Acute unilateral visual disturbance.

The diagnosis in this case was a bit surprising, especially since the patient was relatively young-and healthy.

Direct and indirect effects of ocean acidification and warming on a marine plant-herbivore interaction.

The impacts of climatic change on organisms depend on the interaction of multiple stressors and how these may affect the interactions among species. Consumer-prey relationships may be altered by changes to the abundance of either species, or by changes to the per capita interaction strength among species. To examine the effects of multiple stressors on a species interaction, we test the direct, interactive effects of ocean warming and lowered pH on an abundant marine herbivore (the amphipod Peramphithoe parmerong), and whether this herbivore is affected indirectly by these stressors altering the palatability of its algal food (Sargassum linearifolium).

Peptide products of the neurotrophin-inducible gene vgf are produced in human neuroendocrine cells from early development and increase in hyperplasia and neoplasia.

Background: Although the neurotrophin-inducible gene vgf is expressed in mammalian neurons and endocrine cells, limited data is available in man.

Aim: The objective of the study was to map proVGF peptides in human endocrine cells during development, adulthood, hyperplasia, and tumors.

Methods: Antisera were generated against peptides related to internal cleavage or cleavage-amidation sites (rat proVGF(422-430) and human proVGF(298-306)-NH2) and the proVGF C-terminal ending (human proVGF(607-615)).

A randomised, open label, controlled trial on the effect of interferon plus amantadine compared with interferon alone for treatment of chronic hepatitis C.

BACKGROUND: Combination of the antiviral drug amantadine with interferon (IFN) may be more effective than IFN monotherapy for treatment of chronic hepatitis C. METHODS: We randomised 93 patients with chronic hepatitis C to IFNIFN 6 MU 3 times/week for 24 weeks, followed by IFN 3 MU 3 times/week for further 24 weeks given in combination with amantadine 100 mg t.i.

Intrahepatic cholangiocarcinoma and hepatitis C and B virus infection, alcohol intake, and hepatolithiasis: a case-control study in Italy.

Objective: Intrahepatic cholangiocarcinoma (ICC) is a rare type of primary liver cancer (PLC) arising from intrahepatic bile ducts. We carried out a case-control study to assess the association between ICC and hepatitis B and C virus (HBV and HCV) infections, alcohol intake, and hepatolithiasis in Brescia, North Italy.

Methods: Among 370 subjects with histology-based diagnosis of PLC who were resident in the area and hospitalized in 1995-2000, 26 (7%) ICC cases were identified.

Liver fibrosis progression is related to CD4 cell depletion in patients coinfected with hepatitis C virus and human immunodeficiency virus.

A total of 204 patients with liver biopsy-proven hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection, 84 with and 120 without human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) coinfection, were studied, to evaluate variables possibly associated with the stage of liver fibrosis. All patients were injection drugs users, with a mean age of 32 years and an estimated duration of HCV infection of 12 years. Twenty-four patients (11%) had many fibrous septa with (5%) or without (6%) cirrhosis, 56 (27%) had few fibrous septa, and 124 (60%) had no fibrous septa.

[Intestinal brushing. Technical-cytological contribution in the pathological study of Vater's ampulla, common bile duct, and pancreatic system].

Objective: This experience shows the effectiveness of the cytological examination in the diagnosis of biliary and pancreatic neoplasm on samples obtained from Vater's papilla through endoscopic intestinal brushing.

Study Design: From June 1997 to October 1998, 28 patients, suffering from suspicious neoplasm of Vater's papilla or biliary system, were studied. Each sample was obtained through intestinal brushing during an Endoscopic Retrograde Colangio-Pancreatography (ERCP) and processed with the technique of direct smear stained with Papanicolaou's method.

Etiology of hepatocellular carcinoma in Italian patients with and without cirrhosis.

We performed a case-control study to assess the role of hepatitis B virus (HBV), hepatitis C virus (HCV), GB virus C/hepatitis G virus (HGV), TT virus, alcohol intake, and tobacco smoking as risk factors for hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) in the presence or absence of cirrhosis. We prospectively recruited 174 patients with a first diagnosis of HCC admitted to the main hospitals in Brescia, North Italy. On the basis of histological, clinical, and radiological criteria, the presence of cirrhosis was established in 142 cases, excluded in 21 cases, and remained undefined in 11 cases.

Ultrasound evaluation of hepatic lymph nodes in patients with anti-hepatitis C virus antibody reactivity.

Background: Portal lymphadenopathy is frequently found in inflammatory liver diseases. However, the mechanisms underlying portal lymphadenopathy are unknown.

Aims: To evaluate the prevalence of portal lymphadenopathy in patients with serum anti-hepatitis C Virus antibody reactivity and its relationship to clinical parameters.

Recurrent Salmonella sepsis and aortitis in a patient with hepatocellular carcinoma.

A 62 years old man was admitted to hospital because of fever; a small superficial hepatic nodule was showed by ultrasonography. Blood cultures grew Salmonella enteritidis. Cefotaxime was administered for ten days.

Segment 4 (the quadrate lobe): a barometer of cirrhotic liver disease at US.

Purpose: To evaluate the dimensions of segment 4 of the liver in patients with cirrhosis by using ultrasonography (US).

Materials And Methods: The transverse diameter of segment 4 was measured in 125 control subjects without liver disease and 167 patients with cirrhosis. The size of segment 4 was measured on oblique subcostal US scans obtained between the left wall of the gallbladder (or the main fissure after cholecystectomy) and the ascending or umbilical portion of the left portal vein at the point where it gives rise to the branch to segment 4.

Primary liver cancer in a high-incidence area in north Italy: etiological hypotheses arising from routinely collected data.

The incidence rate for primary liver cancer (PLC) was investigated in the Health Unit of Brescia (about 325,000 inhabitants), North Italy, in the 5-year period 1986-90, in order to ascertain whether there was a high risk for developing the disease in the area as suggested by mortality data. A total of 349 incident cases were observed (male: female ratio = 3.4: 1), of which 182 (52.

Pathology of hepatocellular carcinoma.

This study provides a guideline to a dynamic approach toward the diagnosis of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). Bile production, fibrinogen synthesis, Mallory body, fibrinogen ground-glass and abnormal glycogen bodies as a reflection of "clone" selection, and hepatitis B virus (HBV) antigen expression in tumor cells can be considered as markers for the morphological diagnosis of HCC. The demonstration in tumor cells of these diagnostic features requires a careful screening of routinely stained preparations in search of suggestive, characteristic, specific, or pathognomonic features further supplemented by ancillary techniques, such as histochemistry, immunocytochemistry, and electron microscopy.

Biosynthesis of thiopeptide antibiotic A10255: incorporation of isotopically-labeled precursors.

The biosynthetic origin of antibiotic A10255 was investigated using 14C- and 13C-labeled amino acids. DL-[1-(13)C]Serine labeled 15 of the 17 amino acid residues present in A10255G. These included the oxazole, thiazole, dehydroalanine, masked glycine, masked alanine and pyridine moieties.

Biosynthesis of thiopeptide antibiotic A10255 in stirred reactors using a chemically defined medium supplemented with continuous nutrient feeds.

A10255 is a complex of new thiopeptide antibiotics produced by Streptomyces gardneri. When stirred reactors were operated in batch mode using a defined medium with a glucose feed, 250 micrograms/ml of A10255 were produced during a four-day fermentation cycle. The linear growth phase of S.

Cirrhosis of the liver. A regenerative process.

The ancient story of Prometheus, chained to a rock for defying Zeus by stealing fire from Mount Olympus and subjected to daily tearing at his liver by an eagle, attests to the early recognition of the extraordinary regenerative capacity of the human liver. This process had remained an intriguing mystery over the millennia. In the last 20 years, following the pioneering work of Bucher (1) and Moolten et al (2), there has been an explosion of research that has clarified some of the mechanisms underlying the process of hepatic regeneration.

Basement membrane components in normal, dysplastic, neoplastic laryngeal tissue and metastatic lymph nodes.

The immunohistochemical localization of the basement membrane (BM) components laminin, type IV collagen and fibronectin was analyzed in normal, dysplastic and neoplastic laryngeal specimens. The distribution of these macromolecules was also investigated in metastatic lymph nodes. A regular and continuous staining for laminin and type IV collagen was present in normal and mild dysplastic epithelium (LIN I); interruptions and reduplications were more evident in severe dysplasia (LIN III), together with an increased positivity for fibronectin in the subepithelial connective tissue.

[Eosinophilic gastritis. Clinico-pathologic considerations on a case and review of the literature].

The clinical, radiographic and histological features of a case of eosinophilic gastritis in a 26 year old-man without personal or familial signs of allergy are reported. The Authors pointed out the importance of radiographic and histological aspects of the case studied. Therefore they represent essential methods for a correct diagnosis and an appropriate management that in this case is only pharmacological.

[Immunohistochemical localization of laminin, collagen IV and fibronectin in dysplasias and neoplasms of the cervix uteri].

The distribution of intrinsic components (Laminin and Type IV Collagen) and extrinsic component (Fibronectin) of the Basement Membrane (BM) has been studied in normal uterine cervix (16 cases), in cervical dysplasia (14 cases) and in invasive carcinoma (45 cases). We found that BM staining for Laminin and Type IV collagen is linear and continuous underlying normal and dysplastic epithelium (CIN 1-CIN 2), it shows minor breaks in continuity and alterations of linearity in situ carcinomas (CIN 3), and it disappears in microinvasive areas. In well differentiated invasive carcinomas only focal disruptions of BM around neoplastic nests is noted; in contrast, in moderately and poorly differentiated neoplasias, is found a progressive reduction and loss of staining for Laminin and Type IV Collagen.

Incidence and clinicopathological heterogeneity of HIV-related non-Hodgkin's lymphoma.

The characteristics of 14 HIV-seropositive patients with NHL consecutively observed between 1984 and 1988 at our Institution are described. Patients belonged to a known population of 1242 HIV-seropositive individuals in whom the incidence of NHL was 1.13%, significantly higher than in age-matched controls (P less than .