Severe Eosinophilic Asthma or Eosinophilic Granulomatosis With Polyangiitis: Potential Biomarkers for Novel Diagnostic Strategies.

Background: Severe eosinophilic asthma (SEA) may be the prodromal phase of eosinophilic granulomatosis with polyangiitis (EGPA). Nevertheless, few studies have tried to recognize EGPA in the early stages of the disease.

Objective: To identify a panel of clinical and biological markers to detect which severe asthmatic patient might be considered in a prodromal phase of EGPA and crafting a strategy for diagnostic decision-making.

Upper and lower airway inflammation in severe asthmatics: a guide for a precision biologic treatment.

Background And Aims: Severe asthma may require the prescription of one of the biologic drugs currently available, using surrogate markers of airway inflammation (serum IgE levels and allergic sensitization for anti-IgE, or blood eosinophils for anti-IL5/IL5R). Our objective: to assess upper and lower airway inflammation in severe asthmatics divided according to the eligibility criteria for one of the target biologic treatments.

Methods: We selected 91 severe asthmatics, uncontrolled despite high-dose ICS-LABA, and followed for >6 months with optimization of asthma treatment.

Distinct profile of inflammatory and remodelling biomarkers in sputum of severe asthmatic patients with or without persistent airway obstruction.

Background: Both inflammatory and remodelling processes are associated with irreversible airway obstruction observed in severe asthma. Our aim was to characterize a group of severe asthmatic patients with or without persistent airway obstruction in relation to specific sputum inflammatory and remodelling biomarkers.

Methods: Forty-five patients under regular high-dose inhaled corticosteroid/ß-2agonist treatment were studied, after a follow-up period of at least 2 years, with a minimum of 4 visits.

The beclomethasone anti-inflammatory effect occurs in cell/mediator-dependent manner and is additively enhanced by formoterol: NFkB, p38, PKA analysis.

Aims: Beclomethasone/formoterol (BDP/FOR) has been reported to be more effective than its separate components in airway disease control and in airway inflammation improvement. However, BDP/FOR effects on cytokine-induced inflammation in structural cells have not been described and whether these effects occur in a cell- and mediator-dependent manner has not been fully elucidated. We sought to evaluate BDP and/or FOR effects on endothelial ICAM-1, E-selectin, IL-8 and on bronchial epithelial ICAM-1 and IL-8.

Are sputum eosinophil cationic protein and eosinophils differently associated with clinical and functional findings of asthma?

Background: Sputum eosinophil counts and eosinophil cationic protein (ECP) levels are usually increased in asthmatic patients. The correlation between sputum eosinophils or ECP and clinical findings of asthma has been previously investigated but many of these studies have been performed on small samples of asthmatic patients, considering only few clinical indices and often including patients on oral or inhaled corticosteroids, which might be confounding when interpreting the relationship between disease activity and airway inflammation.

Objective: To assess whether sputum eosinophils and ECP were differently related to functional and clinical parameters of asthma in a large number of steroid-naïve asthmatic patients, taking into account several potential determinants of activity and chronicity of asthma.

Preoperative embolization in surgical management of giant thoracic sarcomas.

We report our experience with three cases of giant, highly vascular thoracic sarcomas treated by preoperative embolization and followed, after 48 h by successful excision. With this technique, reduction in tumor size was obtained, ranging from 20% to 32%; perilesional edema facilitated surgical dissection of the mass from the adjacent structures in all cases. Piecemeal removal of the tumor was carried out in two patients with minimal blood loss.

Lung cancer and skeletal muscle metastases.

Skeletal muscle metastases from lung cancer are rare, and the optimal treatment strategy is unknown. Three cases of skeletal muscle metastases from lung cancer are described. In 2 patients surgical biopsy of muscle swelling disclosed the presence of the lung tumor; the first patient underwent lung resection to remove the primary lesion, the second was not operable because of the metastatic extension of the disease.

Experimental ocular acute hypertension-induced chromatinic alterations in astrocytic cells in rat optic nerve.

The effects of ocular acute hypertension experimentally induced on the astrocyte cells of rat have been studied. Evaluation was made of the damage to the chromatin of those cells by means of cytochemical (haematoxylin-eosin) analysis and of the state of fragmentation of the DNA by means of the TUNEL technique as well as the protective effect of the peroxide scavenger, troxol, on those events.

[The mortality due to pulmonary silicosis in the Tuscany region in the last decade demonstrates that the health effects of work exposure to silica are still marked].

An analysis of death certificates from 1987 to 1996 among residents of the Tuscany Region identified 1518 deaths from pneumoconiosis, the large majority from silicosis, a disease explained by occupational exposure to silica dust. A dozen of deaths are from asbestosis, occurred at younger ages and are concentrated in a restricted area where a cement-asbestos factory was active. Deaths from pneumoconiosis occurred mainly among males, and the rates of the disease are decreasing only in the latest years.

[Long-term survival after resection surgery for cancer of the lung in the elderly patient].

Five hundred and twenty (520) patients with lung resection for cancer and known follow-up were studied. The aim of the study was to analyse long-term results in relation to the age of the patients. Two hundred and forty (240) cases were less than 55 years old, 227 were aged between 55 and 65 years, 53 were aged over 65 years.

[Surgical excision of lung neoplasms in the elderly. Immediate results].

The authors have analyzed a series of 807 patients who underwent resection for Bronchogenic Carcinoma at the "I Istituto di Clinica Chirurgica" of the University of Rome "La Sapienza" since 1950. The aim of the search was to evaluate the immediate results of surgical treatment in relation to age of the patients. Seventy-one patients were < 65 years old, 91 patients were older.

[The effect of the degree of lymphocytic infiltration on the long-term survival of patients undergoing surgery for the exeresis of gastric cancer].

The predictive value of tumor lymphocytic infiltration was studied in 186 gastric cancer patients curatively resected. All patients were followed-up for over 10 years. LI was negatively correlated with p-TN stage of disease.

[Prognosis and immunomorphological characteristics in rectal cancer: results of a multivariate analysis].

The survival advantage of a pronounced lymphocytic infiltration within and around the primary tumor and some hyperplastic reactions in the regional lymph nodes in specimens of colorectal cancer has been reported in many studies. However, none of these studies allowed the grade of these immunomorphological reactivities to compete with more traditional prognostic variables, using the proportional hazard models. In this study the survival rates of 219 patients who underwent operation for rectal cancer were analyzed statistically according to sex, age, tumor site, type of operation, histology, nuclear grade, p-TNM stage of disease and to the following immunomorphological parameters: lymphocytic infiltration (LI) within and around the primary tumor, paracortical activity (PCA), cortical activity (CA) and sinus histiocytosis (SH) of the regional lymph nodes.

Alpha-glucan synthesis on a protein primer. A reconstituted system for the formation of protein-bound alpha-glucan.

Reconstitution experiments with the DEAE-cellulose-treated enzymes, engaged in a two-step mechanism of synthesis of alpha-glucan bound to protein, are performed. Urea/sodium dodecyl sulfate/polyacrylamide gel electrophoretic analysis of the radioactive products synthesized by the reconstituted system shows highly glucosylated, labeled bands, whose apparent molecular masses change with the acrylamide concentration in the gels. The long carbohydrate chains synthesized during the second step arise from the sequential addition of glucosyl moieties to the glucoprotein formed during the first step.

alpha-Glucan synthesis on a protein primer, uridine diphosphoglucose: protein transglucosylase I. Separation from starch synthetase and phosphorylase and a study of its properties.

It was found that the DEAE-cellulose-treated UDP-Glc:protein transglucosylase I catalyzing the first step (reaction 1) in the formation of alpha-glucan bound to protein in potato tuber is not only specific for the glucosyl donor but also for the endogenous acceptor. A single radioactive 38-kDa macromolecular component appeared during denaturing polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis of reaction 1 product. The labeled component is probably the polypeptide subunit of the endogenous acceptor which is being glucosylated.

A two-step enzymatic formation of a glucoprotein in potato tuber.

Evidence is presented on the occurrence of a two-step mechanism for the synthesis of protein bound glucan in a potato tuber particulate preparation. Experiments carried out with a differently labeled sugar donor for each step enabled the isolation of a double-labeled glucoprotein. Smith periodate degradation of the product confirmed this hypothesis.