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Biomedical subjects

S Vigneri

Publications and source records attributed to S Vigneri.

At least 73 records · Page 4Linked to original sources
PubMed1995

Gastrokinetic effects of levosulpiride in dyspeptic patients with diabetic gastroparesis.

OBJECTIVE: Antidopaminergic drugs may be useful in diabetic gastroparesis because the inhibitory activity of hyperglycemia on gastric motility seems to be related to dopamine receptor stimulation. For this reason, we evaluated the effect of levosulpiride on gastric emptying, dyspeptic symptoms, and metabolic parameters of insulin-treated diabetic patients. METHODS: Under double-blind conditions, 40 longstanding, insulin-treated dyspeptic patients with autonomic neuropathy and delayed gastric emptying were randomly submitted, with an interval of 15 days, to 4 wk of administration of both levosulpiride 25 mg t.i.d. and placebo according to a cross-over design. At the beginning of the study and after levosulpiride or placebo treatment, the gastric emptying time of a standard meal was measured ultrasonically; gastrointestinal symptom scores and glycaemic control were also evaluated. RESULTS: Levosulpiride reduced significantly (p < 0.001) the gastric emptying time from 416 +/- 58 to 322 +/- 63 min, whereas placebo did not change it consistently (396 +/- 58 vs 372 +/- 72 min). Symptoms improved significantly (p < 0.001) with levosulpiride compared with placebo. However, there was no significant correlation between the acceleration of gastric emptying and the symptomatological improvement. The reduction of mean plasma glycosylated hemoglobin concentrations after levosulpiride (7.3 +/- 1.9 vs 5.8 +/- 1.3) was not significantly different (p = not significant) compared with placebo (6.8 +/- .7 vs 6.1 +/- 1.4). CONCLUSIONS: Our study first demonstrates that levosulpiride has an accelerating effect on the emptying of solids from the stomach of patients with diabetic gastroparesis. The drug is also effective in relieving upper gastrointestinal symptoms in patients whose gastric emptying times remain very slow. Our findings suggest, but do not prove, that better blood glucose control could be achieved with reduction of gastric emptying time; further trials are needed in this field.

Cross-Over Studies↗
PubMed1995

Limitations of continuous 24-h intragastric pH monitoring in the diagnosis of duodenogastric reflux.

OBJECTIVE: Long term gastric pH monitoring has been proposed to diagnose abnormal duodenogastric reflux. This study analyses the in situ reproducibility of continuous intragastric pH measurements to assess the influence of artifactual factors in producing spontaneous variations of pH values that might be frequently misinterpreted as episodes of duodenogastric reflux. METHODS: The investigation was carried out in 301 endoscopically proven duodenal ulcer patients (87 female, 214 male, mean age 46 yr). Each patient underwent 24-h gastric pH monitoring with two closely adjacent pH electrodes whose tips were about 2 mm apart. The two simultaneous pH tracings obtained from each patient were analyzed with regard to the number, characteristics, and discrepancies of unexpected alkalinization waves over the entire circadian cycle. RESULTS: The simultaneous pH tracings of the two-channel datalogger we used ran almost superimposed for more than 23 h in 224 out of 301 (74%) duodenal ulcer patients. Major discrepancies between the two pH tracings of each recording were obtained in the remaining cases (77/301 = 26%). The most frequent event was represented by unexpected alkalinization waves that occurred mainly during nighttime and were recorded by only one of the two simultaneously measuring electrodes. As few as 16/244 (7%) patients showed synchronous, unexpected alkalinization waves that one might eventually consider to be duodenogastric refluxes. CONCLUSIONS: It is rather common that only one of two closely adjacent pH electrodes placed within the stomach measures longlasting pH elevations, particularly during the nocturnal period. This discrepancy is due to a poor in situ reproducibility of simultaneous pH recordings and indicates that pH readings might be influenced by interference and artifacts. Thus, the frequent differences between two simultaneous pH readings and the indirect measurement of the backflow of duodenal contents with long term gastric pH-metry do not allow us to rely on this technique to diagnose duodenogastric reflux.

Adult↗
PubMed1995

Circadian acidity pattern in gastric ulcers at different sites.

OBJECTIVE: Continuous intragastric pH monitoring was used in a large group of gastric ulcer patients to assess whether the 24-h acidity pattern varies in relation to the ulcer location within the stomach and to assess whether there is a circadian rhythm of pH fluctuations in this disease. METHODS: One hundred and thirty-three consecutive patients (79 male and 54 female, mean age 53 yr) with endoscopically and histologically proven benign gastric ulcer and 131 healthy subjects (70 male and 61 female, mean age 48 yr) were studied with a pH minielectrode positioned in the gastric corpus. Ulcer patients were divided into four subgroups in relation to the crater site: 1) above the angulus (n = 23); 2) angularis (n = 42); 3) antral (n = 26); and 4) prepyloric (n = 42). RESULTS: Subgroups 1 and 2 are characterized by significantly lower acidity (p < 0.0001) than healthy subjects for every time segment examined (24-h, day and night). Antral ulcers are less acidic than normal for both the total 24-h period (p < 0.01) and the night period (p < 0.0001), whereas prepyloric ulcers are less acidic for the night only (p < 0.01). In all subgroups of gastric ulcer, the acidity is higher during the evening than the night. CONCLUSIONS: The circadian acidity of gastric ulcer patients is significantly lower than normal, and this is particularly true during the nocturnal period. There is a gradient of gastric acidity that increases progressively as the lesion approximates to the pylorus. The well known circadian rhythm of gastric acidity with relatively higher acid levels during the evening than the night was maintained in all of the gastric ulcer subgroups we created.

Adult↗
PubMed1995

Demonstration of Rickettsia Conorii-induced coagulative and platelet activation in vivo in patients with Mediterranean spotted fever.

Endothelial injury in vivo induced by Rickettsia Conorii, the etiologic agent of Mediterranean Spotted Fever (MSF) has been recently demonstrated. We sought to determine whether platelet and/or coagulative activation in vivo can be demonstrated in the acute phase of MSF, through measurements of a major metabolite of thromboxane (TX) in the urine (11-dehydro-TXB2) and of plasma prothrombin fragment 1 + 2, whose levels reflect activation of prothrombin to thrombin. Moreover, we measured plasma endothelin-1 as marker of endothelial dysfunction. Our results provide biochemical evidence for the occurrence of TXA2-dependent platelet activation and thrombin generation in vivo, together with endothelial dysfunction. These phenomena could account for clinical manifestations of MSF, such as vasculitis and focal microthrombus formation. These results could also provide a rationale for testing the efficacy of aspirin or heparin in reducing the prothrombotic status of Rickettsiae diseases.

Acute Disease↗
PubMed1994

New method for improving accuracy of 24-hour continuous intragastric pH-metry. Reflections on physiological and pharmacological studies.

Continuous 24-hr intragastric pH-metry was prospectively performed in 801 subjects with different clinical conditions using two pH electrodes placed closely adjacent. The aim was to assess the in situ repeatability of the test and to verify whether the removal of artifacts, interference, and noise usually superimposed onto the fundamental signal recorded by the measuring apparatus improves the clinical usefulness of experimental data. The following debugging/filtering procedure was used: first, pH recordings of each channel were amended separately from artifacts, then they underwent 7 min windowed median interference debugging, and finally Wiener noise filtering was applied. Afterwards, the 24-hr mean pH profile was obtained in each subject by averaging the pH tracings of the two channels every minute (1440 data points/24 hr). The efficiency of this procedure was assessed at each step by evaluating the difference among groups using the O'Brien test, a distribution-free nonparametric method well-suited for evaluating differences among groups allocated onto a two-way layout. The differences among groups calculated from raw pH data of the single channels can be very misleading, in that it is possible to find that they are significant on one channel and not significant on the other channel. Conversely, the significance of the differences among groups increases progressively at each step of the above debugging/filtering procedure applied to raw pH profiles of each channel. Seven minutes was shown to be the most suitable time lag for windowed median removal of interference.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)

Artifacts↗
PubMed1994

Variability in individual response to various doses of omeprazole. Implications for antiulcer therapy.

This study was carried out in order to perform a combined prospective assessment of the individual pharmacodynamic response and of duodenal ulcer healing in patients treated with three different doses of omeprazole. Ninety-nine patients with endoscopically proven duodenal ulcers were subdivided into three parallel groups of 33 cases, who were randomly assigned to receive orally at 0800 hr, in single blind fashion, either 10 mg, 20 mg, or 40 mg of omeprazole. All of them underwent continuous intragastric pH monitoring both in basal conditions and on the fifth day of each dose regimen; ulcer healing was then assessed endoscopically after four weeks of treatment. All three doses of omeprazole caused pH values to increase significantly (P < 0.001) over the whole 24-hr period. In patients treated with omeprazole 10 mg, the individual responses showed the highest variability: the acid inhibition, expressed in terms of time spent above pH 3.0, lasted for more than 16 hr in 42% of cases, for more than 8 hr in 28%, and for less than 6 hr in 30%. In patients treated with omeprazole 20 mg, the pharmacological response was more marked and uniform and lasted for more than 16 hr in 79% of cases; however, it is worth noting it lasted for less than 6 hr in three patients (10%). In patients treated with omeprazole 40 mg, the individual response was excellent (more than 16 hr) in 94% of cases, and it lasted for less than 6 hr in only one patient (3%).(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)

Dose-Response Relationship, Drug↗
PubMed1994

A pharmacodynamic study of two omeprazole regimens suitable for long-term treatment of duodenal ulcer.

BACKGROUND: The experience with long-term treatment of peptic ulcer with omeprazole is still scant, but the possibility cannot be excluded that its better pharmacodynamic effect on gastric acidity also has a positive result in the relapse rate. Moreover, this drug acts via a mechanism other than receptorial binding, and therefore its efficacy should not dissipate with time. This study was carried out to assess the pharmacodynamic properties and the possible changes with time of two dose regimens of omeprazole that could be suitable for long-term treatment in duodenal ulcer. METHODS: Twenty patients with endoscopically proven duodenal ulcer were studied by means of 24-h gastric pH-metry both in basal conditions and on the 5th day of acute treatment with 40 mg omeprazole in the morning. All the ulcers healed after 4 weeks, and thereafter 10 patients were randomized to receive orally 20 mg omeprazole daily at 0800 h in single-blind fashion (group A) and 10 to receive 20 mg omeprazole every other day (group B) for up to 6 months. At the end of the 1st, 3rd, and 6th month of these maintenance treatments 24-h gastric pH-metry was repeated to assess the antisecretory effect of each regimen over time. In group-B patients the test was performed on 2 consecutive days (without and with medication) at each time interval. The fasting gastrin values were also determined. The patients underwent esophagogastroduodenoscopy every 2 months. RESULTS: Three patients in group B were lost to follow-up for various reasons, and only seven remained eligible for final analysis. The two long-term regimens of omeprazole were able to increase significantly pH values (p < 0.02-0.001) and the times spent at and above pH 3.0 (p < 0.001) over 24 h compared with basal conditions. In group A the 24-h pH value obtained in the 6th month was higher (p < 0.02) than that in the 3rd month of maintenance treatment. In group B the pharmacologic effect tended to decrease on the day without medication compared with the day with medication, but the difference between them was significantly (p < 0.05) only at the 6-month interval. There was no significant difference between the gastrin levels of the two groups in the long-term treatment. No ulcer relapse was detected at any long-term endoscopic control in the two groups of patients. CONCLUSIONS: The two omeprazole regimens we tested are effective in reducing gastric acidity, and their pharmacodynamic action does not decrease with time. They are therefore suitable for maintenance treatment in acid-related disorders.

Adult↗
PubMed1993

Markers of slow-healing peptic ulcer in the elderly. A study on 1,052 ranitidine-treated patients.

Little is known about ulcer outcome in the elderly. The aims of the present paper were to establish whether risk factors of slow-healing peptic ulcer can be demonstrated in the elderly and whether clinical differences exist between ulcer patients whose age of onset of the disease was before or after 65 years old. The short-term, open study, involving 1052 elderly patients (over 65 years) in 37 gastroenterology centers throughout Italy aimed to compare two schedules of ranitidine treatment: 150 mg twice daily versus 300 mg at bedtime. As nonsignificant differences were found between these two schedules, the sample was considered as a whole. It included 319 gastric ulcer (GU) patients, 699 duodenal ulcer (DU) patients, and 34 concomitant GU and DU cases. Ninety-three patients dropped out of the trial; 79/294 GU, 138/635 DU, and 10/30 GU+DU were found still unhealed after four weeks and 20 GU, 15 DU, and 1 GU+DU remained so after eight weeks. Statistical analysis was performed using likelihood-ratio and Pearson's chi-squared tests and Cox's models. Univariate analysis showed that the indicators of slow-healing GU were ulcer size (P = 0.002) and persisting ulcer symptoms (P = 0.0001); indicators of slow-healing DU were ulcer size (P = 0.0001), persisting ulcer symptoms (P = 0.0001), alcohol (P = 0.0003), and NSAID (P = 0.0088) consumption. DU patients taking antiplatelet drugs have significantly better results after four weeks and worse results after eight weeks (P = 0.0352).(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)

Age Factors↗
PubMed1993

Peptic ulcer in the elderly--a double-blind, short-term study comparing nizatidine 300 mg with ranitidine 300 mg. GISU (Interdisciplinary Ulcer Study Group).

UNLABELLED: This was a randomized, double-blind, multicentre, short-term study comparing ranitidine and nizatidine at the standard dosages of 300 mg at bedtime. In 49 centres in Italy, all peptic ulcer patients aged over 65 years and with endoscopically documented acute disease were considered eligible for the study. Clinical check-ups were repeated every 3 weeks, while the endoscopic and biochemical assessments were scheduled at 6 and (in unhealed patients) 12 weeks. STATISTICS: chi-squared test, Fisher's exact test, Student t-test for unpaired data. The study included 170 duodenal ulcer and 75 gastric ulcer patients. Of these, 83/170 duodenal ulcer and 38/75 gastric ulcer patients were treated with nizatidine 300 mg and the remainder with ranitidine 300 mg. The groups were well-matched for common clinical data. Eight patients dropped out. Healing rates at 6 and 12 weeks were 81.9% and 91.5% for nizatidine-treated duodenal ulcer patients versus 78.1% and 94.2% for ranitidine-treated duodenal ulcer cases (P: N.S.); 6 and 12-week healing rates were 76.3% and 89.5% for nizatidine-treated gastric ulcer patients versus 67.6% and 83.8% for ranitidine-treated gastric ulcer patients (P: N.S.). No slow healing risk factors were found. Only minor adverse events were registered. IN CONCLUSION: ranitidine 300 mg and nizatidine 300 mg both proved effective and safe in the treatment of acute peptic ulceration in the elderly.

Aged↗
PubMed1993

Circadian acidity pattern in prepyloric ulcers: a comparison with normal subjects and duodenal ulcer patients.

We used continuous 24-h pH monitoring to compare the circadian intragastric acidity of 36 patients with prepyloric ulcers (PPU) with that of 101 normal subjects (NS) and that of 206 patients with duodenal ulcer (DU). The ulcer crater was endoscopically ascertained in all cases, and PPU were located within an area up to 2 cm proximal to the pylorus. The pH curve pertaining to DU patients ran below that of NS during most of the circadian period, whereas the pH profile of PPU patients was higher than that of NS, and this was particularly true during the evening and the night. The acidity of PPU patients was significantly lower (p < 0.01) than that of NS during the night only, whereas it was lower (p < 0.05-0.001) than that of DU patients during each time interval analysed (24 h, nighttime, and daytime). Our findings show that the gastric acidity of PPU patients differs greatly from that of DU patients, since it is lower throughout the whole 24-h period, and particularly during the night. Thus these two entities are pathophysiologically different with regard to the acidity pattern and should be considered two distinct subgroups of peptic ulcer disease instead of being incorporated, as usually happens, in the clinical group 'duodenal ulcer disease'.

Adult↗