[Aerospace medicine today, in Italy].
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Biomedical subjects
Publications and source records attributed to G Rotondo.
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The biometeorological factors underlying atmospheric pollution are discussed, together with its biological effects and its direct and indirect damage to human health. Damage is particularly likely when particularly adverse ambient and climatological conditions result in a massive and persistent concentration of contaminants in the ambient air. In this case, since the highly biologically interesting phenomenon of physicochemical reaction between pollutants and atmospheric components prevails over that of the dilution and dispersion of such contaminants, nature's major processes of removal and self-purification may be rendered nugatory and insufficiently prompt. The effects of atmospheric pollution, primarily with respect to urban background pollution, on human health make their appearance in the respiratory system, where there is a continuous relation between man and his environment throughout his life, in the form of immediate or short, medium and long-term damage. The desirability of preparing a meteorological map showing the distribution of the risk of atmospheric pollution is discussed. For this purpose, use could be made of meteorological data, and the hi-tech observations now made possible, inter alia, by the employment of satellites and aerospace data. A map of this kind would give more precise information concerning the part played by the weather in distributing the risk of respiratory damage caused by environmental pollution. It would also provide the knowledge required for the purpose of prediction and prevention in an organised struggle against such pollution. This would be of great social significance and value. Its practical applications could be enormous consequence to humanity.
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Technical and medical problems arising out of air rescue and transport operations are examined through an overview of the activities of the 15th S.A.R. Wing, Italian Air Force. The particular engineering, radio, and S.A.R. features of the Sikorskj HH-3F, currently used for this purpose, make it a sound and effective choice. A specially trained medical, health and nursing unit able to operate on the aircraft under all-weather conditions, coupled with a wide range of medical material, provide the best comment on the series of pathologies illustrated in the tables. Behind this matter, however, there increasingly lies the equally important question of the desirability or otherwise of imposing a strict control to make sure that the use of helicopters on S.A.R. tasks is not indiscriminate, but governed by clearly defined conditions.
In light of the modern aetiopathogenic views, a brief review was made concerning possible causes of operational fatigue to which flying personnel in general are exposed in the exercise of flying activity. The author then describes and analyzes the meaning and importance of the various stressing factors that constitute the physical and psychic workload to which the helicopter pilot is subjected in performing his professional activities. Also analyzed are the influences exercised, both separately and jointly, on the genesis of flight fatigue in helicopter pilots by stressing and fatiguing effects of vibrations, noise, and psycho-emotional and psycho-sensorial factors related to the variety and danger of utilization of this modern aircraft. Such an analytical investigation enables the author to conclude that one must admit that helicopter piloting involves a psycho-physical workload certainly no less than that required by more powerful and faster aircraft.
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In order to contribute to the study of spinal injury after ejection., the author analyzed the results of 100 cases of ejections carried out by military and civil Italian jet pilots in a period of 20 years. Of this group, 47 successfully ejected from aircraft without injury; 11 ejections proved fatal. The remaining 42 pilots sutained vertebral fractures, while 27 sustained other traumatic injuries different from spinal fractures. There were 23 vertebral fractures in 15 pilots and the most frequently affected vertebrae were those of the thoraco-lumbar junction. Analysis was make of the pathology, the clinical and radiological profiles, the therapeutic treatment, and the relative aeromedico-legal aspects concerning the temporary unfitness for flying or permanent grounding of the personnel as well as the possible prevention of spinal injury after ejection
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Large scale deletions of mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) or altered inter-genomic regulation in skeletal muscle have been demonstrated in patients with mitochondrial encephalomyopathies due to Cytochrome C oxidase (COx) deficiency. We have analyzed by Southern blotting and Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR) the mtDNA in primary muscle cultures (myoblast-myotube stages and at clonal densities) and in fibrogenic subclones obtained from 9 patients with partial COx deficiency who had in their muscle biopsy a subpopulation of mtDNA showing deletions of variable size (between 2.1 and 6.5 Kb). Only in the cultures from one patient, southern analysis revealed in myoblasts and myotubes a mtDNA almost identical to that found in the original muscle biopsy and persistence of deletion in muscle cells grown at clonal densities. The deletion was detectable in fibrogenic lineage only by PCR amplification. The deleted mtDNA molecules were detectable in myogenic or fibrogenic cultures from other patients only by PCR amplification. The different amounts of deleted mtDNA in the various tissues could be due either to an unequal distribution of the altered mtDNA during embryogenesis with amplification of deleted molecules in myogenic lineage or could result from negative selection against the altered mtDNA in rapidly proliferating cells, such as fibroblasts.
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