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Biomedical subjects

G Airoldi

Publications and source records attributed to G Airoldi.

At least 19 recordsLinked to original sources
PubMed2005

Improved recycling of livestock slurries on maize by means of a modular tanker and spreader.

Slurry spreading represents a critical component of the waste management strategy since it influences the nutrients' availability for the crops. The Italian Regulation in force sets severe limits to the slurry application to land. These limits--and the necessity to optimise the slurry fertilising value--require to operate with the correct application rate and with a sufficient spreading uniformity. An innovative slurry spreader able to optimise the reuse of this by-product as an agronomic resource whilst respecting the national regulation has been tested under practical conditions. The agronomic trials showed that the controlled recycling--performed with the innovative slurry spreader--gave no statistically different grain yields from those obtained with the chemical fertilisation. The ammonia emissions recorded after the slurry injection were the 16% of those recorded after the band application.

Agriculture↗
PubMed1999

[Nephrotic syndrome refractory to conventional therapy].

BACKGROUND: Prednisone is the choice medicine in Nephrotic Syndrome (NS) treatment, possibly associated with immunosuppressor medicines (cyclophosphamide or chlorambucil), either in case of NS resistance at cortisone therapy or with frequent relapses. Cyclosporin A (CyA) use has been recently proposed, due to its inhibitory effect on the IL2 and lymphokine release, with a permeabilizing effect on the glomerular membrane. The purpose of this study is to evaluate the CyA antiproteinuric effectiveness with NS conventional therapy refractory patients. METHODS: Six patients (3 females and 3 males) have been treated with CyA (4 +/- 0.5 mg/Kg/die) associated with low corticosteroid dosages. RESULTS: During the treatment, proteinuria reduced in 5 patients, at less than 1/3 of pre-treatment values, for 4 patients this happened starting from the 2nd month of therapy, while after the 12th for the fifth patient. The sixth patient has now a 2/3 reduction compared to the initial one and he is at the 3rd month of therapy. During the CyA treatment, further to the proteinuria reduction, a total proteinemia values increase and a cholesterolemia and tryglyceridemia reduction has been observed, while creatinine and PA have not changed. CONCLUSIONS: Four out of the six treated patients have been respectively under therapy for 2,3,12,30 months. Two stopped CyA therapy: one after 18 months due to clinical stability, still present after 2 years from interruption; one after 9 months with a stable clinical picture for just three months, since she was longing for a pregnancy, achieving a quick proteinuria relapse.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1998

Usefulness of transdermal clonidine in hypertensive patients undergoing minor surgical operations.

Transdermal clonidine (TTSC) treatment was evaluated in 29 patients with mild to moderate hypertension scheduled for minor surgery. Two weeks before the scheduled operation, patients underwent 24-h ambulatory blood-pressure monitoring (ABPM) to evaluate the efficacy of previous oral antihypertensive treatment, which was then substituted with TTSC, 0.1 mg/day. After 1 week, the efficacy of TTSC was clinically assessed, and the dose increased to 0.2 mg/day if needed. ABPM was repeated 2 days before the scheduled operation and 2 days after surgery. The 24-h blood pressure (BP) and heart rate (HR) profiles were smoothed by Fourier analysis. Three patients withdrew for adverse events and one for inefficacy after dose adjustment, TTSC being effective in the remaining 25 patients. Two patients who completed treatment lacked postsurgical ABPM recording. In the 23 patients with all ABPM recordings, average 24-h BP and HR obtained preoperatively during TTSC treatment were slightly reduced compared with values recorded during previous oral therapy. BP changes after surgery were negligible, whereas HR showed a moderate increase. Minor adverse events occurred in four (14%) of 29 patients. Our results demonstrate that TTSC provides adequate BP control in patients with mild to moderate hypertension undergoing minor surgery.

Administration, Cutaneous↗
PubMed1997

Oral environment temperature changes induced by cold/hot liquid intake.

The use of NiTi shape memory alloys, introduced into orthodontics because of their ability to develop light continuous forces that prove more effective than heavy intermittent forces in the teeth movement, requires the mastering of the functional properties of NiTi wires. More specifically, the recovery force acting on the teeth is a sensitive function of temperature: knowledge of oral temperature modifications is therefore required to understand the stress state modification felt during orthodontic therapy. The temperature modifications induced by cold or hot drink intake in the oral cavity were investigated by using arch wires, fixed to removable Hawley retainers, similar to those currently used in orthodontic practice, by means of six temperature sensors placed in correspondence with specific teeth. Similarly, the temperature changes were detected on a metallic frame, fixed onto the palatal zone to a Hawley retainer, where a palatal expander was placed to correct unilateral or bilateral crossbites in deciduous or in early mixed dentition. The maximum temperature change was observed in the interincisor area: The temperature modification on other teeth depends on the modality of drink intake, with the highest temperature variations being detected in the palatal zone. Hence modifications in the stress state during orthodontic therapy with NiTi wires are to be expected.

Beverages↗
PubMed1996

[Medical nephropathies: what has changed in 20 years].

The authors analyse the series of patients with medical nephropathy undergoing renal biopsy between 1973 and 1993 in order to make a diagnostic and prognostic comparison between the first (ID) and second (IID) decade. Clinical indications for biopsy, which became more precise during the second decade, led to the diagnosis of fewer patients with normal histology; the introduction of ME and IF allowed non-significant histological conditions to be reduced during IID; echo-guided biopsy has led to a reduced number of post-biopsy complications in IID compared to ID. Epidemiological analysis reveals the reduction of focal glomerulosclerosis in IID in favour of glomerulonephritis with IgA deposits in correlation with the use of IF; the increase in mebranous glomerulonephritis secondary to increased antigenic stimuli; reduced acute post-infective glomerulonephritis and membrane-proliferative glomerulonephritis owing to an improved prophylaxis of sources of infection. Among the patients undergoing renal biopsy and commencing dialysis an increase was observed in IID in the number of cases of membranous glomerulonephritis or caused by IgA deposits. There was an increased interval between biopsy and the start of dialysis in IID compared to ID, in spite of fewer patients receiving immunosuppressive therapy. This was probably due to the increased number of pathologies with a slower evolution, thus justifying the postponement of the start of dialysis.

Adult↗
PubMed1996

Innovative materials: the NiTi alloys in orthodontics.

Since ten years the NiTi alloys have gained an ever increasing place in orthodontic practice: that is due to their peculiar mechanical properties ascribed to a martensitic thermoelastic transformation which can be thermally or, in a proper temperature range, stress-induced. In the last case, when martensite is stress-induced at body temperature, the stress-strain behaviour is pseudoelastic with large deformations gained or recovered at constant stress, respectively in direct/reverse transformation: this behaviour exploited in orthodontics allowed to overcome the drawbacks intrinsic to the use of conventional alloys as stainless steel or Co-Mo alloys, where small displacements can be achieved at decreasing loads. From the phase state diagram of NiTi alloys it appears that at body temperature they are stable, but out of equilibrium: thermal treatments at intermediate temperatures can therefore modify the equilibrium state and as a consequence the transformation temperatures respect to body temperature. That allows to modify the recovery stress level according to the requirements of practice and thus disclosing new roads: the capability to foresee NiTi archwires pre-programmed in different sections, with a personalized scheme. Attention has not currently been paid to the modifications in the recovery stress induced by a temperature change inside the oral cavity. Recent results have shown that the thermal changes in the oral cavity induced by cold/hot liquid intake can considerably modify the stress level to which the dentition is exposed: though confined to the time extent connected with drinking, similar effects can be expected also for meals intake and should be taken into account for a correct procedure.

Biocompatible Materials↗
PubMed1993

Hepatitis C virus infection in type II essential mixed cryoglobulinemias.

The possible relationship between essential mixed cryoglobulinemias (EMCs) and hepatitis C virus (HCV) has been investigated in eight patients with type II EMCs and biochemical signs of liver damage, whose serum tested positive in the ELISA for anti-HCV. Sera were tested using the 2nd generation RIBA assay, while serum HCV-RNA was measured semiquantitatively by a RT-PCR in whole serum, cryoprecipitates and supernatants. In all patients a percutaneous liver biopsy and a bone marrow biopsy were performed. At liver biopsy, chronic active hepatitis and/or cirrhosis were present in 6 patients; in the remaining two, a lymphoplasmacytoid infiltration of elements positive for kappa light chains was found. In all patients a bone marrow biopsy showed a paratrabecular infiltration of monoclonal lymphoplasmacytoid elements similar to those found in the liver of the two patients described above. Antibodies against structural and non-structural HCV proteins were detectable in the serum of all patients. HCV-RNA was amplified from the whole sera, cryoprecipitates and supernatants: significantly higher concentrations were found in cryoprecipitates than in supernatants. Our results confirm the high prevalence of HCV infection and ongoing viral replication in patients with type II EMC and suggest the possible implication of HCV in EMC pathogenesis.

Aged↗
PubMed1993

[Microalbuminuria: theoretical bases and new applications].

The constant presence of albumin, as detected by common biochemical methods, in multiple urine samples of a patient, was first considered by Bright, in 1836, as a cardinal sign of renal disease ("clinical proteinuria"). Since then this view was widely adopted for studying the clinical evolution of the patients with diabetes mellitus, whose high risk to develop proteinuria and subsequently a progressive decline of renal function was well known. Thus the finding of "clinical proteinuria" by traditional, merely biochemical techniques, has been considered for more than one century as the opening event in the onset of diabetic nephropathy, and a distinctive sign of glomerulopathy in general. More recently, this view has been deeply criticized, mainly because it lies on the implicit assumption that the sensitivity limits of the biochemical tests for the detection of urinary protein concentrations (about 300 mg/dl), coincide with the ones that can distinguish non nephropathic from nephropathic patients (either diabetic or not). Indeed new techniques, that detect urinary proteins down to 1 microgram/ml, have shown that the upper limit of protein excretion in healthy people is well below the minimum concentration detectable by all the traditional tests. Therefore a new clinical entity, named "microproteinuria" has been defined, meaning the urinary excretion rate ranging between the "physiological" and the "clinical" proteinuria; its pathophysiologic, diagnostic and prognostic significance has been extensively evaluated in the last 20 years. Microproteinuria has been shown to represent a crucial event in the natural history of the diabetic nephropathy; in diabetic patients it is strictly related to the risk of future (months to years) development of overt nephropathy and chronic renal failure, and it may predict the risk of macroangiopathic complications. More recently new settings have been proposed for the study of microproteinuria, as an early and sensitive marker of cardiovascular diseases in hypertensive non diabetic patients and even in non hypertensive non diabetic elderly people. The role of microproteinuria in the diagnosis and follow-up of many non-diabetic glomerulopathies is a very interesting though still unexplored field.

Albuminuria↗
PubMed1991

[Current aspects of the diagnosis of arterial hypertension].

Arterial blood pressure (BP) is widely believed to be a main risk factor for cardiovascular diseases. The chance to develop some kind of vascular injury is almost exponentially and continuously related to BP values at a given age. In accordance, the WHO stated the upper limits for diastolic and systolic BP beyond which it is reasonable to anticipate a clear statistic advantage from the hypotensive treatment (of either pharmacologic or other kind). However many studies have shown that the relation coefficient between BP values and the occurrence of cardiovascular diseases is on the whole quite weak, even under rigorously controlled conditions. This could be, at least in part, due to the fact that the severity of the cardiovascular damage depends on the "global" hypertensive load continuously charging the patient's cardiovascular system along the whole life: the "random" measurement of the BP is indeed a poor statistical index of such load because of the wide variability of BP with time. Thus many sources of BP variability have been studied, in order to develop multiple-measurement methods of BP monitoring hopefully with more prognostic power. In this article we review the major problems inherent to the methodological development of the serial full-automatic sphygmomanometric ambulatory BP monitoring, such as its concordance with different more traditional techniques, the statistic effectiveness of intermittent (versus continuous) sampling, the psychological impact of multiple cuff inflations during the day and the night.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)

Age Factors↗
PubMed1985

Multicentre comparison of the antihypertensive effect of acebutolol and hydrochlorothiazide in uncomplicated mild-moderate hypertension in the elderly.

To evaluate the efficacy of acebutolol, 400-600 mg/day in elderly hypertensive patients, and to compare it with hydrochlorothiazide 25-50 mg/day, 45 patients with mild-moderate uncomplicated hypertension were treated for 6 weeks in a multicentre, single-blind, randomized, crossover trial. Acebutolol decreased supine systolic blood pressure from 186.5 to 162.7 mmHg and diastolic blood pressure from 107.4 to 92.4 mmHg. Hydrochlorothiazide decreased systolic blood pressure from 185.0 to 166.4 and diastolic blood pressure from 107.2 to 96.4. There was no difference between the effects of acebutolol and hydrochlorothiazide on blood pressure during the trial. Both drugs proved to be safe and effective antihypertensive agents, provided the major contraindications for their use were taken into account. Beta-blockade by acebutolol was highly effective in treating mild-moderate arterial hypertension in the elderly.

Acebutolol↗
PubMed1981

Reversible and irreversible structural modifications of erythrocyte membrane.

Membrane glycoprotein structure regulates the fate in the circulation of mammalian erythrocytes: the mechanism of this phenomenon was observed in rabbit and human red cells by in vivo and in vitro experiments. Glycoprotein remodeling can occur as a reversible desialylation process, produced by different events, or as an irreversible process consisting in a loss of sialoglycopeptides. The effect of these two phenomena on the viability of the red cell in the circulation was the subject of our investigation.

Amino Acids↗
PubMed1978

[Immunological determination of various blood proteins in clinical nephrology].

The serum levels of certain proteins were determined in 130 nephropathics collected into 8 different diagnostic groups, and in 20 normal subjects considered as a control group. The purpose was mainly to assess the clinico-diagnostic interest of such a measurement in nephrological practice. The results point to its clinical usefulness, particularly in differential diagnosis. It is possible to formulate interesting physiopathological interpretations notwithstanding the limitations of the eminently clinical features of the research.

Acute Disease↗
PubMedDate not supplied

Hepatotoxicity of hydroxy-methyl-glutaryl-coenzyme A reductase inhibitors.

The first clinical studies on hydroxy-methyl-glutaryl-coenzyme A (HMG-CoA) reductase inhibitors reported a low incidence of liver toxicity. The personal observation of a case of simvastatin-induced acute cholestatic hepatitis prompted us to evaluate the true incidence of hepatic side effects of these drugs in a large Italian population. One hundred patients taking simvastatin and ninety patients treated with pravastatin were followed-up six months with periodical evaluation of serum lipid levels and liver function test. In 5% of simvastatin-treated patients and 4.5% of pravastatin-treated patients significant liver toxicity was observed, which required drug discontinuation. The mechanism of liver damage was direct, idiosyncratic, but immunological features of drug toxicity could be hypothesized in one patient.

Chemical and Drug Induced Liver Injury↗