Evaluation of level I and II axillary nodes included in the standard breast tangential fields and calculation of the administered dose: results of a prospective study.

Purpose: To evaluate if Level I and II axillary nodes are included in the standard breast tangential fields, and to calculate the dose administered.

Methods And Materials: In 35 patients treated with conservative surgery and axillary dissection, three clips were surgically positioned: one at the beginning of Level I, one between Level I and II, and another at the end of Level II. The breast was irradiated with two tangential fields.

Regional node failure in patients with four or more positive lymph nodes submitted to conservative surgery followed by radiotherapy to the breast.

A retrospective analysis was conducted to evaluate the incidence of nodal failure in a subgroup of patients who had T1-T2 breast cancer and four or more positive nodes. Sixty-four 5 patients ranging in age from 29 to 73 years (median, 51) received conservative surgery followed by radiotherapy to the breast between November 1980 and May 1995. Adjuvant chemotherapy was administered to 56 patients, 27 of whom were also treated with tamoxifen, which was used alone in 5 patients.

Short-course palliative radiotherapy in non-small-cell lung cancer: results of a prospective study.

From February 1993 to October 1997, 91 consecutive patients with inoperable (stage IIIB-IV) histologically confirmed non-small-cell lung cancer underwent palliative hypofractionated radiotherapy. Recently, the Medical Research Council studies on hypofractionated short-course radiotherapy (8.5 Gy x 2) have reported high control of symptoms caused by thoracic disease without toxicity.

Neuropsychological assessment of the severely impaired elderly patient: validation of the Italian short version of the Severe Impairment Battery (SIB). Gruppo di Studio sull'Invecchiamento Cerebrale della Società Italiana di Gerontologia e Geriatria.

One hundred and sixty-nine severely demented patients were tested in a multicenter study with the short version of the Severe Impairment Battery which was translated into Italian with the purpose of adapting and validating it for an Italian population. Patients were enrolled in Italian geriatric centers participating in the Study Group on Aging Brain of the Italian Society of Gerontology and Geriatrics. Following thorough clinical and instrumental examinations, they were evaluated with the Mini Mental State Examination, the Clinical Dementia Rating, the Severe Impairment Battery (SIB), the Gottfries-Bråne-Steen Rating Scale for Dementia, the Activity of Daily Living index, and the Bedford Alzheimer Nursing Severity scale (BANS.

Oxidative damage to DNA in lymphocytes from AD patients.

Objective: Several studies show structural and functional alterations in peripheral cells in AD. The purpose of this study was to evaluate oxidative stress in AD lymphocytes.

Background: The literature supports the role of reactive oxygen species in the pathogenesis of AD because several markers of oxidative damage have been detected in AD brain.

Tau protein in cerebrospinal fluid: a new diagnostic and prognostic marker in Alzheimer disease?

Tau is the main protein of paired helical filaments. It can be detected and measured in cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) and for this reason it has been proposed as a possible in vivo marker of Alzheimer disease (AD). To evaluate the usefulness of CSF tau in the diagnosis of AD we measured it in patients with AD, frontal lobe dementia (FLD), vascular dementia (VD), and in healthy controls by means of a specific enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay test.

Interstitial pneumonitis in acute leukemia patients submitted to T-depleted matched and mismatched bone marrow transplantation.

Purpose: To identify factors that could contribute to interstitial pneumonitis (IP), which remains one of the major causes of morbidity and mortality after both matched and mismatched bone marrow transplantation (BMT).

Methods And Patients: Ninety acute leukemia patients received an allogeneic T-depleted matched (n = 54) or mismatched (n = 36) BMT. They were preconditioned with total body irradiation (TBI), thiotepa, rabbit anti-thymocyte globulin, and cyclophosphamide.

Stem cell mobilization in normal donors.

We studied peripheral blood and apheresis samples from 39 consecutive normal donors who were parents or siblings of patients who received matched or mismatched bone marrow transplants using a combination of rhG-CSF-mobilized peripheral blood stem cells (PBSCs) and bone marrow (BM). BM was harvested from donors 1-7 days before starting rhG-CSF treatment: 12 micrograms/kg/day rhG-CSF was administered by continuous s.c.

Mitochondrial membrane fluidity and oxidative damage to mitochondrial DNA in aged and AD human brain.

Oxidative damage on biological molecules has been proposed as a major cause of alterations observed in aging brain as well as in neurodegenerative diseases. In this study, we measured membrane fluidity in mitochondria extracted from three cerebral regions and cerebellum of Alzheimer disease (AD) patients and age-matched controls by means of fluorescence polarization technique. A significant reduction of mitochondrial membrane fluidity was found in AD, except in cerebellum.

Diagnosing Alzheimer's disease in very elderly patients. Relevance of some functional and psychobehavioral aspects assessed by the Gottfries-Bråne-Steen Rating Scale for Dementia. Study Group on Brain Aging, Italian Society of Gerontology and Geriatrics.

Objectives: To describe the Gottfries-Bråne-Steen (GBS) Rating Scale more fully with instruments commonly used for the diagnostic assessment of older patients with cognitive disturbances--the Mini Mental State Examination (MMSE), Hamilton Depression Rating Scale (HDRS), and Global Deterioration Scale (GDS)--and to characterize the specific diagnostic value of the GBS.

Design: A multicenter study including patients diagnosed with senile dementia of the Alzheimer type (SDAT; age at onset: > 75 years) and age-matched non-demented subjects.

Subjects: One hundred thirty-eight consecutively referred SDAT patients and 116 non-demented age-matched healthy subjects selected from among relatives of the patients.

Altered mitochondrial membrane fluidity in AD brain.

Oxidative damage on biological membranes has been proposed as a cause of the alterations observed in aging brain and, more severely, in Alzheimer's disease (AD). In this study we evaluated membrane fluidity of mitochondria extracted from different areas of normal and AD brains by means of fluorescence polarization technique. AD mitochondria showed a significant reduction of membrane fluidity compared to controls except in cerebellum.

Increased cerebrospinal fluid pyruvate levels in Alzheimer's disease.

Impaired energy metabolism is an early, predominant feature in Alzheimer's disease. In order to find out simple, reliable 'in vivo' markers for the clinical-biological typization of the disorder, we measured cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) glucose, lactate and pyruvate levels in patients suffering from dementia of Alzheimer type (DAT) and in healthy elderly controls. DAT group showed remarkably higher levels of pyruvate (P = 0.

Serum anti-GFAP and anti-S100 autoantibodies in brain aging, Alzheimer's disease and vascular dementia.

Autoantibodies against glial fibrillary acidic protein (GFAP) and S100 protein were measured in sera of patients suffering from vascular dementia (VD), presenile Alzheimer's disease (AD), senile Alzheimer's disease (SDAT) and aged healthy controls by means of ELISA test. VD and SDAT showed the highest levels of both autoantibodies, AD the lowest. From these results a relationship between autoantibody titers and aging seems possible.

Cerebrospinal fluid neuron-specific enolase in Alzheimer's disease and vascular dementia.

Levels of neuron-specific enolase (NSE), a glycolytic enzyme localized in neurons, were measured in serum and cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) of patients with early-onset (e-AD) and late-onset (l-AD) Alzheimer's disease, vascular dementia (VD) and controls. Mean CSF NSE levels in patients with Alzheimer's disease did not significantly differ from those in controls, although in the AD group a correlation was found between NSE levels and severity of cognitive deficits. In VD patients, CSF NSE was lower than in controls or in AD patients.

Prevalence of anti-HCV antibodies in patients with chronic liver disease and its relationship to HBV and HDV infections.

The prevalence of anti-HCV, anti-HDV and of HBV markers has been investigated in a series of 209 consecutive patients (age 18-74 years) with chronic liver disease. Among 155 HBsAg negative patients (53 chronic hepatitis cases and 102 cirrhosis cases), anti-HCV were found in 69% of the cases. 67% of the 155 patients also carried anti-HBc, with no difference between patients positive or negative for anti-HCV.