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Biomedical subjects

S Seri

Publications and source records attributed to S Seri.

At least 55 records · Page 3Linked to original sources
PubMed1986

The utilization of the Rorschach test in a case-controlled study.

The Rorschach test was administered to 58 children of normal intelligence aged 7-14 years with a history of common migraine of at least 12 months and to a group of controls matched for age, sex, and IQ. The Rorschach test was scored blindly. The migraine group was characterized by marked intellectual inhibition with poor school performance and low response rates; inhibition of psychomotor activity and aggressiveness, shown by content analysis and by the presence of kinesthetic shock; inhibition of affect (ratio M/sum C); ineffective use of mechanisms of defence against anxiety (F-); prevalence of phobic features and massive use of repression, indicated by the high rejection rate and shock at red colour. The differences from the controls were significant at the 0.01 level with regard to all items in the preadolescent age group and with regard to all items except kinesthetic shock in the migraine group as a whole. There was thus a definite difference between the migraine group and the controls, a difference that might depend on impairment of ego function and on recurrent experience of pain.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1984

Effects of early nutritional support in patients with abdominal trauma.

A randomized study was initiated to assess the benefit of early nutritional support in patients with abdominal trauma. To date 18 patients (8 control, 10 enterally fed) have been entered in this study. The controls underwent conventional nutritional treatment. The enterally fed group received constant infusion of a defined diet by needle catheter jejunostomy. The infusion of nutritional support was started at 12 hours postoperatively reaching 3000 kcal/day (1 kcal/min) within 72 hours. After 7 days of treatment the nutritional assessment in the enterally fed group was the following: serum albumin 3.47 +/- 15 to 3.54 +/- 0.10 g%; transferrin 219 +/- 8 to 233 +/- 11 mg%; nitrogen balance -7.8 to + 2.9 g/day. Septic complications occurred in 10% (1/10) of patients. The control group gave the following results: negative nitrogen balance (-10.9 to -6.5 g/day); decreased serum albumin (3.44 +/- 0.1 to 3.22 +/- 0.1 g%) and transferrin levels (215 +/- 9 to 208 +/- 10 mg%). Septic complications occurred in 25% (2/8) of patients. These data suggest: a) early nutritional support decreases the incidence of septic complications and improves the value of nutritional markers in patients with abdominal trauma; b) nutritional infusion by catheter jejunostomy might be safely started at 12 hours postoperatively.

Abdominal Injuries↗
PubMed1983

Effects of dietary changes on muricide activity in adult and young rats.

Recent works have showed different interrelations between dietary tryptophan intake and aggressive behaviour in different groups of rats. In this experiment the AA. have treated thirty Sprague-Dawley rats (15 youngs and 15 adults) with tryptophan free-diet, during eight weeks. Muricide activity was weekly controlled; daily food intake for all group was recorded. Young rats feeding tryptophan free-diet and young rats pairfed controls showed aggressive behaviour at the sixth week of treatment. Adult rats did not show any changes of mouse killing during the whole period of experiment.

Age Factors↗
PubMed1983

Psychological peculiarities in children with recurrent primary headache.

Thirty-five children with idiopathic headache (average age 10.2 years) were subjected to various examinations and a series of tests (WISC, Bender, Rorschach, Duss, "tree" and "family" tests) on the nature and characteristics of headache with a view to establishing possible psychological peculiarities. The sample was correlated with a random control group of 20 subjects (average age 10.4 years) undergoing all of the above tests except the Rorschach test. This showed a significant decrease in the "digit span" WISC subtest and in the Bender test with respect to normal population, and a drop in "digit span" and in picture completion subtests and in headache length in months. Feelings of being excluded from the family group, insecurity and repressed hostility towards the important figures, were significantly stronger in the headache patients group.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1980

[HDL-cholesterol and chronic alcoholism].

The A., after having studied 32 cases of chronic alcoholism using hemo-chemical test to determine the metabolic state, has determined the importance of the quantitation of the lipoprotein borned-cholesterol fraction. Specifically, a statistically significant reduction in HDL-cholesterol, fraction accepted to be anti-atheromatosis, was demonstrated, thus leading to the classification of these patients as "high-atherosclerotic risk", even though their total blood cholesterol was within normal levels. The A. retains that, in patients with chronic alcoholism or in patients with other diseases in which atherogenesis is suspected, it is important to study the blood lipoprotein fractions, as well as the total blood cholesterol, regardless of the patient's age.

Alcoholism↗
PubMed1979

[Report on dietary medium chain fatty acids (MCT) and chicken growth].

From the results, obtained from the comparison between diet containing medium chain triglycerides (MCT) and the growth of chicks, emerged the importance of the qualitative composition of the diet; most of all it became evident the influence that MCT exert on the amount of energy rendered per ration consumed. Less body growth is obtained due to the adapting, probably temporary, of oxidative metabolism to the increased quantity of medium chain fatty acid consumption.

Animals↗
PubMedDate not supplied

Diffusion and perfusion magnetic resonance imaging of the evolution of hypoxic ischemic encephalopathy in the neonatal rabbit.

Hypoxic-ischemic encephalopathy (HIE) can result from neonatal asphyxia, the pathophysiology of which is poorly understood. We studied the acute evolution of this disease, using magnetic resonance imaging in an established animal model. HIE was induced in neonatal rabbits by a combination of common carotid artery (CCA) ligation and hypoxia. Serial diffusion and perfusion-weighted magnetic resonance images were acquired before, during, and after the hypoxic interval. Focal areas of decreased apparent diffusion coefficient (ADC) were detected initially in the cortex ipsilateral to CCA ligation within 62 +/- 48 min from the onset of hypoxia. Subsequently, these areas of decreased ADC spread to the subcortical white matter, basal ganglia (ipsilateral side), and then to the contralateral side. Corresponding perfusion-weighted images showed relative cerebral blood volume deficits which closely matched those regions of ADC change. Our results show that MRI diffusion and perfusion-weighted imaging can detect acute cell swelling post-hypoxia in this HIE model.

Animals↗
PubMedDate not supplied

Bowel function in runners after ingestion of sweeteners.

OBJECTIVES: This study investigates the bowel function in outdoor runners drinking sweetened solutions both by determination of H2 in exhaled air and asking about intestinal discomfort. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Twenty-two athletes with a mean age of 22 +/- 3 yrs, received 100 ml of a 10% water solution of saccharose, glucose, mannitol, and isomalt respectively, before a 60 min outdoor run training. The trial was repeated on a rest day, one week later. Samples of the exhaled air were obtained at time zero (basal) and then every 15 min for a period of 3 hrs after administration of the solutions. The H2 was detected by breath test. RESULTS: H2 excretion was lower during exercise. Suprabasal increments of breath hydrogen after saccharose load were significantly higher than after ingestion of mannitol (p < 0.05 between 1 and 3 hrs) and isomalt intake (p < 0.05 over 30 min). After glucose load, suprabasal increments of breath hydrogen were higher than after mannitol (p < 0.05 between 1 and 3 hrs) and isomalt (p < 0.001 between 1 and 3 hrs) ingestion. CONCLUSIONS: The intestinal discomfort in runners drinking sweetened solutions seems to be related to different bowel transit time.

Adult↗
PubMedDate not supplied

The effect of cigarette smoking on vitamin C and vitamin E levels of gingival crevicular fluid.

The purpose of this study was to assay the ascorbic acid and tocopherol levels in gingival crevicular fluid (GCF) of smokers and nonsmokers with clinically healthy gingiva. The comparison was determined between the area physically exposed to smoke and the controlateral area. All tested areas required to be free from periodontal diseases at a screening examination. 41 students (16 nonsmokers and 25 smokers) were enrolled in this study. GCF samples were collected in two regions: area of habitual cigarette placement and controlateral area. Areas sampled were at midbuccal and midlingual sites of all teeth 3, 5, 6, and 7. Ascorbic acid and tocopherol values of GCF were determined by HPLC. Smokers were found to have significant (p < 0.05) lower levels of vitamin C in comparison to nonsmokers in all regions tested. Mean GCF tocopherol concentration of smokers did not reveal significant differences between the two regions examined. The vitamin A levels revealed an unsignificant low value in smokers in comparison to control subjects. Tobacco smoke can be the cause of a gingival damage by decrease of vitamin C and A operating through a vasoconstriction and a reduction of the antioxidant properties.

Adult↗
PubMedDate not supplied

Headache and epilepsy in childhood: analysis of a series of 620 children.

The relationships between various types of headache and epilepsy were investigated in a sample of 620 children aged 2 to 16 years with special reference to the frequency and types of epilepsy, their distribution over the types of headache, the frequency of familiarity of convulsions and epilepsy by headache type and the frequency of epileptiform EEGs in headache-free intervals. Data were correlated with those of a control group of 100 suffering from Recurrent Respiratory Infection Syndrome (RRIS). Children with and without epilepsy were compared in respect of the course of headache in order to elicit any differences. Epilepsy was definitely more common in headache patients than in the control group, and so was a family history of epilepsy and convulsions. The frequency of epilepsy was uniform across the various types of headache, migrainous or not. The frequency of epileptiform EEGs was high (20%) compared to the control group, but was not an index of severity for headache, except in cases with multifocal EEG abnormalities. Neither the presence of epilepsy nor the frequency of epileptiform changes significantly effect the migraine attack rate.

Adolescent↗
PubMedDate not supplied

Random dominance and childhood migraine: a new marker? A controlled study of laterality in children with migraine.

We assessed various aspects of laterality by direct observation in children with migraine and peer controls, with special reference to the frequency of random dominance. This frequency varied with the test battery used, being lower on the Edinburgh and Oldfield inventories which measure hand-use preference, and higher on the Handedness index and Spontaneous gestural index, which explore "genetic laterality". Random dominance would seem to be a new marker of migraine in childhood, for use alongside the hyperreactivity marker found in a previous study.

Adolescent↗