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Biomedical subjects

D Mannino

Publications and source records attributed to D Mannino.

11 recordsLinked to original sources

Contraception in diabetic women: an Italian study.

Over 1 year, a survey on contraception and obstetric history was performed on a cohort of 667 Caucasian fertile diabetic women (446, type 1 and 201, type 2) living in Italy. RESULTS: Of these women, 30.4% used hormonal contraceptives, 12.0% intra-uterine device (IUD), 10.7% declared they used no contraception, 47.0% only utilised barrier and/or natural methods. However, irrespective of their previous contraceptive strategy, 7.2% of all the studied population was surgically sterilized during caesarean section. HORMONAL CONTRACEPTION: Of these women, 60.4% was prescribed by a gynaecologist, 11.2% by a diabetologist, 15% by both of them and 13.4% by others. The proportion using oral contraception was similar among types 1 and 2 women (29.4% versus 27.8%, chi(2) = ns). SMOKING HABITS: Of women taking hormonal contraception, 30.0% were smokers. EDUCATIONAL LEVEL: University graduates (37.1%), high school leaves (32.2%), secondary school (28.2%) and primary school leaves (15.5%) used oral contraceptives (OC). OBSTETRIC HISTORY: The mean number of deliveries was 1.14 +/- 1.1, of miscarriages was 1.3 +/- 0.7 and of induced abortions 0.17 +/- 0.5. Planning of at least one pregnancy was reported in 29.4% of patients.

Adult↗

A controlled trial of an environmental tobacco smoke reduction intervention in low-income children with asthma.

STUDY OBJECTIVES: To determine the effectiveness of a cotinine-feedback, behaviorally based education intervention in reducing environmental tobacco smoke (ETS) exposure and health-care utilization of children with asthma. DESIGN: Randomized controlled trial of educational intervention vs usual care. SETTING: The pediatric pulmonary service of a regional pediatric hospital. PARTICIPANTS: ETS-exposed, Medicaid/Medi-Cal-eligible, predominantly minority children who were 3 to 12 years old and who were seen for asthma in the hospital's emergency, inpatient, and outpatient services departments (n = 87). INTERVENTION: Three nurse-led sessions employing behavior-changing strategies and basic asthma education and that incorporated repeated feedback on the child's urinary cotinine level. MEASUREMENTS: The primary measurements were the urinary cotinine/creatinine ratio (CCR) and the number of acute asthma medical visits. The secondary measurements were number of hospitalizations, smoking restrictions in home, amount smoked, reported exposures of children, and asthma control. RESULTS: The intervention was associated with a significantly lower odds ratio (OR) for more than one acute asthma medical visit in the follow-up year, after adjusting for baseline visits (total visits, 87; OR, 0.32; p = 0.03), and a comparably sized but nonsignificant OR for one or more hospitalization (OR, 0.34; p = 0.14). The follow-up CCR measurement and the determination of whether smoking was prohibited inside the home strongly favored the intervention group (n = 51) (mean difference in CCR adjusted for baseline, -0.38; p = 0.26; n = 51) (60; OR [for proportion of subjects prohibiting smoking], 0.24; p = 0.11; n = 60). CONCLUSIONS: This intervention significantly reduced asthma health-care utilization in ETS-exposed, low-income, minority children. Effects sizes for urine cotinine and proportion prohibiting smoking were moderate to large but not statistically significant, possibly the result of reduced precision due to the loss of patients to active follow-up. Improving ETS reduction interventions and understanding their mechanism of action on asthma outcomes requires further controlled trials that measure ETS exposure and behavioral and disease outcomes concurrently.

Acute Disease↗

A case study and national database report of progressive systemic sclerosis and associated conditions.

We report the case of a 34-year-old white woman with a history of progressive systemic scleroderma (PSS) and diffuse alveolar hemorrhage (DAH) that may be either a rare complication of PSS or induced by D-penicillamine. The DAH progressed to hemoptysis and led to intubation for airway protection. The patient progressed to acute renal failure. Her chest x-ray revealed diffuse bilateral infiltrates. She developed pulmonary fibrosis with secondary pulmonary hypertension. She experienced a brief period of improvement of her respiratory status after steroid treatment. We also report a database of 21,442 decedents with PSS over a 15-year period from 1979 to 1994. Our report demonstrates that of over 21,000 decedents, only 0.2% had pulmonary hemorrhage or hemoptysis or both listed as a cause of death. The data also demonstrate that PSS was the underlying cause of death more frequently in younger people. Age-adjusted mortality rates were higher for blacks than for whites and for women than for men.

Acute Kidney Injury↗

Trends and patterns of mortality associated with birth defects and genetic diseases in the United States, 1979-1992: an analysis of multiple-cause mortality data.

Contemporary information on the trends and patterns of mortality associated with birth defects and genetic diseases is lacking in the United States. To study these trends and patterns, we used the Multiple-Cause Mortality Files of the National Center for Health Statistics. From 1979 through 1992, 320,208 deaths in the United States were associated with birth defects and genetic diseases. The age-adjusted mortality rates for people with birth defects declined from about 8.2/100,000 in 1979 to about 6.7/100,000 in 1992, and the mortality rates for people with genetic diseases increased from 2.2/100,000 in 1979 to 2.5/100,000 in 1992. The mortality rate was higher among men than among women and higher among blacks than among whites or other races for both birth defect- and genetic disease-associated deaths. The rate among infants with birth defects was more than 25 times higher than that among other age groups. About half of the children whose deaths were associated with birth defects had cardiovascular system defects, 15% had central nervous system defects, and 12% had chromosomal defects. For deaths associated with genetic diseases, hereditary neurologic or storage disorders were the most common genetic diseases (38%), followed by metabolic disorders (21%), sickle cell and thalassemia (12%). The decline in the rate of mortality from birth defects in the United States probably reflects improvements in medical and surgical care and other factors. Most of the mortality associated with birth defects remains in the pediatric age group (less than 15 years old). The upward trend we detected for the deaths with genetic diseases was most likely related to improved recognition and reporting of some genetic diseases rather than to the increased prevalence.

Adolescent↗

Suspected hypersensitivity pneumonitis after exposure to a biologic forage inoculant.

A 44-year-old farmer had respiratory symptoms and bibasilar pulmonary infiltrates after three exposures to a new biologic forage inoculant. Open lung biopsy revealed chronic interstitial pneumonitis and bronchiolitis obliterans with organizing pneumonia. The patient responded to oral corticosteroids but acutely worsened after an inadvertent reexposure to the forage inoculant. He later recovered, with return of lung function and chest radiograph toward normal. This case suggests that biologic forage inoculants may be associated with hypersensitivity pneumonitis.

Adult↗

Exposure to biogenic silica fibers and respiratory health in Hawaii sugarcane workers.

We conducted a cross-sectional environmental and medical survey of 355 male sugarcane workers in Hawaii to determine whether exposure to biogenic silica fibers (BSF) affected their respiratory health. Exposures to BSF ranged from nondetectable to more than 0.700 BSF/mL and varied by job and department. Respiratory symptoms, chest radiograph findings, and pulmonary function were not associated with BSF exposures. Cigarette smoking was associated with respiratory symptoms and pulmonary obstruction. Fifteen workers had pleural thickening or pleural plaques and 3 of these workers were exposed to BSF for more than 10 years. BSF exposure does not appear to influence the respiratory health of sugarcane workers; however, further study is warranted.

Agriculture↗

A simple computer program for insulin dose adjustment in diabetic patients.

A program is described for the adjustment of insulin dose in diabetic patients. The program is written in BASIC and runs on a Casio FX-770P portable computer. On the basis of the maximum daily dose variation allowed, seven twice-daily glucose determinations and the previous insulin dose, the program generated 'cautious' and 'normal' insulin dose adjustment for 66 patients which correlated well with the judgements made by four expert diabetologists.

Diabetes Mellitus, Type 1↗

Kinetics and metabolic activity of biosynthetic NPH insulin evaluated by the glucose clamp technique.

The glucose clamp technique has been used to evaluate the metabolic activity of NPH biosynthetic insulin in diabetic subjects free from anti-insulin antibodies. After overnight blood glucose normalization with a glucose-controlled insulin infusion system (Biostator), an s.c. injection of NPH insulin was given in the abdominal region. The insulin dose (0.236 +/- 0.05 U/kg body wt) was related to the usual intermediate-acting insulin requirement in the morning. Glucose was clamped at 100 mg/dl by a feedback i.v. glucose infusion. The end of the action of s.c. injected insulin considered conventionally to be the time of the spontaneous rise of blood glucose to 110 mg/dl. Free insulin levels were higher and the length of action was longer after NPH porcine than after NPH biosynthetic human insulin (BHI) (area under the free insulin curve: porcine 1423 +/- 556 mU/L/h; BHI 1045 +/- 338 mU/L/h, P less than 0.05; length of action: porcine 16.0 +/- 3.2 h; BHI 13.7 +/- 0.9 h, P less than 0.05); the glucose requirement was higher after porcine (76.8 +/- 13.5 g) than after BHI (58.5 +/- 14.6 g) without reaching statistical significance. However, the metabolic activity of the bioavailable insulin (index of plasma free insulin activity) was similar for the two insulins (porcine 381 +/- 77.4, BHI 342.8 +/- 54.2 mU/L/g of glucose/h). We conclude that a difference in pharmacokinetics exists between NPH BHI and porcine NPH insulin, which makes the latter metabolically more active. The different behavior does not seem to be related to the insulin molecule itself but could be a consequence of the unequal content of protamine in the two pharmacologic preparations.

Adult↗

Premixed insulin at ratio 3/7 and regular + isophane insulins at mixing ratios from 2/8 to 4/6 achieve the same metabolic control.

The insulin regimen with two daily injections is still that more frequently used. Often regular and NPH insulins are mixed at different ratios according to the patient's need; however, the mixture preparation can involve several errors. Efficacy, safety and compliance were evaluated comparing a premixture 3/7 (Actraphane HM) with extemporary mixtures of regular + NPH at mixing ratios ranging from 2/8 to 4/6, in a cross-over study of 8 weeks involving 20 insulin dependent diabetics. Metabolic control, hypoglycaemic episodes, insulin dose and proportions were similar with both treatments while a higher compliance was achieved with the premixture. In conclusion, premixture 3/7 and extemporary mixture (from 2/8 to 4/6) obtain the same efficacy and safety but the former shows a higher acceptability.

Adult↗