Biomedical subjects
Publications and source records attributed to P Poli.
The aim of this paper is to describe intellectual performances in children and adolescents with cerebral palsy and with Duchenne muscular dystrophy. Three different forms of cognitive analysis are proposed: a quantitative analysis with the Wechsler scales; a qualitative analysis of reasoning in different levels of development, in a piagetian framework; an analysis of learning processes and school performances.
The findings of a continuos monitoring (Apr90-Mar94) on urban air quality of a Po Valley town are reported. Chemical-physical and genotoxicity data were detected. The results show the presence of mutagenic agents during the whole investigated period. Short term mutagenesis tests together with chemical-physical parameters analysis are able to better assess air quality and genotoxic risk for the population.
Mutagenic activity measured by Ames test and by gene conversion, point mutation and mitochondrial mutability in Saccharomyces cerevisiae D7 strain was determined in the indoor environment of a glass factory. The results suggest that the increase in mutagenicity of air sample collected near the machinery is due to the thermal decomposition of oils. Modified assays were therefore compared for their ability to detect mutagens contained in urinary concentrates of exposed workers. The bacterial tests were performed by microsuspension assay in TA98, TA100 strains and in YG1024, YG1029 strains which overproduce O-acetyltransferase. Significant differences are evidenced both in the eukaryotic and prokaryotic systems.
Malignant fibrous histiocytoma (MFH) is a common neoplasm of soft tissue. The floor of the mouth is an unusual site of origin and has not been described in the literature previously. Its rarity, aspecific clinical symptoms and complex histopathology combine to make the diagnosis difficult. The treatment of choice is wide surgical excision with adjunctive irradiation.
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Listeria monocytogenes arterial infections are uncommon and usually occur on aneurysms of previously operated arteries, classically in very young and very old or immunodepressed subjects. Peroperative samples for bacteriology should always be taken as antibiotics generally used in vascular surgery are ineffective against listeria. We report a case of a patient who underwent emergency surgery. Bacteriologic analysis of the thrombus revealed listeria inoculation which was eradicated by adapted antibiotic treatment.
Only four cases of per-operative pulmonary embolus of parasites during surgery for hydatic cysts of the liver have been reported. Embolus usually occurs in patients who already have lung metastasis of hepatic cysts, suggesting a hepatic cyst in direct communication with the vena cava or suprahepatic vein. We report the first case which occurred in a patient in which there was no evidence of such communication.
We report a case of cystic adventicial disease of the popliteal artery in a 67 years old man. The realisation of the intra arterial pressure measurements, and the peroperative echography permit to diagnose important associated lesions of the intimal part of the arterial wall.
Recklinghausen disease which usually appears by tumors of the nervous system peripheral and central can present anomalies of other systems, particularly vascular anomalies. The damage of renal arteries is well known. Intracerebral aneurysms are rare. Multiple intracerebral aneurysm has been reported in only four cases. We report a case of a patient presenting three intracerebral aneurysms. The patient died of a meningial haemorrhage. This leads us to search for intracerebral aneurysms in Recklinghausen's disease, specially in presence of arterial hypertension.
In childhood and adolescent depression, the interaction between cognitive and emotional disorders is particularly evident: intellectual dysfunctioning often accompanies and integrates the clinical symptomatology. The studies on cognitive functioning have focused their attention on basic cognitive abilities; relatively fewer studies have analyzed other dimensions, such as logical reasoning. Furthermore, most studies have compared depressed patients to normal controls; this methodology tends to obscure the specific effect depression may have on cognitive functioning. The aim of our study is to analyze whether specific patterns of cognitive organization underlie adolescent depressive disorders. Cognitive functioning was assessed both with psychometric tests (WISC-R) and Piagetian logical reasoning tasks (Longeot Logical Thought Scale). The performance of depressed adolescents was compared to that of neurotic patients without depressive symptomatology. To evaluate the course of cognitive organization in relation to depressive symptomatology, some of our patients were studied in follow-up. Thirty-eight adolescents admitted to our Institute participated in the study. The experimental group consisted of 24 depressed adolescents; sixteen subjects were classified as neurotic depressives, eight were diagnosed as depressive personality disorder. The control group consisted of 14 subjects diagnosed as neurotic without depression. At the WISC-R the performance of depressed and controls adolescents were compared in: Full Scale IQ, Verbal and Performance IQ, Verbal-Performance discrepancy; single subtest scores; Bannatyne's four categories. Statistical analyses did not yield any significant differences between groups for any of the WISC-R measures. At the Logical Thought Scale Full Scale scores of the experimental group were significantly lower than controls'.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)
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The genotoxic activities associated with airborne particulate matter collected in Parma (northern Italy) have been determined. The airborne particle extracts were tested for mutagenicity using Salmonella frameshift (TA98) and base-substitution (TA100) tester strains with and without S9 microsomal activation and Saccharomyces cerevisiae strain D7 in order to determine the frequency of mitotic gene conversion and ilv1-92 mutant reversion in cells harvested at stationary and logarithmic growth phase. The relationship between mitochondrial DNA mutations and ageing, degenerative diseases and cancer prompted us to take into account the mitochondrial informational target, i.e., the respiratory-deficient (RD) mutants. The results obtained show a variability in the response for the different test systems during different months. The Salmonella mutagenicity trend was directly correlated with carbon monoxide, nitrogen oxides (NOx) and Pb concentration in airborne particulates and inversely correlated with temperature, whereas the mitochondrial genotoxic effect was higher during spring and late summer. These data suggest that the genotoxic risk assessment is a time-dependent value strictly correlated with the evaluation system being tested.
Three hundred and eighty-seven chronic hemodialysis patients were evaluated, in a multicenter study, to investigate the epidemiology of hepatitis C virus. In anti-HCV seropositive patients, serum ALT values and blood transfusions were retrospectively compared; blood donors were studied for serum transaminases. In seropositive patients without previous blood transfusions, analysis of dialysis schedule was done. Eventually, the intrafamilial transmission of hepatitis C virus was studied in 104 family members. The prevalence of HCV infection in hemodialysis patients was 15.7%. The incidence of acute hepatitis was frequent, while chronic hepatitis incidence was less than expected (17.5%). Intrafamilial diffusion was low (1.9%). Blood-transfusion-related infections seem to be negligible, while cross-contamination in dialysis units seems to be very important.
The serum of 387 hemodialysis patients from 9 dialysis units was checked for anti-hepatitis C virus antibodies with a 1st-generation ELISA (Ortho) test: 61 patients were repeatedly positive. In order to avoid false-positive results, these sera were tested with a 1st-generation confirmatory RIBA test, 2nd-generation screening ELISA test and 2nd-generation confirmatory RIBA test. The 2nd-generation ELISA test confirmed data obtained with 1st-generation ELISA, however, the 1st-generation confirmatory RIBA test underestimated the number of anti-HCV-positive patients.
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