Effectiveness of the ECG method in the correct positioning of PICC type central venous catheters in patients with atrial fibrillation.

The peripherally inserted central catheters (PICCs) are third generation silicone or polyurethane catheters, used as venous accesses for long- and medium-term care, and recommended in therapies that require venous access for more than six days. Current implantation methods recommend the radiological method, using standard chest RX in antero-posterior projection, as a method of assessing the correct positioning of the catheter tip. The observational study evaluated the effectiveness in terms of reliability of the intracavitary tip location system (ITLS) method, better known as the ECG method, for the correct positioning of the catheter tip in patients with atrial fibrillation (AFIB); the method exploits the recording of the electrical potential produced by the f waves, expression of the fibrillation of the atrium typical in patients with this disease, the measurement is based on the calculation of the peak-to-peak value of the f waves.

AVATAR®: an electronic evidence-based medicine friendly tool for vascular access planning.

In today's demanding healthcare setting, many patients who are referred to hospital for treatment require some form of intravascular access device to administer required therapies and medications. It is estimated that most of admissions have an intravascular device placed on arrival to any given facility. Often these treatment prerequisites, combined with a wide range of available devices, based upon a combination of patient assessments, necessitated treatment regimens, and the use of a decision algorithm to choose the most appropriate device that provides all the patient's needs, requires a logical and methodical approach during the decision-making process.

[Human IgG and adjuvant therapy in patients with colon-rectal cancer].

Unlabelled: It is well known that, in patients with carcinoma, chemotherapy produces an increase of the incidence of infections and changes the immune defences of the patient. Since 1952 human immunoglobulins have been used for pathologies with immune deficiency. This study aims to evaluate the immunologic efficacy of purified human immunoglobulins in patients with colon-rectal cancer undergoing chemotherapy.

Contaminant effect on cellular metabolic differential pressure curves.

The possibility of a pressure monitoring system by differential pressure sensors to detect contaminant effects on cellular cultures metabolic activity is discussed using Saccharomyces cerevisiae, lymphocyte, and AHH1 cell cultures. Metabolic (aerobic and anaerobic) processes in cells are accompanied by CO(2) production that induces changes in pressure values when cells are cultured in sealed vessels. These values are subsequently converted in voltage units and plotted pressure dynamics versus time.

[Anatomopathological and clinical aspects of primary gastric lymphoma].

The authors utilised several reviews of the literature and own experience based on 6 cases of non Hodgkin's primary gastric lymphoma. They refer about the importance and the difficulties to make differential diagnosis and on the staging. The authors believe that the treatment of choice is a surgical therapy but the role of radiotherapy and chemotherapy is very interesting in several cases.

[Carcinoma of the gallbladder. State of the art].

The authors examine the most interesting data about gallbladder cancer. They emphasize the difficulties of an useful approach to this pathology: an early diagnosis is quite impossible and the surgical treatment very disappointing.

[Purified human IgG administration, after chemotherapy, to patients with colorectal carcinoma].

The authors, in the present study try to test the prophylactic effect of human IgG on surgical patients affected by colorectal cancer and undergoing chemotherapy in order to prevent microbial infections, supporting immunological host defences.

[The immunohistochemical demonstration of intracytoplasmic estradiol in colorectal neoplasms].

Intracytoplasmic estradiol content was studied retrospectively using immunohistochemical procedures in tissue samples from subjects suffering from colorectal cancer. The results obtained reveal the presence of intracytoplasmic estradiol in cancer tissue. In precancerous lesions this presence is rarer and inconstant.

[Prostaglandins and gastric cancer: a preliminary study].

As high levels of Prostaglandins E2 were observed in several gastric diseases, the Authors determined the PGE2 levels in gastric cancer patients without recurrences, in pre and post-operative period. PGE levels were correlated with cancer progression and their significance as tumoral markers was also assessed.

Lack of effects of thallium on GABAergic mechanisms in discrete areas of the rat brain.

The effects of intramuscular treatment for 3 and 5 consecutive days with thallium sulphate (2.5, 5 and 10 mg/Kg) on GABA content, glutamate - decarboxylase (GAD) and GABA-transaminase (GABA-T) activity in different areas of the rat brain were studied. Thallium at the dose levels used did not produce significant changes in GABA content, GAD and GABA-T activity in the brain hemispheres, brainstem, hypothalamus, diencephalon and caudate nucleus.

Effects of apomorphine on glutamate decarboxylase activity in chick paleostriatum augmentatum.

In young chicks the effects of two different doses of apomorphine, a small dose, producing behavioural and electrocortical sleep and a larger one producing arousal, on GABA content, GAD and GABA-T activities in the paleostriatum augmentatum were studied. The small dose of apomorphine did not affect GABAergic mechanisms in this area, whereas the dose producing behavioural and electrocortical arousal significantly increased GAD activity and GABA content. The results of the present experiments are in favour of an interaction between dopaminergic and GABAergic mechanisms in the avian paleostriatum augmentatum.