Biomedical subjects
Publications and source records attributed to E Sponza.
We report the case of a 50-year-old female suffering from angina pectoris with a positive exercise test and normal coronary arteriography. Nifedipine relieved the angina. Laboratory tests demonstrated hypercalcaemia and led to a diagnosis of parathyroid adenoma. Surgical removal of the adenoma resulted in normalization of calcaemia and, during 4-year follow-up, she has had no angina. Two exercise tests in this period were negative.
The aetiology, the epidemiology and the pathogenesis of poisoning by viper bites in Italy are outlined. The symptomatology and therapy are also described, and it is noted that antivenom must be reserved for some selected cases.
The authors describe a case of meningitis by Listeria monocytogenes from which the patient, an adult suffering from a chronic lymphatic leukosis, recovered completely. Both the immune-suppressor treatment and the basic lymphoproliferative disease may have given rise to this infective disease. The diagnosis has been obtained by isolating the germ in liquor-cultures. We want to point out the importance of a specific and early antibiotic treatment.
Plasma prolactin concentrations and prolactinaemic response to sulpiride, a prolactin releaser with pituitary dopamine receptor blocking activity, were examined in 16 subjects with mild essential hypertension and in 20 patients with long-sustained essential hypertension. When compared with 16 normotensive controls only the former showed raised plasma renin activity (P < 0.001) and higher plasma prolactin levels either after two-hour ambulation (P < 0.05) or at supine rest (P < 0.05). The average of maximal sulpiride-induced prolactin values was 157 +/- 53 ng/ml (mean +/- SD) in the mild hypertensive, significantly different from 60.2 +/- 21.4 ng/ml (mean +/- SD) as resulted in the controls (P < 0.001). In contrast, patients with sustained hypertension had a mean level of 60.2 +/- 21.4 ng/ml (mean +/- SD), indifferent from the one of the normal volunteers. It is suggested that the excessive prolactinaemic response to sulpiride detected in patients with mild hypertension reflects a reduced hypothalamic dopaminergic activity and that such an alteration may assume some pathogenetic relevance in the natural history of essential hypertension. Further, in the mild hypertensive a positive prolactin-renin correlation was found (r = + 0.76; P < 0.01), so suggesting that in these patients a peripheral sympathetic overactivity is associated to an impaired central dopamine control. The individuation of such cases may be important since they could benefit by dopamine agonists as L-dopa and bromocriptine.
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