Association Between Thyrotoxicosis and Cerebral Venous Thrombosis.

Thyrotoxicosis appears to be a predisposing factor for cerebral venous thrombosis (CVT), which is a rare but important cause of stroke in young adults. The presentation of CVT is highly variable, ranging from a history of headaches (in the majority of cases) to deep coma, with the latter requiring invasive neurosurgical decompression. Although the long-term outcomes of CVT are favorable, multicenter cohort studies have shown that death may occur in up to 4% of cases in the acute phase and 8-10% of cases in the long term.

Lung cancer risk and residence in the neighborhood of a sewage plant in Italy. A case-control study.

Aims And Background: Environmental pollution originating in sewage and industrial plants can be associated with lung cancer risk, as ecological and case-control studies have indicated. In the present study, the association between lung cancer occurrence and residence near a sewage plant in Prato (Italy) was investigated. A previous geographic study in the same area had shown an increasing trend of lung cancer mortality and incidence with propinquity to the plant.

Prediction of mesothelioma and lung cancer in a cohort of asbestos exposed workers.

Background: Several papers have reported state-wide projections of mesothelioma deaths, but few have computed these predictions in selected exposed groups.

Objective: To predict the future deaths attributable to asbestos in a cohort of railway rolling stock workers.

Methods: The future mortality of the 1,146 living workers has been computed in term of individual probability of dying for three different risks: baseline mortality, lung cancer excess, mesothelioma mortality.

Exposure to carcinogens and mortality in a cohort of restoration workers of water-damaged library materials following the River Arno flooding in Florence, 4 November 1966.

Background: In Florence, Italy, the Arno River overflowed on 4 November 1966 and the rare library collections of the National Central Library in Florence (FNCL) were flooded. A Restoration Centre was immediately set up. For book restoration many toxic chemicals were used, such as chlorinated solvents, ethylene oxide (EtO), formaldehyde, petroleum distillates, and pesticides.

Alkylphenol polyethoxylate removal in a pilot-scale reed bed and phenotypic characterization of the aerobic heterotrophic community.

The removal of the non-ionic surfactant Triton X-100, dosed at 30 and 300 mg/L in a pilot-scale subsurface horizontal flow reed bed, and the aerobic heterotrophic cultivable community associated with the roots and with the substrate gravel in both absence and presence of Triton X-100 were investigated. t-Octylphenol (OP) and its mono-, di- and tri-ethoxyl derivatives, among others, were found in the outlet. A mass balance allowed us to calculate that approximately 40% of the Triton X-100 metabolites OP and octylphenol polyethoxylate derivatives flowed out of the reed bed during the dosage and postdosage experiments.

[Geographical study on lung cancer mortality among residents in the neighbourhood of the coke plant in Piombino].

Objectives: To evaluate a possible risk of lung cancer related to environmental pollutants in the population living in Piombino, Italy in the neighborhood of the local coke plant.

Design: Geographical study.

Setting And Participants: Lung cancer deaths occurred in 1986-2000 in residents in Piombino were included in the study.

Italian general practitioners and smoking cessation strategies.

Aims And Background: General practitioners (GPs) are in a key position to intervene with patients who smoke. The cornerstone of a smoking cessation strategy should be the routine provision of brief advice and follow-up in primary care. However, it seems GPs do not often take action against smoking, at least in Italy as shown by previous reports.