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Biomedical subjects

M Poloni

Publications and source records attributed to M Poloni.

At least 37 records · Page 2Linked to original sources
PubMed1986

Motor and psychomotor functions in amyotrophic lateral sclerosis evaluated by tests of motor ability.

18 patients with typical sporadic Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS) were investigated by the Motor Accuracy and Speed Test (MAST) and 18 healthy age- and-sex-matched volunteers, acted as controls. All performed each of the five tests 10 times with both the right and the left hands and repeated the experiment after one week by the same procedure. Motor performances were better in the controls than in the ALS patients only in the first three tasks. At retest, one week later, the controls generally improved while ALS patients did not. The mean percentages of changes showed a statistically significant difference in the fifth task. Analysis of the results suggests the possibility that, among the other mechanisms, a disturbance of motor learning ability could be operating in ALS patients.

Adult↗
PubMed1986

Inversion of T/TMP ratio in ALS: a specific finding?

Thiamine (T) and thiamine monophosphate (TMP) levels were determined by an electrophoretic fluorometric method in the CSF of patients with typical sporadic ALS (50 cases), in other motor neuron diseases (MND) (14 cases) and in patients with upper and/or lower motor neuron lesions of varying origin (disseminated sclerosis, polyneuropathy, spondylotic myelopathy). T/TMP ratio was greater than or equal to 1 in a high percentage of patients with typical sporadic ALS (94%), in 35.7% of cases with other MND, while it was below 1 in the all other patients. The decrease of TMP with the inversion of the T/TMP ratio is a finding highly specific to typical sporadic ALS.

Adult↗
PubMed1986

Clinical effects of plasmapheresis in acute Guillain-Barré syndrome.

5 consecutive cases of acute GBS were treated by plasmapheresis (PP). Clinical features and results of therapy have been compared with those of 10 consecutive acute GBS cases untreated by PP. PP treatment, applied early during the phase of deterioration, seemed to stop deficit progression, thus eliminating the stationary stage and triggering recovery immediately. Complete recovery seemed to occur comparatively faster than in the untreated group.

Acute Disease↗
PubMed1986

Neuropsychological measures in amyotrophic lateral sclerosis and their relationship with CT scan-assessed cerebral atrophy.

Twenty-one male patients affected by ALS have been given a short neuropsychological battery and the results have been compared with those obtained by 21 male subjects affected by other non-dementing neurological diseases. Only two ALS patients had definitely low scores on WAIS (performance scale) and on learning tasks, both verbal and spatial, but the ALS group did not differ, on the whole, from the controls. No relationship was observed between cognitive impairment and cerebral atrophy assessed by computerized tomography. The conclusion is suggested that the cognitive impairment in ALS be a discrete, seldom occurring event.

Adult↗
PubMed1985

Voluntary muscle release is not accompanied by H-reflex inhibition in patients with upper moto neuron lesions.

Changes in excitability of the soleus (Sol) monosynaptic reflex arc were investigated in spastic subjects, affected by amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), upon voluntary relaxation of tonic contraction of triceps surae muscle. Force and electromyograms (EMG) were recorded during triceps release, performed in response to an acoustic signal, in a reaction-time (RT) situation. Sol H-reflex was evoked at random during the task, and its amplitude was referred in time to the end of Sol EMG. At variance with the results for the same task in normal subjects, it was found that in ALS patients the RTs of the termination of EMG were longer than those of the beginning of the EMG, the decrease in force was prolonged and perturbed owing to intercurrent clonus-like EMG activity, and the H-reflex did not undergo the expected profound inhibition. It is suggested that the absence of the activation of presynaptic inhibitory mechanisms by the descending command to release brings about major disorders in voluntary muscle relaxation.

Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis↗
PubMed1985

Is progressive multifocal leukoencephalopathy associated with intrathecal IgG synthesis?

Examination of the cerebrospinal fluid by isoelectric focusing was done in 2 cases of progressive multifocal leukoencephalopathy (PML). The diagnosis was confirmed at autopsy in one case. IgG oligoclonal bands were found in both, suggesting that there was intrathecal immunoglobulin synthesis. Production may be due to a specific intrathecal response to papova virus or to IgG oligoclonal formation by lymphoma cells confined to the central nervous system or to a specific immune response to tumor cell antigens.

Aged↗
PubMed1985

Comparison of two systemic antibiotics for the prevention of complications in elective colorectal surgery.

In a prospective randomized trial on 77 patients undergoing elective colorectal surgery, cefoxitin and cephalothin were given as systemic antibiotic prophylaxis. Postoperative sepsis occurred in 2/40 (5%) of those given cefoxitin compared to 9/37 (24.3%) of those given cephalothin. The reduction in the infection rate in the group treated by cefoxitin was statistically significant (p less than 0.02). Specific drug toxicity was not evidenced except for transient skin rashes in two patients of both groups.

Aged↗
PubMed1984

Lead in cerebrospinal fluid and its relationship to plasma lead in humans.

Lead levels in whole blood, plasma and cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) were determined in 18 patients suffering from Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS) and in 21 subjects hospitalized for neurological investigations. No significant differences were found for blood, plasma and CSF lead concentration between the ALS group and the other patient group. The plasma lead-CSF lead mean ratio was greater than 1 in both groups, while in subjects with a slight degree of blood-CSF barrier impairment a significant decrease of the ratio was demonstrated. A significant relationship between plasma lead and CSF lead levels (r = 0.405; p less than 0.01), but not between whole blood lead and CSF lead levels, was established. Lead levels in CSF were also age-related (r = 0.485; p less than 0.05) in the group of patients not suffering from ALS. In subjects with normal blood-brain barrier permeability, lead in plasma is a good indicator of CSF lead concentration.

Adult↗
PubMed1984

Somatosensory evoked potentials in amyotrophic lateral sclerosis.

Forty five patients with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis were investigated, by means of somatosensory evoked potentials, in order to detect the presence of subclinical sensory changes. Cervical SEPs from the median nerve and cortical SEPs from the median and tibial nerve were recorded, showing a delay of N13 and subsequent components; the latency of the first constant cortical potential was also increased in many patients. Only the SEPs from the tibial nerve showed a decrease of amplitude. These results suggest a pathological slowing of conduction along the central sensory pathways in amyotrophic lateral sclerosis.

Adult↗
PubMed1984

Ophthalmoplegia plus: CSF and CT features of seven cases.

The authors describe the clinical and laboratory results relative to 7 cases of Ophthalmoplegia Plus, with special reference to the histochemical, ultra-structural and CFS findings and to the data obtained by Computerized Tomography (CT) of the brain. The CSF was altered in all the examined patients: 3 out of 7 presented an abnormal albumin quotient, 1 patient had an increased IgG Index; the isoelectrofocusing of the CSF proteins, carried out in 6 out of 7 cases, showed an abnormal protein content referred to gamma trace in 3 cases, oligoclonal bands in the CSF in one case, a double Tau fraction in one case, a damaged blood-brain barrier in 5 cases. The CT-performed in 6 out of 7 cases-revealed in one patient a diffuse hypodensity of the periventricular white matter, without signs of atrophy; 2 cases showed a mild atrophy of the posterior fossa involving the cerebellar hemispheres and vermis in one case, the vermis and the brain stem in the other one; no patient revealed signs of cortical or ventricular atrophy. The boundaries of the Ophthalmoplegia Plus are here discussed on the ground of the results obtained by the employment of the various research methods.

Adult↗
PubMed1983

Value of spirometric investigations in amyotrophic lateral sclerosis.

The respiratory function has been studied in 37 patients with ALS. 15 of them (5 till death) were followed with serial spirometric tests. The data, as a whole, show a diminution of vital capacity, a diminution of forced expiratory volume per second, an increase of the residual volume and of the Motley index; blood gas analysis showed no significant alterations apart from slight hypoxemia. Patients with bulbar ALS presented marked abnormalities of the spirometric and blood gas analysis parameters. In the cases followed with serial spirometric tests VC, Motley index and FEV1 gradually deteriorated as the disease advanced. In the deceased patients a sudden and serious aggravation of these values occurred. This was especially true for FEV1 and Motley index during the 3 months preceding death. The variations in residual volume were less indicative. Finally, the influence of smoking and of pulmonary and bronchial pathology, present or past, was not significant.

Adult↗
PubMed1983

Clinical and CSF findings in multiple sclerosis patients with or without IgG oligoclonal bands at isoelectric focusing examination of CSF and serum proteins.

The IgG oligoclonal bands in CSF can be found in high percentage of MS patients but the existence of a limited number of cases with CSF normal IgG profile is known as well. In the present study 63 out of 70 patients with definite MS and 24 out of 35 with probable MS had oligoclonal bands in the CSF at the isoelectric focusing examination. The 18 patients with normal CSF IgG pattern did not show any statistically significant difference as concerns the age at onset and the duration of the disease, the functional disability, the course of the disease and the quantitative CSF parameters (IgG index, IgG synthesis and serum/CSF albumin quotient). The oligoclonal pattern does not seem of value to discriminate different groups of MS patients but it remains essentially of great diagnostic importance in this disease.

Adult↗
PubMed1982

Thiamin monophosphate in the CSF of patients with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis.

Free thiamin and thiamin monophosphate levels were determined by an electrophoretic fluorometric micromethod in plasma and CSF of patients with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), alcoholics, and controls. In plasma of patients with ALS as well as in plasma and CSF of alcholics, both thiamin and thiamin monophosphate concentrations were decreased so that the thiamin-thiamin monophosphate (T/TMP) ratio remained unchanged compared with that of controls. In CSF of patients with ALS, however, thiamin monophosphate values decreased much more than thiamin levels, so that the T/TMP ratio was significantly increased. The selective impairment of thiamin monophosphate production by nerve cells is likely to result from the reduction of the activity of thiamin pyrophosphatase, an enzyme synthetized and highly concentratd in the Golgi complex. Thiamin pyrophosphatase is known to diminish in ALS as well as in experimental motor neuronal degeneration or axotomy. Thus, the T/TMP ratio could be taken as an index of the impairment of neuronal protein synthesis in ALS.

Adult↗