Long-Term Effects of Iron Chelating Agents on Ocular Function in Patients with Thalassemia Major.

Background: The aim of this study is to evaluate eye structures and function in patients receiving iron chelating therapy and to assess whether a correlation exists between the onset of ocular alterations and the intake of iron chelating drugs.

Methods: A prospective cohort study was performed. Eighty-eight patients, composed of children and adults with thalassemia major (TM) who are taking or had taken iron chelating drugs (deferoxamine, deferiprone or deferasirox), have been initially enrolled in the study.

Gastric Juice Expression of Th-17 and T-Reg Related Cytokines in Scleroderma Esophageal Involvement.

Background: Systemic sclerosis (SSc) is a connective tissue disorder which key feature is a fibrotic process. The role of Endothelin-1 (ET-1) and T-helper (Th)-1 cells in lung and skin fibrosis is well known, although Th17- and Treg-cells were found to be involved. However, no studies analyzed cytokines expression in gastric-juice of SSc patients.

[Psychological study of psoriasis].

Due to the need to epistemologically delimitate the theretical instrument, in order to understand the phenomena from a psycho-analitical reading, 65 complete psychological studies and 12 psychotherapeutic developments in a group of patients with psoriasis symptoms are analysed. The psychodiagnostic constants at the intellectual area, in the perceptivo-motor integration and the structure and the dynamics of the personality are proved, where there appears the constitution of a symbiotic link and the formation of a psychic apparatus with a feeble Ego, and very old defense mechanisms which form an ambiguous personality with identity problems. The authors try to understand theoretically the material accounting for the skin function and its relationship with the body Ego and the frustrated processus of the propioceptive sensibilization which fall upon the frustrating phase of the development that later, by a compulsory repetition, would be reproduced in the psoriasis symptoms.