[Effects of diphosphonate in Sudeck's disease: scintigraphic aspects].
Explore the source record for details and available documents.
Biomedical subjects
Publications and source records attributed to M Pisani.
Explore the source record for details and available documents.
Sudeck's atrophy of the foot is an acute, patchy osteoporosis that, on bone scan, shows an increase in both bone blood flow and local bone uptake of bone-seeking radionuclides. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the relationship between bone uptake of 99mTc-MDP and local bone blood flow. In some patients with Sudeck's atrophy of one foot we measured local bone blood flow and bone uptake of 99mTc-MDP. External counting of radioactivity, with a count-rate of 1 second was performed for 60 minutes after i.v. injection of a known dose of 99mTc-MDP in some patients with Sudeck's atrophy of the foot. The regions of interest (ROI) were selected on the basis of a bone scan performed 24 hours earlier. We assumed that the data recorded during the first seconds (7-10) reflect local blood flow and the data at 60 minutes reflect the bone uptake. The ratio between the local blood flow in the involved and healthy foot was higher than the local bone uptake ratio. The ratio between bone uptake and local bone blood flow was higher in the normal foot than in the affected one. These results suggest that the bone avidity for bone-seeking radionuclides is lower in Sudeck's atrophy than in normal bone.
[3H]-D-penicillamine was injected intra-peritoneally in mice. The highest concentration of the drug was found in the skin, particularly in the epidermis, and a well-defined kinetic sequence of appearance in the epidermis was shown. This finding is consistent with the hypothesis that penicillamine, by virtue of its chemical similarity to cysteine, can replace the latter during keratogenesis by a competition phenomenon, which could provoke acantholytic splitting both biochemically and immunologically.
Headache of muscle tension origin and/or with a muscle tension component is underlain by a high degree of head, neck, and face muscle contraction. Biofeedback EMG enables patients to check their muscle tension, and thus achieve complete decontraction. Reference is made to a series of 59 subjects divided in 4 groups in accordance with the number of sessions needed to obtain decontraction. It was found that no relation exists between such number and the degree of improvement obtained. On the other hand, it was not possible to determine whether a relation exists between the moment in which decontraction is achieved and the commencement of an improvement in the symptomatology.
The reports of induced pemphigus have multiplied over the last 10 years. Several heterogeneous factors, such as drugs (penicillamine, pyritinol, captopril, rifampicin, etc.), physical agents (burns, UV, and ionizing radiation) and viruses, can play an inducing role. Usually, the disease is preceded by prodromal, non-specific lesions. The full-blown stage shows features of pemphigus foliaceus, erythematosus or herpetiformis. Histologically, acantholytic splits mostly occur at the highest malpighian layers. Intercellular antibodies and frequently concomitant other auto-antibodies are found in the serum, the titre of the former usually being low and unrelated to the severity or course of the disease. The biological progress is variable and ranges from rapidly and definitively healing cases (induced pemphigus proper) to others which, in spite of the elimination of the inducing factor, self perpetuate just like true pemphigus (triggered pemphigus). Pathogenic hypotheses are based on the act that some inducing factors can alter the antigen distribution on keratinocyte membranes and/or interfere with immune surveillance by impairing T-suppressor cells.
A 3 1/2-year-old haemophilic child, repeatedly transfused with blood products, developed pemphigus foliaceus with presence in serum of both intercellular and anti-cytomegalovirus antibodies at high titre. The locus A26, which seems to be a genetic marker of pemphigus, was detected in his haplotype. Cytomegalovirus infection of transfusional origin is suspected to have triggered the outbreak of pemphigus.
We present the results of our experiments with in vitro tissue cultures of normal human skin, carried out in order to clarify the mechanism(s) by which D(-) penicillamine provokes pemphigus. Various concentrations of D(-) penicillamine were added to the culture medium and produced acantholytic splitting, closely similar to control lesions produced by pemphigus serum, whereas no lesions occurred in controls cultured without the drug. This suggests to us that the pemphigus of D(-)penicillamine is due to biochemical mechanisms and is not mediated by antibodies. Integrating our data with those of previous clinical and experimental studies on idiopathic pemphigus vulgaris leads us to think that the pemphigus antigen(s) might be present in certain structures of the cell membrane of epithelial cells, which are linked with the initial phases of keratin differentiation.
Explore the source record for details and available documents.
Explore the source record for details and available documents.
In a controlled clinical trial undertaken in ten Italian centres, rifamycin SV was compared to associations of various drugs such as erythromycin, aureomycin, multivitamin preparations, etc, in the treatment of herpes zoster. Up to now 144 patients, suffering from herpes zoster at different localizations, were divided into three groups and randomly given either rifamycin SV by intramuscular injection and topically, or rifamycin SV by injection only, or the routine treatment used at the particular centre in question. To evaluate the effectiveness of the treatments, the presence of subjective and objective symptoms was determined before treatment started and daily thereafter. The duration, in days, of the most important symptoms, such as erythema, vesicles, scabs and pain, was considered for this partial evaluation. All the above-mentioned symptoms constantly showed a shorter duration in the two groups treated with rifamycin SV compared to the group treated with other therapies, with differences as significant on statistical calculation as they were important on the level of a clinical evaluation of the disease's course.
Explore the source record for details and available documents.
A case of an abortive form of pemphigus probably induced by protracted penicillin treatment is reported. Because of a positive patch test with penicillamine and the finding of such an amino acid in patient's plasma, the authors are induced to believe that the trigger factor could really have been penicillamine formed by the metabolic breakdown of the penicillin molecule.
A case of pulmonary aspergillosis in an elderly, wasted patient is described from the clinical and anatomopathological points of view. The different ways in which pulmonary aspergillosis presents in humans are reviewed and the different factors favouring onset of the disease, which has become commoner in recent years, are considered. Finally, stress is laid on the anatomoclinical aspects of the case which, unlike those typical of aspergillosic pneumonia, also presented cavital zones.
Explore the source record for details and available documents.
Explore the source record for details and available documents.
Explore the source record for details and available documents.
Explore the source record for details and available documents.
Explore the source record for details and available documents.