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Biomedical subjects

E Marano

Publications and source records attributed to E Marano.

39 records · Page 3Linked to original sources

[Radiologic examination of the paranasal sinuses in asthmatic children].

We examined the prevalence of abnormalities found by sinus X-Rays in 80 asthmatic children classified into three groups in relation to severity of their symptoms. All the children underwent skin tests and some of them methacholine challenge. 63.7% of asthmatics showed abnormalities in sinus X-Rays. No correlation was found between the severity of asthma, radiographic findings, and atopic status. Bronchial hyperreactivity studied using metacholine challenge according to the method of Chai was the same both in patients with asthma and sinusitis and in those with asthma only. In conclusion, abnormal sinus X-Rays do not seem to be an aggravating factor in asthmatic status.

Asthma↗

[Epstein-Barr virus infection. Old and new immunological aspects].

EBV infection may have a wide range of clinical consequences: it is often asymptomatic; some cases-generally adolescents-develop the classic "infectious mononucleosis" syndrome; in rare cases the illness takes a severe, fatal course. EBV is also implicated in some geographic areas, in Burkitt' lymphoma and naso-pharyngeal carcinoma. Recent research has enrich our knowledge on the viral genome and the various viral antigen, but some problems are still unsolved. The "normal" immunological response to EBV infection is briefly summarized; then the abnormal immunological pattern is considered in relation to some conditions such as age, congenital and acquired immunodeficiencies and unusual clinical syndromes. Recently a group of not well defined, persistent illnesses (fever, fatigue, headache etc.) has been correlate to a "chronic" EBV infection. It becomes more and more evident that different clinical manifestations of EBV infection are always connected with a particular immunological response; between the "normal" cases and those with well defined immunodeficiency probably large group exists in which minor immunological abnormalities are responsible for a partial derepression of the virus.

Aging↗

The antimigraine effect of ergotamine: a role for alpha-adrenergic blockade?

The hypothesis that alpha-adrenergic receptor blockade accounts for the ability of ergotamine to stop migraine attacks was tested, in migraine patients, in an experimental migraine model based on nitroderivative- induced attacks. In a preliminary single blind, placebo controlled study, thymoxamine, a prevalently post-synaptic alpha adrenergic receptor antagonist, was able to abort migraine attack in 9 out of 10 patients, as opposed to 2 out of 10 by placebo (p < 0.005 Fisher's exact test). In a subsequent randomized, crossover, placebo controlled double blind study, the ability of a selective alpha-1 adrenergic receptor agonist, methoxamine, to block ergotamine antimigraine effect was studied. In 26 patients migraine was induced in two separate tests and then ergotamine was administered once after methoxamine pretreatment and once after placebo; methoxamine was significantly more effective than placebo in blocking antimigraine effect of ergotamine (p = 0.0055 Fisher's exact test). These results support the hypothesis that ergotamine alpha-1 adrenolytic properties may account for its antimigraine effect suggesting that this action takes place outside the blood-brain barrier, since methoxamine can cross it very poorly. Ergotamine target structure could be the trigeminal innervation of the extracranial and/or dural vessels.

Adolescent↗