Smoking and impaired endothelium-dependent dilatation.
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Biomedical subjects
Publications and source records attributed to R Migliacci.
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OBJECTIVE: To compare two available clinical scores for the differential diagnosis of cerebral ischaemia and haemorrhage in acute stroke patients. DESIGN: Prospective, multicentre study of acute stroke patients evaluated with computed tomography and Allen and Siriraj scores; the scores were tested for comparability (kappa statistic) and validity (sensitivity, specificity, positive and negative predictive values, diagnostic gain). The effect of a policy of using Allen and Siriraj scores to determine pathological type of stroke before computed tomography was calculated. SETTING: Three hospitals in Italy, all participating in the international stroke trial, with different access facilities to computed tomography. SUBJECTS: 231 consecutive patients who were screened in the three hospitals for possible inclusion in the international stroke trial from 1 November 1991 to 31 May 1993. RESULTS: The prevalence of haemorrhage (diagnosed with computed tomography) was 14.7% (95% confidence interval 10.1% to 19.3%). Allen scores were "uncertain" in 44 cases and Siriraj scores in 38 cases; in the 164 cases with both the scores in the range of "certainty" kappa was 0.72. Sensitivity, specificity, positive and negative predictive values, and diagnostic gain for haemorrhage were 0.38, 0.98, 0.71, 0.91, and 0.58 for Allen scores and 0.61, 0.94, 0.63, 0.93, and 0.48 for Siriraj scores; positive predictive values for infarction were 91% for Allen scores and 93% for Siriraj scores. According to these data, of 1000 patients with acute stroke, 680 would be correctly and 70 wrongly diagnosed as "ischaemic" with the Allen score; the figures would be 671 and 48 with Siriraj score. CONCLUSION: When computed tomography is not immediately available and the clinician wishes to start antithrombotic treatment (or randomise patients in a clinical trial), the Siriraj score (and possibly the Allen score) can be useful to identify patients at low risk of intracerebral haemorrhage.
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STUDY OBJECTIVE: Vasodilator prostaglandins have been claimed to be responsible for the coronary haemodynamic and venodilator effects of glyceryl trinitrate, although conflicting results have been reported. The aim of this study was to evaluate whether vasodilator prostaglandins play a role in the effect of glyceryl trinitrate on the distensibility of peripheral muscular arteries in healthy humans. DESIGN: A non-invasive technique, impedance plethysmography, was applied to the assessment of the effects of sublingual glyceryl trinitrate on the compliance of the forearm and digital arteries. The subjects studied received placebo (on two separate occasions), indomethacin (100 mg orally), or ibuprofen (800 mg orally) 1 h before glyceryl trinitrate (0.3 mg sublingual) on four occasions separated from each other by at least 48 h. Blood pressure and heart rate were measured by standard techniques; changes in peripheral arterial compliance were evaluated by impedance plethysmography of the forearm and finger. The study was double blind, cross over, placebo controlled, and randomised. SUBJECTS: 12 healthy male volunteers were enrolled in the study. All subjects were fasting for at least 10 h and had abstained from smoking and from methylxanthine or alcohol containing beverages. MEASUREMENTS AND MAIN RESULTS: Glyceryl trinitrate increased heart rate by 11.6(SEM 1.6) beats.min-1 (p less than 0.0005) and diastolic blood pressure by 8.7(1) mm Hg (p less than 0.01), and decreased systolic blood pressure by 8.7(1.5) mm Hg (p less than 0.01) in placebo treated volunteers; the amplitude of the plethysmograph c wave in the forearm and in the finger was also augmented, by 120(11)% and 78(13)% respectively, indicating an increase in arterial compliance. The results obtained in the two placebo sessions did not differ, indicating good reproducibility of the system. Pretreatment with either indomethacin or ibuprofen did not modify the effects of glyceryl trinitrate on heart rate, blood pressure, and arterial compliance in the forearm and the finger. Both indomethacin and ibuprofen suppressed prostaglandin synthesis, as shown by the striking inhibition of serum TxA2 concentration, by 97.2(1.5)% and 93.7(3.0)%, respectively. CONCLUSIONS: Sublingual glyceryl trinitrate, in doses used clinically, induces a reproducible increase in peripheral arterial compliance in healthy volunteers; prostaglandins do not play any significant role in this effect.
Picotamide, a new antiplatelet drug which has only slight effects on bleeding time, could be useful, in combination with oral anticoagulants, for the prevention of thromboembolic complications in patients with heart valve prostheses. We have evaluated in a randomized, controlled, double-blind, cross-over study, the effect of picotamide on the anticoagulant activity of warfarin. Administration of 300 mg t.i.d. for 10 days to 10 patients with aortic or mitral valve prostheses did not modify significantly either the level of anticoagulation or the mean daily dosage of warfarin. We observed a trend towards a reduction of plasma levels of beta-thromboglobulin. In conclusion the results of this study show that picotamide does not interfere with the anticoagulant activity of warfarin.
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