Biomedical subjects
Publications and source records attributed to E Sbano.
A case of subcutaneous fat necrosis of the newborn gave us the opportunity of re-examining this disease in the light of recent reports. Clinical, histological and laboratorial data do not show any specific pattern, although, seen as whole, they seem to form a picture distinguishable from sclerema neonatorum.
In a group of thirtyseven women who had been suffering from acne during adolescence and spontaneously healed within the 21st year of age, the plasma levels of nine sex hormones were evaluated during three different phases of the disease, i.e. the florid phase, the resolutive phase and the one following complete healing. During the florid phase the patients showed significantly lower oestradiol and progesterone levels compared to control subjects: such differences reduced during the following phase and disappeared almost completely after healing. Significant differences in prolactin, total testosterone, free testosterone, adrostenedione, dehydroepiandrosterone sulfate, FSH LH and LH plasma levels were not observed between patients and controls. The ratios obtained dividing the values of total testosterone and androstenedione by the ones of progesterone and oestradiol showed that, in acne patients, the hormonal balances deviated significantly in favour of androgens, exclusively during the florid phase of the disease. We have therefore hypothesized that, in the woman, adolescent self healing acne is almost never influenced by an increase of circulating androgens, but it is often related to a reduction in oestradiol and/or progesterone production that is responsible for a transitory condition of relative hyperandrogenism.
Condylomata acuminata of the external genitalia and dysplasias of the uterine cervix The prevalence of cervical abnormalities indicative of papillomavirus infection and/or dysplasia was evaluated in a group of women previously treated for vulvar condylomata acuminata. The results obtained seem to demonstrate that the women affected by vulvar condylomata acuminata are particularly exposed to the risk of acquiring slight or moderate grade dysplasias. However, the lack of severe dysplasias in our patients tends to suggest that cervical dysplasias associated to vulvar condylomata acuminata are characterized by a poor inclination towards neoplastic evolution.
Autoradiographic counting technique was utilized to measure the ultraviolet-induced unscheduled DNA synthesis of skin fibroblasts from 12 patients with chronic actinic keratosis and from 12 healthy donors of about the same age. In order to reveal a possible regional difference of DNA repair between the parts of the body ordinarily exposed and those parts unexposed to sunlight, two cell strains were used for each examined subject; one developed from the forehead skin and the other from the abdominal or axillary skin. Unscheduled DNA synthesis appeared depressed in actinic keratosis patients, as compared with controls. In all examined subjects however cell strains from exposed skin showed a DNA repair more active than cell strains from unexposed skin. These findings show that skin cancer may be promoted in actinic keratosis patients by a defect of DNA repair. The exalted DNA repair of chronically sun exposed skin is probably the consequence of a defensive process caused by enzymatic induction.
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The behavior of the complement and of its components C4 and C3 has been studied in serum and in blister fluid both in patients with pemphigus vulgaris and other bullous dermatoses and in healthy subjects with experimentally induced blisters. The results are suggestive of local activation of the complement, in the blister fluid of patients with pemphigus vulgaris, pemphigus erythematosus and bullous pemphigoid according to the classical enzymatic sequence.
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A case of Acanthosis nigricans developed in a pregnant 16 year old woman is reported. Laboratory studies disclosed an abnormal glucose tolerance and elevated levels of insulinemia with an insulin-resistant state. Two months after partum, the metabolic parameters became normal and parallel the complete resolution of acanthosis nigricans was observed. The possible pathogenetic role of pregnancy in the development of acanthosis nigricans is discussed.