Biomedical subjects
Publications and source records attributed to R Floris.
The AA, study the case of patient presenting three relapses of severe herpetic encephalitic. These episodes were studied by TAC, RNM and EEG. The diagnostic and prognostic role of these examinations are stressed in discussion.
It has been reported a case of intraventricular cysticrecosis of the fourth ventricle. The Authors discuss the utility of CT iodoventriculography with reference to the diagnosis of such disease.
Liquoral, Neurophysiological and Nuclear Imaging data were investigated in 29 patients suffering from Definite (11 cases), Probable (11 cases) and Possible (7 cases) Multiple Sclerosis (MS). The most sensitive tests were: Visual Evoked Potentials (VEPs), altered in 75% of patients, Motor Evoked Potentials (MEPs), abnormal in 75%, Nuclear Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) in 72.4%. Somatosensory Evoked Potentials (SEPs) were altered in 69.2% in PN-SEPs and in 53.6% in MN-SEPs, whilst Brainstem Evoked Potentials (BAEPs) were altered in 30.8% of cases. The results suggest that patients with suspected forms of MS should be submitted, as routine diagnostic protocol, to a battery of EPs, including as a first choice VEPs, MEPs and PN-SEPs. MRI should be performed to confirm a diagnosis not supported by EP data, or for a comprehensive localization of the demyelinating plaques.
In this study we evaluated the effectiveness of high field thin slice surface coil MRI in demonstrating MS plaques in the cervical and upper thoracic spinal cord. MRI seems to be in our experience a sensitive indicator of spinal cord involvement in patients suffering from MS.
The authors examined by means of computed tomography 12 patients with ALL treated with radiotherapy combined with cytostatic chemotherapy and presenting clinical signs of CNS damage. The CT scan findings are correlated with clinical signs, mainly distinguishing between symptoms of either diffuse or focal damage. An attempt is made in order to evaluate the possible role of Methotrexate and X-Ray therapy in the pathogenesis of the CNS lesions.
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The result of a study on the modifications of the Expectancy Wave (or Contingent Negative Variation) induced in 10 cases by a new benzodiazepine, midazolam, is reported. A double blind cross-over comparison with placebo has been carried out. The administration of placebo did not give rise to significative variations of the Expectancy Wave after 10, 30 and 240 minutes. The administration of midazolam was followed by a statistically significative reduction of the amplitude of the area and of the maximum peak of the Expectancy Wave. This effect was manifest after 30 minutes from the ingestion of a 15 mg tablet of the drug. After 4 hours both parameters showed again values similar to those observed in basal conditions. Midazolam thus appears to possess a central activity typical of the benzodiazepines group, which is of an early onset and short duration and could be properly utilized on a clinical ground.
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In the past decade there has been an increasing use of high dose of chemo-radiotherapy in the treatment of poor prognosis solid tumors of childhood. The autologous bone marrow transplantation is the most used technique for circumventing the infectious and haemorrhagic complications occurring in the prolonged period of myelotoxicity. The faster recovery assured by the peripheral blood progenitor cells (PBPC) makes this procedure an attractive alternative. The advent of new apheretic modalities and the use of combinations of active antineoplastic drugs with various growth factors, such as G-CSF, GM-CSF and IL-3, has allowed to collect and concentrate the mononuclear fraction of peripheral blood leukocytes. The optimal timing for the collection is a crucial point and the utilization of flow cytometry for the determinations of circulating CD34+ cells in the peripheral blood is so far the best indicator for successful apheresis. The authors describe their experience in 16 children affected by poor prognosis neuroblastoma who had undergone high dose chemotherapy followed by G-CSF administration and PBPC collection. The details of apheretic techniques and the characteristics of conditioning regimen and haematologic recovery after PBPC reinfusion are also presented.
To date, magnetic resonance angiography (MRA) has been used in neuroradiology mainly to study vascular malformations and atherosclerotic changes of the carotid bifurcation. Our study was aimed at investigating the role of MRA with the time-of-flight technique in the study of intracranial neoplasms; a superconductive 1.5 T magnet was used, and FLASH and FISP 2D and 3D pulse sequences were acquired before and after Gd-DTPA administration. Fifty-five MRA examinations were performed. Our series consists in 32 meningiomas, 14 glial tumors, 3 hypophysis adenomas, 2 metastases, 1 NF2, 2 craniopharyngiomas, 1 lymphoma and 1 rhinopharyngeal carcinoma with intracranial involvement. In 27 patients MRA results were compared with DSA findings. The results showed high agreement relative to indirect angiographic patterns (dislocations, encasement, dural sinuses involvement) and poor accuracy in the demonstration of tumor vascularization (inflow and outflow, vascular neoformation).