VREPAR projects: the use of virtual environments in psycho-neuro-physiological assessment and rehabilitation.

Due, in large part, to the significant advances in PC hardware that have been made over the last 3 years, PC-based virtual environments are approaching reality. Virtual Reality Environments for Psychoneurophysiological Assessment and Rehabilitation (VREPAR) are two European Community funded projects (Telematics for health-HC 1053/HC 1055, http:// www.psicologia.

Fluvoxamine alone in the treatment of delusional depression.

Objective: The aim of this study was to evaluate the efficacy of fluvoxamine in the treatment of delusional depression.

Method: Fifty-nine inpatients who met the DSM-III-R criteria for major depression with psychotic features were treated with fluvoxamine for 6 weeks. Patients were assessed at baseline and weekly thereafter with the Hamilton Depression Rating Scale and the Dimensions of Delusional Experience rating scale.

Nimesulide as a downregulator of the activity of the neutrophil myeloperoxidase pathway. Focus on the histoprotective potential of the drug during inflammatory processes.

Neutrophils, recruited to tissue sites of inflammation, release a variety of oxidants and enzymes, which are responsible for tissue damage. Among the oxidants released are potent chlorinated compounds, such as hypochlorous acid and chloramines, which induce tissue cell damage and inactivate protease inhibitors, particularly alpha 1-antitrypsin, the specific inhibitor of neutrophil elastase. In studying a rational approach to the pharmacological control of neutrophil-mediated tissue injury, we investigated the activity of the anti-inflammatory drug nimesulide.

A comparison between delusional and non-delusional depressives.

Delusional depressive episodes may represent more sever degrees of depressive manifestations or a distinct subtype of depressive illness. To test these two alternative hypotheses, characteristics on demographic, clinical and symptomatic variables, presence of personality disorders and familial loading were compared in 57 delusional and 57 non-delusional depressive patients. The delusional group did not differ on symptomatological intensity degree, clinical and familial loading characteristics.

Effectiveness and tolerability of nimesulide in the treatment of osteoarthritic elderly patients.

One important point in the treatment of osteoarthritis is to control the pain that accompanies the persistent inflammatory conditions. Because of the chronic nature of the disease, drugs with a good ratio of effectiveness to tolerability must be used. In the following double-blind study the effects of nimesulide, a non-steroidal antiinflammatory drug, were compared with those of placebo in 40 elderly osteoarthritic patients, during and after a treatment cycle of 90 days with two 100-mg tablets a day.

Perspectives in clinical psychopharmacology of amitriptyline and fluvoxamine. A double-blind study in depressed inpatients.

The efficacy of fluvoxamine was compared to that of amitriptyline in a double-blind 6-week fixed-dose trial of 56 inpatients with major depressive episode. The two drugs were comparable in their antidepressant efficacy. We tested the percentage of improvement in Hamilton-D scores during the first and the second weeks of treatment as predictors of efficacy for the last week.

[Use of ultrasound-guided needle aspiration in the diagnosis and treatment of breast cysts].

The authors evaluated the advantages obtained utilizing FNAB with ultrasound in the needle aspiration of breast cysts. Echography can guide the aspiration up to its end in an effective and localized way. Cytologic examination of the cystic fluid confirmed the benign nature of the cyst.

[Ultrastructural and immunoelectron microscopic study of the desmoplastic stroma in carcinoma of the breast].

Different collagen types (I, III, IV, V) were identified in breast carcinoma desmoplastic tissue by ultrastructural analysis and immunoelectronmicroscopy. Type V collagen is present as a 12 nm. fibril in the stroma, either adjacent to the basement membrane or concentrated around the thicker fibers.

[Diagnostic use of the cell culture technique in a case of postoperative saccate lymphorrhea].

The Authors demonstrated the presence of tumour cells by an in vitro culture of the cells from the pellet of a postoperative saccate effusion, when no tumor cells were evident by the cytologic examination of the effusion. The ultrastructural features and the immunocytochemical characteristics of the cell line were analyzed and these data confirmed its malignant nature. It allowed a firm diagnosis, a correct therapy and prognosis.

[Breast secretions].

Nipple discharge, a rare clinical sign, is more frequently determined by benign breast diseases, but it can be associated to breast cancer; for this reason such clinical sign shouldn't be ignored. Cytologic examination together with breast examination and thermography are the correct oncologic approach for nipple discharge, because such way it is possible to select the patients for whom mammography or galactography are recommended as well as and breast biopsy depending on the galactographic data.

Community network therapy: an approach to aiding families with troubled children.

This paper outlines a method of working with troubled children that draws upon structural family therapy, school consultation, patient advocacy, and community mental health work. This blending of approaches is presented as the basis for an evolving mode of treatment referred to as community network therapy. Four of its principal dimensions are described, and examples of its clinical application are offered.