Search PubMed⌕ Search

Biomedical subjects

R Livi

Publications and source records attributed to R Livi.

32 records · Page 2Linked to original sources
PubMed1992

Gold salts and somatostatin: a new combined analgesic treatment for psoriatic arthritis.

In a group of patients affected with psoriatic arthritis the effects of the association between gold salts (GS) and somatostatin (SOM), in comparison with two groups treated with SOM and GS respectively, were investigated. Sixty patients with psoriatic arthritis were selected and randomly allocated in three groups of twenty patients each. Group 1 received SOM infusion (250 micrograms/h for 96 h) and was assessed at baseline and 1, 15, 30, 60, 90 and 120 days after; Group 2 received intramuscular GS and was assessed at baseline, four months later, and then every month for four months; Group 3 received GS for 8 months; at the fourth month SOM was infused (as in Group 1) and the patients assessed at baseline four months later and then as Group 1. Assessment was made with the Ritchie index, pain scale and morning stiffness evaluation. Growth hormone was assayed in Group 1 every 4 h for 24 h the day before and the day after SOM infusion. The association between GS and SOM demonstrated a particular analgesic activity, effective on joint pain and tenderness, that lasted for all four months of follow-up. SOM showed a good response only after 15 and 30 days, and GS proved to be effective at about the sixth month of treatment. Side effects were reported in Group 1 (abdominal cramps, mild erythrodermia and supraventricular arrhythmia). A growth hormone circadian rhythm was found in psoriatic patients both before and after SOM treatment. The beneficial effect of the SOM/GS combination is demonstrated in psoriatic arthritis.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)

Adult↗
PubMed1991

Knowledge-based system for the diagnosis and treatment of hypertension.

A knowledge-based system to assist the physician in the diagnosis and treatment of hypertension has been developed as the result of cooperation between the Department of Electronic Engineering of the University of Florence and the Interuniversity Centre of Clinical Chronobiology. The system input consists of the data recorded over a 24 h (or longer) period by monitoring (automatically or through self-measurements) the blood pressure of the subject undergoing the system analysis, and the associated anamnestic data. The process results in a report that states from which kind of hypertensive syndrome, if any, the subject is suffering and which anti-hypertensive therapy appears to be most suitable. The system consists of three modules: the first diagnoses hypertension by applying cluster analysis to a set of parameters derived from the principal components of the time series resulting from the subject's blood pressure monitoring; the other two classify hypertension and offer advice about the most advisable treatment, respectively, by using high-level data representation and processing. The knowledge embedded in the system is internally represented by means of frames and rules. This paper describes the structure of the system, illustrates the techniques that have been used for its development and discusses the results of its application.

Artificial Intelligence↗
PubMed1988

Echocardiographic evaluation of children with and without family history of essential hypertension.

A family history of hypertension is considered a risk factor for developing hypertension. We studied two groups of normotensive children (aged 14 years): one comprising 14 subjects with family history of hypertension, the other comprising 15 subjects without family history of hypertension. Children were comparable with respect to age, weight, height, body surface area, heart rate, and arterial blood pressure. M-mode echocardiography demonstrated higher interventricular septum/posterior wall ratio in progeny of hypertensive subjects. Interestingly, all the parameters evaluated were within the normal limits. Our data suggest that a certain degree of cardiac changes is present in children with positive family history of hypertension, though further studies are needed before considering these findings predictive of future essential hypertension.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1987

Autometrically and automatically monitored, iatrogenous, inhalant-decongestant-associated high blood pressure quantified by rhythmometry.

Blood pressure and heart rate were oscillometrically monitored with an automatic Nippon Colin instrument (Komaki, Japan) and were also self-measured by a 20-year-old man treated with an inhalant-decongestant containing an adrenergic and a corticosteroid analog. The subject also collected 24-hr urines for aldosterone determination. An elevation of urinary aldosterone excretion was observed compared to the usual value range of a peer group. After removal of the drug, urinary aldosterone dropped as did urinary potassium, whereas plasma potassium rose. Chronobiologic serial sections, carried out to follow the time course of blood pressure and heart rate, showed decreasing trends in MESOR after discontinuance of treatment. A decrease in the hyperbaric index, a measure of blood pressure excess over 24 hr, was also observed. Another subject treated with the same and a third treated with a similar inhalant-decongestant, who also monitored their blood pressures automatically and/or with self-measurements, showed similar effects: a decrease in blood pressure after removal of treatment and an increase in blood pressure when (for testing only) treatment was briefly resumed.

Adult↗
PubMed1984

Chronic total renal artery occlusion: a diagnostic challenge.

Chronic renal artery occlusion must be suspected whenever a moderate hypertensive patient over 50 years of age presents increase of blood pressure refractory to treatment, sometimes causing heart failure or stroke. This suspicion is reinforced by the presence of renal insufficiency and of anatomical and/or functional lateralization of renal damage at intravenous pyelography.

Adult↗
PubMed1984

Assessment of optimal dose of diuretic associated with fixed dose of beta-blocking: a new experimental model based on multiple sampling of blood pressure performed by self-measurements.

A new experimental model is presented for determining the optimum dose of 3 different doses (13 mg, 25 mg, 37 mg per day) of hydrochlorothiazide employed to enhance hypotensive effect of 200 mg/day of metoprolol in human hypertension. The model takes into account the circadian variability of blood pressure as sinusoidal function and wash-out effect as a linear trend so as to compensate for bias due to normal temporal variability.

Adrenergic beta-Antagonists↗
PubMedDate not supplied

A modified bladder washout test to improve diagnostic results in chronic urinary tract infections.

Bladder washout (BWO) and antibody-coated bacteria (ACB) tests were performed on 25 patients with radiological and/or clinical evidence of chronic upper urinary tract infection (UTI) and 12 patients with asymptomatic bacteriuria. Using a traditional single-washout procedure, the BWO test gave equivocal results in many cases of chronic pyelonephritis; this seemed mainly due to the lack of complete bladder sterilization. A modified procedure, including double sterilization and irrigation, biochemical typing of isolated bacteria, and evaluation of temporal pattern of bacteriuria recurrence, was then introduced. Although preliminary results of the modified BWO test demonstrated a general improvement in the diagnosis of the infection site, it seemed rather difficult, at least in chronic UTI, to establish localizing criteria based on definite numeric changes in bacterial counts after washout.

Adult↗
PubMedDate not supplied

Hypertensive vascular crisis secondary to chronic total renal artery occlusion.

We have reviewed thirty-three cases of accelerated hypertension associated with chronic total renal artery occlusion. During the process of progressive narrowing of the arterial lumen until complete occlusion, an exceptionally elevated blood pressure occurs when a critical reduction of renal blood flow is attained. Then the patient presents one or more of the following clinical manifestations: III-IV grade KWB retinal changes, hypertensive encephalopathy including convulsive attacks, stroke, heart failure, renal insufficiency. We have called this clinical event 'hypertensive vascular crisis'. Mostly in older patients an actual or anamnestic vascular crisis makes a diagnosis of chronic total renal artery occlusion highly probable.

Aged↗
PubMedDate not supplied

Accelerated (malignant) hypertension: a study of 121 cases between 1974 and 1996.

A series of 121 consecutive cases with accelerated hypertension is presented. Forty-seven patients had essential hypertension. This diagnosis was confirmed during the follow-up, which lasted from 3 to 255 months (mean 63.1 +/- 58.1). The relationship between the effects of pharmacological treatment on high blood pressure (BP) and disease course were analyzed in accelerated essential hypertensive patients only, to avoid the imponderable influence of basic disease in secondary hypertension. In most cases, therapeutical effect on BP was monitored by multiple daily BP self-measurements. Since 1974, when this study was initiated, plasma creatinine concentration at admission showed a clear-cut decrease, especially after the introduction in the eighties of new hypotensive drugs. A sustained BP decrease assured a long-lasting preservation of renal function, if the initial functional loss was limited (plasma creatinine concentration of 2 mg/dl (176.8 mumol/l) or less). Renal function was preserved even if the BP decrease was not optimal and signs of relapsing malignant retinopathy were observed in the course of disease. Although the whole series showed a 12-year survival rate of about 69%, patients enrolled after 1980 had a 100% survival rate.

Administration, Oral↗