Can peripheral arterial disease be early screened for in a podiatric setting? A preliminary study in a cohort of asymptomatic adults.

Background: Peripheral arterial disease (PAD) is a strong marker of cardiovascular disease but remains an under-diagnosed problem. Moreover, PAD frequently leads to foot problems requiring particular care and surveillance.

Aim: The aims of this study were (1) to determine the prevalence of undiagnosed PAD in a cohort of asymptomatic subjects referred to a podiatric clinic and (2) to evaluate whether a four-item form assessing medical history for the presence of cardiovascular risk factors could identify subjects at high risk for asymptomatic PAD.

Niemann-Pick type C disease: mutations of NPC1 gene and evidence of abnormal expression of some mutant alleles in fibroblasts.

We analyzed Niemann-Pick type C disease 1 (NPC1) gene in 12 patients with Niemann-Pick type C disease by sequencing both cDNA obtained from fibroblasts and genomic DNA. All the patients were compound heterozygotes. We found 15 mutations, eight of which previously unreported.

[Extra-nutritional and nutraceutical effects of traditional foods of Parma].

Territorial Products and food-culture relationship are described. On the basis of food extra-nutritional constituents and on the characteristics of functional food (nutraceutical food), traditional Parma products, i.e.

[The false myth of toxoplasmosis in salami].

On the basis of available literature concerning Toxoplama gondii infection in swine (swine toxoplasmosis) and the resistance of parasite to heating, freezing, gamma-radiation, salting, seasoning and production processes of "cooked" and "fermented" salami, the possible risk of transmission of the disease from pig (where toxoplasmosis is widely diffuse) to man is discussed. No risk of transmission of the disease, even to children and pregnant women, can derive from the consumption of cooked meat, cooked or salted-fermented salami and ham. The only risk could be related to eating of even small amount of fresh sausages or chitterlings (especially heart, brain and other viscera) and consumption of not drinking water.

A study of fatty liver disease and plasma lipoproteins in a kindred with familial hypobetalipoproteinemia due to a novel truncated form of apolipoprotein B (APO B-54.5).

Background/aims: Familial hypobetalipoproteinemia (FHBL) is a co-dominant disorder characterized by reduced plasma levels of low-density lipoproteins. It can be caused by mutations in the gene encoding apolipoprotein B-100 (apo B), leading to the formation of truncated apo Bs which have a reduced capacity to export lipids from the hepatocytes as lipoprotein constituents. Case reports suggest the occurrence of liver disease in FHBL, but there are no studies of liver involvement in FHBL with defined apo B gene mutations.

Secretion of apoB- and apoA-I-containing lipoproteins by chick kidney.

Previous studies showed that chick kidney is a site of synthesis of apolipoprotein (apo) B(B-100) and A-I. Aims of the present study were: a) to compare apoB and apoA-I production in chick kidney and liver; b) to investigate whether kidney apolipoproteins were secreted as constituents of lipoproteins; and c) to define the cellular sites of renal apolipoprotein synthesis. Kidney and liver slices taken from the same animals were incubated with 35S-labeled amino acids and radioactive apoB and apoA-I were immunoprecipitated from cell homogenate and incubation medium.

Fatty liver in heterozygous hypobetalipoproteinemia caused by a novel truncated form of apolipoprotein B.

Fatty liver has been anecdotally associated with heterozygous hypobetalipoproteinemia. The aim of this study was to characterize the molecular defect in a subject with heterozygous hypobetalipoproteinemia (low-density lipoprotein cholesterol, 52 mg/dL; apolipoprotein [apo] B, 15 mg/dL) and otherwise unexplained fatty liver. Plasma lipoproteins were separated by ultracentrifugation, and apo B was analyzed by electrophoresis and immunoblotting.

Synthesis and secretion of B-100 and A-I apolipoproteins in response to the changes of intracellular cholesteryl ester content in chick liver.

We investigated in the chick whether the diet-induced changes of the hepatic content of cholesteryl esters (CE) influence the synthesis and the secretion of apoB- and apoA-I-containing lipoproteins. Control chicks received a low cholesterol diet for 2 (SD-1), 4 (SD-2), or 7 (SD-3) weeks; the chicks in the experimental groups received a cholesterol-rich diet for 2 weeks and were killed at the end of the cholesterol feeding (CH-F), and after 2 (CH-D) or 5 (CH-DD) weeks of a low cholesterol diet. Hepatic CE content in CH-F chicks was 30-fold that observed in controls, but returned to the control level after 5 weeks of cholesterol depletion (CH-DD).

Apolipoprotein B-100 production and cholesteryl ester content in the liver of developing chick.

In the chick, the large cholesteryl ester (CE) store present in the liver during the last period of embryonic life increases at hatching and is rapidly depleted after 2-7 days of postnatal life. In this study we asked whether these changes were associated with variations in the hepatic production of apoB-containing lipoproteins. Liver slices taken from chicks at -3, 0 (hatching), 2, 4, 7, and 10 days of development were incubated with [35S]methionine in steady state incubations.

Hygienic aspects of the production and agricultural use of animal wastes.

Regarding the hygienic aspects of the production and use of animal wastes, further research on the following aspects is essential: pathogenic agents present in residues of animal production in the context of transmissible multifactorial diseases and the epidemiology of pathogens under different ecological conditions; recycling of toxic agents, e.g., copper, selenium and iodine, in animal wastes in the context of the food chain from soil to humans; hygienic effects of animal wastes on water as regards the standards required by medical authorities; effects of agents used to increase animal production, or used for medicinal purposes, which are present as residues in animal excreta and may be hazardous to public health; effects of animal excreta on microbiological processes in the soil; effects of dust and airborne microbial emissions from animal production, and finally, processes of self-disinfection of manure and livestock slurry during storage as a means of reducing the amounts of chemical disinfectants used, of reducing environmental pollution, and of studying the application of biotechnological methods to disinfect manure and livestock slurry, this study being of particular importance.

Current clinical problems of intensive husbandry.

The author performs an examination of the concept of pathocenosis, diseases of groups, and the consequences of the continually increasing unification of microbial populations on a world level. Then the current problems of veterinary assistance on intensive farms are examined and discussed with particular reference to the clinical and control aspects.