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Biomedical subjects

M Giacchi

Publications and source records attributed to M Giacchi.

15 recordsLinked to original sources
PubMed2006

Nutritional surveillance in Tuscany: maternal perception of nutritional status of 8-9 y-old school-children.

INTRODUCTION: Overweight and obesity in the developmental age has become a public health problem. For this reason, prevention projects must be developed in advance with the aim to involve not only children, but their parents as well. Our objective is to evaluate the accuracy of the mothers' perceptions of adolescent nutritional status. METHODS: Cross-sectional study. We selected a statistical sample of 3,076 subjects (1,583 males, 1,493 females), 8-9 y-old school-children of 164 3rd-grade elementary school classes from throughout Tuscany, as well as their mothers. The mothers' information was gathered via self-administered questionnaires, while the children were given an eating behaviour survey under the supervision of qualified personnel. Mothers' education level (self-reported) height and weight were collected; children's height and weight were measured. The former were asked how they perceived their children's body image. RESULTS: A correlation exists between the mothers' perceptions of the nutritional state of their children via the silhouettes and the BMI classes of the children, which is equal to 80% with a kappa-Cohen for agreement equal to 0.58 (SE = 0.02; P < 0.0001). However, no correlation exists between the mothers' responses to the question "In your opinion, is your child ...?" and the child's actual BMI class (the exact percentage correlation is equal to 75%, with a kappa-Cohen for agreement equal to 0.43 SE = 0.014; P < 0.0001). DISCUSSION: Mothers have an accurate perception of the nutritional status of their children, correctly choosing the silhouette that corresponds to the child's BMI profile without variation by gender. We can assume that mothers in our sample have a good concept about healthy nutritional status.

Body Mass Index↗
PubMed2006

Nutritional surveillance in Tuscany: eating habits at breakfast, mid-morning and afternoon snacks among 8-9 y-old children.

INTRODUCTION: The prevalence of overweight and obesity in children is rapidly increasing in many countries. For that it has been interesting to investigate the eating habits of 8-9 y-old Tuscany children by paying attention to their meals frequency per day and their food choices in total and in relation to children's Body Mass Index (BMI) classes. In addition we considered some environment factors that could affect the children eating behaviours, such as mother's BMI and their education level. METHODS: A statistical sample of 3076 (1583 males, 1493 females), 8-9 year-old school-children was collected; weight and height were measured using standardized personnel and instruments. BMI classes were calculated using Cole et al.'s cutoff for children and adolescents. In order to evaluate the consumption frequency of individual meals and various foods, a Food Frequency Questionnaire (FFQ) was used, which was completed by the children themselves at school. A self-administered questionnaire revealed the weight and height of parents and their educational levels. Three educational levels were established: high, medium and low. RESULTS: The results showed that 92.3% of children ate breakfast from 4-7 times a week, the vast majority at home, while only 3% declared consuming breakfast never or almost never The most preferred breakfast consisted of milk and biscuits for all children's BMI classes. 95.9% of children reported having midmorning snack at school; fruit juice and tea are the most frequently consumed liquid foods, and pizza, salami sandwiches and pre-packaged snacks are the most frequently consumed solid foods in all BMI classes. 93.6% ate afternoon snack for the most part at home, even if 12% of children reported consuming it elsewhere; fruit juice and tea with pizza, sandwiches and pre-packaged snacks are still the most highly consumed foods by all children's BMI classes. The consumption frequency of breakfast (P < 0.001), mid-morning (P < 0.05) and afternoon snack (P < 0.05) of 8-9 y-old Tuscany children decrease with increase the children's BMI classes. The same tendency may be noted for the consumption frequency of breakfast in relation to mother's BMI (P < 0.05) and their education level (P < 0.05). This data strengthens the thesis that some home environments can affect the children's eating behaviours. CONCLUSION: No substantial differences in food choices at the meals analyzed were determined among normal weight, overweight and obese children. Children of normal weight had a greater tendency to consume meals more regularly. Mother's BMI and their education level can have influence on children's eating behaviours.

Body Mass Index↗
PubMed2002

Validation of a food frequency questionnaire for nutritional calcium intake assessment in Italian women.

OBJECTIVE: To evaluate a food frequency questionnaire assessing calcium intake in women. DESIGN: : Estimates of calcium intake from the food frequency questionnaire were compared with those from 14 day records from 206 Caucasian women aged 25-75 y in Siena, Italy. SUBJECTS: Subjects were randomly recruited from the residents list of the city of Siena, Italy. Of the 250 initially recruited, 39 did not meet the inclusion criteria or failed to complete the diet record and five outliers were excluded before the statistical analysis on the basis that their diet record was unlikely to represent habitual intake. RESULTS: Mean dietary calcium intakes were 829+/-255 (s.d.) mg/day from the questionnaire and 818+/-260 (s.d.) mg/day from the diet record. The mean difference in intake by the two methods (-11.3+/-116.4 mg/day) did not differ significantly from zero. Specificity in classifying women consuming less than 800 mg/day calcium was 86.6%, and sensibility in classifying women consuming more than 800 mg/day calcium was 89.4%. CONCLUSIONS: The food frequency questionnaire could be used in epidemiological studies to assess calcium intake in young to elderly women. The specificity in identifying low calcium intake subjects makes it useful also as an educational tool in diet counselling and for prescribing calcium supplementation.

Adult↗
PubMed1998

Requests for electromyography from general practitioners and specialists: critical evaluation.

In order to improve the quality of service and limit costs of a local electromyographic service, the requests for electromyographic (EMG) examination issued by general practitioners and specialists were critically evaluated. The diagnoses suspected by referring doctors were compared with medical history and clinical data to analyze (1) the utility of EMG for the final diagnosis and (2) the concordance with that of the neurophysiologist and with the EMG results. In 1994 and 1995, there were 3482 patients referred to the EMG service. Only patients undergoing EMG for the first time (2706 subjects) were considered. In 76.6% of cases, the referring doctor had indicated the suspected diagnosis in the request. This diagnosis was compatible with medical history, symptoms and the results of neurological examination in 57.6% of cases. In 77.2%, the neurophysiologist considered the EMG useful in confirming the clinical diagnosis. The suspected diagnosis was confirmed by the clinical diagnosis of the neurophysiologist and by the EMG results in 54.2% and 45.4% of cases, respectively. When the request was issued by neurosurgeons, neurologists, orthopedists, rheumatologists and physiatrists, the suspected diagnosis was more accurate; as a consequence the EMG was more correctly oriented than when the request was issued by other specialists or by general practitioners. It is recommended that neurological examination be a prerequisite for EMG requests issued by general practitioners.

Cost-Benefit Analysis↗
PubMed1998

Correction of the self-reported BMI in a teenage population.

OBJECTIVE: To investigate the issue of systematic bias in self-reported weight and height, and produce a simple procedure which can be used to correct reporting bias. DESIGN: Cross-sectional, with self-reported questionnaires. SUBJECTS: A sub-sample (n = 143) of secondary school students in Siena, Italy, taken from the Food Behaviour Survey (sample size, n = 779). RESULTS: In the teenage sub-sample, both males and females under-reported their weight and over-reported their height, such that underestimation of the overweight prevalence was in the order of about 8% for both genders. For both weight and height, the correlations between self-reported and measured values were over 0.90. Conversion factors were derived to correct the reported body mass index (BMI) distribution by adjusting the percentages of erroneously classified subjects in the four BMI categories. CONCLUSION: High correlation coefficients (r > or = 0.75), showing a systematic tendency for erroneous self-reporting of a 'slim-body shape', justify the use of conversion factors (measured/self-reported) to correct BMI distributions calculated from self-reported values.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1998

[Not Available].

Explore the source record for details and available documents.

Delivery of Health Care↗
PubMed1982

[On the growth of cultured bovine aortic endothelial cells. Preliminary observations on ultrastructural morphology by freeze-etching and quantitation of growth rate by phase contrast microscopy: effect of glycosaminoglycans].

Bovine aortic endothelial cells (BAEC), detached from thoracic aorta by collagenase treatment, have been studied after adding a mixture of glycosaminoglycans (GAGs) (the composition of which has been studied by Casu et al. -6), at different concentrations. GAGs at the concentration of 90 mg/100 ml of medium (Dulbecco's modification of Eagle's MEM with 10% foetal calf serum) produced an increase in the growth speed. We have quantitized these data both by counting the number of cells 24 h after trypsinization in phase-contrast-microscopy, and by measuring the time necessary to reach a certain number of influences. Ultrastructural observation at transmission electron microscope after freeze-etching preparation, didn't show any relevant modification either in the organization of cell membrane or in the cytoplasmatic structures. In some observations a conspicuous increase of "vesicular openings" ("pits") on the plasmatic membrane was evident. Statistical evaluation of this phenomenon is under consideration.

Animals↗
PubMed1982

[Effects of high density lipoproteins (HDL) and low density lipoproteins (LDL) on cultured bovine aorta endothelial cells. Preliminary observations on ultrastructural morphology of the plasma membrane by freeze-fracturing].

Bovine aortic endothelial cells (BAEC), detached with collagenase, have been studied morphologically after administration, in vitro, of human lipoprotein fractions (200 micrograms/ml of LDL, 200 micrograms/ml of HDL), 24 h before the confluence. One day after the treated cells and the control one were detached with trypsine and prepared for freeze-etching examination. The plasma-membrane has revealed, in the lipoprotein treated cells (HDL or LDL) an increased average value of the number of "pits" present upon a surface unit (P less than 0,05). Moreover, in the HDL-treated cells, the "pits", sometimes, have appeared with a different morphological evidence, similar to the aspects of exocytosis as seen e.g. in platelets or in Langerhans isle cells.

Animals↗
PubMed1981

[Scanning electron microscopic studies of the umbilical arteries and veins of newborn infants of smoking mothers].

We have examined the umbilical cord of ten newborn children of nonsmoking (five) and of smoking (five) mothers (10-20 cigarettes/day). The patients chosen for the study resulted "normal" before and during pregnancy. Immediately after delivery the umbilical cords were tied (to avoid collapse) and cut about 10 cm from the placenta. Umbilical cords were submitted to pressure-perfusion-fixation according to Kjelsen and Thomsen (7). Three randomly chosen specimens for SEM were cut and postfixation was performed in 1% buffered osmium tetroxide (pH 7.4) and after dehydration, were submitted to critical point drying (CO2), coated with gold palladium (sputtering technique), and observed by means of a Super ISI Mini SEM at 7,5 Kv. Luminal surfaces of umbilical arteries and veins from non-smoking mothers revealed a regular endothelial layer all over the surface. Large disendothelialised areas were instead found not only in arteries (1) but also in veins from newborn children of smoking mothers.

Humans↗
PubMed1981

[Inhibitory effect of metformin on the development of cholesterol atherosclerosis in the rabbit. Observations on the coronary vessels].

Experimental atherosclerosis and atheroregression may appear at different levels of development in the different arterial districts of non-human primates. The coronary arteries that are involved, like aortas, in the atherogenic process are, in the monkeys, less prone to atheroregression. The atherosclerotic lesions which are always present in the coronary arteries of the hypercholesterolemic rabbits are not evident in the coronaries (at extra- as well at intracardiac level) of the hypercholesterolemic rabbits treated with metformin.

Animals↗
PubMed1980

[A rare case of continuous type spleno-gonadal fusion].

The authors present a case of continuous spleno-testicular fusion in a three year old child and emphasize the rarity of this condition, on the basis of an examination of the literature. The pathogenic mechanisms and clinical characteristics of this condition are studied in the light of the reported cases, and are discussed.

Adolescent↗