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Biomedical subjects

P Stratta

Publications and source records attributed to P Stratta.

At least 37 records · Page 2Linked to original sources
PubMed1989

Hemispheric asymmetries and schizophrenia: a preliminary magnetic resonance imaging study.

A magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) study of 20 chronic schizophrenic outpatients (5 women and 15 men) and 20 healthy volunteers, individually matched for age and sex, was conducted. Schizophrenics showed a statistically significant lateral ventricular enlargement and smaller corpus callosum: brain ratio than controls. There were no statistically significant differences in hemispheric measurements between groups. Nevertheless, we found a wider right frontal width versus the left in the patient group but not in the control group, and more frontal protuberances in the right hemisphere in the patient group. Possible meanings and implications of these findings for a pathophysiological hypothesis are discussed.

Adult↗
PubMed1989

Quantitative computed tomographic study in schizophrenia: cerebral density and ventricle measures.

Twenty-seven chronic schizophrenics and nineteen controls, all male, were evaluated by computed tomography (CT) scans. Lateral, third and fourth ventricles and cerebral density numbers were measured. In the schizophrenic patients there was a significant increase in third ventricle width, Ventricular Brain Ratio (VBR) and there were significantly higher densities of white matter in the right frontal and parietal region.

Adult↗
PubMed1989

Ratio between aldosterone and atrial natriuretic peptide in pregnancy.

The possibility of evaluating the ratio between aldosterone and atrial natriuretic peptide (ANP) instead of the two hormones by themselves in studying sodium handling in normal pregnancy and in preeclampsia in the steady state and following albumin infusion was examined in this study. In 32 normal pregnancies monitored monthly, the highest aldosterone/ANP ratio was observed in the last weeks (28.7 +/- 12), and dropped in the first postpartum week (3.6 +/- 2.8), without changes in fractional excretion of sodium. In 18 preeclamptic patients, the ratio was significantly lower than in normal pregnancy at the same gestational ages, and it was coupled with absolute reduction in the sodium excretion. Among preeclamptic patients, a significant inverse correlation (P less than 0.025) was revealed between the ratio and sodium excretion. Natriuresis in response to acute volume expansion with albumin infusion occurred only in 50% of preeclamptic patients, and was associated with an ANP increase, an aldosterone decrease, and a further decrease in the ratio. A blunted natriuresis was observed in cases with a particularly low prealbumin value of this ratio. Furthermore, in preeclampsia, a particularly low ratio seemed to be typical of the patients who showed poorer placental flows and fetal outcomes. These results suggest that the balance between aldosterone and ANP may be a useful index in understanding sodium homeostasis in these settings.

Adult↗
PubMed1989

A double-blind, placebo-controlled study of alpidem, a novel anxiolytic of imidazopyridine structure, in chronically anxious patients.

In this double-blind study alpidem, a new imidazopyridine anxiolytic drug, was compared with placebo to assess its efficacy and safety in severely anxious patients at the fixed dose of 150 mg/day (50 mg t.i.d.) for 3 weeks. Fifty-nine patients with a score of at least 18 on the Hamilton Rating Scale for Anxiety (HRSA) entered the trial after a 3- to 7-day placebo run-in period. Symptom improvement was evaluated with the HRSA, the State and Trait Anxiety Inventory (STAI-1 and STAI-2), a Visual Analogue Scale (VAS) and the Clinical Global Impression (CGI). Alpidem was more effective than placebo in improving mean HRSA (total score and factorial scores for somatic and psychic anxiety), STAI-1 and STAI-2 and VAS scores. The efficacy index of the CGI was better for alpidem than for placebo. Side effects were negligible in both groups. Alpidem appears to be a new interesting anxiolytic drug devoid of significant sedative effects on mental functions.

Adjustment Disorders↗
PubMed1989

Mesangiolysis and endothelial lesions due to peroxidative damage in rabbits.

There is much evidence that oxygen free radicals (OFR) may be the final mediators of biochemical and molecular damage in many kidney diseases of different etiology (toxic, ischemic and immunologically mediated), involving mainly endothelium, basement membrane and tubular cells, but direct demonstration of a role in inducing mesangiolysis is lacking. An experimental model of renal damage caused by OFR was carried out in 6 rabbits using a mixture of xanthine-oxidase and xanthine, which produces a large amount of the radical superoxide anion. Both enzyme (0.0150 and 0.150 U/ml) and substrate (0.2 and 2 mM) were simultaneously infused in one kidney, while the controlateral kidneys perfused with buffer only were used as controls. Treated kidneys were compared to controls by light and electron microscopy. A further experiment was carried out in 4 other rabbits to evaluate the protection afforded by superoxide dismutase, the specific enzyme-scavenging superoxide anion. Microscopic studies showed dose-related ingravescent damage in the treated kidneys: capillary enlargement, subendothelial swelling, detachment of the endothelium from the basement membrane, mesangiolysis and microaneurysms. Control kidneys appeared to be normal. No significant differences were observed in the kidneys treated with addition of superoxide dismutase. These results are the first direct demonstration of a role of superoxide anion in the induction of mesangiolysis in rabbits. The lack of a protective effect by superoxide dismutase could mean that the superoxide anion triggers a chain of other OFR, further responsible for damage.

Animals↗
PubMed1989

Social disability and clinical symptomatology in schizophrenia: their impact on compulsory admission.

In order to evaluate the peculiar features of a population of compulsorily admitted (CA) versus voluntarily admitted (VA) schizophrenics, the psychopathological status, disability measure and sociodemographic characteristics were recorded for the two studied groups. Among other assessed variables only the total score of the Current Behavioral Schedule (CBS), used as a global index of impairment, differentiated the two groups, CA patients being the more severely impaired. The severity of the CBS measure correlated with the length of current hospitalization in the CA but not in the VA group.

Adult↗
PubMed1989

Clinical and histological results of long-term management of aluminium overloading in uraemic patients with desferrioxamine.

Aluminium introxication in uraemic patients has been reported both in epidemic and sporadic forms. Desferrioxamine (DFO) results in strong Al mobilisation, but definitive treatment schedules, times of stop, and actual long-term Al removal her not been established. This study was carried out on three sporadic cases of Al intoxication treated with DFO for 3 1/2, 4 1/2 and 1 years. Clinical and laboratory parameters were employed to check the brain, bone and red cell status. Direct evaluation of Al kinetics showed that actual Al removal may be overestimated. In our experience it did not exceed 100 mg/year, and the ratio (DFO used/Al removed) decreased to 150 g/25 mg after two years of DFO, though considerable tissue deposits persisted in the patient who died after 3 1/2 years of treatment. Despite unexplained EEG worsening, neurological symptoms improved. Relapses, however, occurred after many years of DFO. Bone status improvement, at least in parathyroidectomised patients, proved to be only partial and time-related. The therapeutic effectiveness of DFO in these patients seemed to be exhausted after two years even if Al deposits had not vanished.

Adult↗
PubMed1989

Prevention and treatment of aluminum overload in uremic patients: long-term results.

The authors evaluate the efficacy of a protocol of prevention and treatment of aluminum (Al) overload in RDT patients during a 7-year period (from 1981, 164 patients, to 1987, 161 patients). Al in dialysate solutions was always less than 25 micrograms/l. Baseline Al levels greater than 100 micrograms/l were found in 22% of patients in 1981 but in none in 1987, while the percentage of values less than 60 micrograms/l increased from 55 to 91%. DFO tests were positive in 54% and 7% of cases in 1981 and 1987, respectively. A clinical diagnosis of Al intoxication was performed in 6 patients in 1981, and no further cases were diagnosed later. DFO treatment (50 mg/kg once a week) was employed preventively in 31 patients owing to positive DFO-tests, and in the 6 Al-intoxicated patients therapeutically. In the former patients none developed clinical intoxication. In the latter group clinical improvement was only temporary in the three parathyroidectomized patients. Al hydroxide [Al(OH)3] as a phosphate binder was tapered off in 1981 and substituted by Al-free chelants. In 1987, 66% of patients were given CaCO3 or Mg (OH)2 alone or in association, while 34% still needed Al(OH)3, although at low dosages (less than 2 g/day). The conclusion is that such a protocol is able to prevent and to treat cases of Al intoxication, albeit only partially.

Adult↗
PubMed1989

Pregnancy-related acute renal failure.

From 1958 to 1987, 81 cases of pregnancy-related acute renal failure (PR-ARF) were observed (9% of the total number of acute renal failure [ARF] needing dialysis). In the three successive ten-year periods (1958-67, 1968-77, 1978-87) the incidence of PR-ARF fell from 43% to 2.8% with respect to the total number of ARF, and from 1/3,000 to 1/15,000 with respect to the total number of pregnancies. Maternal mortality was high (32%), with 5 cases of death in the last ten years. Irreversible renal damage was recorded in 11.6% of PR-ARF, and, in particular, in 26.3% of cases in preeclampsia-eclampsia (PE-E). Worse maternal and renal prognosis occurred in PE-E complicated by abruptio placentae. Neither disseminated intravascular coagulation (DIC), microangiopathic hemolytic anemia nor prostacyclin imbalance were significantly related to the severity of renal damage. Heparin therapy did not modify DIC evolution and renal outcome and was aggravated by severe hemorrhagic complications. In conclusion, PR-ARF has become a rare, but still critical occurrence, and the most effective measures would be a program of careful prevention.

Acute Kidney Injury↗
PubMed1988

The role of intravascular coagulation in pregnancy related acute renal failure.

Pregnancy-related acute renal failure (ARF) can include reversible tubular necrosis as well as irreversible cortical necrosis. Though pathogenetic mechanism are not fully understood, disseminated intravascular coagulation (DIC) probably plays a primary role. We report 25 cases of pregnancy-related ARF: 13 were associated with preeclampsia or eclampsia and 12 with obstetric complications. The following parameters were studied: partial thromboplastin, prothrombin and thrombin time, fibrinogen, anti-thrombin III and FDP levels, platelet count, whole blood clot lysis time and area, fragmented red cells (schistocytes) in the blood smear, hemoglobin, aptoglobin and LDH concentrations. DIC was scored in arbitrary units ranging from 12 to 36 and related to the clinical picture, renal outcome and the treatment employed. Five patients had irreversible renal damage, while 19 recovered fully; one patient died and no renal histology was available. The DIC score did not seem to have a significant relation to the severity of renal damage.

Acute Kidney Injury↗
PubMed1988

Cortical and subcortical computed tomographic study in schizophrenia.

Thirty-six chronic schizophrenics and 24 controls, all males, were evaluated by computed tomography (CT) scans. The lateral, third and fourth ventricles, the Sylvian fissure and the largest sulcus from each lobe were measured. In the schizophrenic patients there was a significant increase in third ventricle, ventricular brain ratio (VBR) and cortical measures. The possible implications of these findings in the aetiopathology of schizophrenia are discussed.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1988

Standardized magnetic resonance image intensity study in schizophrenia.

A magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) study of 12 chronic schizophrenic outpatients (4 females and 8 males) and 12 healthy volunteers, individually matched for age and sex, found a significantly larger ventricle-brain ratio and smaller corpus callosum area in schizophrenics than in controls. There were no statistically significant differences in the image intensity values between schizophrenic and healthy volunteer groups. However, there were more intragroup differences (left-right) of the image intensity values in the SE-30 sequence than in the SE-120 sequence in schizophrenics than in normals.

Adult↗
PubMed1988

Brain morphology in schizophrenia by magnetic resonance imaging (MRI).

We report an in vivo Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) Study of the brain in male schizophrenics and individually matched controls. Due to the multiplanar imaging capabilities of MRI we have obtained both midsagittal and axial scans. On the axial plane schizophrenics showed a significant increase of Ventricular Brain Ratio and on the sagittal plane a significant reduction of corpus callosum to brain ratio. In a factor analysis these two abnormalities loaded on components statistically independent suggesting different dimension of brain pathology in schizophrenia.

Adult↗
PubMed1988

Immune-mediated glomerulonephritis after exposure to paraquat.

Exposure to paraquat was followed 1 week later by mild respiratory distress in a previously healthy farmer who developed a mixed nephrotic/nephritic syndrome 3 months later. Percutaneous renal biopsy showed endo-extra-capillary proliferative glomerulonephritis associated with a linear pattern of IgG deposits along the glomerular capillary wall. This is the first case report of an association between exposure to a low dose of paraquat (as suggested by the mildness of the respiratory symptoms) and development of glomerulonephritis, possibly related to the occurrence of anti-glomerular basement membrane antibodies. The possibility is suggested that immune-mediated mechanisms of glomerular damage may be triggered by exposure to low-dose paraquat.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1988

The case for oxygen free radicals in the pathogenesis of ischemic acute renal failure.

One of the more glaring paradoxes of ischemic acute renal failure is that such injury appears to be worse in the kidney as opposed to other organs, even though the kidney is the best oxygenated. An answer can be deduced from the anatomical and physiological background, together with a reappraisal of the role of medullary vascular damage and recent evidence of the importance of the postischemic component of ischemic injury, which is mediated by oxygen free radicals. As far as oxygenation is concerned, the kidney's Achilles heel is the tubules of the outer strip of the outer medulla, which are also those that have the most metabolic activity. It is here that ischemic injury begins, and is maintained and exacerbated in the postischemic stage by the free radicals. These are produced by the kidney in large quantities, since it has all the necessary chemical ingredients available. It is therefore readily understandable why the kidney, being the best oxygenated organ, is so sensitive to an ischemic insult, since the damage caused in the postischemic stage is increased the greater the amount of oxygen brought in by reperfusion.

Acute Kidney Injury↗