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Biomedical subjects

I Pinto

Publications and source records attributed to I Pinto.

46 records · Page 3Linked to original sources
PubMed1988

[Evaluation of the performance of 8 computerized tomographs in clinical use in Italy].

In the past few years the use of CT scanners has widely spread in Italian health care institutions. This methodology has thus become an important part of our national health service--which creates the need for an accurate study of the various aspects of the phenomenon, e.g. technological, diagnostic and economic. In order to evaluate the quality of the CT scanners used in our country, we asked the majors suppliers of the Italian market to provide us with a unit from their production. Six out of 7 companies complied with our request. A standard protocol was used to evaluate the performance of 8 CT scanners, currently used in Italy. The following parameters were evaluated: spatial resolution, contrast resolution, noise, slice thickness, uniformity, linearity and radiation dose. Five currently-used operating modalities were employed. The results allow an overall assessment of the performance of the 8 CT scanners.

Evaluation Studies as Topic↗
PubMed1988

[Reoperation in patients with heart valve prostheses. Analysis of risk factors affecting perioperative mortality].

Sixty-two patients with at least one prosthetic heart valve each underwent a total of 70 reoperations. Their cases were analysed with special regard to the risk of perioperative mortality and to the factors affecting that risk. The age of the patients studied was 47 +/- 14.6 years (mean +/- 1 SD), and 4.75 +/- 4 years had elapsed since their previous operation. A total of 85 prostheses were implanted at the time of initial surgery. Forty-nine of those were mitral, 28 were aortic, and 8 were tricuspid prostheses. There were 48 mechanical valves, 24 bioprostheses and 13 Carpentier rings (9 of the latter being mitral and 4 tricuspid). At reoperation (n = 70) 95 valves required treatment. Eighteen patients died following their first reoperation (18/62, 29%), and two more died after a second reoperation (2/8, 25%). Actuarial probability of hospital survivors being alive 8-9 years following reoperation was 47 +/- 15%. It was found by multiple regression analysis that the duration of cardiopulmonary bypass (p less than 0.01), surgical priority (p less than 0.05) and the patient's age (p less than 0.05) were the only independent predictors of hospital death. A review of the literature and our own results suggest that surgical problems encountered with reoperation have unfavourably affected surgical results in the past. Objective risk factors are currently more related to the operative outcome. For these to be neutralised, patients with dysfunctioning prosthetic heart valves should be operated at an early stage before they reach a critical one. Only patients with stable, mild dysfunction unlikely to worsen acutely may probably be followed-up safely.

Actuarial Analysis↗
PubMed1987

[Preprocessing programs of CT images for three-dimensional reconstruction].

Up to now three-dimensional reconstructions in computed tomography have been applied mainly to the skeleton. This limitation is due to technical difficulties when dealing with images of the soft tissues. In order to overcome these limitations three new softwares were developed, thus enabling the operator to pre-elaborate and modify the axial CT images. The first program allows the operator to isolate the lesion and/or the anatomical structures of interest from the surrounding areas. The second program eliminates the areas of isodensity with the lesion it is obtained by means of a trackball. The third program enables the operator to write the modified axial images on the original file. The lesion and/or the structures of interest can thus be processed more easily by the 3D reconstructive program. The new softwares have been applied to 3D reconstructions of brain lesions, and two significant cases are presented. Furthermore, since the new softwares can enhance the quality of 3D images of the skeleton, the programs were also tested in cases of acetabular traumas.

Acetabulum↗
PubMed1986

Experimental errors in digital image processing for the determination of geometrical parameters of the human eye.

A new method is presented for measuring geometrical parameters of the anterior segment of human eye. A digital imaging technique is employed in conjunction with a slit lamp and TV camera. A method was developed to analyze images and the problem of minimizing measuring errors was studied. The method was tested using a contact lens to simulate the anterior corneal surface.

Electronic Data Processing↗
PubMed1985

Isolation and characterization of rat plasma glandular kallikrein.

A method has been developed to purify glandular kallikrein present in rat plasma by using Sepharose-Aprotinin affinity chromatography and elution of the enzyme with p-aminobenzamidine. The isolated enzyme liberated kinins from kininogen II of low molecular weight (sp. act. 14 ng kinins/min X mg) and p-nitroaniline (pNA) from the substrate S-2266 (sp. act. 1.23 nmoles pNA/min X mg); it was inhibited by aprotinin, benzamidine and rat urinary antikallikrein antibody but not by ovomucoid. In polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis, the enzymatic activities of the preparation were associated with two light protein bands of molecular weights equal to that of urinary kallikrein (35,000 daltons). Using this method, the recovery of [125I]kallikrein added to the plasma was 82-88%. The concentration of the enzyme in normal rat plasma was equivalent to 6.1 +/- 2.1 (S.D.) ng kallikrein/ml. The mean value found in nephrectomized rats was 20.0 +/- 6.3 (S.D.) ng kallikrein/ml. This increment was highly significant (P less than 0.001). Our results confirm the presence of glandular kallikrein in plasma which had been detected by other methods; they also demonstrate that the material purified from plasma is enzymatically active, suggesting that kallikrein may play a biological role in the control of blood circulation.

Animals↗
PubMedDate not supplied

[Lumboscopic drainage of retroperitoneal abscess. Case report].

Existing reports evaluate the management of infected pancreatic necrosis. Most of the authors choose between percutaneous and retroperitoneoscopic drainage. The high morbidity and mortality of this pathology distorts the objective evaluation of the treatment employed. With present a case of infected pancreatic collection favorably resolved with retroperitoneoscopic drainage evidencing the low morbidity of this technique.

Abscess↗
PubMedDate not supplied

Self-expanding prostheses as a palliative method in treating advanced colorectal cancer.

AIM: This work presents the results of the use of self-expanding prosthesis as a definitive palliative method for eliminating colorectal obstructions caused by advanced and unresectable tumours. PATIENTS: A total of 41 cases were included (29 men, 12 women) with an average age of 70.12 years (range 46-95 years). All cases were showed symptoms of acute intestinal obstruction. Wallstent prostheses were inserted. RESULTS: Locally unresectable colorectal tumours were disseminated in five cases, metastasis in 28 cases and other tumours in eight cases. In all patients the appropriate insertion was performed, eliminating the obstruction in 38 (92.6%) cases in 24-96 h. The morbidity rate was 6/41 cases (14.6%) with slight rectal discomfort in five and one case of bleeding. Posterior tolerance of the prostheses was good. FOLLOW-UP: Two spontaneous rejections, three episodes of subocclusion because of faecal impact and two obstructions caused by an invasion of tumours occurred. Overall, 33 cases (80.4%) died within 1-18 months, average of 4.5 months survival. CONCLUSIONS: Wallstent endoprostheses is a good alternative avoiding a colostomy and providing a good tolerance and comfort for the patient until death.

Aged↗
PubMedDate not supplied

Infrared radiation exposure in traditional glass factories.

This article reports on a general method of evaluating exposure to infrared radiation (IR-A, IR-B, IR-C) from high temperature (T > 1000 degrees C) black body sources, simply by performing measurements with a luxometric and/or near IR detector. The method, which may be applied to any black body source, uses the universality of the Planck formula for the black body spectrum, which allows estimation of the radiated power in any wavelength range by measuring the power radiated in another range. This capability may be very useful when the range of interest is one in which radiometers are expensive and difficult to calibrate, as for the IR-B and IR-C ranges, because a more commonly available luxometer can be used instead. The results of measurements and evaluations in two traditional Italian glass factories are reported and compared with the threshold limit value given by the American Conference of Governmental Industrial Hygienists. Intense exposures in the IR-B and IR-C ranges has been found for some workers, exceeding the limit by a large factor. This exposure must be reduced, as it has been shown by epidemiologic studies that there is indeed a correlation between cataractogenesis and work with fused glass and metals.

Cataract↗