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Biomedical subjects

F Marini

Publications and source records attributed to F Marini.

At least 55 records · Page 3Linked to original sources
PubMed1987

Antioxidant system and serum trace elements in alpha-thalassaemia and Hb Lepore trait.

Erythrocyte antioxidant enzymes, superoxide dismutase, catalase and glutathione peroxidase were found to be significantly high in subjects with alpha-thalassaemia and Hb Lepore trait, as a consequence of the increased oxidant stress which is known to exist in these conditions. Among the serum trace elements present in these enzymes, selenium was increased in subjects with Hb Lepore trait and significantly low in those with alpha-thalassaemia trait, while selenium erythrocyte content was significantly increased in alpha-thalassaemic subjects.

Adult↗
PubMed1987

[Injury: an occasion for reflection].

In his reflections on trauma, the author is inclined to see trauma as a physiological archetype, the "real" pathology of which appears as a contorted mirror image.

Humans↗
PubMed1987

[Hypothesis of the pathology of mediation in surgery (2)].

There are clearly numerous examples of mediation pathology in surgery. They go far beyond what may be defined as severe forms, in which the entire body is involved in the precipitating disease process and in which the mediation appears more easily recognizable, in that it evokes a resonance which wipes out all specificity and becomes the true protagonist of the critical situation. Forms which can be traced to a well defined pathogenesis, and others to a more debatable pathogenesis, afford great scope for mediation. May one, for instance, be justified in suggesting a mediation hypothesis for a classic surgical disease such as duodenal ulcer?

Disease↗
PubMed1987

[Hypothesis of the pathology of mediation in surgery (3)].

There are three aspects to mediation: the first of these is purely physiological, or rather is concerned with performance of service functions such as ovulation, sexual activity, sleep, etc.; the second, strictly speaking, may be defined as pathophysiological, as its starting point is considered to be an aggressive event, even when a routine occurrence (in the stomach, for instance, aggression is a constant feature, even when of only slight intensity, as produced by the physical characteristics of the enormous quantities of food transiting the stomach and by particular environmental conditions; the third aspect is distinctly pathological, in that it constitutes the basis for the aggravation of a pathological situation already in progress, sometimes according to the logic of plain addition, but more often according to a more catastrophic process of multiplication (less frequently it takes the form of induction of a prevalent or independent disease condition). This break-down of mediation into distinct types, though necessary from the point of view of academic classification, proves extremely difficult to apply in practice. The validity of this latter consideration obviously depends on the specific area we are tackling. As regards the sex glands and male genital organ, the service role is unquestionable; elsewhere, we can be equally sure that we faced with pathophysiological aspects. In the stomach, for example, the difference between "normality" and "disease" does not lie so much in the absence, as opposed to the presence, of lesions, but rather in their extent and duration. This makes it extremely difficult to draw the line between physiology and pathology, and at the same time suggests that the state of health may be an unstable equilibrium phase somewhere midway between divergent forces belonging to the same mechanism. This latter mechanism may therefore be the key factor both in vital performance and in disease processes, whereas the "classic" aetiological factor may actually be relegated to a secondary role, at least in most cases.

Homeostasis↗
PubMed1987

[Hypothesis of mediation pathology in surgery (4)].

The mediation pathology concept takes account to a large extent, though by no means exhaustively, of that horizontal language between peripheral cells, based on locally produced hormone-like substances and aimed at covering extremely short distances. This brings us well and truly into the paracrine domain of intercellular communication, whereby an exchange of messages takes place between adjacent cells via the interstitial spaces. Alongside this short-range communication network, there also exists a long-range network, involving above all the blood stream both as an intermediary and as mediation terrain. To the mediatory processes partakes the neuro-endocrine system, albeit it is not the predominant one as it was classically thought. There are other actors on the mediation stage: oxygen radical plays an important role.

Cell Communication↗
PubMed1986

[Hypothesis of the pathology of mediation in surgery (1)].

The mediation pathology hypothesis is not new. As early as 1955, Laborit hinted at something of the kind in his phrase "N'est malade que l'organisme qui le vent bien". Today, however, in the light of free oxygen radicals, which together with other mediators may possibly represent only the tip of an enormous iceberg, we may venture a number of admittedly cautious theoretical considerations. This would appear to be particularly relevant today, in that surgery at this precise moment, I would venture to say, is at a turning point. On the one hand, surgery is pushing to extremes its classic restrictive morpho-mechanistic approach to disease, while on the other, together with cardiology, it is quick to perceive new biological horizons, which until very recently were unimaginable and, as such, constitute its elective target of interest. Paradoxically, to all intent and purposes at least, the biological rite appears to have found the most natural place for its celebration precisely on the site where the morpho-mechanistic ritual seems to have reached its zenith and, at the same time, its moment of glory.

Animals↗
PubMed1986

[Biology and surgery: a bound pair or merely a couple of disciplines? (2)].

Carcinoma of the breast, to our way of thinking, appears to be capable of providing what is virtually a master key to the interpretation of surgical oncological pathology. In the wake of the acquisitions made in this field--not always as a result of the initiative of the surgeon - a definite process of revision of the age-old concept of surgical radicality is underway, albeit in a somewhat surreptitious manner. Oncological surgery is clearly passing through a difficult phase, almost a crisis of identity, and, in the authors' opinion, may to some extent come back into its own, albeit only after a great deal of painstaking effort, by adopting a "biological" approach with greater respect for the morpho-functional integrity of the patient, who must no longer be viewed as merely the victim of disease, but rather as the prime mover of the disease itself.

Cocarcinogenesis↗
PubMed1986

[Biology and surgery: a bound pair or merely a couple of disciplines? (3)].

In the following reports two main problems are questioned by the Authors. To start with, a sharp distinction is made between the so-called "theoretical physiology" and the "actual" use of the physiological functions adopted by the single man and woman. The second question is concerned with the biological consistency of the different surgical approaches. In the neoplastic treatments, surgeon can draw a conclusion that goes behind the single therapeutic event casting over other different areas of the surgery itself. To answer this second question by no means represents the solution of the aimed goal, on the contrary it is the starting-line towards a surgery, which, having left behind his old, obsolete, but pompous garments, does wear those, which, apparently shabby, are, on the other hand, enriched of many lapels, such as those naturally offered by the self-healing behaviour.

Humans↗
PubMed1985

[The story of oxygen. (3)].

This last part of the oxygen story seems to stray from the line followed till now, and contradict itself, by electing ATP instead of oxygen as its protagonist. Yet, of course, this deviation is only apparent: in reality the hypoxanthine, which is at the basis of the production of superoxide, during the post-ischemic perfusion, is just a catabolic product of the intercellular reserves of ATP, pillaged by the ischemia itself. The attempts to resolve the ischemia and cellular anoxia through the supply, added to the volemic and respiratory reintegration, of performed packets of energy, such as ATP with MgCl2, FDP, etc., cannot be unimportant for traumatologist surgeon, accustomed to face the multiform physiopathologic facets of the shock. Although the flattering results tend to increase, some doubts remain about the effectiveness of such measures, especially ATP, and someone also suggests possible negative effects, partly framed in the well known and complex consequences of the "drug" on the cardiovascular dynamics, partly put forth by its not enough defined metabolic outline. Evidently, the way of the straight energetic supply, which, undoubtedly, represents the fulfillment of a "mirage" of release, at least partially, and in critical situations, from oxygen, although still long and burdened with problems, is also, decidedly, suggestive with promises. It seems surgeon, the true protagonist of such investigations, wants to seek a new dimension in them, being aware, and transplantations supplied an exemplary lesson in such sense, the biologic language is congenial to him, as it is high time.

Adenine Nucleotides↗
PubMed1985

[The other face of oxygen (1)].

The other face this two-faced Janus, the oxygen, allows us, by now, to see dimly is the bad, aggressive one shown by its free radicals, should they escape the respiratory machine, or, rather, should they follow the respiratory explosion of leucocytes and macrophage, or the same compromission of the cellular structure. The antioxidative mechanisms, although articulate and quibbled, appear inadequate, also because the oxygen radicals are formed on the outer side of the cellular membrane, and, just in the intercellular space, the defensive protections are extremely poor. If lung deserves a particular status, being the usual point of aggression by the oxygen radicals: here, these active metabolites are produced by its macrophage, but also by its endothelial cells, especially in conditions of hyperoxy; all organs and segments are their targets. Besides the immediate results, which are also caused by oxidizers having a long half-life, there are mediate results, essentially rotating around the arachidonic acid, a sort of multiplicating pin, with its products of the cyclooxygenase line (thromboxane A2, endoperoxides, prostacyclins) and the lipoxygenase line (the wide range of leukotrienes). But not even this "free body", in a position to escape, provided it wants so, the enzymatic control, seems inclined to free itself, what attenuates its bad face, from a basic rule in animal biology, that is, "negative feedback".

Arachidonic Acids↗
PubMed1985

[Biology and surgery: a team of disciplines or merely two disciplines? (1)].

The present work questions itself about the "ideal" relation between biology and surgery, the necessarily bloody arm of medicine, namely, of that science man has been preparing, parallel with his culture, to enrich the wideness of the defensive slope of his biologic curriculum. Does the instructiveness, we were accustomed to by the university route, give a satisfactory answer? Does not the preparation of a biologic basis seem nearly the arrangement of a compulsory stage, from which to subsequently deviate also in name of technology and by means of same? Surgery can draw advantages or disadvantages from such a way? In the oncologic field it represented the introduction to the anatomical and mechanistic principles which inspired Halsted's thought about radical intervention. At the same time, a sort of dam against the biologic questions was built. Yet, to-day the first leaks occurred, and through them biology prepares itself to flood into surgery, more and more massively.

Adaptation, Physiological↗
PubMed1985

[The story of oxygen (1)].

The writers, in this first part of the oxygen story, intend availing themselves of a language different from the biochemists' initiatory one in dealing with the physiopathological presuppositions of what can be generically defined as oxygen pathology, and propose it in a guise more legible by clinicians. This, as the "oxygen pathology" in the latest years lost its sectorial nature, whereby it was only matter of resuscitators, accustomed to fight against the syndrome of oxygen toxicity stress, and assumed a new dimension, almost totalizing, being inclusive of the most various situations, although rotating around a sole pin, that is, the cellular injury, either originated from a vascular disconnection and subsequent reperfusion, or finding its initial moment in the shock, in the phlogosis, or in a situation of stress, or finding a regenerative, degenerative, mutagenic cause, etc etc. The role played by many of such conditions in traumatologic surgery represented the element justifying the Authors' interest in this topic, expressly faced in "lay" key, as, almost provocatively, the title intends emphasizing, whereas it suggests the ambiguous aspect of oxygen.

Humans↗
PubMed1985

[The story of oxygen (2)].

The authors, in this second part of the oxygen story, resolutely cross the borders of the biophysical field, and face the origins and becoming of life, the stages of which are synthesized in "casket" terms, unusual for surgeons: "protobionts", "procariots", "cyanobacteria", "chlorophyll", "caroteonides", "fermentation", "anaerobic glycolysis", "eucariots", "respiratory chain", "mitocondria". This is not an unconventional biological exercise, but the effort to give clinics a more legible ground, a sort of common denominator of the most different pathologies, and, among these ones, at the first place, just those of the specialistic branch, also less frequenter of biology, that is, surgery. This common denominator, the oxygen radicals represent the emerging apex of, like the peak of an iceberg, in fact, can be only investigated through an exasperated "philogenetic" recovering. Such process of "archaeology" seems to be the only suitable to supply us the cipher-key of the ambiguous, shifty character of oxygen, and entrust us with a cultural patrimony being unique as it is spendable in an immediate clinical future.

Adenosine Triphosphate↗
PubMed1985

[The other face of oxygen (2)].

The authors, in this second part of "The other face of Oxygen", pay attention no more to O2, the "untrustworthy" protagonist of oxidation, but to the opposite side, namely the "physiologic" antioxidative protections. Such antioxidative protections, which were being prepared and improved in cell, in interstices and in organic liquids, during millions of pears, perhaps represent the "most true" witness of the always "traumatic" cohabitation between organisms, although eukaryote, and oxygen. This, after all, in spite of the evolutive push, remained an element "foreign" to life, although, paradoxically, first protagonist of it. Similarly, "singularly foreign" appear mitochondria, namely the forges specifically entrusted with the respiratory metabolism.

Animals↗
PubMed1983

[Cystic neoformations of the retroperitoneal space (4 case reports)].

Based on the study of four cases of retroperitoneal cysts, the complex histopathogenesis of these neoplasms - the clinical diagnosis of which has recorded substantial progress thanks to the use of the computed tomography - has been analyzed. The practice of exeresis, though comparatively simple and radical in most cases (as recorded in 3 out of the 4 cases reported) owing to the little adhesions of these neoplasms to the contiguous anatomical formations and also to their histological benignity, may, in some instances, present such unexpected difficulties due to the expansion in volume and the complex and delicate anatomical connections, that palliative operations have to be opted for.

Adult↗
PubMed1982

Clinical evaluation of labetalol alone and combined with chlorthalidone in essential hypertension: a double-blind multicentre controlled study.

In a multicentre, double-blind, crossover, placebo-controlled study, the antihypertensive effect of labetalol 100 mg and chlorthalidone 10 mg, given alone or in combination, has been assessed in 32 hypertensive patients. The combination had a greater effect in reducing blood pressure than did its separate components. This was particularly evident after exercise. Heart rate increased during chlorthalidone therapy, decreased during labetalol therapy, and a summation effect was observed during treatment with the combination. In most cases additivity was observed, as no interaction between the single components was observed, except for heart rate after exercise, and for diastolic blood pressure in the upright position. No interaction was observed either in the biochemical indices or in the clinical side-effects.

Adult↗