Prevalence of overweight and obesity in Sardinian adolescents.

Background: To estimate the prevalence of overweight and obesity among adolescents in Sardinia and to examine the association with several biological and geographic factors.

Methodology: A cross-sectional study was performed in 3,946 unselected adolescents (2,011 boys, 1,935 girls; aged 11-15 years) attending the public secondary schools in 33 Sardinian municipalities: 28 semi-rural, 5 urban, sub-grouped according to their geographic location (mountain, hillside and plain). Oversized children were measured and their BMI defined as being above normal values according to parameters provided by the International Obesity Task Force (IOFT) by Cole et al.

Children's discrimination of expressions of emotions: relationship with indices of social anxiety and shyness.

Objective: To conduct an exploratory investigation of possible relationships between individual levels of social anxiety and the ability to classify emotional expressions in a group of schoolchildren observing pictures of children of similar age.

Method: One hundred forty-nine second- and third-grade schoolchildren underwent a facial expression discrimination trial. Children were characterized on the basis of the number of spontaneous comments they made during a pause in the trial, and on their scores on the Liebowitz Social Anxiety Scale, the Stevenson-Hinde and Glover Shyness-to-the-Unfamiliar Scale, and the Cloninger Harm Avoidance scale.

Observational study on the efficacy of tibolone in counteracting early carotid atherosclerotic lesions in postmenopausal women.

Objective: To study whether tibolone affects lipid profile and diffused intima media thickness (IMT) of the common carotid arteries (CCA) in postmenopausal women (PMW).

Methods: Twenty-two PMW and 20 premenopausal women participated in the study. The PMW were randomly divided into 11 women who did not receive any treatment and 11 women who received tibolone (2.

Nailfold capillaroscopy and laser Doppler flowmetry during standardised cold challenge to evaluate capillary pattern and digital flow in idiopathic acrocyanosis.

Quantitative correlation between capillary morphologic patterns and digital pulp flow in idiopathic acrocyanosis (IA) is as yet unexplained. We studied capillary pattern, scored according mainly to capillary dilatation and tortuosity. Digital flow was recorded by laser Doppler flowmetry during a standardised cooling and rewarming thermal challenge in a controlled thermostatic chamber.

[Association between carotid lesions evaluated by Doppler color echocardiography and cardiovascular risk factors in the elderly. Preliminary results].

Background: The valuation of the extracranial carotid by echo color-Doppler takes on an extraordinary importance for the prevention of cerebral ictus at geriatric age. In this "naturalistic" study a population of old people (> 65 yrs) of Cagliari's province was considered in order to: 1) discriminate the lesions of the carotid that are imputed to atherosclerotic disease by anatomic changes of the arterial wall caused by aging; 2) study relations between lesions of the carotid and cardiovascular risk factors.

Methods: The carotids of 50 old subjects were studied by echo color-Doppler and the lesion classified in different classes of severity, according to the hemodynamic standard, comparing them with the presence of the most important cardiovascular risk factors.

Anticipation of age at onset in panic disorder.

Objective: Anticipation (i.e., the decrease in age at onset or the increase in severity of a disorder in successive generations) has recently been reappraised as a key to understanding the genetics of some familial illnesses.

Plasma levels of the molecular markers of coagulation and fibrinolysis in patients with peripheral arterial disease.

In 103 patients with peripheral arterial disease (PAD) of the lower limbs, coagulation and fibrinolytic parameters were evaluated to identify hemostatic abnormalities characteristic of this patient population. PAD was defined as clinically stable Leriche stage 2 (based on clinical history, peripheral pulses, ankle-arm index, and treadmill test) for at least 3 months, walking distance > 100 m, and no other major illnesses, rest pain, or trophic lesions. Defibrotide, a polydeoxyribonucleotide derivative with vascular effects, was administered to the patients as part of a multicenter trial.

Prevalence of peripheral arterial occlusive disease and associated risk factors in a sample of southern Sardinian population.

We studied a sample of adult population over 20 years old of Donori (totally 2049 inhabitants), a small town near Cagliari, South Sardinia, to: (1) Evaluate the prevalence of peripheral arterial occlusive disease of lower limbs (PAOD) diagnosed by standard questionnaire and US CW Doppler examination and associated risk factors in South Sardinia. (2) Compare the reliability of these two diagnostic methods. Our study included the answers to a standard anamnestic questionnaire (according to the WHO recommendations), physical examination and CW Doppler study of the lower limb arteries, the determination of the arterial systolic and diastolic pressure, ankle/arm pressure ratio, Body Mass Index, blood glucose, total and HDL-cholesterol, triglycerides and fibrinogen (the hematochemical examination only on 50% of the sample).

[Relation between changes in the microcirculation in the capillaries supplying the toenails and the degree of chronic venous insufficiency].

Chronic venous insufficiency (CVI) is characterised by stasis which may lead to an imbalance in the cutaneous microcirculation resulting in a wide spectrum of complications. The use of capillaroscopy on the toenail folds of patients with CVI allows the morphological and microhemorrheological aspects of microcirculatory disorders to be studied. The aim of this study was to clarify the correlation between the extent of abnormalities of the nutritional capillary and the degree of severity of CVI according to Widmer's classification.

[The evaluation of the oximetric and Doppler sonographic parameters in patients with chronic venous insufficiency. A controlled double-blind clinical study versus placebo].

Twenty four patients suffering from chronic venous insufficiency of the lower limbs were treated with sulfo-mucopolysaccharides (SMPS) or placebo in a double-blind controlled study. At recruitment, and again at 60 and 120 days of ongoing treatment, each patient was tested for transcutaneous partial oxygen tension and for pressure in the posterior tibial vein and saphena by Doppler sonography. Findings were assessed in each case separately for the affected limb versus the unaffected, or for the more severely affected versus the contralateral limb in patients affected bilaterally.

Correlations among capillaroscopic abnormalities, digital flow and immunologic findings in patients with isolated Raynaud's phenomenon. Can laser Doppler flowmetry help identify a secondary Raynaud phenomenon?

Thirty subjects with a diagnosis of isolated Raynaud's phenomenon, according to anamnestic and objective criteria, were cross-evaluated by various methods: laser Doppler flowmetry (LDF) during a standardized cold and rewarming test, nailfold capillaroscopy, immunological and other laboratory parameters, to assess the diagnostic and prognostic significance of each method. Correlations were also assessed among disease duration, capillaroscopic pattern score, quantitative digital flow values and laboratory parameters. Nearly 30% of patients showed immunologic abnormalities (ANA positivity at variable titres, ENA, hypocomplementemia, immunocomplexes); 16% of patients had a pathologic capillaroscopic pattern, not well correlated with immunologic findings; a characteristic cold stop reaction of digital flow (partial or total) was detected in 86% of the subjects; in ANA+ pts.

[Effects of physical exercise and indobufen in patients with intermittent claudication. Results after a 2-year follow-up].

The study included 18 patients suffering from intermittent claudication before (stage 1) and after (stage 2) 3 months of rehabilitative training and after 2 years of follow-up (stage 3) during which patients undertook regular exercise (walking for 1 hour 3-4 days a week) and antiplatelet aggregating therapy with indobufen (200 mg x 2/day). A comparison of the data revealed that:a) there was a significant and gradual increase in the claudication pain distance (CPD) and maximal walking distance (MWD), and a reduced recovery time between stages 1 and 3 (parameters were assessed during and after walking on a treadmill (rolling mat) at a speed of 3.2 Km/h on a 12% slope); b) the resting ankle/arm pressure ratio was unchanged, but a significant increase was observed when the ratio was measured after exercise between stages 1 and 3; c) fibrinogenemia was significantly reduced between stages 1 and 2.

A double-blind, multicenter, placebo-controlled, dose comparison study of orally administered defibrotide: preliminary results in patients with peripheral arterial disease.

Defibrotide is a polydeoxyribonucleotide drug known to modulate the endothelial cell release of t-PA, PAI, and PGI-2 and to improve blood flow and perfusion. A double-blind, multicenter, placebo-controlled, dose comparison study was carried out to test the long-term efficacy and safety of defibrotide in patients with PAD (Leriche stage 2). Informed patients suffering from PAD were enrolled, and after a 15-day washout period were randomly allocated in a double-blind fashion to one of the three following treatments: defibrotide 400 mg (1 cps) b.

Evaluation of non-invasive haemodynamic parameters in patients with intermittent claudication subjected to physical training.

In a group of 26 patients, all smokers (mean age 56.9 +/- 8 years), with intermittent claudication due to arterial obliterative disease. We investigated some of the haemodynamic, haematologic and clinical parameters before and after a 3 months physical training program.

[Laser Doppler flowmetry. Principles and clinical applications in vascular acro-syndromes].

Twenty-seven subjects with vasospastic diseases: 13 primary and 5 secondary Raynaud phenomenon (RP), 3 primary RP treated with raubasin 60 mg/day, 6 acrocyanosis and 9 normal subjects were studied in a standardized experimental set (thermostatic chamber), recording cutaneous digital micro-vascular reactions to cold and heat exposure by laser Doppler flowmetry, a relatively new method for the objective and reliable assessment of blood flow in the cutaneous microvasculature. The data suggest that patients with vasospastic disease have a defect in local microvascular flow regulation, that is revealed by low temperature exposure. The major difference between primary and secondary RF was recovery time (stop reaction) after cold test, that is easily recorded by this instrumental set.