Periodontal disease is considered a public health problem because of its high prevalence, while premature birth is a serious perinatal problem, persisting as one of the major causes of perinatal mortality and morbidity. Therefore, the objective of this study was to evaluate the effect of maternal periodontal disease on the occurrence of preterm birth and the birth weight of their babies. The study sample included 45 new mothers, aged 18-35 years, who presented either slight or moderate to severe localized or generalized chronic periodontitis with bleeding on probing and gingival inflammation.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThere are virtually no data regarding appropriate oral intake in infants with dwarfing disorders such as achondroplasia, nor is there clear information regarding appropriate weight gain velocity in this population. Yet, these individuals are at increased risk for both early failure to thrive and, later in life, for obesity. Having appropriate expectations regarding weight gain and reasonable goals in management is imperative.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFJ Psychiatr Ment Health Nurs
May 2017
Unlabelled: WHAT IS KNOWN ON THE SUBJECT?: There is a growing emphasis on communication as a result of the move towards the more inclusive approach associated with the community-based rehabilitation model. Therefore, more importance is attached to handovers. Besides ensuring transfer of information, handovers enhance group cohesion, socialize staff members to the practices of the service and capture its organizational culture.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFEur J Obstet Gynecol Reprod Biol
November 2010
Objective: To evaluate the information reported by Italian press articles about hormone replacement therapy (HRT) and menopause, in terms of completeness, clarity of language and transparency.
Study Design: In the framework of the Consensus Conference Informing women about hormone replacement therapy, 225 articles published from 2000 to 2007 in Italian lay press were evaluated. Health magazines, weekly news magazines, newspapers, women's magazines and medical practitioners' journals were selected.
Objectives: To assess dermal exposure to 16 polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) in asphalt workers by applying polypropylene pads to six body sites (neck, shoulder, upper arm, wrist, groin, ankle), to identify the compounds and exposure sites most representative, and to integrate dermal exposure results with environmental and biological data.
Methods: Twenty-four asphalt workers were recruited. Dermal exposure was assessed during a single work shift.
The aim of this work was to investigate urinary analytes and haemoglobin and albumin adducts as biomarkers of exposure to airborne styrene (Sty) and styrene-(7,8)-oxide (StyOX) and to evaluate the influence of smoking habit and genetic polymorphism of metabolic enzymes GSTM1 and GSTT1 on these biomarkers. We obtained three or four air and urine samples from each exposed worker (eight reinforced plastics workers and 13 varnish workers), one air and urine samples from 22 control workers (automobile mechanics) and one blood sample from all subjects. Median levels of exposure to Sty and StyOX, respectively, were 18.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Revision of bariatric procedures is required in 10 to 25% of patients either for insufficient weight loss or for complications. Patients undergoing vertical banded gastroplasty (VBG; Mason MacLean) may require revision in up to half of the cases in the long term. Roux-en-Y gastric bypass (RYGBP) is considered the procedure of choice for revision of VBG gastroplasty.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Internal hernia (IH) is a well known complication of Roux-en-Y gastric bypass (RYGBP) which is more frequently encountered when the RYGBP is done laparoscopically.
Methods: Patients with IH were identified from a prospective data-base of morbidly obese patients undergoing bariatric surgery at our center.
Results: 10 patients with IH were identified out of 625 patients undergoing LRYGBP from 1998 to 2006 (incidence 1.
Background: Vertical banded gastroplasty (VBG) is associated with a significant rate of revision because of regain of weight due to staple-line disruption, gastric pouch and stoma dilation, change to sweet eating, outlet stenosis with vomiting and reflux. To avoid reflux, some surgeons added an antireflux wrap.
Methods: We report laparoscopic revision of VBG with antireflux wrap to Roux-en-Y gastric bypass (RYGBP) in 4 patients.
We report a case of a patient admitted to our hospital for acute pelvic pain. Ultrasounds and abdominal CT scan found a voluminous mass situated in the upper urinary bladder and contiguous to the uterus and to the ovaries. Magnetic resonance imaging identified a pedicle connecting the uterus to the mass which had an aspect of a necrobiotic leiomyoma.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFAn ultraviolet (UV) spectrophotometric procedure was devised for the determination of polycyclic aromatic compound-oriented organic soluble matter in vapors and particulate collected from emissions of hot asphalt mix. Ultrasonic extraction was carried out with acetonitrile, followed by UV measurements at 254 nm. Polycyclic aromatic compounds (PACs) in volatile and particulate fraction were quantified as phenanthrene or benzo[k]fluoranthene equivalents.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Fumes and vapours released during laying of hot asphalt mix have been recognised as a major source of exposure for asphalt workers.
Objectives: We investigated the relationships between inhalation exposure to asphalt emissions and urinary biomarkers of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) in asphalt workers (AW, n=75) and in ground construction workers (CW, n=37).
Methods: Total polyaromatic compounds (PAC) and 15 priority PAHs in inhaled air were measured by personal sampling.
In the present article we assessed exposure to polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) in Italian asphalt workers (AW, n = 100), exposed to bitumen fumes and diesel exhausts, and in roadside construction workers (CW, n = 47), exposed to diesel exhausts, by means of environmental and biological monitoring. 1-hydroxypyrene (OH-Py) was determined in urine spot samples collected, respectively, after 2 days of vacation (baseline), before, and at the end of the monitored work shift, in the second part of the workweek. Median airborne levels during the work shift of 15 PAHs (both vapor and particulate phases), from naphthalene (NAP) to indeno(1,2,3-cd)pyrene, ranged from below 0.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFWe report on the case of a patient admitted for epigastric pain. An abdominal ultrasound revealed a voluminous cystic lesion of the left hepatic lobe. In magnetic resonance imaging, the mass had a liquid-liquid level that was spontaneously hyperintense on T(1)-weighted images and hypointense on T(2)-weighted images.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFFree Radic Biol Med
November 2006
Tobacco smoking is a major risk factor for lung cancer causing, among other effects, oxidative stress and lipid peroxidation. Malondialdehyde (MDA)-DNA adducts can be induced by direct DNA oxidation and by lipid peroxidation. We measured the relationship between bronchial MDA-DNA adducts and tobacco smoking, cancer status, and selected polymorphisms in 43 subjects undergoing a bronchoscopic examination for diagnostic purposes.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFWe describe a simple, rapid, and sensitive fluorescence method for measurement of aluminum (Al) in human biological fluids, in dialysis solutions, and in tap water, which uses 8-hydroxyquinoline for ion chelation. The fluorescence intensity of the toluene-extracted metal chelate (excitation wavelength, 380 nm; emission wavelength, 504 nm) remains unchanged for over 48 h at room temperature. Fluorescence intensity is a linear function of the concentration of Al in the 2-1000 microg/L range with detection limits of 0.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFA method suitable for the determination of unmetabolized polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) excreted at trace levels (ng/L) in human urine for the monitoring of exposure of the general population to PAH contamination was developed. PAHs were determined, after enrichment by solid-phase extraction on polyurethane foam (PUF) chips, by HPLC with fluorescence detection. Different parameters affecting analyte extraction to the PUF, including urine salting-out and organic additives, and optimization of conditions for clean-up and desorption have been investigated.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFFlow injection electrospray ionization mass spectrometry has been shown to produce simple, characteristic m/z signals for Th-hydroxamate siderophore (desferrioxamine and ferrichrome) complexes, with Th complexed as a simple 4+ ion in the environmentally relevant pH range investigated (pH 5-9). All species of interest for this study were identified optimally in the positive mode; thus, multiple species were analyzed concurrently in a single spectrum. Complexation of Th by the two siderophores was rapid in 1:1 molar aqueous solution, reaching equilibrium before the first measurement was possible at 2 min.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFIn this paper we evaluated the possibility to assess occupational exposure to polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) measuring unmetabolized PAHs in urine. With this aim, 24 road paving (RP) workers, exposed to bitumen fumes, and 6 road construction workers (CW), exposed to diesel exhausts, were investigated. Median personal exposure to low boiling PAHs (from naphthalene to pyrene) during the work shift ranged from 0.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFG Ital Med Lav Ergon
November 2005
Asphalt is a mixture of mineral matter and bitumen, its fumes contain about 1% of Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons (PAH), some of which are carcinogens. In the PPTP-POPA Study of Lombardy Region, a group of 100 asphalt workers (exposed to bitumen fumes and diesel exhausts) and a group of 47 ground construction operators (exposed only to diesel exhausts) were investigated to assess PAH exposure in Italy, by means of environmental-air monitoring (the 16 most relevant, according to the American Environmental Protection Agency, EPA) and biological monitoring (urinary 1-hydroxypyrene excretion). Our results show that PAH exposure in these workers is not higher than that observed in traffic policemen working in urban areas.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFCancer Epidemiol Biomarkers Prev
September 2005
Benzene is a human carcinogen and an ubiquitous environmental pollutant. Identification of specific and sensitive biological markers is critical for the definition of exposure to low benzene level and the evaluation of the health risk posed by this exposure. This investigation compared urinary trans,trans-muconic acid (t,t-MA), S-phenylmercapturic acid, and benzene (U-benzene) as biomarkers to assess benzene exposure and evaluated the influence of smoking and the genetic polymorphisms CYP2E1 (RsaI and DraI) and NADPH quinone oxidoreductase-1 on these indices.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe validation of an analytical method for the measurement of the unnatural amino acid alpha-fluoro-beta-alanine (AFBA), the main metabolite of the antineoplastic drug 5-fluorouracil (5FU), in urine for the biological monitoring of the exposure of hospital workers to the drug when preparing the therapeutical doses and administering to cancer patients is described. The method employed a two-step extractive derivatization of the analyte from urine to the N-trifluoroacety-n-butyl ester derivative and detection by selected-ion monitoring gas chromatography-mass spectrometry of structurally specific fragments. The limit of detection was 20 ng/mL with quantification accuracy better than +/-20% and precision (CV%) better than +/-20% in the range 0.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThis research compared the capability of urinary trans,trans-muconic acid (t,t-MA), S-phenylmercapturic acid (S-PMA) and benzene excreted in urine (U-benzene) to monitor low benzene exposure and evaluated the influence of smoking habit on these indices. Gasoline attendants, urban policemen, bus drivers and two groups of referents working in two large Italian cities (415 people) were studied. Median benzene exposure was 61, 22, 21, 9 and 6 microg/m3, respectively, with higher levels in workers than in referents.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFS-Phenylmercapturic acid (S-PMA), is a urinary metabolite of benzene, thought to be derived from the condensation product of benzene oxide with glutathione. S-PMA may be determined by GC, HPLC (UV or fluorescence detection), GC-MS, LC-MS/MS or immunoassays. The limit of sensitivities of most of these techniques is 1 microg/l urine or below.
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