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Biomedical subjects

M Del Vecchio

Publications and source records attributed to M Del Vecchio.

At least 55 records · Page 3Linked to original sources
PubMed1984

Prediction of affective psychoses response to lithium prophylaxis. The role of socio-demographic, clinical, psychological and biological variables.

A set of socio-demographic, clinical, psychological and biological variables was examined in 100 patients diagnosed according to Perris as bipolar affective psychotics or unipolar depressive psychotics, maintained on prophylactic lithium for 2 years and divided into responders and non-responders to this treatment on the basis of strict criteria. The results confirmed the potential role of four indices as predictors of response to prophylaxis: a positive family history of bipolar affective illness and a high red blood cell/plasma lithium ratio (positive predictors) and the presence of the HLA-A3 antigen and a high score on the Neuroticism Scale of the Eysenck Personality Questionnaire (negative predictors). A stepwise discriminant analysis showed that neuroticism score, lithium ratio and HLA-A3 antigen, taken together, correctly classified 74.6% of responders and 68.3% of non-responders. It is hypothesized that these variables as a group may be of practical value in predicting response to lithium prophylaxis, and that pharmacogenetic and, perhaps, personality factors may be involved in treatment failures.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1983

Low platelet MAO activity in chronic schizophrenics: a long-term effect of neuroleptic treatment?

Platelet MAO activity was determined, using 14C-tryptamine and 14C-beta-phenylethylamine as substrates, in two groups of schizophrenic patients and a normal control population. The first patient group consisted of 75 schizophrenics who had been medication-free for 2 weeks and had not been exposed to neuroleptic drugs for at least 2 months before the off-drug period. The second patient group comprised 55 schizophrenics who were on treatment with haloperidol for at least 2 months. The enzyme activity was found to be significantly decreased in both drug-free (using only tryptamine as substrate, P less than 0.05) and haloperidol-treated (P less than 0.001) chronic schizophrenics as compared with normal controls, and to be significantly lower (P less than 0.05) in haloperidol-treated than in off-drug chronic schizophrenics. An in vitro study confirmed the lowering effect of haloperidol on MAO activity. It is suggested that low platelet MAO values observed in chronic schizophrenics might be in part an effect of neuroleptic treatment.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1982

Increased noradrenaline levels in CSF and plasma of schizophrenic patients.

Noradrenaline (NA), dopamine (DA), and adrenaline (A) concentrations were determined by means of a specific and sensitive radioenzymatic method in plasma, CSF, and urine of schizophrenic patients and in a group of age- and sex-matched controls without history of mental disorder. NA levels were found to be significantly increased both in plasma and CSF of schizophrenics, particularly in paranoids. The increase in plasma NA concentration can probably be ascribed to the higher unspecific arousal level of these patients, whereas the increase of CSF NA levels probably reflects a rise of central noradrenergic activity. The physiopathological significance of this overactivity, however, is questionable.

Adult↗
PubMed1981

Comparing radical mastectomy with quadrantectomy, axillary dissection, and radiotherapy in patients with small cancers of the breast.

From 1973 to 1980, we carried out a controlled study at the National Cancer Institute in Milan to consider the value of a conservative procedure in patients with breast cancer of small size. We randomized 701 patients with breast cancer measuring less than 2 cm in diameter and with no palpable axillary lymph nodes to Halsted radical mastectomy or to "quadrantectomy" with axillary dissection and radiotherapy to the ipsilateral residual breast tissue. We treated 349 patients with Halsted mastectomy and 352 with quadrantectomy. The two groups were comparable in age distribution, size and site of primary tumor, menopausal status, and frequency of axillary metastases. There were three local recurrences in the Halsted group and one in the quadrantectomy group. Actuarial curves showed no difference between the two groups in disease-free or overall survival. From these results, mastectomy appears to involve unnecessary mutilation in patients with breast cancer of less than 2 cm and no palpable axillary nodes.

Aged↗
PubMed1981

Blood levels of S-adenosylmethionine in unmedicated schizophrenic and depressive patients.

S-Adenosylmethionine blood levels have been estimated by a specific radioenzymatic method in 52 schizophrenics and 12 depressives, diagnosed and subtyped according to ICD-9 and compared with 38 normal controls. Previous reports of significantly lower levels of blood SAMe in acute schizophrenics in comparison with normal subjects could not be confirmed in this study. Indeed, acute schizophrenics showed higher mean SAMe blood levels as compared both with chronic and with normal controls. No significant difference has been found comparing both schizophrenics as a whole and depressives with normal controls. This investigation aims to bring a contribution to the recently started critical revision of transmethylation hypothesis of schizophrenia.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1981

Cell membrane predictors of response to lithium prophylaxis of affective disorders.

HLA antigens and RBC/plasma lithium ratio were studied in a sample of 49 patients, diagnosed as bipolar affective psychotics (n = 22), unipolar depressive psychotics (n = 18) and cycloid psychotics (n = 9), receiving prophylactic lithium for 1-4 years and maintained at lithium plasma levels of 0.6-1.2 mEq/1. Mean values of the ratio were found to be significantly higher in patients who responded to treatment when compared with non-responders, whereas the frequency of the HLA-A3 antigen was significantly higher in non-responders. The only 6 patients with a lithium ratio above the median and the absence of the HLA-A3 antigen coexistent with bipolarity and a family history of the illness were all good responders to treatment. Further research in this field will probably bring about the isolation of a subgroup of lithium-responsive patient with well-defined clinical and biological features. When patients were divided into two subgroups according to their lithium ratios (above and below the median), the HLA-A3 and Aw26 antigens were found to be significantly more frequent in those with ratios below the median. It can be hypothesized tha these antigens disturb transport in some way, leading to low lithium ratio values.

Adult↗
PubMed1981

Transcultural aspects of depressive symptomatology.

The following is a presentation of the first results of a cross-cultural study of depressive symptomatology, within the framework of a larger research project which is still in progress. Southern Italian and northern Swedish depressed patients completed a self-rating scale for depression and were rated by the doctors using a subscale of the Comprehensive Psychological Rating Scale. In the doctors' ratings Italian patients scored higher for variables referring to motor retardation and hypochondriasis, and Swedish patients for variables referring to inability to feel and agitation. These findings were in line with expectations. In contrast, in the self-ratings Swedish patients scored higher for the variables weight loss, tachycardia and agitation and Italian patients for hopelessness and loss of interest and dissatisfaction. This discrepancy between results in self-ratings and doctors' ratings might reflect cultural differences either in the way patients in the two countries are able to express verbally their symptoms or in the way doctors from the two countries give weight to different symptoms. Taking the results of the two ratings together as a general measure of the severity of the depressive disorder, patients in the two places appeared to be quite alike. Since the two centers are engaged in comprehensive investigations of depressed patients, the last-mentioned finding suggests that the populations in the two centers are comparable as concerns severity.

Adult↗
PubMed1981

Breathing - anyone?

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Breathing Exercises↗
PubMed1980

Excessive caloric expenditure as a cause of malnutrition in patients with cancer.

The resting metabolic expenditure of 65 patients with advanced cancer was measured by indirect calorimetry. Resting metabolic expenditure was found to be abnormally high in about 60 per cent of the patients, and there was a strong correlation between resting metabolic expenditure and weight loss and between resting metabolic expenditure and variation in serum transferrin. No relation was observed between resting metabolic expenditure and serum albumin or between resting metabolic expenditure and creatinine-height index. We suggest that these high values of resting metabolic rate, despite the weight loss and starvation, could play a role in the genesis of malnutrition in patients with cancer. The importance of these findings for an adequate planning of nutritional rehabilitation of patients with cancer is emphasized.

Body Height↗