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Biomedical subjects

R Bolzani

Publications and source records attributed to R Bolzani.

48 records · Page 3Linked to original sources
PubMed1980

[Average weight and temperature rhythms of fasting chickens from hatching to death].

We have compared the weight and the bodily temperature of some chicks during fasting from hatching till death with the values obtained from regularly nourished chicks at the environment temperature of 34 degrees. The medium period of survival during fasting is 7,4 d while the chicks of 7 d generally survive 3,9 d. The reserve of the vitelline sac (17,8%) is not sufficient to cover the basal metabolism of the chick. Its net weight generally diminishes of 33,6%. Nourished chicks lose weight on the 1st d and then regularly grow up. The chicken temperature from the 14th day on is about 41,8 degrees in the morning and increases in the evening. The temperature during fasting is lower than normal temperature of nourished chicks progressively increases and after 3 d is higher in the evening than in the morning, as it is for the grown-up ones. We are trying to found out the factors which determine the modifications of thermic oscillations during fasting, which are not a circadian rhythm.

Animals↗
PubMed1980

[Weight increase in chickens subjected to hypoalimentation].

14 days old chickens receive during 26 days a reduced nourishing share so that their growing up is stopped. At the end of this hypo-nourishment their weight is generally corresponding to 25.2% of the weight of normal chickens. When the nourishment is again as much as they wish, they swallow every day more food than during checking of the same weight and the speed in growing up found out is higher both than during checkings when the weight was the same and than the one of the checkings when age was the same. Comparing the recovery speed between hypo-nourished chickens and chickens submitted to repeated periods of non-eating, recovery in weight in comparison with checkings reaches 80% approx., however recovery speed is much lower in hypo-nourished chickens. The reasons for this difference are discussed.

Animal Feed↗
PubMed1979

[Thermoregulation in chickens subjected to hypoalimentation].

Calculation of the body temperature of 4 chickens, 14 days old, submitted during 26 days to a reduced nourishment so that their growing up was stopped. Morning temperature diminished, in comparison with checkings, of 0,78 degrees in the first week, of 1,57 degrees in the second week and of 1,80 degrees in the last days. After 1 and 2 hours of reduced meal, the temperature generally increases 0,76 degrees and 1,39 degrees respectively when chickens are hypo-nourished, while in the checkins it is almost unchanged, +0,02 degrees and +0,07 degrees. 5 hours after the meal, the temperature of hypo-nourished chickens increases 0,24 degrees, in checkings 0,30 degrees. AA thinks that hypotalamic thermoregulating centers always work and that the thermic differences between hypo-nourished and checkings are caused by percentage variations of metabolic substances put in circulation during digestion.

Animals↗
PubMed1979

[Body temperature during fasting in chickens of various ages and body weight].

Chickens of different ages will be submitted to periods of non-eating of 2 to 10 days. The non-eating causes a constant lowering of the body temperature which, in the 10 days old chickens, is 4-5 times higher than in the 3 months old ages. To an higher diminishing of the temperature it corresponds an higher loss percentage of weight. In normal conditions the temperature tends to increase from morning to evening, while during the non-eating period it diminishes. With repeated non-eating periods the colling increases. The difference between young and old animals would depend on differences in quantity of their basal metabolism (lower in the old aged) and on the different availability of energetic material in reserve (higher percentage in the old aged).

Animals↗
PubMed1979

[Average normal temperature of the chicken in the morning and after 1-2 days of fasting].

On the morning the average temperature of the growing chicken. It is found at 41.8 degrees C +/- 0.18 degrees. After one day without having eaten, the bodily temperature diminishes to 40.41 degrees +/- 0.97 degrees (-1.39 degrees). After two days without having eaten the temperature diminishes to 39.68 degrees C +/- 0.89 degrees (-2.12 degrees). After the first day of re-feeding the average temperature is 41.28 degrees C +/- 0.52 degrees C. During the period of no feeding the reduction in bodily temperature depends on the metabolic material availability. We can assume that the thermoregulator mechanisms are not modified by non-feeding and that the reduction in temperature is caused by the non efficiency of their normal efferents.

Animals↗
PubMedDate not supplied

Cytidin-5'-diphosphocholine enhances the effect of part-time occlusion in amblyopia.

Cytidin-5'-diphosphocholine (CDP-choline) has been shown to improve visual acuity (VA), Contrast Sensitivity and Visual Evoked Responses at least temporarily, in amblyopic patients beyond the plastic period of the visual system. In this paper results are presented of a study conducted on forty-five patients with amblyopia in one eye, aged 5-9 years and followed for one year. Of them, 15 (Group A) were treated with CDP-choline (500 mg daily for 10 days every six months); 15 (Group B) were treated with CDP-choline plus one hour of occlusion daily; 15 (Group C) were treated with one hour of occlusion daily. The final VA values were statistically different from the initial ones, for all three groups. Eleven of the Group A patients showed an improvement in VA after the first treatment; a gradual deterioration took place in 6 patients at the end of the fourth month; VA further improved in 9 patients after the second treatment. At the end of the year, VA was higher than at the beginning in 12 of the 15 patients. Group B had an improvement of VA in 13 patients, starting 10 days from the beginning of treatment. This improvement continued throughout the observation period. Group C had an improvement after one month, which continued for 8 months, without deteriorating. In conclusion CDP-choline enhances the effect of part-time occlusion. CDP-choline could be employed also in younger patients. Longer observation periods are still needed and better means of administration have to be found.

Amblyopia↗
PubMedDate not supplied

Model-derived assessment of urea appearance in response to alanine infusion: a quantitative measure of liver function in cirrhosis.

A three compartment mathematical model was used to analyse the urea response to an alanine infusion in six control subjects, and in 15 patients with liver cirrhosis and variable degree of hepatocellular failure. Model-derived coefficients were used to calculate two parameters (Ymax and Tmax), able to describe the theoretical response of the conversion of amino acid derived nitrogen into urea, in response to a unit impulse in alanine concentration. They correspond to the maximum rate of conversion of nitrogen from an intermediary pool into urea and to the time delay between the impulse and Ymax, respectively. In cirrhosis, the apparent volume of distribution of infused alanine was smaller than in controls, while the conversion of alanine nitrogen into an intermediary pool of nitrogen and finally into urea nitrogen were both reduced. Also Ymax was reduced by 50% in cirrhosis, whereas Tmax was increased by 50%, and both significantly correlated with galactose elimination capacity (GEC; R2 = 0.706 and R2 = 0.505, respectively) and with antipyrine clearance (Ap Cl; R2 = 0.823 and R2 = 0.576, respectively). Model-derived assessment of urea appearance in response to alanine infusion is able to quantify the functional liver cell mass, and may prove useful for the study of nitrogen metabolism in cirrhosis, mainly in relation to encephalopathy.

Adult↗
PubMedDate not supplied

The validity of informant reports in assessing the severity of dementia: evidence from the CAMDEX interview.

The evaluation of a patient's mental state, overall clinical profile and behavioural disturbance in the process of diagnosing dementia requires at least two sources of information: the patient and the informant. Since the severity of the dementia may interfere with the subjective perception of these disorders, it is important to evaluate the consistency between these two sources of information and the clinical and psychometric evaluation made by the physician. Accordingly, in this study five behavioural areas, derived from the semi-structured interview schedule provided by the Cambridge Examination for Mental Disorders of the Elderly (CAMDEX, i.e., Sleep, Depressed Mood, Everyday Activity, Memory and Global Mental Functioning) have been tested on the patient and his/her informant. Eighty dementia patients (mean age = 74 years) and their informants participated in the study. The dementia group was subdivided into two levels of severity according to DSM-IIIR criteria: 41 with mild dementia and 39 with moderate dementia, respectively, matched for age and schooling. The rating of impairment was found to increase along with the severity of dementia in all the above-mentioned areas, except for sleep. However, the source of information per se significantly influenced the evaluation of memory functioning. Moreover, the significant interaction between the two factors considered indicates that memory functioning is evaluated quite differently by the patients and the informants, as only in the assessment made by the latter group did the impairment increase in parallel with severity of dementia. Finally, whereas none of the subjective measures recorded in the patients were significantly correlated with their test scores, the correlations between the informant memory appraisals and patient test results proved to be significant. The present findings confirm the validity of informant reports in assessing cognitive and memory disorders in early-stage dementia, as well as in distinguishing patients with mild from those with moderate dementia.

Aged↗
PubMedDate not supplied

Visual recognition time in strabismus: small-angle versus large-angle deviation.

PURPOSE: To measure the possible differences in monocular detection time of a threshold visual acuity stimulus (recognition time [RT]) between patients with small-angle and large-angle strabismus. METHODS: Ten patients with free alternating esotropia were tested (10 to 18 years old): five with small-angle esotropia (< or = 7 degrees), five with large-angle esotropia (15 degrees to 20 degrees). Six age-matched normal subjects served as controls. The RT of the threshold stimulus was measured in both eyes sequentially for stimuli presented in the center of a computer monitor (RT 1). Moreover, we measured the time necessary for identifying the same threshold visual acuity stimulus generated on the computer screen in the moment in which fixation is taken up by one eye after occlusion of the second eye (RT 2). Using the same setting, RT was also measured monocularly in all strabismic and normal subjects who were originally looking at a luminous fixation point positioned horizontally at 6.5 and 15 degrees from the center of the monitor (RT 3). RESULTS: The multivariate analysis of variance for repeated measures indicated that there was no statistical difference in RT 1 between groups. The mean RT 2 was significantly longer (p<0.001) in large-angle strabismic eyes when compared with that of normal control eyes. The mean RT 2 in small-angle strabismic eyes did not differ significantly from that of normal eyes. Finally, RT 3 (both at 6.5 degrees and 15 degrees of eccentricity) did not show any significant difference in the three different study groups. CONCLUSIONS: The authors hypothesized that alternating strabismus patients may have a significant advantage in maintaining a small-angle deviation, as a large-angle deviation would require longer RT in the moment the deviated eye takes up fixation. It can be speculated that the extension of re-fixation movement, obviously shorter in small-angle strabismus patients, is the main factor responsible for longer RT occurring in large-angle strabismus patients.

Adolescent↗