did not detect free gas in 7 (54%) of the 13 patients examined. In the absence of free gas, radiology showed indirect signs in all 7 patients, the most common being intraperitoneal free fluid in 5 (71%) of them. Jejunal perforations were more rare than ileal perforations and more difficult to identify by radiology. US was not useful for detecting free gas but it was useful for identifying intraperitoneal free fluid and intestinal paresis. Abdominal CT was useful when performed 6 h after the symptoms began.
Adolescent↗
Intercellular adhesion molecule-1 is upregulated via the protein kinase C pathway in human thyroid carcinoma cell lines.
Nonantigen specific adhesion systems lymphocyte function-associated antigen 1/intercellular adhesion molecule (LFA-1/ICAM-1) and cluster designation 2/lymphocyte function-associated antigen 3 (CD2/LFA-3) are considered a crucial step in immune-mediated cell-cell adhesion reactions. In particular, the LFA-1/ICAM-1 system is deeply involved in major histocompatibility system (MHC)-restricted and non-MHC-restricted cellular cytotoxicity of effector cells against cancer tissues. We have investigated in human thyroid carcinoma cell lines the role of the protein kinase C (PKC) pathway on ICAM-1 expression. Incubation with tissue plasminogen activator (TPA), an agonist of PKC, of two papillary (NPA and TPC-1) and one anaplastic (ARO) carcinoma cell lines induced an ICAM-1 upregulation of both protein and mRNA production. This phenomenon was dependent on RNA and protein synthesis and was inhibited by PKC antagonists such as staurosporine and H-7. A parallel increase in the soluble form of ICAM-1 followed the upregulation of cellular ICAM-1 levels induced by TPA. In conclusion, the PKC pathway is involved in the regulation of ICAM-1 expression in human thyroid carcinoma cell lines. Further studies are necessary to clarify the effects of the PKC pathway on the diffusion of thyroid tumors.
Blotting, Northern↗
Antral follicle development influences plasma membrane organization but not cortical granule distribution in mouse oocytes.
In the present study, we evaluated the contributions of antral follicle development and antral granulosa cell-released factor(s) to the acquisition of a mature mouse oocyte plasma membrane organization and cortical granule distribution. This has been performed by comparing in-vitro matured oocytes derived from early antral follicles (here referred to as denuded oocytes) or from pre-ovulatory follicles, and cultured either as cumulus-intact or cumulus-free oocytes, with in-vivo ovulated eggs. By using scanning and transmission electron microscopy, the denuded oocyte surface appears to be characterized by the presence of long microvilli, while that of pre-ovulatory oocytes and of ovulated eggs by shorter microvilli. However, denuded oocytes can acquire a pre-ovulatory-like plasma membrane configuration when matured in vitro in the presence of early antral granulosa or cumulus cells, but not of NIH-3T3 fibroblasts. On the contrary, fluorescence and confocal microscopy analyses after labelling with fluorescent Lens culinaris agglutinin show that all the oocyte classes analysed are characterized by similar cortical granule distribution and density. Thus, complete antral follicle development plays an important role in the process of oocyte surface differentiation, probably through the action of antral granulosa cell-released factor(s), but it does not affect oocyte capacity to normally distribute cortical granules.
Animals↗
Soluble intercellular adhesion molecule-1 serum profile in physiologic and preeclamptic pregnancy.
PROBLEM: The aim of this study was to determine serum levels of soluble intercellular adhesion molecule (sICAM)-1, an adhesion receptor that mediates interactions with the immune system, in physiologic and preeclamptic pregnancies. Moreover, we evaluated whether the release of sICAM-1 during pregnancy correlated to plasma fibronectin concentrations. METHOD OF STUDY: Serum was collected from 18 nonpregnant, control women, from 58 normal pregnant women during the first (n = 13), second (n = 15), and third (n = 30) trimesters, and from 25 preeclamptic patients at 27-39 weeks' gestation. All samples were assayed for sICAM-1 by a specific enzyme-linked immunoassay and for fibronectin by a nephelometric system. Serum sICAM-1 levels in preeclamptic patients were compared to those obtained from gestational-matched normal pregnant women. RESULTS: Levels of sICAM-1 were significantly elevated (P < 0.001) in each of the three trimesters of normal pregnancy (I trimester: 390.4 +/- 25.7 ng/ml; II trimester: 386.3 +/- 15.4 ng/ml; and III trimester: 367.3 +/- 15.8 ng/ml) when compared to those of healthy nonpregnant women (263.3 +/- 11.6 ng/ml). No significant difference in sICAM-1 concentrations was observed among the three trimesters. Preeclampsia was associated to a significant decrease (P < 0.01) of sICAM-1 levels (309.8 +/- 11.6 ng/ml) relative to those observed in gestational-matched pregnant women (367.3 +/- 15.8 ng/ml). Fibronectin and sICAM-1 levels did not correlate. CONCLUSION: The increased levels of sICAM-1 found in physiologic pregnancies and its reduction in preeclampsia may account for some of the immunologic alterations demonstrated to be associated with pregnancy.
Adult↗
Prolonged prophylaxis with unfractioned heparin is effective to reduce delayed deep vein thrombosis in total hip replacement.
The aim of this study was to assess the incidence of deep vein thrombosis (DVT) and pulmonary embolism (PE) until 45 days after elective total hip replacement (THR) and the efficacy of prolonged unfractioned heparin (UH) prophylaxis up to postoperative day 30. To this end 79 of 96 patients admitted consecutively to the University Hospital of Pisa for THR were randomly assigned to short- or long-term UH prophylaxis. Sixty-one patients completed the study: 28 of them received short-term prophylaxis (subcutaneous UH 15,000 IU/24 h for 15 days) and 33 prolonged prophylaxis (subcutaneous UH 15,000 IU/24 h for 30 days). Lower limb phlebography was performed in all patients on day 45 after THR. DVT was demonstrated in 10 (16.3%) cases after hospital discharge. Among them, 2 patients also had symptomatic PE. The incidence of DVT was 21.4% in short- and 12.1% in long-term UH-treated patients. The incidence of only proximal DVT was 17.8% in short- and 3.0% in long-term UH-treated patients; although the difference was only close to significance (p = 0.085), the relative risk of developing proximal DVT was about six times greater in the former group of patients. We concluded that the risk for thromboembolism persists at least until 45 days after surgery in patients subjected to THR. Prophylaxis with UH given up to postoperative day 30 appears more effective and safer in reducing the delayed thromboembolic risk compared to prophylaxis with UH given up to discharge only.
Aged↗
Endothelial dysfunction in hypertension is independent from the etiology and from vascular structure.
The aim of our study was to evaluate the relationships between endothelial function, small resistance artery structure, and blood pressure in patients with primary or secondary hypertension. Sixty subjects were included in the study: 9 patients with pheochromocytoma, 10 with primary aldosteronism, 17 with renovascular hypertension, and 13 with essential hypertension with 11 normotensive subjects who served as controls. Clinic and 24-hour ambulatory blood pressure (ABPM) were evaluated. All subjects were submitted to a biopsy of subcutaneous fat. Small resistance arteries were dissected and mounted on a micromyograph and the media/lumen ratio was calculated. A dose-response curve to acetylcholine was performed at cumulative concentrations from 10(-9) to 10(-5) mol/L. The vasodilator response to acetylcholine was similarly impaired in the four groups of hypertensive patients (ANOVA P<.05 versus normotensive controls), without any significant difference among them. In subcutaneous small arteries of patients with either primary aldosteronism or renovascular hypertension, a marked increase in media:lumen ratio was observed, while in patients with pheochromocytoma, the extent of vascular structural alterations was similar to that observed in essential hypertension. No significant correlation between media-lumen ratio or clinic blood pressure and maximum acetylcholine-induced vasodilatation was observed. On the contrary, a significant, albeit not very close, correlation between ABPM values and maximum acetylcholine-induced vasodilatation was observed (r=34, P<.05 with 24-hour systolic blood pressure, r=0.36, P<.05 with 24-hour diastolic blood pressure). In conclusion, endothelial dysfunction seems to be independent from the degree of vascular structural alterations and from the etiology of hypertension, and it is probably more linked to the hemodynamic load.
Acetylcholine↗
Business management of headache centers.
Economic evaluation of the costs and benefits of a headache center or unit has become very important for headache specialists. Many of the problems concerning this "financial" approach to headache derive from the model of organization of the Headache Unit, which is dependent on the various approaches to healthcare practiced in the country considered. So far there are two models of headache center that are generally considered: the hospital-based center and the independent center. An argument favoring hospital-based headache clinics is the lower costs, primarily because of their functional connection with the services of a general hospital, i.e., neuroradiology, neurophysiology, routine laboratory analysis, etc. Another is that the headache specialist has the possibility to visit the patients presenting to the emergency room in the acute phase of headache. Independent clinics have greater costs, but are equally as effective as hospital-based models.
Ambulatory Care Facilities↗
Diffuse alveolar damage in a patient treated with gemcitabine.
We present a case of diffuse alveolar damage (DAD) that occurred in a male aged 68 yrs treated with gemcitabine, a novel antineoplastic agent, that was given for hepatic relapse of a previously resected non-small cell lung cancer. The patient developed acute respiratory failure after the sixth drug dose, and died 4 days after admission. Autopsy revealed a pattern of DAD. No evidence of infection or other specific aetiologies could be found. To our knowledge, only three cases of pulmonary toxicity resulting from treatment with gemcitabine have been published; two of them were fatal and postmortem examination revealed a pattern consistent with acute respiratory distress syndrome. A careful survey may determine the incidence of pulmonary toxicity of this new drug in the future.
Aged↗
Fibronectin is required to prevent thyroid cell apoptosis through an integrin-mediated adhesion mechanism.
Apoptosis or programmed cell death occurs in a wide variety of cell types when adhesion to extracellular matrix (ECM) is denied. Invasion and metastasis by tumor cells involve the loss of normal cell-ECM contacts and require independence from such control mechanisms. We studied whether the immortalized thyroid cell line TAD-2 is a model suitable to investigate thyroid cell-ECM interaction, and we analyzed the role of integrin-fibronectin (FN) interaction in apoptosis. Adhesion, spreading, and cytoskeleton organization in TAD-2 cultured cells were dependent upon integrin-FN interaction. Cell spreading and cytoskeletal organization were coupled to deposition of insoluble FN induced by serum. Expression of integrin-FN receptors was demonstrated by flow cytofluorometry with specific antibodies, and strong integrin-dependent adhesion was demonstrated by attachment assays to immobilized FN. Apoptosis, occurring in different culture conditions, was determined by cell morphology and DNA electrophoretic analysis and quantitated by flow cytometry in propidium iodide-stained cells. Thyroid cells underwent apoptosis in the presence of serum when adhesion was prevented by specific peptides that inhibit integrin binding to FN (RGD-containing peptides) or by coating the culture plates with agar. In serum-free cultures, apoptosis was prevented by insoluble FN immobilized on the plates, but not by soluble FN. These results suggest that the TAD-2 cell line is a good model to study thyroid cell-ECM interaction, that FN, assembled into insoluble matrix, is required for cytoskeletal organization and to prevent thyroid cell apoptosis, and that integrin-mediated adhesion is involved in this process.
Apoptosis↗
Fatal familial insomnia: genetic, neuropathologic, and biochemical study of a patient from a new Italian kindred.
Fatal familial insomnia (FFI) is an inherited prion disease linked to a mutation at codon 178 of the PRNP gene that results in aspartic acid to asparagine substitution, in coupling phase with methionine at position 129. The disease is characterized clinically by insomnia with disturbances of the autonomic, endocrine, and motor systems and neuropathologically by selective degeneration of the thalamus. Phenotypic variability is well known and has been linked to homozygosity or heterozygosity at PRNP codon 129. We report the clinical, neuropathologic, and biochemical findings and genomic analysis of a patient with FFI from a new Italian kindred. Although homozygous for methionine at codon 129, this patient showed some clinical and pathologic features most commonly found in heterozygotes.
Blotting, Western↗
[The surgical treatment of nonpalpable breast carcinomas].
The wide-spreading use of mammography in clinical approach and in screening programmes contributed to a sensible modification in the population of patients affected by breast malignancies. A special increase has been recorded in non-palpable breast tumors. The Authors have analyzed a total of 135 patients with impalpable breast lesions during the period 1990-1997. All patients underwent fine needle stereotactic aspiration for cytology and in the meantime the lesions were marked with charcoal suspension and within 15 days time a surgical open biopsy was performed. The subgroup of malignant lesions was then surgically treated either with radical quadrantectomy or mastectomy. The results of the analysis confirmed that fine needle biopsy is an imperfect test because of its low sensibility and impossibility of distinguishing between infiltrating and "in situ" carcinomas; the stereotactic tattooing of the lesions is reliable for surgical approach. The rate of in situ carcinomas is remarkably higher than in non selected group of patients affected by palpable cancers. Pathologic staging confirms that non-palpable tumors are of better prognosis and they should benefit in large majority of a conservative surgical treatment.
Adult↗
Cochlear implant and traumatic lesions secondary to electrode insertion.
On the basis of data reported in the literature, the authors have attempted to define the relationship between the functional results of cochlear implants and possible traumatic damage caused by the insertion of electrodes and their support into the cochlear bony walls. These findings show that traumatic conditions result in functional damage only when they involve the body of Corti's ganglion cells or the central part of their axon, whereas functional results are not influenced by traumatic damage to the peripheral part of the axon. Traumatic damage sustained by other non-nervous structures and the inevitable fibrosis and subsequent bone metaplasia processes which occur when a foreign body penetrates a living organism also appear to be unimportant.
Axons↗
[Gallbladder blunt trauma: comparison between radiologic and anatomo-surgical findings].
PURPOSE: To assess the diagnostic accuracy and the possible role of ultrasonography (US) and Computed Tomography (CT) in a small group of patients who had a blunt abdominal trauma involving the gallbladder. MATERIAL AND METHODS: We retrospectively reviewed the US and CT findings of five patients with surgically confirmed post-traumatic gallbladder injury. The whole series consisted of 196 consecutive patients submitted to laparotomy for blunt abdominal trauma in the past 7 years. The following US and CT findings were considered at least suggestive of a possible post-traumatic gallbladder injury: pericholecystic fluid collection, ill-defined wall margin, collapsed lumen, high intraluminal density. RESULTS: At surgery, the following findings were observed: gallbladder hematoma (1 case), acute colecystitis (1 cases), gallbladder tear (3 cases), gallbladder tear associated with post-traumatic hepatic injuries (2 cases), duodenal tear (2 cases), hemoperitoneum alone (2 cases), hemoperitoneum associated with choleperitoneum (1 case), choleperitoneum alone (1 case). The US and CT findings were pericholecystic fluid collections (4 cases), ill-defined gallbladder wall margins (3 cases), collapsed lumen with intraluminal high density (1 case) and free intraperitoneal fluid collections (4 cases). They were suggestive of a possible post-traumatic gallbladder injury in all the five patients. CONCLUSIONS: The radiologic findings of our five patients were suggestive of a gallbladder damage but did not permit to distinguish minor from major injuries, the latter requiring surgical treatment. US proves to be a useful screening tool which can also help timing surgery in these patients. CT confirmed the US suspicions and also permitted accurate assessment of associated post-traumatic injuries to the liver and duodenum. Nevertheless, the clinical presentation was the most important factor as to the therapeutic management of these blunt abdominal trauma patients.
Cholecystography↗
[Computerized tomography in the study of jejuno-ileal perforations. Personal case load].
INTRODUCTION: The most frequent cause of pneumoperitoneum is gastroduodenal ulcer. Perforations of the small bowel are uncommon compared with perforations of the rest of the alimentary tract and radiological findings of jejunoileal perforation have not been frequently reported. The aim of our retrospective study was to assess the CT findings in 18 patients with jejunoileal perforation. MATERIAL AND METHODS: We retrospectively reviewed the CT findings in 18 patients (12 men and 6 women, age ranging 14 to 84 years, mean age 42 years) operated for jejunoileal perforation at Cardarelli Hospital, Naples. CT examination was performed in all patients after i.v. injection of contrast medium and in two cases after oral contrast medium administration. Free intraperitoneal air, extravasation of ingested contrast media and visualization of a discontinuity in the bowel wall were considered direct findings of jejunoileal perforation, while intraperitoneal free fluid, thickened bowel wall and the presence of a streaky density within the mesentery were considered indirect diagnostic findings. RESULTS: The site of perforation was the jejunum in 6 cases and the ileum in 12 cases. The following CT findings were retrospectively observed: intraperitoneal free fluid (61%), free intraperitoneal air (33%), thickened bowel wall (22.2%), presence of a streaky density within the mesentery (5.5%). Visualization of a discontinuity in the bowel wall and extravasation of ingested contrast media were never seen. We observed two findings of perforation in 7 cases, and a single finding in 8 cases. CT examination was negative in 3 cases. CONCLUSIONS: Jejunoileal perforations are difficult to identify by CT. In our series, free intraperitoneal air, as a direct finding of perforation, was observed in 33% of cases, while free intraperitoneal fluid, as an indirect diagnostic finding, was the most frequent sign.
Adolescent↗