Biomedical subjects

G Corrao

Publications and source records attributed to G Corrao.

At least 19 recordsLinked to original sources

PubMed1995

Exploring the role of diet in modifying the effect of known disease determinants: application to risk factors of liver cirrhosis.

The analysis of the combined effects of nutritional factors with other putative disease determinants in log-linear or logistic models is methodologically complicated by the strong multicollinearity between nutritional factors, resulting in poor precision in estimating the parameters. Furthermore, the generally used multiplicative structure is not always the most appropriate for describing the resulting joint effect of two or more factors on the disease risk. The authors addressed such problems in a case-control study assessing the interactions between alcohol intake, chronic hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection, and nutrient intake on the risk of liver cirrhosis. During the period from November 1989 to May 1990, 282 patients admitted to the medical departments of the hospitals of the Province of L'Aquila (central Italy) were enrolled: 115 cirrhotic patients aged 24-82 years (78 of whom were males) hospitalized because of liver decompensation, and 167 control patients aged 25-84 years (100 of whom were males) admitted to the same hospitals for acute diseases unrelated to alcohol intake, infection with hepatotropic viruses, and nutrition. No dose-effect relation was found between the intake of any nutrient and the risk of cirrhosis using classical methods. The analysis of principal components showed, however, that a pattern of higher lipid but lower protein and carbohydrate intakes was significantly associated with the risk of cirrhosis. The Breslow and Storer parametric family of relative risk functions showed that a multiplicative structure was the most adequate to describe the joint effect of nutritional pattern with alcohol intake and/or chronic HCV infection, whereas an additive structure best described the joint effect of chronic HCV infection and alcohol intake. In conclusion, the analysis of principal components and the Breslow and Storer family are useful tools to explore the role of diet on disease risk when precise pathogenic knowledge is not available. As an original finding, the authors suggest that a higher lipid intake, combined with lower protein and carbohydrate intakes, modifies multiplicatively the risk of cirrhosis associated with alcohol intake and/or chronic HCV infection.

Adult↗

PubMed1995

Bone mass and metabolism in patients with celiac disease.

BACKGROUND & AIMS: Several aspects of the pathogenesis of osteopenia in celiac disease are still unclear. Therefore, bone mass and metabolism were evaluated in adults with celiac disease in a cross-sectional study. METHODS: Bone mineral density (BMD), assessed by total body dual-photon absorptiometry, and serum indices of bone metabolism and remodeling were evaluated in 17 patients with untreated celiac disease, 14 with celiac disease on a gluten-free diet, and 24 healthy volunteers. RESULTS: BMD, expressed as a z score, was significantly lower in patients with untreated celiac disease than in patients with treated celiac disease and volunteers and lower in patients with treated celiac disease than in volunteers. Similar changes were observed in serum calcium level, whereas intact parathyroid hormone level was significantly higher in untreated than in treated patients with celiac disease and volunteers, and no difference was found between the latter two groups. 25-Vitamin D level was significantly lower and 1,25-vitamin D level significantly higher in untreated celiac disease than in treated celiac disease and volunteers. Indices of bone remodeling were significantly higher in untreated than in treated patients and volunteers and significantly and positively correlated with iPTH in untreated patients with celiac disease. CONCLUSIONS: BMD is almost invariably low in patients with untreated celiac disease. Results in treated patients suggest that gluten-free diet improves but does not normalize BMD. Untreated celiac disease is characterized by high levels of 1,25-vitamin D and by increased bone turnover, caused by the increase in intact parathyroid hormone level.

Absorptiometry, Photon↗

PubMed1995

Short-chain fatty acid topical treatment in distal ulcerative colitis.

BACKGROUND: Some evidence indicates that short-chain fatty acid (SCFA) enemas are effective in the treatment of distal ulcerative colitis. METHODS: In a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled study, we tested the efficacy of a 6-week course of topical SCFA (100 mL, twice daily enemas of sodium acetate 80 mmol/L, sodium propionate 30 mmol/L and sodium butyrate 40 mmol/L) in 40 patients with mild to moderate distal colitis. Clinical, endoscopic and histological data were collected at the beginning and end of the study. RESULTS: Fourteen patients on SCFA improved (overall score 11.3 +/- 2.0 vs. 7.4 +/- 3.5) as compared to five in the placebo group (overall score 10.0 +/- 1.9 vs. 8.9 +/- 2.5). In the SCFA-treated group all parameters significantly improved except the number of bowel motions, whereas no significant changes were recorded in the control group. A statistically significant difference between the two treatment regimens, however, was observed only for intestinal bleeding (P < 0.05), urgency (P < 0.02) and the patient self-evaluation score (P < 0.05). This was probably due to the random inclusion of more patients with moderate disease into the SCFA-treated group, thus causing pretrial differences between the two groups. CONCLUSION: The present study confirms that irrigation with SCFA enemas is effective in distal colitis, and may represent an alternative therapeutic tool in the treatment of the disease.

Acetates↗

PubMed1995

Interaction between dietary pattern and alcohol intake on the risk of liver cirrhosis. The Provincial Group for the Study of Chronic Liver Disease.

In order to assess the inter-relationship between nutritional intake and alcohol consumption on the risk of liver cirrhosis we performed a hospital-based retrospective case-control study. We enrolled 115 cases admitted to hospital for liver decompensation at their first diagnosis of liver cirrhosis and 167 hospital controls without evidence of liver disease admitted for acute diseases unrelated to alcohol intake. Daily alcohol intake and average nutrient intake were measured throughout the patient's life, using a reproducible questionnaire. No dose-effect relationship was found between nutrient intake and risk of cirrhosis using classical association statistical methods. We then corrected the intake of each nutrient for the total caloric intake and this energy-adjusted nutrient intake was used in a logistic regression model together with alcohol intake, viral B and C hepatitis markers, age and gender. Using this approach, carbohydrates intake were shown to have a protective effect on the risk of cirrhosis, whereas saturated lipid intake had a significant multiplicative effect on the risk associated with alcohol consumption. By comparison with the teetotalers category who had an average daily intake of saturated fatty acids lower than 40.3 g (reference category; OR = 1), drinkers of more than 100 g ethanol per day showed ORs ranging from 14.2 (95% confidence interval 2.0-101.0) for consumers of less than 40.3 g fatty acid per day, to 39.0 (95% confidence interval 5.0-305.1) for consumers of more than 40.4 g fatty acid per day. In conclusion we give additional evidence on the relationship between diet and risk of cirrhosis, whereby saturated lipid intake multiplies the risk associated with alcohol intake. However, caution should be used to interpret such results, since they seem to suggest that diet but not a particular nutrient can modify the effect of alcohol on the risk of cirrhosis. The present lack of agreement on the mechanisms and the nutrients involved in the pathogenesis of alcoholic liver injury should stimulate wider epidemiological studies using modern nutritional techniques.

Alcohol Drinking↗

PubMed1994

Mortality study on a cohort of Italian licensed pesticide users.

This study describes the mortality experience in a cohort of 23,401 farmers, residing in southern Piedmont, Italy, and licensed to use pesticides. From 1970 to 1986 the cohort included 340,794 person-years and 2683 deaths were observed. A strong attenuation of the death risk was found due to the healthy worker effect (seen as an active role in the application for the license by the members of the cohort) and due to the limited comparability of the cohort with respect to the reference population. The standardized mortality ratios (SMRs) were remarkably < 100 for all causes (SMR = 59; 95% confidence interval = 57-61) and for all tumors (SMR = 60; 95% CI 55-64), but they increased with the increasing duration of the follow-up. A risk increase was observed with respect to melanomas and eye tumors in the entire cohort and lymphoma and tumors of the connective tissue in the subcohort of subjects living in villages with mainly arable land.

Adolescent↗

PubMed1994

The effect of drinking coffee and smoking cigarettes on the risk of cirrhosis associated with alcohol consumption. A case-control study. Provincial Group for the Study of Chronic Liver Disease.

In order to assess the interaction between alcohol intake, tobacco smoking and coffee consumption in determining the risk of liver cirrhosis we carried out a hospital-based case-control study involving 115 patients at their first diagnosis of cirrhosis and 167 control patients consecutively enrolled in the General Hospitals of the Province of L'Aquila (Central Italy). The mean life-time daily alcohol intake (as g ethanol consumed daily) was measured by direct patient interviews, whose reproducibility was > 0.80 and similar for cases and controls, as checked by interviewing the relatives of a sample of 50 cases and 73 controls. During the same patient's interview we also measured the mean consumption of coffee (daily number of cups of filtered coffee) and tobacco (life-time daily number of cigarettes smoked). A dose-effect relationship on the risk of cirrhosis was present both for alcohol intake--for which the risk was significantly increased above 100 g of daily intake--and for cigarette consumption. The latter did not however improve the goodness-of-fit of a logistic regression model including alcohol intake as covariate. By contrast, coffee consumption had a protective effect on the risk of cirrhosis and significantly improved the goodness-of-fit of such a model. Abstaining from coffee consumption determined both a significantly increased risk of cirrhosis, even for daily alcohol intake below 100 g, and a multiplicative effect with alcohol intake on this risk. In patients drinking > or = 101 g ethanol daily the relative risk increased from 5.5 (95% confidence interval: 1.4-22.0) for coffee consumers to 10.8 (95% confidence interval: 1.3-58.1) for coffee abstainers.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)

Alcohol Drinking↗

PubMed1994

A strong negative association between alcohol consumption and the risk of hepatocellular carcinoma in cirrhotic patients. A case-control study.

We carried out a hospital-based, case-control study to assess the association of both the Hepatitis B Virus (HBV) infection and the lifetime daily alcohol intake with the risk of developing hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) in patients with liver cirrhosis (LC). Cases were 62 consecutive inpatients of a Gastroenterology Division in whom a first diagnosis of HCC superimposed on LC was made. Two control groups were used: 310 patients without liver disease, matched 1:5 with cases and randomly selected from inpatients of the same hospital, and 97 consecutive asymptomatic inpatients in whom the first diagnosis of LC was made. Alcohol intake was quantified in all subjects by a standardized questionnaire. HBV infection was associated with HCC development in cirrhotics (odds ratio = 6.8; 95% confidence interval = 1.4-32.3), whereas we observed a trend towards a decreased HCC risk at increased alcohol intake values (odds ratio from 1 for lifetime abstainers to 0.2 for drinkers of 175 g/day or more). Our results suggest that alcohol intake is not a direct determinant of HCC, but its role is mediated by LC. Cirrhotics with high alcohol intake do not usually survive long enough to develop HCC.

Age Distribution↗

PubMed1994

Serological screening of coeliac disease: choosing the optimal procedure according to various prevalence values.

The aim of this study was to select the best approach for screening coeliac disease patients among populations with different grades of disease prevalence. The diagnostic performance was assessed of class A and G antigliadin antibodies and class A antiendomysium antibodies in 93 consecutive outpatients with suspected malabsorption, 44 of whom (47%) had coeliac disease according to duodenal histological tests. Class G antigliadin antibodies provided the worst diagnostic values, whereas a high diagnostic validity was found for the other two tests. The positive predictive value corrected for the disease prevalence expected in coeliac disease relatives (5%) and the general population (0.2%) fell to 30% and < 2% respectively for class A antigliadin antibodies, whereas it remained 100% for antiendomysium antibodies in both situations, providing an optimal value for their use as a screening test and as a valid alternative to duodenal biopsy when this is not feasible. The high cost of anti-endomysium antibodies and the invasive nature of duodenal biopsy prevent them being used widely as screening procedures. A cost effective two step approach was simulated measuring class A antigliadin antibodies in all subjects of the target population (first step), and performing a confirmation test (antiendomysium antibodies or duodenal biopsy) only in subjects positive for antigliadin antibodies. The results show that such a procedure should be recommended only for subjects with an expected low disease prevalence--that is, 5% for coeliac disease relatives and 0.2% for the general population--as the positive predictive value was always 100% with an acceptable false negative rate (6% and 11% respectively), irrespective of which of the two confirmation tests was used. This approach avoids the use of the confirmation test in 63% and 89% of subjects respectively for the two levels of prevalence, resulting in a considerable reduction of the cost. Patients seen for suspected malabsorption with an expected high prevalence of coeliac disease should not have such a serological screening procedure. In conclusion, antigliadin antibodies are useful to screen for asymptomatic coeliac disease in non-hospital communities if antiendomysium anti-bodies are used as a confirmation test: the latter is reasonable valid alternative to duodenal biopsy.

Adolescent↗

PubMed1994

Family compliance to a treatment programme for alcoholics: a prospective study of prognostic factors.

A total of 198 alcoholic subjects was recruited into a treatment programme according to Hudolin's method. The programme included three steps: (1) presentation of the programme to the alcoholic family (four meetings); (2) a therapeutic community that met weekly over 4 months; and (3) attendance at an on-Treatment Alcoholic Club located close to the family's home residence (weekly self-conducted meetings). Data on the families' compliance to the treatment programme were obtained in January 1993 and the prognostic significance of 11 variables collected during the first step was determined by the proportional hazards regression model. The cumulative proportion of family compliance after 40 months was 36.4%, with similar drop-out rates at each of the three steps of the programme. The prognostic factor which was the major determinant of family compliance to treatment was the active presence of the whole family in the first step, while a good job performance was independently associated with family compliance, being a significant prognostic factor in the second step of the programme. Alcohol abstinence was obtained in 35.9% of the whole study group. This programme provided results for alcohol abstinence which are comparable with methods that require more expensive resources.

Adult↗

PubMed1994

Amount and duration of alcohol intake in patients with chronic liver disease: an Italian multicentre study. AISF Group for the Study of Alcohol and Liver Disease.

We report the results of an Italian multicenter study aimed at measuring retrospectively the lifetime amount and duration of alcohol consumption in non-selected consecutive patients with chronic liver disease. We used a standardized, reproducible questionnaire for measuring the lifetime daily alcohol intake (globally and separately for wine, beer and spirits), total alcohol intake and duration of alcohol consumption in 1,258 patients recruited from 17 medical centers. Wine intake contributed to the total alcohol intake in a proportion ranging from 44% to 85% throughout the centers. Spirits and beer intake contributed in smaller proportions (15% to 56%; and 3% to 27%, respectively). Males showed higher alcohol intake: those from northern-central Italy showed significantly higher intake than their southern-insular counterparts; of these, younger patients also showed a higher alcohol intake, due to a higher beer and spirit intake. Older patients showed higher intakes in southern-insular Italy, whereas the opposite was found in northern-central Italy. In this area, a longer duration of alcohol consumption was found, reflecting an earlier start in the use of alcohol. In conclusion, we believe that measuring alcohol intake on a wide series of patients in a multicenter study is feasible. This should stimulate gastroenterologists to approach the relationship between alcohol and liver disease using standardized and epidemiologically correct methods, and form the basis for well-designed case-control studies on a large scale, aimed at clarifying the risk of both hepatic and extrahepatic diseases associated with alcohol intake.

Alcohol Drinking↗

PubMed1993

[Reduction modality of a dietary questionnaire].

The data relative to the average daily intake of 7 nutrients and total energy obtained through the answers to a dietary questionnaire, consisting of 152 items and administered to 200 patients (admitted for acute pathologies) has been analysed. The aim has been to elaborate a questionnaire consisting of a more limited number of items but maintaining a great part of the informative contents from the original questionnaire. For this aim, a multiple regression model with a selection procedure for independent variables, of the stepwise type, has been used, where the dependent variable is the daily average intake of the nutrient and the independent variables are the consumption of each food included in the complete questionnaire (QC). By combining the results of the model with the 7 nutrients and total energy, 3 reduced questionnaires have been produced (QR): the first two are based on the sole criteria of the inter-individual variance of the intake of the nutrient, explained by the consumption of the foods included in the QR, the third by adding the foods that offer an adequate contribution in order to explain the supply of the nutrient under examination. The application potentials of the 3 QRs have been analysed both by evaluating the inter-class correlation coefficient, deduced by an concordance/discordance matrix relative to the quintilis values of the nutrient deduced by the QC and by each QR, and by simulating their use in a case-control study; for this aim, the attenuation of the odds ratio trend and the increase of the sample dimension has been calculated following the use of a QR instead of a complete one.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)

Adult↗

PubMed1992

Interaction between alcohol consumption and positivity for antibodies to hepatitis C virus on the risk of liver cirrhosis: a case-control study. Provincial Group for the Study of Chronic Liver Disease.

To assess the risk of developing liver cirrhosis associated with alcohol consumption, HBV and HCV infection markers, we carried out a case-control study involving 115 patients admitted to the medical departments of the general hospitals in the province of L'Aquila (Abruzzo, Italy) who received for the first time the diagnosis of liver cirrhosis, and 167 controls randomly selected among patients admitted to the same hospitals as the cases. Alcohol intake was measured in all 282 subjects using an already validated standardized questionnaire, and expressed as mean lifetime daily alcohol intake in grams. The mean lifetime daily alcohol intake showed a dose-dependent effect on the risk of cirrhosis: the relative risk significantly rose to 3.8 (95% CI: 2.0-7.3) for a mean daily intake of > or = 101 g alcohol; for HBsAg positivity the relative risk of cirrhosis was 23.0 (95% CI: 4.9-107.8) and for anti-HCV positivity it was 8.7 (95% CI: 4.3-17.6). After applying a multiple logistic regression analysis in a multivariate model including mean lifetime alcohol intake and anti-HCV status, both variables were significantly associated with the risk of cirrhosis (relative risks = 5.3-95% CI: 2.3-12.2 and 9.9-95% CI: 4.4-22.0, respectively). The combination of these two variables was found to fit an additive--but not multiplicative--model relative to the risk of cirrhosis: furthermore, the interaction of the anti-HCV status with the presence or absence of cirrhosis did not result in a significant source of variability for the mean lifetime daily alcohol intake.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)

Alcohol Drinking↗

PubMed1992

Gliadin immune reactivity is associated with overt and latent enteropathy in relatives of celiac patients.

Antigliadin antibodies have been widely used in the screening of celiac disease. Using this test, candidates for jejunal biopsy were selected from 328 first-degree relatives of 128 adult celiac patients. All relatives geographically available were willing to participate in the study. Twenty-one turned out to be positive for antigliadin antibodies, and in 13 jejunal histology was consistent with celiac disease. In the remaining 8, the morphometric evaluation of jejunal biopsy specimens showed a mean surface to volume ratio that, although in the normal range, was significantly lower than that of other 10 relatives negative for antigliadin antibodies and 16 biopsied controls. It was concluded that antigliadin antibody testing is a valuable method for the screening of celiac disease among family members and that relatives with genetically predisposed gliadin sensitivity, without gross histological lesions but with minor morphometric abnormalities of the jejunal mucosa, may be regarded as subjects with latent celiac disease.

Adolescent↗

PubMed1992

Failure of intrauterine insemination in male immunological infertility in cases in which all spermatozoa are antibody-coated.

OBJECTIVE: To determine if the overcoming of the cervical mucus barrier removes the interference of sperm-bound antibodies with fertility. DESIGN: Prospective case series. SETTINGS: University-based intrauterine insemination (IUI) homologous program. PATIENTS: Nineteen patients with all spermatozoa in the ejaculate coated by antisperm antibodies. As control group, 86 consecutive patients without antisperm antibodies, treated for oligoasthenozoospermia or mucus hostility. INTERVENTIONS: Intrauterine inseminations (at least 3 attempts per couple). MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: The outcome of IUIs, demographic, and seminal parameters were compared between the two groups. RESULTS: No pregnancy occurred in the couples with male immunological infertility, treated by 110 IUIs. Twenty-three pregnancies occurred in 22 (25.6%) of the control group couples who were treated by 411 IUIs. In the group of patients without antisperm antibodies, we demonstrated that the pregnancy rate (PR)/couple in oligoasthenozoospermia without teratozoospermia was similar to that achieved in normozoospermia (35% versus 38.9%), whereas it was significantly affected by teratozoospermia (3.6%). Only three patients with antisperm antibodies had teratozoospermia. Comparing the PR per couple and per cycle between the two groups of patients (with and without antisperm antibodies), excluding the patients with teratozoospermia, significant differences resulted (P less than 0.005 and P less than 0.005, respectively). The motile sperm count was not significantly different between the two groups, which also resulted to be homogeneous for demographic data. Moreover, the motile sperm count was not different between the patients with and without antisperm antibodies, who had successful IUI. CONCLUSIONS: The analysis of this trial suggests that the failure of IUI in the treatment of male immunological infertility is imputable to antisperm antibodies when they involve all spermatozoa, regardless of semen quality.

Autoantibodies↗

PubMed1992

[Portacaval anastomosis in patients with liver cirrhosis. Study of prognostic factors of survival by multivariate analysis].

Seventeen preoperative variables were collected in order to assess their prognostic value on survival in 82 cirrhotic patients who underwent a portosystemic shunt for ruptured esophageal varices. Univariate analysis showed that the presence of encephalopathy, bad nutritional status, elevated serum bilirubin, low serum albumin, the presence of ascites and Child-Turcotte's or Child-Pugh's C class were significantly associated with a reduction of long-term survival. Multivariate analysis according to the Cox model showed that only encephalopathy and nutritional status were independently associated with survival. Six survival curves were proposed to estimate the survival probability with these 2 preoperative data; encephalopathy had a predominant effect on survival during the first 5 years after surgery.

Adult↗

PubMed1991

Alcohol consumption and non-cirrhotic chronic hepatitis: a case-control study.

We carried out a hospital-based case-control study to assess the association of both the daily amount and the duration of alcohol intake with the risk of developing non-cirrhotic chronic liver disease (chronic hepatitis) in 121 chronic hepatitis patients diagnosed by laparoscopy and liver biopsy, and in 242 matched 'controls' randomly selected from inpatients of the same hospital. Alcohol intake was quantified in all subjects using a standardized questionnaire administered by two doctors unaware of the aim of the study. The odds ratio (OR) for chronic hepatitis was estimated by conditional logistic regression and increased exponentially from 1.0 for non-drinkers to 11.4 for daily alcohol intake of 325 g or more. Considering duration of alcohol consumption from up to 10 to up to 30 years, the ORs for chronic hepatitis consistently decreased for the daily alcohol intake categories of 25-50 g (from 74.1 to 0.7 respectively), 75-100 g (from 149.7 to 0.7 respectively) and 125 g or more (from 212.0 to 1.8 respectively). Our results suggest the existence of a dose-dependent individual susceptibility to the damaging effect of alcohol on the liver.

Alcohol Drinking↗

PubMed1991

A case-control study on alcohol consumption and the risk of chronic liver disease.

We carried out a hospital based case-control study involving 655 patients with chronic liver disease encompassing chronic hepatitis, asymptomatic liver cirrhosis and symptomatic liver cirrhosis and 655 pair-matched control individuals in order to estimate the dose-response relationship between alcohol consumption and the occurrence of chronic liver disease. Alcohol intake was measured by a questionnaire and expressed as Daily Alcohol Intake (DAI) during the patient life. DAI estimates from patient interviews were in good agreement with those obtained by interviewing a sample of relatives. We found an exponential positive association between DAI and the risk of chronic hepatitis and cirrhosis. However, consuming less than 100g of alcohol every day did not increase the risk of developing chronic liver disease. For asymptomatic cirrhosis the risk was lower than for chronic hepatitis, especially at high DAI, probably because high consumption carried a high probability of liver decompensation. For symptomatic cirrhosis, the risk function showed a similar pattern as for chronic hepatitis. Chronic hepatitis patients were 6-7 years younger than cirrhotics. Our results suggest that the evolution towards cirrhosis once a chronic liver damage has occurred is probably time-dependent, but not or minimally dependent on alcohol intake.

Adult↗

PubMed1991

[Disability, perceived health, and risk of death in a cohort of elderly].

An elderly cohort has been submitted to a five-year mortality follow-up in order to evaluate the relationship between environment, social and health conditions and survival probability. Particular attention has been directed to disability measure proposed by OECD (Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development). An extension of Cox multiple regression model has been used. Results show that the social and living conditions are not associated with survival probability. On the contrary, disability is a strong determinant of mortality risk and subjective health status is a modifier of its effect. Following disability level is an indicator of long-term health status and health services needs.

Aged↗