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Biomedical subjects

M Pettoello Mantovani

Publications and source records attributed to M Pettoello Mantovani.

7 recordsLinked to original sources
PubMed1991

Fat body mass and pharmacokinetics of oral 6-mercaptopurine in children with acute lymphoblastic leukemia.

To evaluate the reasons for the wide variability in bioavailability of orally administered 6-mercaptopurine in children with acute lymphoblastic leukemia, we studied several pharmacokinetic parameters of the drug in 18 affected children receiving remission maintenance therapy, and compared them with their anthropometric data and with the results of intestinal function tests. No correlation was found between estimates of small intestinal absorption (the oral lactose tolerance test and 1 h blood xylose test) and 6-mercaptopurine serum levels. Of the anthropometric measurements considered, only the weight/height percentile (an index of the fat body mass) strongly and linearly correlated with the area under the curve of 6-mercaptopurine. The dose of 75 mg of 6-mercaptopurine/m2 of body surface resulted in higher serum concentrations in children below the 75th percentile than in those with a weight/height ratio exceeding the 75th percentile. In conclusion, these data caution about the risk of underdosing 6-mercaptopurine in overweight children when administering it on the basis of body surface area.

Administration, Oral↗
PubMed1990

Intestinal giardiasis associated with ophthalmologic changes.

In an ophthalmologic study of 90 children with symptomatic giardiasis, ocular alterations were found in 10. Eight of these subjects presented an extensive "salt and pepper" degeneration of the pigmented epithelium involving 360 degrees of the midperiphery of both eyes. In one of the eight children, the pigmented epithelium showed atrophic areas, and in another there was a small hard exudate in the left eye. Of 2 remaining of the 10 children with ocular alterations, 1 presented with slight decoloration of the temporal half of the optic disc, and the other was affected by chorioretinitis. After single-dose antiprotozoic therapy (tinidazole 50 mg/kg), parasitologic tests were negative in all subjects and remained so throughout a 1-year follow-up. However, the characteristic epithelial lesion remained unaltered in all eight children for the entire follow-up period, as well as the optic disc decoloration in the only observed case. The child affected by chorioretinitis recovered after 3 weeks of combined treatment with bethametasone plus deflazacort. In two control groups, 1 of 200 healthy children and 1 of 200 children with gastrointestinal symptoms but without giardiasis, no case of "salt and pepper" degeneration of the pigmented epithelium or other significant ocular alterations was found.

Child↗
PubMed1989

Lactose malabsorption in children with symptomatic Giardia lamblia infection: feasibility of yogurt supplementation.

An investigation was carried out on 61 children suffering from symptomatic giardiasis with the object of verifying the incidence and entity of lactose malabsorption. Furthermore, the possibility of a substitutive yogurt diet was verified in the lactose malabsorbers. The subjects, all children older than 1 year, were studied according to a schedule that included a lactose hydrogen breath test (BT) performed prior to therapy and a further BT 60 days following therapy. The subjects were divided in two groups: group A, 40 children, received a dose of 250 ml of cow's milk; group B, 21 children, received a stress dose of 2 g/kg lactose (max 50 g). Those subjects who were lactose malabsorbers at the 60 day follow-up were also given a BT at 75 days, and in the case of persistent malabsorption, a further BT was performed after 24 h with the administration of yogurt (450 g containing 12.1 g of lactose). Furthermore, 40 subjects matched for age and sex but without any GI complaints served as controls. The results showed lactose malabsorption to be frequent in children with Giardia lamblia symptomatic infection. According to the BT with a standard lactose load, all patients were malabsorbers; when testing lactose absorption with 250 ml of cow's milk, 45% of patients were found to be malabsorbers. In the latter subjects, the oral load of yogurt was uniformly well tolerated and gave rise to no H2 increment on the BT. We conclude that the occurrence of lactose malabsorption of nutritional relevance is common in children suffering or having suffered from giardiasis.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)

Adolescent↗