PubMed Health⌕ Search

Biomedical subjects

M Valenti

Publications and source records attributed to M Valenti.

At least 109 records · Page 6Linked to original sources
PubMed1993

Alcohol-related problems within the family and global functioning of the children: a population-based study.

We carried out a population-based prevalence study to assess the association between the presence of alcohol-related problems within the family and the risk of disorders in the children's global functioning level. We enrolled 394 children attending nursery, primary and secondary schools and their parents living in two municipalities in Central Italy. Alcohol-related problems within the family were reported by registered records obtained from general practitioners and teachers, who were considered as preference raters. The children's level of functioning was assessed by teachers, who attributed to each school child a score according to the Children Global Assessment Scale (CGAS). The number of reports of alcohol-related problems within the family and the CGAS scores were considered, respectively, as independent and dependent variables in a multiple logistic regression model for ordinal outcome variables. The children's sex and age, and the age of their parents, the duration of the parents' education and family size were considered as covariates. We found a strong association between a poor level of functioning in the children in the social environment and alcohol-related problems within the family. The prevalence odds ratio (and 95% confidence interval) decreased from 0.5 (range 0.2-1.3) for children whose families were reported by one rater to 0.4 (range 0.2-0.8) for children whose families were reported by two raters, the non-reported families being the reference category, suggesting that the level of functioning of the child decreased as reports of alcohol-related problems in the family increased.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1993

Amount and duration of alcohol intake as risk factors of symptomatic liver cirrhosis: a case-control study.

We carried out a hospital based case-control study involving 320 patients with symptomatic liver cirrhosis (LC) and 320 pair-matched control individuals, in order to estimate the dose-response relationship between both the daily amount and the duration of alcohol intake and the risk of LC. Lifetime alcohol consumption was measured by a standardized and reproducible questionnaire, and expressed as lifetime daily alcohol intake (LDAI) and duration of alcohol consumption (DAC). The odds ratio (OR) for LC was estimated by the conditional logistic regression. It increased from 1.0 for lifetime abstainers to 4.2 for LDAI of 225 g or more. Comparing durations of alcohol consumption of < or = 10 and > or = 30 years in the model, the ORs consistently decreased for all the LDAI categories: from 4.1 to 0.6 in the 25-50 g category; from 15.1 to 0.9 in the 75-100 g category; from 67.2 to 1.5 in the 125 g or more category. Our results suggest that the dose-dependent relationship between alcohol and LC may be mediated by the degree of individual susceptibility to the detrimental effect of alcohol to the liver.

Alcohol Drinking↗
PubMed1993

Potentiation of tumour necrosis factor-mediated cell killing by VP16 on human ovarian cancer cell lines. In vitro results and clinical implications.

Synergism between recombinant human tumour necrosis factor (rHuTNF) and DNA topoisomerase II inhibitor VP16 during the killing of cells has been studied in six human ovarian cancer cell lines (A2774, A2780, SW626, IGROV-1, SKOV3, Pa1) and a cervical carcinoma cell line (Me180). Studies were performed using an assay of colony formation inhibition (drug treatment for 1 h) and a growth inhibition assay (continuous exposure for 20 h). Concomitant treatment of cells with VP16+rHuTNF enhanced cell killing in all the cell lines tested--an effect observed in both short- and long-term cytotoxicity assays. This study suggests that the activity of VP16 in ovarian cancer cell lines might be enhanced by rHuTNF in in vitro models.

Cell Survival↗
PubMed1993

Reversal of "atypical"-multidrug resistance by recombinant human tumor necrosis factor in the human ovarian cancer cell line A2780-DX3.

A2780 human ovarian cancer cell line and its multidrug resistant counterpart A2780-DX3 were utilized for this in vitro study. A2780-DX3 is resistant in various degrees to several topoisomerase II inhibitors but sensitive to vinca alkaloids. Simultaneous treatment of the A2780-DX3 line with 1000 U/mL rHuTNF largely reverses resistance to most topoisomerase II inhibitors. By itself, 1000 U/mL rHuTNF is not toxic to the resistant line. Uptake and retention of [3H]-Mitoxantrone are not modified by rHuTNF, whereas rHuTNF is very active in potentiating the effects of Mitoxantrone. After treatment with topoisomerase II inhibitors, Doxorubicin, Mitoxantrone, or VP16, rHuTNF restores DNA-SSB and DNA-protein cross-links in the resistant line to the level of the wild type. The cleavage activity of topoisomerase II in the resistant line is about 40% of the level present in the parental line. Five minutes after the addition of 1000 U/mL of rHuTNF, the cleavage activity in the resistant line is about 85% of the level present in the parental line. The catalytic activity of topoisomerase II is only 15% lower in the resistant line, but it is increased by about 50% 5 min after the addition of rHuTNF to the resistant line. These effects are transient and cannot be observed after 30 min. These transient direct effects of rHuTNF on topoisomerase II could be associated with its ability to restore sensitivity to inhibitors of topoisomerase II in the A2780-DX3 line.

Antineoplastic Agents↗
PubMed1993

Comparative pharmacokinetics of oral dextromethorphan and dextrorphan in the rabbit.

The pharmacokinetics of dextromethorphan (CAS 125-71-3) and its metabolite dextrorphan (CAS 125-73-5) was compared. The drugs were administered orally at the same molar dose of 0.085 mmol/kg. Plasma levels of dextromethorphan, dextrorphan, and metabolites 3-hydroxymorphinan and 3-methoxymorphinan were determined by HPLC with fluorimetric detection. Dextromethorphan was rapidly and extensively metabolized and the plasma profiles of dextrorphan, administered directly or as metabolite of dextromethorphan, were similar. The concentrations of 3-hydroxymorphinan were higher after dextromethorphan than dextrorphan. 3-Methoxymorphinan was detectable only 60 and 120 min after dextromethorphan. This work proposes the therapeutic use of dextrorphan instead of its precursor dextromethorphan.

Administration, Oral↗
PubMed1993

Longitudinal assessment of body composition in continuous ambulatory peritoneal dialysis patients using bioelectric impedance and anthropometric measurements.

We assessed the utility of bioelectric impedance analysis (BIA) and anthropometry for longitudinal evaluation of body composition in continuous ambulatory peritoneal dialysis (CAPD) patients. Eleven subjects were studied at the beginning of CAPD and again at regular intervals during the first 6 months of treatment. The significant weight gain that occurs in our patients is mainly due to a rise in total body water (TBW), as measured by BIA, during the first weeks of CAPD, and later on due to a body fat increase. Anthropometry seems more reliable than BIA in the evaluation of body mass, because the latter is derived from TBW in BIA. Therefore, any change in TBW that occurs in a CAPD patient necessarily causes a similar change in the fat-free mass. In our experience, only the combined use of both anthropometry and BIA allows a proper assessment of body composition in patients on CAPD.

Adult↗
PubMed1993

Non-invasive diagnosis of liver cirrhosis: a comparison between four discriminant functions.

We assessed the performance of 4 methods of discriminant analysis using as independent variables the age and 16 serum tests, for correctly identifying patients with liver cirrhosis among hospitalized patients affected by chronic liver disease without signs of liver failure; 290 patients entered this study: on the basis of laparoscopy with or without liver biopsy, 152 patients had a diagnosis of liver cirrhosis and 138 were classified as chronic hepatitic patients. Due to the non-multinormal distribution of the variables used and to the unequality of the variance-covariance matrices, we compared the following 4 methods: linear discriminant function, quadratic discriminant function, non-parametric discriminant function and logistic regression. The Receiver Operating Characteristic (ROC) analysis was used to compare diagnostic ability of the assessed methods: the quadratic discriminant function was the best performing method. The predictive ability of this function was compared to that reported for percutaneous liver biopsy, showing that this simple statistical method using age and biochemical tests can efficiently identify liver cirrhosis in the setting of chronic liver disease, reducing the need for invasive diagnostic procedures.

Adult↗
PubMed1992

Pharmacokinetics of oxatomide given percutaneously to healthy volunteers.

The percutaneous absorption of oxatomide gel at 5 per cent concentration was studied after single and repeated administration (85 mg b.i.d.) in six male and six female healthy volunteers, aged 25.7 +/- 0.8 years (mean +/- SEM) weighing 64.4 +/- 4.5 kg and the results compared with those obtained following a single oral dose (30 mg). The measurement of oxatomide was by means of a new sensitive and specific HPLC assay with limits of detection of 0.2 ng ml-1 in plasma and 1.0 ng ml-1 in urine. Poor percutaneous absorption was confirmed by the peak plasma concentrations which were 5.03 +/- 0.79 ng ml-1 following application of the gel for 7 days and 10.08 +/- 1.29 ng ml-1 following oral administration; the corresponding amounts of unchanged oxatomide recovered from 24 h urine collections were 1.42 +/- 0.39 micrograms and 3.93 +/- 0.92 micrograms.

Administration, Cutaneous↗
PubMed1992

Human ovarian-carcinoma cell lines and companion xenografts: a disease-oriented approach to new platinum anticancer drug discovery.

A disease-oriented approach to the discovery of novel platinum anticancer drugs has been established through the setting up of parallel human ovarian-carcinoma cell lines and xenografts. The correlation between in vitro and in vivo antitumour activity was determined for four reference platinum agents (cisplatin, carboplatin, iproplatin and tetraplatin) in eight companion lines. Two methods of assessing antitumour effect were used in vitro (tritiated thymidine incorporation and sulforhodamine B staining) and three were applied in vivo [28-day treated/control (T/C) ratio, growth delay and specific growth delay]. In vitro, large differences in cytotoxicity across the cell lines were observed for each drug. This was also reflected in the xenografts for cisplatin and carboplatin and, to a lesser extent, for iproplatin. A correlation analysis of in vitro vs in vivo data revealed a high, statistically significant positive correlation for cisplatin and a strong positive correlation for carboplatin. However, for the two platinum(IV) drugs, the correlation was less good. In particular, tetraplatin was markedly less active in vivo (showing a general lack of activity against all of the tumour lines) than its in vitro potency against the cell lines predicted, resulting in poor correlation coefficients. These human tumour panels may be valuable for the elucidation of both cellular/molecular and corresponding in vivo pharmacological mechanisms of platinum drug resistance. Moreover, the HX/62 and SKOV-3 tumour lines, which exhibit a level of intrinsic resistance to the four reference agents both in vitro and in vivo (and which were derived from patients who had not received prior platinum therapy), represent particularly useful evaluation models for the discovery of novel broad-spectrum platinum drugs.

Antineoplastic Agents↗
PubMed1992

[Psychiatry and philosophy: a paradigm of scientific knowledge unity].

Considering the potential unification of philosophic and scientific research methods, on the basis of Popper's theory, a relevant question about the indifference of the method towards the object-event. This work illustrates the Popper-Hempel nomological-inferential model and provides a description of the relationship between psychiatry and bioethics as an example of the unity of science.

Bioethics↗
PubMed1992

[Arterial hypertension secondary to Conn's disease: an infrequent pathology in nephrology. Report of a clinical case].

In this work we describe a case of Conn's syndrome caused by a suprarenal adenoma in a sixty-one year female. The patient had come to our observation because of severe hypertension and hypokalemia. Primary aldosteronism resulting from the secretion of excessive amounts of aldosterone caused by autonomous hyperfunction of the adrenal cortex usually by a solitary adenoma. In most series of unselected patients, it is found in fewer than 0.5% of hypertensives. In our study we demonstrated the circadian changes of arterial blood pressure but we failed to demonstrate the presence of hypertrophic cardiomyopathy as recently emphasized in the literature. Regardless of its rarity, primary aldosteronism is a fascinating disease, protean in its manifestations, logical in its pathophysiology.

Adenoma↗
PubMed1991

Evaluation of an enzymatic method for fast identification of Listeria spp. in cheese and meat products.

Listeria-Tek ELISA was compared with conventional cultural procedure of FIL/IDF (Federation International de Laiterie/International Dairy Federation) modified by us. The ELISA assay is able to detect Listeria innocua, Listeria monocytogenes, Listeria murrayi and Listeria welshimeri, after 48 h in artificially contaminated cheeses. No specific reactions, no false positive or negative were detected and the assay has a high correlation with the conventional method used in this research. We also analyzed meat products and cheeses and identified Listeria spp. and Listeria monocytogenes serotypes. In 313 food samples examined there were only 3 false positives. With ELISA Kit we obtained 0.9% more than with the cultural method and the percentage of false positives is 1.6%. So in commercial products the total absence of false negatives demonstrates the great sensitivity of the method in respect to investigated microorganisms. As determined by cultures 218 samples contained 47 Listeriae monocytogenes, 67 Listeriae innocua, 21 Listeriae welshimeri, 7 Listeriae ivanovii, 3 Listeriae murrayi and 3 Listeriae denitrificans. Listeria monocytogenens includes serotypes 1 (13) and serotypes 4 (14). 20 Listeriae monocytogenes were serotyped by polyantisera Difco (Detroit, Michigan).

Animals↗
PubMed1991

Synthesis of some 5-azaflavones.

Within a plan of researches concerning drugs with anti-ulcer activity, a series of 5-azaflavones has been prepared. In this first communication we report the relevant synthesis obtained by cyclization of appropriate beta-diketones in HCOOH at the boiling point. The beta-diketones have been obtained by Claisen condensation, starting from methyl 3-hydroxypicolinate and from appropriate aromatic or heterocyclic methylketone, using NaH as base.

Anti-Ulcer Agents↗