Response to oxidative stress of peripheral blood mononuclear cells from multiple sclerosis patients and healthy controls.

The complex scenario of multiple sclerosis (MS) pathology involves several mechanisms, including oxidative stress response. The heat shock proteins (HSPs) are important for the protection of the cells; however, their role in MS is not clear. The present research is focused on the response of peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) to oxidative stress and to the involvement of HSP70-2 (a protein coded by the HSPA1B gene, located in the MHC class III).

Air pollution is associated to the multiple sclerosis inflammatory activity as measured by brain MRI.

Background: Some environmental factors have been already associated to increased risk of multiple sclerosis (MS), but it is plausible that additional factors might play a role.

Objective: To investigate in MS patients the relationship between inflammatory activity, detected by brain magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) with gadolinium (Gd), and air pollution, namely, particulate matters with diameter less than 10 μm (PM).

Methods: We analyzed from 52 remitting MS patients 226 brain MRIs, 34% with (Gd+MRI) and 66% without (Gd-MRI) T1-Gd-enhancing lesions.

Cardiovascular screening in low-income settings using a novel 4-lead smartphone-based electrocardiograph (D-Heart®).

Background: MHealth technologies are revolutionizing cardiovascular medicine. However, a low-cost, user-friendly smartphone-based electrocardiograph is still lacking. D-Heart® is a portable device that enables the acquisition of the ECG on multiple leads which streams via Bluetooth to any smartphone.

Investigating burnout situations, nurses' stress perception and effect of a post-graduate education program in health care organizations of northern Italy: a multicenter study.

Background: Burnout (BO) is increasingly considered a public health problem: it is not only harmful to the individual, but also for the organization. Therefore, in recent years, research has given particular attention to the study of the phenomenon and its antecedents among the nursing profession. In the last ten years, the literature shows the prevalence of BO in different clinical settings, but there are few recent data describing the phenomenon and its relationship with educational preventive programs.

Return to work after coronary angioplasty or heart surgery: a 5-year experience with the "CardioWork" protocol.

Objective: The "CardioWork" protocol, for work resumption after invasive heart procedures and subsequent cardiac rehabilitation, is presented.

Methods: Over 5 years, 107 consecutive patients of working age were enrolled. Jobs were classified as multiples of basal metabolism according to the entity of physical strain.

[Management of occupational stress among patients with cardiac diseases].

The object of our study was the evaluation of psycophysic condition, stress perception and coping in a sample of subject in cardiac rehabilitation. Our study recruited 48 worker patients (44 male, M = 50.5 +/- 8.

An evaluation of a colour food photography atlas as a tool for quantifying food portion size in epidemiological dietary surveys.

Objective: To test the validity of a colour food photography atlas for quantifying portion size eaten compared with weighed foods.

Design: The colour food photography atlas was prepared by cooking, weighing and taking digital photographs of three portion sizes of 434 foods and beverages typical of the Italian diet.

Subjects And Interventions: In all, 448 male and female volunteers aged 6-60 y from a wide variety of social backgrounds completed 9075 assessments of food portions eaten at lunch and dinner in relation to a set of colour food photographs during 8 weeks of investigation.

[Road safety in Italy: epidemiology of two-wheeled motor vehicles accidents. National statistics 2000].

Objective: to describe road accidents occurred in Italy focusing, in particular, on two-wheeled motor vehicles.

Design: Analysis of road accidents based on current data referring to year 2000.

Setting: Italy.

Evaluation of extracranial carotid system with duplex scanner HR in hemiplegic patients.

The aim of this work is to study extracranial carotid lesions and their relation to some risk factors for atherosclerosis, in a large group of hemiplegic patients during rehabilitation treatment. The results indicate that in patients with stabilized ischemic stroke there is a high percentage of positive Duplex Scanner examination. However, the presence of negative patients with hemiplegia leads us, in this case, to look for a carotid lesion placed higher up.

[Reproducibility of ergometric parameters at the ischemic threshold: study of 160 patients with effort coronary insufficiency].

To assess the reproducibility of ergometric parameters at the ischemic threshold, 160 patients, with coronary artery disease and exercise-induced S-T segment depression (102 with previous AMI), were evaluated by means of two control exercise tests performed, in pharmacological wash-out, on different days within 48 hours. The mean values of work load (WL), heart rate (HR) and double product (DP) did not show any statistical difference between the two exercise tests at 0.1 mV S-T depression (ischemic threshold), recorded by a computer assisted electrocardiograph system (Marquette CASE); on the contrary blood pressure (BP) slightly, but significantly (p less than 0.