Cigarette smoke exposure impairs dendritic cell maturation and T cell proliferation in thoracic lymph nodes of mice.

Respiratory tract dendritic cells (DCs) are juxtaposed to directly sample inhaled environmental particles. Processing and presentation of these airborne Ags could result in either the development of immunity or tolerance. The purpose of this study was to determine the consequences of cigarette smoke exposure on DC function in mice.

[Risk assessment method for psychosocial factors at workplace: a North-West Tuscany area project].

The rising awareness of psychosocial risks at workplace means that it is ever more important to prepare methods to assess psychosocial factors in occupational environment. This project of north west tuscany area has the aim to realize an instrument for a gradual risk assessment for this kind of factors without the support of specialists. A decisional flow chart helps to approach the risk assessment step by step on the basis of company features, management and organization problems and company symptoms of stress.

An urban Italian study on emergency room utilisation by immigrants suffering from mental disorders in Rome, 2000-2004.

Purpose: To compare Emergency Room (ER) utilisation by subjects diagnosed as suffering from a mental disorder, who were born in Strong Migratory Pressure Countries (SMPC) or in Italy. To evaluate the predictors of admission to psychiatric and to non-psychiatric wards.

Method: Data collected from Information System of Emergency Rooms were analysed.

Genetic and molecular characterization of pathogenic isolates of Pyricularia grisea from wheat (Triticum aestivum Lam.) and triticale (x Triticosecale Wittmack) in the state of Paraná, Brazil.

Isolates of Pyricularia grisea from wheat (Triticum aestivum Lam.) and triticale (x Triticosecale Wittmack) spikes with blast symptoms were analyzed by classical (VCG) and molecular (RAPD) techniques. P.

Low rates of homogenization of the DBC-150 satellite DNA family restricted to a single pair of microchromosomes in species from the Drosophila buzzatii cluster.

A satellite DNA family, termed DBC-150, comprises slightly GC-rich repeat units of approximately 150 bp that were isolated (by DNA digestions or PCR) from the genome of all seven Drosophila species from the buzzatii cluster (repleta group). The presence of subrepeats suggests that part of the extant DBC-150 monomer originated by the duplication of small sequence motifs. The DBC-150 family is compared to the previously described pBuM satDNA family, an abundant component of the genome of five species of the cluster.

Exercise training reduces sympathetic nerve activity in heart failure patients treated with carvedilol.

Background: Evidence suggests that carvedilol decreases muscle sympathetic nerve activity (MSNA) in patients with heart failure (HF) but carvedilol fails to improve forearm vascular resistance and overall functional capacity. Exercise training in HF reduces MSNA and improves forearm vascular resistance and functional capacity.

Aims: To investigate whether the beneficial effects exercise training on MSNA are maintained in the presence of carvedilol.

Scavenger Receptors SR-AI/II and MARCO limit pulmonary dendritic cell migration and allergic airway inflammation.

The class A scavenger receptors (SR-A) MARCO and SR-AI/II are expressed on lung macrophages (MPhis) and dendritic cells (DCs) and function in innate defenses against inhaled pathogens and particles. Increased expression of SR-As in the lungs of mice in an OVA-asthma model suggested an additional role in modulating responses to an inhaled allergen. After OVA sensitization and aerosol challenge, SR-AI/II and MARCO-deficient mice exhibited greater eosinophilic airway inflammation and airway hyperresponsiveness compared with wild-type mice.

Ectopic and extranumerary parathyroid glands location in patients with hyperparathyroidism secondary to end stage renal disease.

Unlabelled: Supranumerary or ectopic parathyroid glands are the main cause of persistent hyperparathyroidism (HPT) in patients with end stage renal disease (ESRD) submitted to parathyroidectomy (PTx).

Purpose: To evaluate the prevalence and location of parathyroid glands in these patients.

Methods: Thirty-five patients with ESRD and severe secondary hyperparathyroidism (HPT2) had been submitted to total PTx at HUCFF from December 2001 to July 2005.

Effect of testosterone on oxidative stress and cell damage induced by 3-nitropropionic acid in striatum of ovariectomized rats.

This paper evaluates the effects of testosterone (0.5 mg/kg subcutaneously (s.c.

Usefulness of the MSG/IFICG/EORTC diagnostic criteria of invasive pulmonary aspergillosis in the clinical management of patients with acute leukaemia developing pulmonary infiltrates.

Invasive pulmonary aspergillosis (IPA) is a frequently fatal complication in patients with acute leukaemia. Because diagnosis is still difficult, non-invasive diagnostic criteria were recently proposed by MSG/IFICG/EORTC for study purposes. We have analysed their usefulness in the clinical management of acute leukaemic patients with pulmonary infiltrates.

Hepatic UDP-glucose 13C isotopomers from [U-13C]glucose: a simple analysis by 13C NMR of urinary menthol glucuronide.

Menthol glucuronide was isolated from the urine of a healthy 70-kg female subject following ingestion of 400 mg of peppermint oil and 6 g of 99% [U-(13)C]glucose. Glucuronide (13)C-excess enrichment levels were 4-6% and thus provided high signal-to-noise ratios (SNRs) for confident assignment of (13)C-(13)C spin-coupled multiplet components within each (13)C resonance by (13)C NMR. The [U-(13)C]glucuronide isotopomer derived via direct pathway conversion of [U-(13)C]glucose to [U-(13)C]UDP-glucose was resolved from [1,2,3-(13)C(3)]- and [1,2-(13)C(2)]glucuronide isotopomers derived via Cori cycle or indirect pathway metabolism of [U-(13)C]glucose.

Conservation of pBuM-2 satellite DNA sequences among geographically isolated Drosophila gouveai populations from Brazil.

In this study, we have compared 34 repetition units of pBuM-2 satellite DNA of individuals from six isolated populations of Drosophila gouveai, a cactophilic member of Drosophila buzzatii cluster (repleta group). In contrast to the results of previous morphological and molecular data, which suggest differentiation among the D. gouveai populations, the sequences and the cluster analysis of pBuM-2 monomers showed that this repetitive element is highly conserved among the six D.

Outbreak of extended-spectrum beta-lactamase-producing Klebsiella pneumoniae in an intermediate-risk neonatal unit linked to onychomycosis in a healthcare worker.

Objective: To describe an outbreak of extended-spectrum beta-lactamase-producing Klebsiella pneumoniae in an intermediate-risk neonatal unit.

Methods: After the identification of the first cases, the situation was regarded as an outbreak, and basic preventive measures against nosocomial infections were strictly enforced, and possible sources of dissemination were investigated.

Results: The outbreak lasted for 6 months and affected 36 newborn infants, causing seven infections and 29 colonizations.

Thyroid autoimmunity and spontaneous cervical artery dissection.

Background And Purpose: The possibility that a disorder of immunity might have a role in the mechanism of local inflammatory alterations leading to spontaneous cervical artery dissection (sCAD) has been recently advocated.

Methods: We explored this hypothesis in a case-control study, including patients with sCAD (n=29) and patients with non-CAD ischemic stroke (non-CAD; n=29). Serum levels of antithyroperoxidase, antithyroglobulin, and antithyroid-stimulating hormone receptor antibodies, antinuclear antibodies, antineutrophil cytoplasmic antibodies, antidouble-stranded deoxyribonucleic acid antibodies, antiextractable nuclear antigen antibodies, rheumatoid factor, C3 and C4 complement fraction, and cryoglobulins were measured in all subjects.

Aedeagus morphology as a discriminant marker in two closely related cactophilic species of Drosophila (Diptera; Drosophilidae) in South America.

Drosophila serido and D. antonietae are sibling species belonging to the Drosophila buzzatii cluster. Morphologically, they can only be discriminated by quantitative traits.

Pathophysiology of exacerbations of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease.

Smokers with stable chronic obstructive pulmonary disease have a chronic inflammation of the entire tracheobronchial tree characterized by an increased number of macrophages and CD8 T lymphocytes in the airway wall and of neutrophils in the airway lumen. Exacerbations of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease are considered to reflect worsening of the underlying chronic inflammation of the airways, caused mainly by viral and bacterial infections and air pollution. During exacerbations, the inflammatory cellular pattern changes, with a further increase of eosinophils and/or neutrophils and various inflammatory mediators--for example, cytokines (tumor necrosis factor-alpha, RANTES [regulated upon activation normal T cell-expressed and secreted], and eotaxin-1), chemokines (CXCL5 [ENA-78], CXCL8), chemokine receptors (CCR3, CXCR1, and CXCR2), adhesion molecules (E-selectin and ICAM-1), and markers of oxidative stress (H(2)O(2) and 8-isoprostane, glutathione depletion).

17 beta-Estradiol may affect vulnerability of striatum in a 3-nitropropionic acid-induced experimental model of Huntington's disease in ovariectomized rats.

The aim of present study was to clarify the role of female sex hormones in the development and course of neurodegenerative disease in an experimental model of Huntington's disease induced by 3-nitropropionic acid (NPA) (30 mg/kg intraperitoneally (i.p.)/day for 4 days) in ovariectomized rat.

Lupus myocarditis. Case report.

Myocarditis is one of the many possible forms of cardiac involvement in systemic lupus erythematosus. Its clinical presentation ranges from asymptomatic patients with self-limited disease to fulminant heart failure that can lead to death. In most cases treatment consists of supportive care only.

[Hospitalisation for schizophrenia in acute psychiatric wards of the Lazio region: a 4-year follow-up study].

Aim: To determine the rates of psychiatric hospitalisation and to evaluate the predictors of readmissions in a cohort of 887 schizophrenic patients at their "first" psychiatric admission.

Methods: Data were collected using the hospital discharge database of the Lazio region, Italy. The cohort included patients admitted to a psychiatric ward in 1999, with a main diagnosis of schizophrenia and no prior psychiatric hospitalisation during the 5 years preceding the index admission.

Postpneumonectomy esophageal fistula: a combined radiological-endoscopic technique.

We report a case of a 70-year-old man who presented with a long-standing esophagocutaneous fistula following a pneumonectomy for aspergilloma. Major surgical procedures, including a pectoralis major flap reconstruction, a pedicled omental transposition and a radial forearm flap transposition, failed to obliterate the fistula. Seven years after initial surgery the esophagocutaneous fistula was successfully treated by means of a minimally invasive joint endoscopic and radiological technique.

Total and immediate daytime and nighttime continence with a right colonic neobladder--What makes it possible? An 11-year followup.

Purpose: We report the long-term functional results of the colonic neobladder and provide the physiological and urodynamic foundations for them.

Materials And Methods: From March 1993 to February 2004, 38 patients with cystectomy received a neobladder constructed from detubularized, remodeled right colon and intact cecum following our design at the urology service at our institution. Most patients underwent urodynamics and videourodynamics as postoperative followup.

European experience on the practical use of levosimendan in patients with acute heart failure syndromes.

The novel calcium sensitizer and ATP-dependent potassium channel opener levosimendan has been introduced for routine use in several European countries. Recent reports on clinical experience confirm the positive hemodynamic results and beneficial clinical effects described in the initial dose-finding and randomized comparative therapeutic trials in patients with severe low-output heart failure. In addition, studies in small series of patients with cardiogenic shock after myocardial infarction and/or surgical interventions and post-interventional myocardial dysfunction (stunning) indicate that the inotropic and vasodilating actions of levosimendan may be of value in a wider range of indications.

Ni(II) Tol-BINAP-catalyzed enantioselective Michael reactions of beta-ketoesters and unsaturated N-acylthiazolidinethiones.

The enantioselective addition of beta-ketoesters to unsaturated N-acylthiazolidinethiones catalyzed by Ni(II) Tol-BINAP Lewis acid complexes is reported. Notable features of this reaction are its operation simplicity, the obviated need for the addition of an external base, and the ease with which the adducts are converted into a range of potentially useful derivatives. In particular, the dihydropyrone adducts are versatile scaffolds for further stereoselective elaboration.

Naltrexone plus benzodiazepine aids abstinence in opioid-dependent patients.

Naltrexone (NTX) is widely used to prevent relapse of opioid-dependent patients but its association with insomnia and "hyperexcitability" can result in treatment withdrawal. We evaluated whether NTX combined with the benzodiazepine prazepam was more effective than NTX in keeping patients opioid-free. We determined the relapse rate over 6 months in 56 opioid-dependent subjects, divided into 4 equal groups.

Metastatic renal cell carcinoma presenting as a parotid tumor.

Metastases of malignancies to the parotid region are relatively infrequent (21%-42% of all malignant tumors 1 ), but metastases of infraclavicular origin are infrequent (0.16%-4% 1,2 ). From 1986 to 1998, only 17 cases of parotid metastases of renal clear cell carcinoma were documented in the literature reviewed.