Effect of short-term electrical stimulation before and after botulinum toxin injection.

Objective: To compare the effect of electrical stimulation applied before and after botulinum toxin injection.

Subjects: Eight healthy subjects.

Methods: Both extensor digitorum brevis muscles were injected with low fixed doses of botulinum toxin.

Preterm delivery risk in migrants in Italy: an observational prospective study.

Background: Various studies have ascertained different birth outcomes between resident and migrant populations in western countries. Considering preterm delivery (<37 complete weeks of gestation) as a perinatal risk condition, we assessed its rate in migrant and native Italian women who delivered in the main public hospital in Brescia (Italy).

Methods: All migrant puerperas and a random sample of native puerperas hospitalized during the period February to May 2005 were included in the study after informed consent and filled in a self-administered multilanguage questionnaire enquiring about sociodemographic and obstetric data.

Long-term effectiveness of radiofrequency ablation for hepatocellular carcinoma of 3.5 cm or less.

Background/aims: Hepatocellular carcinoma is one of the leading causes of death for cirrhosis, and patients are often not eligible for surgery. To evaluate the effectiveness of radiofrequency ablation in single (less than 3.5cm in diameter) or multiple nodules (up to 3, sized less than 3cm) in respect of acceptability, applicability, primary ablation rate, local recurrence, complications, and long-term patients outcome.

The pathology of gastric cardia: a prospective, endoscopic, and morphologic study.

"Carditis" (inflammation of the gastric cardiac mucosa) may be associated with gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD), whereas other studies argue that Helicobacter pylori could play a significant role in the chronic cardiac damage. We examined prospectively histologic features of gastric cardia, esophagitis, and H. pylori status in 204 consecutive subjects with GERD symptoms (57.

High prevalence of atopy, but not of asthma, among children in an industrialized area in North Italy: the role of familial and environmental factors--a population-based study.

The prevalence of atopy and asthma, and their association with familial and environmental factors were investigated among 13- to 14-yr-old children living in Brescia, an industrialized town in North Italy. All the 1450 children attending primary school in the town were invited to participate, and 967 of them (66.7%, 493 males) provided a valid questionnaire filled in by their parents at home.

Epidemiological, clinical and histopathologic characteristics of celiac disease: results of a case-finding population-based program in an Italian community.

Objective: Celiac disease (CD) is underdiagnosed mainly because of lack of awareness of its heterogeneous clinical presentation. The Center for Surveillance and Control of Celiac Disease (CCD) was set up in June 2000 in the province of Brescia, Northern Italy (1,016,426) inhabitants to enhance case-finding, to standardize diagnostic criteria and to collect epidemiological data.

Material And Methods: The CCD has prompted an educational "celiac awareness program" in the primary-care setting focusing on selective serological screening of high-risk groups, and has reviewed by standardized criteria all diagnoses made in the province since 1984.

Coffee consumption reduces the risk of hepatocellular carcinoma independently of its aetiology: a case-control study.

Background/aims: The role of coffee in the development of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is debated. The aim of this study was to investigate the role of coffee in HCC, taking the main risk factors into account.

Methods: A hospital-based case-control study was conducted in an area of northern Italy.