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Biomedical subjects

M Benedetti

Publications and source records attributed to M Benedetti.

At least 19 recordsLinked to original sources
PubMed2006

Bilateral inguinal hernia with dislocation of great saphenous vein as complication of long-standing granulomatous slack skin: a case report.

Granulomatous slack skin (GSS) represents a rare variant of mycosis fungoides, histologically characterized by a variably deep T helper lymphocytes infiltrate with alteration of the dermal elastic tissue and consequent elastolysis, elastophagocytosis and numerous giant cells. Clinically, a development of unelastic, slack skin, especially on flexural areas, is observed. Hereby, we describe a man with a 12-year history of GSS. In 2002, for practical (limitation of movement, deambulation) and cosmetic reasons, he underwent the surgical excision of loose and sagging skinfold over inguinal area, and, afterwards, of the opposite affected inguinal skin. The surgical treatment of bilateral inguinal hernia with reposition of inguinal dislocated vasculature is also reported. In both cases the excised material confirmed the former diagnosis of GSS and revealed a very deep, muscular infiltrate of neoplastic lymphocytes. One year later, a new excision of GSS on the axillae was made. Now, after 2 years, deambulation keeps improving, although an initial relapse of the inguinal slack skin has been observed.

Dermatologic Surgical Procedures↗
PubMed2004

Intestinal perforation as a long-term complication of plug and mesh inguinal hernioplasty: case report.

Tension-free and sutureless hernioplasty by plug and mesh of nonreabsorbable material is one of the most common techniques for inguinal hernia repair. It's a simple and quick procedure with a low cost and allows for a short hospital stay. It shows a low reoccurrence rate, but it can result, in very few cases, in complications strictly related to prosthetic material. The literature describes some cases of plug migration from its proper position, for example, to the scrotum, preperitoneal adipose tissue, and abdominal cavity. We report on a case of sigmoid colon perforation due to a plug of Trabucco hernioplasty performed 2 years previously.

Aged↗
PubMed2004

Case-control study on cancer risk associated to residence in the neighbourhood of a petrochemical plant.

The aim of the present study is to investigate cancer mortality and residence in the neighbourhood of the petrochemical plant located in Brindisi, South-eastern Italy. Cases were all subjects resident in Brindisi and in three neighbouring municipalities who died in the study area in 1996-1997 from lung cancer, pleural neoplasm, bladder cancer and lymphohematopoietic malignancies. Controls were subjects resident in the same area and deceased in 1996-1997 for any cause except those listed for the cases. Next of kin's of all study subjects were visited by an interviewer who collected anamnestic information. The main residence of each subject, defined as the longest held residence with exclusion of the last 10 years, was reported on a digitalized map of the study area (MapInfo). The study included 144 cases and 176 controls; response rate was 98%. Residence within 2 km from the centre of the petrochemical plant was associated with a 3 fold increase of the Odds ratios (OR) for lung cancer, which did not reach statistical significance. Living close to the petrochemical plant was associated with moderate increases of OR for bladder cancer and lymphohematopoietic neoplasms which did not reach statistical significance. In conclusion the present study has shown moderate increases in risk for lung, bladder and lymphohematopoietic neoplasms in the population resident within 2 km from the centre of the petrochemical plant in Brindisi. These figures were confirmed after adjusting for smoking habit, occupation and school level. Random misclassification may have somehow resulted in risk underestimation.

Adult↗
PubMed2004

Systematic radical gastrectomy and D2 lymphadenectomy in primary gastric B cell lymphoma: impact on diagnosis, classification and long term results. A prospective study.

The role of surgery in the treatment of primary gastric lymphoma has been recently re-evaluated. We report the results of a series of 37 operated patients for primary gastric lymphoma (PGL). All patients underwent gastrectomy with D2 lymphadenectony and bilateral liver biopsies. Postoperative histopathological classification was compared to preoperative staging data. No mortality and low morbidity were observed in this series of patients. We found a high incidence of mixed grading of tumors and a relatively high incidence of lymph node metastases in low grade lymphoma. Relying on preoperative biopsies and imaging techniques could lead to preoperative staging inaccuracy and therefore to inappropriate treatment planning. For these reasons we advocate systematic primary surgery in PGL. Surgery could be useful for staging purposes and seems to be curative in stage IE.

Adult↗
PubMed2004

In-vitro activity of nisin against clinical isolates of Clostridium difficile.

Nisin is a cationic peptide produced by Lactococcus lactis. Its activity against clinical isolates of Clostridium difficile was compared to that of vancomycin and metronidazole by minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC), minimum bactericidal concentration (MBC) and time-kill studies. Nisin was more active than the other agents, with a MIC90 of 0.256 mg/L and strong bactericidal activity. Nisin may be a promising agent for the management of C. difficile associated diarrhea.

Anti-Bacterial Agents↗
PubMed2003

Risk of soft tissue sarcomas and residence in the neighbourhood of an incinerator of industrial wastes.

AIMS: To investigate the association between occurrence of soft tissue sarcomas (STS) in Mantua and residence near an incinerator of industrial wastes. METHODS: Cases were subjects with histologically confirmed primary malignant STS diagnosed 1989-98 in the population resident in Mantua and in the three neighbouring municipalities. Controls were randomly extracted from population registries, matched for age and sex. Residential history was reconstructed for all study subjects since 1960. Main residence was geographically positioned according to GPS standards. RESULTS: The study included 37 STS cases (17 men and 20 women) and 171 controls. The incidence of STS in the area of study was estimated as 8.8 per 100 000 in men and 5.6 per 100 000 in women. The odds ratio associated with residence within 2 km, standardised by age and sex, was 31.4 (95% CI 5.6 to 176.1), based on five exposed cases. At greater distances, risk rapidly decreased, showing a fluctuation around the null value of 1. CONCLUSION: The study shows a significant increase in risk of STS associated with residence within 2 km of an industrial waste incinerator; an aetiological role of 2,3,7,8-tetrachlorodibenzo-p-dioxin (TCDD) can be hypothesised.

Adult↗
PubMed2000

Body composition and energy expenditure after weight loss following bariatric surgery.

OBJECTIVES: To assess the effectiveness of biliopancreatic diversion (BPD) in the treatment of morbid obesity and to evaluate how the procedure affects body weight. SUBJECTS: Fourteen morbidly obese subjects studied before and 30 months after BPD and fifteen healthy volunteers matched for age, sex and height (controls). METHODS: Comparison of the following parameters were made in the study groups before surgery and 30 months after BPD and with those of the controls group: fat mass, fat-free mass, non-protein substrate oxidation, basal metabolic rate, plasma glucose, insulin and free fatty acid concentrations. RESULTS: Obese subjects lost 60.38+/-10.71 kg of weight during 18 months following surgery and then remained stable for another 12 months, when this study was performed. Weight loss was substantially due to a loss of fat mass (FM: 60.13+/-13.01 kg before and 19.02+/-8.61 kg after BPD; p<0.001). FM were not statistically different between post-obese subjects and controls; however, post-obese patients retained significantly more fat free mass (FFM) than controls. Subsequently, basal metabolic rates of post-obese subjects were higher than those of the control group (p<0.05). Fasting non-protein respiratory quotient (npRQ) was significantly lower before BPD than 30 months after the surgery (0.798+/-0.04 vs. 0.90+/-0.048, p<0.001), suggesting that, while obese, patients oxidized more lipids than carbohydrates. Moreover, fasting and two-hour plasma glucose and insulin concentrations decreased significantly after BPD to values comparable to those of the control group. CONCLUSION: Weight loss in obese patients after BPD is mainly due to lipid malabsorption, but increased energy expenditure associated with retaining a high FFM in physically active post-obese subjects may also play a role, enabling them to maintain long-term reduced body weights.

Adult↗
PubMed2000

[A neonatal case of congenital myotonic dystrophy].

Congenital myotonic dystrophy is a rare autosomal disease, caused by an increased number of cytosine-thymine-guanine (CTG) trinucleotide on chromosome 19q. In the neonatal period the most peculiar clinical features are arthrogryposis, hypotonia, facial diplegia, respiratory and feeding difficulties. Clinical and electrical myotonic discharges are difficult to elicit in the newborn. We report a case of congenital myotonic dystrophy in a female newly born presenting with hypotonia, diaphragmatic paralysis, facial diplegia, and contractures of hips, knees and ankles. The diagnosis was confirmed by genetical study on lymphocyte DNA.

Female↗
PubMed1999

Successful treatment of spleen tuberculosis in a patient with human immunodeficiency virus infection.

Tuberculosis in human immunodeficiency virus (HIV)-infected patients may act as a cofactor that accelerates the clinical course of HIV infection, and, indeed, HIV-infected patients with tuberculosis have a reduced survival rate compared to those without tuberculosis. Diagnosis of tuberculosis in HIV-positive patients can be difficult because of nonspecific symptoms and the time required for the identification of mycobacteria by means of culture techniques. Recently, antiretroviral combination therapies have improved the outcome of several acquired immune deficiency syndrome (AIDS)-associated conditions. Unfortunately, the use of antiretroviral therapy for patients coinfected with HIV and Mycobacterium tuberculosis is still to be fully evaluated. The complexity of side-effects due to antituberculosis medication and drug interaction represent important issues and combining an effective anti-HIV treatment with antituberculosis therapy is still a clinical challenge. We discuss here a case of spleen tuberculosis in a human immunodeficiency virus-positive patient who had a successful response after a diagnostic splenectomy and medical treatment that included classical antituberculosis treatment associated with antiretroviral therapy without protease inhibitors.

AIDS-Related Opportunistic Infections↗
PubMed1999

Cardiopulmonary exercise testing in patients with 21mm St. Jude Medical aortic prosthesis.

BACKGROUND AND AIM OF THE STUDY: Small-sized prostheses may be associated with high transprosthetic gradients, particularly in patients with a body surface area (BSA) >1.70m2, affecting left ventricular mass regression, symptom improvement and long-term survival. However, the influence of such gradients on exercise tolerance has not been clearly defined. The study aim was to verify the utility of cardiopulmonary exercise testing (CPX) in detecting patient-prosthesis mismatch, and to identify the clinical and echocardiographic data that predict exercise tolerance at CPX in patients with a 21mm St. Jude Medical (SJM) aortic prosthesis. METHODS: Twenty patients (one male, 19 females; mean age 66 +/- 9 years) with a 21 mm SJM prosthesis were evaluated by means of 2D echocardiography and CPX at 36 +/- 10 months after operation. Patients were divided into groups on the basis of a BSA of <1.70 m2 (group 1, n = 12) or > or =1.70 m2 (group 2, n = 8). RESULTS: At echocardiography, left ventricular mass reduction was 16 +/- 10% versus 9 +/- 6% in groups 1 and 2, respectively, mean gradient (MG) was 15 +/- 6 versus 17 +/- 4 mmHg (p = NS), effective orifice area index (EOAi) 0.86 +/- 0.10 versus 0.79 +/- 0.09 cm2/m2 (p = 0.05). At CPX, group 2 patients showed a significantly lower exercise duration (p = 0.02), maximum workload (p = 0.02), peak O2 uptake (p = 0.01), anaerobic threshold (AT) (p = 0.03), ventilatory equivalent for CO2 at AT (p = 0.007), and O2 cost of work (p = 0.03). Group 1 patients showed a ventilatory origin for their effort dyspnea, while group 2 patients showed a significant circulatory component. At multivariate analysis, BSA, age, EOAi and MG were independent predictors of CPX results. CONCLUSIONS: In patients with a 21 mm aortic SJM prosthesis and a BSA > or =1.70m2, CPX allows detection of patient-prosthesis mismatch, in terms of impaired exercise tolerance due to circulatory causes. CPX results can be anticipated on the basis of the patient's BSA, age, EOAi and MG. In these patients, technical solutions allowing implantation of a larger prosthesis should be considered whenever an active lifestyle is anticipated after aortic valve replacement.

Aged↗
PubMed1997

Post-traumatic tricuspid valve insufficiency. 2 cases of delayed clinical manifestation.

We present 2 cases of tricuspid insufficiency following blunt chest trauma: 1 was diagnosed 5 months after the trauma and the other, 20 years after the trauma. In both patients, the tricuspid valve was replaced with a porcine bioprosthesis, because valve repair was not considered feasible. These cases emphasize the variability of clinical presentation of post-traumatic tricuspid valve insufficiency and indicate the need for close follow-up of patients after major thoracic trauma.

Adult↗
PubMed1996

[Arterial hypertension in an ambulatory population of elderly subjects. Epidemiologic and clinical study in Isonzo].

The authors examine the clinical connotations of arterial hypertension in a geographical population of 1002 patients attending the Cardiological Outpatient Clinic of Unit no.2 in the Isonzo area (Monfalcone) using the most appropriate statistical methods, such as SPSS (Statistical Package for the Social Sciences) implemented on PC IBM AT 286, for multiple linear regression using a stepwise method. 1) Arterial hypertension was the result of a phenomenon which was striking owing to its mean value of 184.7 +/- 20.915 mmHg with equal mode and median of 180 mmHg. In the subgroup of 720 elderly patients this mean value differed slightly, 186.9 +/- 20.648 mmHg, with the same mode and median, whereas in the group of 282 adults the mean was 170.0 +/- 20.540 mmHg with a mode and median of 160 and 175 mmHg respectively. In the overall population 154 cases (15.4%) were affected by slight arterial hypertension with a mean of 158.9 mmHg, and 848 cases (84.8%) presented moderate-severe arterial hypertension with mean values of 189.4 mmHg. In elderly patients the mean rose to 190.4 mmHg whereas it was 186.3 mmHg in adults. 2) Mean age was 65.3 +/- 11.093 years: 70.7 +/- 7.396 years in older patients and 51.7 +/- 6.106 years in adults. Surface ECG showed signs of left ventricular hypertrophy in 292 elderly patients (40.5%) and 85 adults (30.0%), signs of ischemic cardiopathy due to T wave alteration in 246 elderly patients (34.1%) and 101 adults (35.7%), and due to ST tract in 340 (47.2%) and 102 (36.2%) respectively, with equal involvement of the free surface of the left ventricle. The radiographic enlargement of the cardiac shadow in elderly patients was observed in slight form in 153 cases (21.3%) and in moderate and marked form in 222 cases (30.8%), and in adults in 36 (12.8%) and 43 (15.2%) cases respectively. 3) Body weight was normal on average and equivalent to 77.3 +/- 13.578 kg, but of this series 713 cases were overweight and 237 were obese; 504 of elderly patients (70%) were pathological with 346 (48.1%) overweight and 158 (21.9%) obese, and of 209 pathological adults (74.1%), 130 (46.1%) and 79 (28.0%) were respectively overweight and obese. BMI oscillated from 1.70 to 5.60 with a mean of 2.80 +/- 0.409: from 1.70 to 4.21 in elderly patients with a mean of 2.70 +/- 0.379 and in adults from 2.00 to 5.60 with a mean of 2.90 +/- 0.460. 4) Mean cholesterolemia was 237 +/- 48.029 mg% and levels were normal in 203 cases and high in 799 subjects. Elderly patients showed the same mean level with a total of 580 pathological cases (80.5%) divided into 305 (42.3%) cases of slight hypercholesterolemia with a mean of 227.2 mg% and 275 (38.2%) severe cases with levels of 283.7 mg%. Adults presented a mean serum level of 236 +/- 47.588 mg%: 63 (22.3%) cases of normocholesterolemia, 117 (41.5%) cases of slight cholesterolemia with mean serum level of 224.8 mg%, and 102 (36.2%) severe cases with a mean level of 286.2 mg%, resulting in a total of 219 pathological cases (77.7%).

Adult↗
PubMed1995

Microfilament reorganization during apoptosis: the role of Gas2, a possible substrate for ICE-like proteases.

Gas2, a component of the microfilament system, belongs to the class of gas genes whose expression is induced at growth arrest. After serum or growth factor addition to quiescent NIH 3T3 cells, Gas2 is hyperphosphorylated and relocalized at the membrane ruffles. By overexpressing gas2wt and a series of deletion mutants of the C-terminal region, we have analysed its role in the organization of the actin cytoskeleton in different cell lines. Overexpression of Gas2 deleted at its C-terminal region (delta 276-314 and delta 236-314), but not its wild-type form, induces dramatic changes in the actin cytoskeleton and cell morphology. These effects are not due to interference of the deleted forms with the endogenous Gas2wt function but could be ascribed to a gain of function. We demonstrate that during apoptosis the C-terminal domain of Gas2 is removed by proteolytic cleavage, resulting in a protein that is similar in size to the described delta 276-314. Moreover, by using in vitro mutagenesis, we also demonstrate that the proteolytic processing of Gas2 during apoptosis is dependent on an aspartic acid residue at position 279. The evidence accumulated here could thus represent a first example of a mechanism linking apoptosis with the co-ordinated microfilament-dependent cell shape changes, as possibly mediated by an interleukin-1 beta-converting enzyme (ICE)-like dependent proteolytic cleavage of the Gas2 protein.

3T3 Cells↗
PubMed1994

Nerve growth factor production by lymphocytes.

Nerve growth factor (NGF) is a neurotrophic protein essential for the maintenance and growth of peripheral sympathetic neurons and basal forebrain cholinergic neurons. Recently, NGF has also been shown to have effects on cells of the immune system. In a search for extra neural sources of NGF, we detected NGF-specific mRNA in mouse T lymphocytes of both the CD4+ and CD8+ phenotypes with the use of an RNase protection assay, PCR, and DNA sequence analysis. In CD4+ cells, NGF was present in both Th1 and Th2 Ag-specific clones, but an increase of NGF-specific message was detected after antigenic stimulation only in Th2 clones. NGF mRNA was also detected in splenic B lymphocytes and in a cell line derived from a murine follicular center cell lymphoma. Translation into protein and secretion of NGF were demonstrated by Western blot analysis. The secreted NGF is in an active form capable of inducing differentiation of PC12 cells into sympathetic-like neurons. Furthermore, conditioned medium from clones or lines positive for NGF mRNA was capable of inducing p140 tyrosine kinase autophosphorylation in 3T3 fibroblasts transfected with cDNA encoding for the tyrosine kinase family NGF receptor. We conclude that lymphocytes synthesize and secrete NGF either as a para-autocrine factor acting on the immune system itself, or as a factor for the maintenance of peripheral neurons.

3T3 Cells↗
PubMed1994

p75LNGFR regulates Trk signal transduction and NGF-induced neuronal differentiation in MAH cells.

We have examined NGF-induced signal transduction events and neuronal differentiation in MAH cells, a neuronal progenitor cell line, in which the expression of the two NGF receptors, p140trk (Trk) and p75LNGFR (p75), has been independently manipulated. Coexpression of a large molar excess of p75 substantially enhances the NGF-induced tyrosine autophosphorylation of Trk, compared with cells expressing Trk alone. MAH cells expressing both Trk and p75 stop dividing and acquire a mature neuronal morphology more rapidly and with greater efficiency than MAH cells expressing Trk alone. These biochemical and biological influences of p75 are not observed using a mutant form of NGF that binds Trk but not p75. These data provide evidence that p75 can modulate signal transduction through Trk in a neuronal progenitor cell context and that such modulation has functional consequences for the neuronal differentiation pathway induced by NGF.

Animals↗