A multidisciplinary therapeutic approach for reducing the risk of psychiatric side effects in patients with chronic hepatitis C treated with pegylated interferon α and ribavirin.

Goals: To evaluate the effectiveness of psychiatric counseling in reducing the rate of development of psychiatric side effects of antiviral therapy with interferon-α and ribavirin among study participants compared with standard clinical monitoring alone.

Background: Interferon-α is used to treat chronic hepatitis C. Interferons may induce adverse events that usually, but not always, reverse within a few days after the end of therapy.

Effects of vascular risk factors on balance assessed by computerized posturography in the elderly.

Aims: The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effects of vascular risk factors, isolated or in association, on balance, as assessed by posturographic platform.

Methods: One hundred and seven elderly subjects (mean age 73.8+/-5.

Effects of hypertension on balance assessed by computerized posturography in the elderly.

Unsteadiness, dizziness and vertigo occur more frequently in hypertensive subjects, compared to the normal ones. This study evaluated the influence of hypertension on balance tests, performed on posturographic platform. The study pool consisted of 112 persons aged 65 and older (65 hypertensives), their mean age was 72.

From chronic low back pain to disability, a multifactorial mediated pathway: the InCHIANTI study.

Study Design: Clinicoepidemiologic study in the Chianti area (Tuscany, Italy).

Objective: To evaluate whether performance measures of lower extremity function confounds the association of low back pain (LBP) with self-report disability in specific basic and instrumental activities of daily living (IADLs).

Summary Of Background Data: LBP is high prevalent in older population and has a negative impact on functional status.

Immune response in addicts with chronic hepatitis C treated with interferon and ribavirin.

Background: The role played by the immune system in the progression of chronic hepatitis C (CHC) is not completely clear. Opioids may facilitate the outbreak of infections through marked immunomodulating effects on the immune response against a virus. To asses if addicts can be treated successfully with interferon (IFN) during detoxification treatment, we evaluated some immune response mediators in addicts affected by CHC.

Oxidative stress, nitric oxide, endothelial dysfunction and tinnitus.

To assess whether pathogenic endothelial dysfunction is involved in acute idiopathic tinnitus we enrolled 44 patients and 25 healthy volunteers. In blood from the internal jugular vein and brachial vein we determined malonaldehyde, 4-hydroxynonenal, myeloperoxidase, glutathione peroxidase, nitric oxide, L-arginine and L-ornitine, thrombomodulin (TM) and von Willebrand factor (vWF) activity during tinnitus and asymptomatic period. Higher plasma concentrations of oxidative markers and L-arginine, and lower nitric oxide and L-ornitine levels were observed in jugular blood of patients with tinnitus, there being a significant difference between brachial and jugular veins.

Effects of antioxidant supplementation on postprandial oxidative stress and endothelial dysfunction: a single-blind, 15-day clinical trial in patients with untreated type 2 diabetes, subjects with impaired glucose tolerance, and healthy controls.

Background: Increased generation of reactive oxygen species (ROS) and oxidative stress may be of crucial importance in the pathogenesis of endothelial damage. Furthermore, there is understood to be a relationship between endothelial damage, glycemic control, disorders of lipid metabolism, and coagulative hemostatic disorders.

Objective: This study investigated within- and between-group changes in various circulating markers of oxidation-reduction balance and endothelial function after a balanced moderate-fat meal with and without antioxidant supplementation in patients with early-stage, untreated type 2 diabetes mellitus; subjects with impaired glucose tolerance (IGT); and healthy controls.

Markers of inflammation, vitamin E and peripheral nervous system function: the InCHIANTI study.

Background: Aging of the peripheral nervous system is associated with several morphologic and functional changes, including a decrease of the nerve conduction velocity. There is evidence that these changes contribute to age-related-decline in muscle strength, sensory discrimination, and autonomic responses. The aim of this study was to characterize the decline in nerve conduction velocity in the peripheral nervous system over the aging process and to identify factors that, independent of age, affect nerve conduction velocity.

Evaluation of long-term efficacy and acceptability of indapamide SR in elderly hypertensive patients.

Objective: To assess the long-term antihypertensive efficacy and acceptability of indapamide SR 1.5 mg in elderly hypertensive patients (> or = 65 years).

Study Design: Open, 12-month, follow-up study of 444 patients, treated with indapamide SR, who were responders and/or achieved target BP levels following a 3-month, randomised, controlled, double-blind short-term comparison of indapamide SR versus hydrochlorothiazide 25 mg and amlodipine 5 mg.

IL-4 in vitro production is upregulated in Alzheimer's disease patients treated with acetylcholinesterase inhibitors.

Cytokines appear to be involved in the pathogenesis of Alzheimer's Disease (AD). Their modulation by treatment has been investigated only in a few studies. The aim of our study was to evaluate the effect of acetylcholinesterase inhibitors (AChEI) on Interleukin-4 (IL-4) production in AD patients.

Can ultrasonographic findings of perihepatic lymphadenopathy promote investigations to detect possible presence of virus C infection in non-symptomatic subjects?

PURPOSE: Only early detection of non-symptomatic patients is able to arrest the diffusion of the non-symptomatic HCV infection and lead to prompt treatment. Our aim was to attempt to correlate the presence of perihepatic lymph nodes and hepatitis C infection and to assess whether ultrasonography can have a role to promote specific investigations for pre-clinical diagnosis of virus C infection. METHOD: We performed a controlled study on a cohort of 7974 subjects from a town of 27000 inhabitants on the eastern coast of Sicily.

Serum IL-1beta levels in health and disease: a population-based study. 'The InCHIANTI study'.

Interleukin-1 plays a role in normal homeostasis and in the inflammatory response which is deemed to be responsible for the development of major chronic diseases that are highly prevalent in the elderly. Aim of this study is to evaluate the factors influencing the serum levels of Interleukin-1 beta, in a large and representative population. Data were from the InCHIANTI project, a study of factors contributing to the decline of mobility in late life, which sampled people living in two sites in the surroundings of Florence.

Controlled clinical trial to assess the response of recent heroin abusers with chronic hepatitis C virus infection to treatment with interferon alpha-n2b.

Background: Chronic infection with hepatitis C virus (HCV) is the most common infectious disease among heroin abusers, but it is recommended that specific treatment with interferon be delayed until at least 6 to 12 months after the end of drug addiction.

Objective: We investigated the response of heroin abusers to interferon treatment shortly after the end of detoxification treatment with methadone.

Methods: We studied 2 homogeneous groups of white Italian patients with chronic HCV infection: former male heroin abusers and males without a history of drug addiction.

A hyperdynamic portal syndrome with ascites after endoscopic laser treatment.

Laser therapy has gained wide acceptance and application in many medical disciplines. Side effects of laser therapy are rare and the most frequent mainly involve the skin. We describe a patient affected by familial adenomatous polyposis that had been repeatedly controlled and treated endoscopically using an Nd:Yag laser.

Proinflammatory cytokines in sera of elderly patients with dementia: levels in vascular injury are higher than those of mild-moderate Alzheimer's disease patients.

Cognitive functions display a progressive impairment with ageing, and this is thought to be due to the accumulation of neuronal loss or acute and/or repeated microvascular accidents. Chronic damage to the brain cortex lead to decreasing ability of elderly subjects to cope with daily events and ultimately result in loss of self-sufficiency. Since proinflammatory cytokines have been implicated both in cerebrovascular injury due to atherosclerosis and in Alzheimer's disease (AD), we investigated 70 elderly subjects with neurocognitive and functional impairment.