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Biomedical subjects

L Cenci

Publications and source records attributed to L Cenci.

12 recordsLinked to original sources
PubMed2006

Evaluating the environmental impact of various dietary patterns combined with different food production systems.

OBJECTIVE: Recent studies support the hypothesis that plant-based diets are environmentally better than meat-based diets. This study aims to further explore this topic and to compare different environmental impacts resulting from different dietary patterns (omnivorous, vegetarian, vegan) and methods of production (conventional farming and organic agriculture). DESIGN: Three weekly balanced diets, equivalent to one another for energetic and nutrient content, have been planned: an omnivorous one, a vegetarian one and a vegan one. For each one, the Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) method has been applied in order to calculate the environmental impact, expressed in 'points'. INTERVENTIONS: The software we selected to carry out the Inventory Analysis and the Impact Assessment is SimaPro5. The Assessment phase has been conducted using Ecoindicator 99, a damage-oriented method, which analyses the impact according to three large damage categories, each of them subsuming various impact categories.

Agriculture↗
PubMed1999

Retrospective study of adverse reactions to non steroid anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs): predictive value of controlled challenge with alternative drugs.

Acetylsalicylic acid (ASA) and NSAIDs, which inhibit the cyclo-oxygenase enzyme (C-O), are responsible, when administered at therapeutic doses, for adverse reactions mainly involving the skin and respiratory tract. The prevalence of intolerance to ASA and NSAIDs, assessed by the Section of Allergic and Immunological Diseases at the University of Bari on a population of 15,800 patients referred for allergic diseases over a period of 7 years, was found to be 11.4%. The adverse reactions to NSAIDs observed were in most cases skin complaints (88.9%), followed by respiratory symptoms (asthma +/- rhinitis, rhinitis) and general symptoms (shock, hypotension, lipothymia). The most common types of NSAIDs taken were pyrazolones, salicylics, arylpropionics, paracetamol. Controlled oral challenges with alternative NSAIDs (especially nimesulide) confirm the predictive power of this test: in fact, among patients who showed tolerance to the challenge drug, only 10.6% manifested unexpected reactions during the course of one year's follow-up.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1996

Allergic bronchial asthma: eosinophil chemotaxis and antihistaminic drug modulation.

This paper investigated the chemotactic capacity of blood eosinophils (EOS) in response to C5a and formyl-leucyl-phenylalanine (FMLP) in 15 Parietaria-pollen-allergic patients with mild asthma during the Parietaria pollen season. Data showed that EOS chemotaxis toward C5a was significantly reduced during the peak pollen count, compared with the values obtained in normal subjects. On the other hand, FMLP could induce EOS chemotactic activity only in Parietaria-allergic patients, the highest value being registered during the height of the Parietaria season. In vitro cimetidine modulation of chemotactic function in comparison with C5a led to a recovery of the impaired results obtained in the presence of high histamine levels. Moreover, diphenhydramine preincubation of EOS induced a reduction of the enhanced chemotactic activity obtained with low concentrations. The data suggest that different serum histamine levels give rise to an impaired immune-phlogistic response in allergic patients and that histamine-receptor antagonists may modulate this effect.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1996

[Rokitamycin tolerance in patients with adverse reactions to chemotherapeutic agents].

The main task in the drug intolerance reactions is the choice of "alternative" drug by oral challenge. The tolerance of rokitamycine (RKM), a new macrolide with a wide activity spectrum in 133 antibiotic-intolerant patients has been studied by open oral challenge with incremental dosage until a cumulative dose of 406 mg. The RKM in 96.2% of cases has been well tolerated. Only 5 patients (3.8%) have had reactions, mainly "atypical" and of minor clinical importance, at cumulative doses ranging from 31.25 to 250 mg. The RKM has been well tolerated also by 6 patients who have had reactions to macrolides belonging to the same group (16 membered). Finally, the use of RKM as alternative drug in chemotherapeutics-intolerant patients has been proposed.

Administration, Oral↗