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Biomedical subjects

R Gasparini

Publications and source records attributed to R Gasparini.

13 recordsLinked to original sources

Molecular analysis of aberrations of Xp and Yq.

Three cases of Y chromosomal aberrations were studied using a panel of Y-specific DNA sequences from both Yp and euchromatic Yq. One case was a phenotypic male fetus with a Y-derived marker chromosome. The short arm of this chromosome was intact, but most of its long arm was missing. The second case had a 46,XYq- karyotype with portions of euchromatic Yq, including the spermatogenesis region, missing. The third case was a phenotypic female with a 46,XXp+ karyotype. The extra material on the Xp+ chromosome was derived from the heterochromatic, and part of the euchromatic, portion of Yq. Application of X-specific DNA sequences demonstrated that the distal portion of the short arm of the translocation X chromosome was deleted (Xpter-p22.3). The three examples demonstrate the importance of diagnostic DNA analysis in cases of marker chromosomes, and X and Y chromosomal aberrations. In addition, the findings in the patients facilitate further deletion mapping of euchromatic Yq.

Adult

The effects of food and dose on the oral systemic availability of itraconazole in healthy subjects.

We have studied the influence of food and dose (50, 100, 200 mg) on the oral systemic availability of the broad spectrum antifungal itraconazole and the pharmacokinetics after repeated dosing of 100 mg in six healthy volunteers. The relative systemic availability of itraconazole capsules compared with solution averaged 39.8% in the fasting state but 102% in the post-prandial state. Food did not significantly affect the tmax of the capsules. Itraconazole AUC at single doses of 50, 100, and 200 mg had a ratio of 0.3:1:2.7, and the steady-state AUC (0-24) after 15 days of 100 mg was five times the single-dose AUC. These findings suggest non-linear itraconazole pharmacokinetics in the range of therapeutically used doses. Furthermore, capsules should be given shortly after a meal to ensure optimal oral systemic availability.

Administration, Oral

Pharmacokinetics of alfentanil during and after a fixed rate infusion.

Twenty-nine patients (age range 14-81 yr) undergoing orthopaedic surgery received alfentanil 100 micrograms kg-1 given as two i.v. boluses followed by a fixed rate infusion of 1 micrograms kg-1 min-1 for 44-445 min. Additional 1-mg bolus doses of alfentanil were administered as required. Plasma samples were assayed for alfentanil using radioimmunoassay. Pharmacokinetic parameters were estimated by a model-independent approach and by curve-fitting. Regression analysis showed no statistical relationship between T 1/2 beta, Cl or Vd and the duration of the infusion, total dose or body weight. We found no significant correlation between age and T 1/2 beta of alfentanil for patients younger than 40 yr. For patients older than 40 yr, T 1/2 beta increased linearly with age. There was no significant decrease in Cl with age, although the lower values for Cl (100-200 ml min-1) were generally found in subjects older than 60 yr. The present study demonstrated that a 100-micrograms kg-1 loading dose and a 1-micrograms kg-1 min-1 infusion may be appropriate for analgesia in general surgical procedures.

Adolescent

Pharmacokinetics of droperidol in surgical patients under different conditions of anaesthesia.

The pharmacokinetics of droperidol were studied in 42 surgical patients using doses of 5, 10 and 15 mg i.v., in association with neuroleptanalgesia or volatile anaesthetics. Plasma concentrations of droperidol were measured by radioimmunoassay. During neuroleptanalgesia, droperidol kinetics were linear over the dose range tested: the overall mean elimination half-life was 127 min, Vdss 103 litre and the plasma clearance 732 ml min-1. The kinetics of droperidol were similar under neuroleptanalgesia and under anaesthesia with halothane or enflurane. There was no significant correlation between the volume of distribution or clearance with age (14-65 yr) or body weight (48-90 kg).

Adolescent

[Use of staphylococcal protein A for the detection of rubella virus IgM antibodies].

The ability of Staphylococcus aureus protein A to bind human serum immunoglobulin of different classes and the conditions which allow a selective reduction of IgG in comparison to other immunoglobulin classes were preliminarly studied. Working under standardized conditions, a recovery of 3.5% of the initial value for IgG, of 40-50% for IgM and of 70-75% for IgA was obtained. Rubella HI antibodies, before and after staphylococcus treatment, were titred in 88 sera collected from adult women at different times from hexantema and in 210 sera of 109 subjects exposed to eventual contamination. The results were compared with the ones obtained by means of sucrose density gradient centrifugation followed by titration of rubella HI antibodies in the fractions. The tests proved that HI antibodies titration, before and after serum treatment with staphylococcal protein A, can be used, as presumptive test, for the research of rubella specific IgM antibodies. In fact, all the sera, on which the presence of rubella IgM antibodies was proved by sucrose density gradient centrifugation, were also positive after staphylococcus treatment. In 15% of sera resulting positive for HI rubella antibodies after staphylococcus treatment, usually at low titer, the presence of specific IgM antibodies was not detected by serum fractionation on sucrose density gradient ("false positive" cases). The results of serological diagnosis, carried out by using treatment with staphylococcal protein A and serum fractionation on sucrose density gradient, matched the clinical-epidemiological data. Twenty-seven women, out of 28 examined during the first three months of pregnancy and for whom serological diagnosis of a "recent" rubella virus infection was negative, had normal children at normal time. Therefore only in one case a spontaneous abortion occurred for uncertain causes. Rubella virus was isolated from the embryo of a woman who interrupted pregnancy because asymptomatic rubella virus infection was serologically diagnosed in the second month.

Antibodies, Viral

Immunization against human and swine-like influenza A: serological response to two inactivated vaccines of different formulation.

The immunizing capacity and the tolerability of two purified vaccines containing the inactivated A/New Jersey/76 ( x 53 recombinant) swine-like strain were studied. A trivalent vaccine (A/New Jersey/76-300 I.U.; A/Victoria 3/75-300 I.U.; B/Hong Kong 5/75-300 I.U.) was administered to 31 subjects over 50 years of age. No side-effects were observed and it caused a good HI antibody response to A/New Jersey/76, fairly good for B strain and modest for A/Victoria 3/75. A monovalent vaccine (A/New Jersey/76-400 I.U.) was administered to 32 subjects in the age range from 16 to 43 years. HI antibodies occurred in 84% of the subjects, devoid of antibodies before vaccination. Younger subjects (between 16-20 years) generally developed fairly low antibody titres; one among them (16-year-old) had a temperature rise within 48 h after vaccination. The Authors expect that the X 53 recombinant with the surface antigens of the A/New Jersey/76 strain may be employed for the preparation of the inactivated vaccine to be used in an emergency situation and discuss the composition of the vaccine more adapt for the present epidemiological situation.

Adolescent

Sero-epidemiological survey on human and swine influenza A. Situation at the onset of summer 1976.

A serological survey was performed to detect the presence of HI antibodies against the swine-like A/New Jersey/76 (Hsw1 N1) and the human A/Victoria 3/75 (H3N2) virus strains in the sera of 700 subjects of different age, and of 244 swine. HI antibodies against A/New Jersey/76 strain were not detected in 308 subjects younger than 31 years. They turned out to be present in 8% of the subjects from 31 to 43 years, always at low titre, and at a different titre, in 50% of the subjects from 44 to 58 years and in 90% of the subjects older than 58 years. None of the 244 swine tested from breeding farms of Liguria, Piedmont and Lombardy turned out to be endowed with antibodies against A/New Jersey/76 virus. This shows that the swine-like virus, which caused infections in the human population up to about 1930, did not circulate any more subsequently and that the swine also are now free from this infection. As far as the A/Victoria 3/75 strain is concerned, HI antibodies were detected in the different age groups with a frequency ranging between 41 and 69%. The fact that in many subjects antibodies were present at low titre suggests that their presence should be only partially brought back to infections caused by A/Victoria 3/75 but that in many cases it is the expression of a heterologous response to previous infections caused by other A H3N2 strains. HI antibodies against A/Victoria 3/75 were found also in 13% of the swine examined. A group of older people, who had been regularly immunized for years with the inactivated (A H3N2-B vaccine) showed an HI antibody titre significantly higher in comparison with subjects of equivalent age not vaccinated both against A/Victoria 3/75 and A/New Jersey/76.

Adolescent