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Biomedical subjects

P Gamba

Publications and source records attributed to P Gamba.

7 recordsLinked to original sources

Surfactant protein C is recycled from the alveoli to the lamellar bodies.

To clarify the life cycle of surfactant protein C (SP-C), we obtained alveolar surfactant from 3-day-old rabbits killed 15 h after the tracheal administration of 32P and L-[35S]methionine. Small amounts of this surfactant were administered into the tracheas of 3-day-old rabbits, which were killed after 1 min and 2 and 4 h. We then analyzed the radioactivity associated with SP-C and with saturated phosphatidylcholine (DPPC) in lung lavage fluid and in a lamellar body-rich fraction isolated from the lung homogenate. We found that SP-C and DPPC are both taken up from the alveolar spaces and incorporated into lamellar bodies, but the time courses of reuptake are different. Our results indicate that in the alveoli SP-C is turned over faster than DPPC.

Animals

Peripheral arterial occlusion in infants--a report of two cases treated conservatively.

The occlusion of major arteries in newborns is usually associated with catheterization of the umbilical vessels. It occurs very rarely instead as a primary disorder, and the cause is still unclear. We present two new cases of newborns with this type of disease, which were resolved with the only medical treatment. The literature is reviewed, and the usefulness of the different diagnostic procedures is discussed.

Arterial Occlusive Diseases

Hypothyroidism and polyneuropathy.

The prevalence and characteristics of polyneuropathy were assessed using standard clinical and electrophysiological criteria in 39 consecutive outpatients with primary hypothyroidism, 15 of whom were previously untreated. Subjective complaints, mainly paraesthesiae, were recorded from 25 cases (64%) and objective findings supporting a clinical diagnosis of polyneuropathy were present in 13 (33%). Using standard electrophysiological criteria, a definite diagnosis of polyneuropathy was made in 28 cases (72%). The commonest sites of abnormal nerve conduction were the sensory nerves, especially the sural nerve. Polyneuropathy was generally mild. None of the clinical and biochemical indicators of hypothyroidism were significantly correlated with the electrophysiological signs of peripheral nerve impairment or the diagnosis of polyneuropathy.

Adolescent

[Cardiologic aspects of carbon monoxide poisoning].

Carbon monoxide poisoning causes tissue hypoxia because of reduced transfer and altered release of oxygen by hemoglobin. Considering many case histories, we realized that symptoms and clinical signs of acute poisoning are mostly neurologic: coma, headache, dizziness, vomiting. On the contrary, it seems that myocardium, the other organ which mostly requires O2, is attacked in a "silent way". ECG in 5 patients with accidental carbon monoxide poisoning underlined that cardiac rate increased (3 of them presented tachyarrhythmias by atrial fibrillation) and the presence of more or less important alteration of ventricular repolarization like "subendocardial lesion". Simple hyperbaric oxygen treatment determined the regression of the rhythm disorder and of the abnormalities of ventricular repolarization. The only patient who had not the restoration of sinus rhythm had chronic atrial fibrillation.

Adult