Fauna Europaea: Gastrotricha.

Fauna Europaea provides a public web-service with an index of scientific names (including important synonyms) of all living European land and freshwater animals, their geographical distribution at country level (up to the Urals, excluding the Caucasus region), and some additional information. The Fauna Europaea project covers about 230,000 taxonomic names, including 130,000 accepted species and 14,000 accepted subspecies, which is much more than the originally projected number of 100,000 species. This represents a huge effort by more than 400 contributing specialists throughout Europe and is a unique (standard) reference suitable for many users in science, government, industry, nature conservation and education.

Holter monitoring to detect silent atrial fibrillation in high-risk subjects: the Perugia General Practitioner Study.

Atrial fibrillation (AF) is diagnosed for the first time in about 5 % of patients admitted for acute ischemic stroke. Advanced aged and arterial hypertension are risk factors for AF. We evaluated the prevalence of silent AF in subjects with advanced age and systemic arterial hypertension.

[Role of surgery in patients with metastases from melanoma. A case report].

Introduction: The prognosis of patients with melanoma varies according to the staging of disease at the moment of diagnosis. Melanoma can metastasize to every organ or tissue, but the most common site involved is locoregional. In selected patients surgery plays a central role with the possibility of changing the prognosis at distance.

Lifestyle counselling in primary care: long-term effects on cholesterol level.

Objective: To evaluate the long-term effectiveness of lifestyle counselling for low-moderate cardiovascular (CV) risk subjects in primary care.

Design: Prospective comparison of baseline vs post-intervention, and comparison of enrolled patients vs control subjects extracted from a large primary care database.

Setting: 94 general practices in Italy.

Treatment of "locally advanced" well-differentiated thyroid carcinomas.

Purpose: To analyse thyroid carcinomas having an extrathyroid extension in order to identify the principal prognostic factors and outline an effective therapeutic strategy.

Methods: We selected a sample of 160 patients suffering from locally advanced "well differentiated thyroid carcinoma (T4) who had undergone surgery at the Department of Surgery of University of Rome "La Sapienza". The sample was subdivided into three groups: T4, limited type I, and extensive type II, T4 microcarcinomas.

Papillary microcarcinoma of the thyroid gland: analysis of prognostic factors including histological subtype.

Objective: To evaluate the prognosis of papillary microcarcinoma (PMC) of the thyroid.

Design: Prospective study.

Setting: Teaching hospital, Italy.

Prognostic factors of insular versus papillary/follicular thyroid carcinoma.

The study aims were to characterize patients with insular thyroid cancer and to provide data on patient outcome after surgical therapy. We compared nine patients with insular thyroid cancer at the Department of Surgical Science of "La Sapienza" University of Rome with 27 patients of similar age and tumor size who had follicular and papillary cancer, for a minimum follow-up period of 24 months (range, 24-72 months). All of the patients examined underwent total thyroidectomy.

Control results on a sample of patients subjected to total thyroidectomy for papillary carcinoma: proposal for a personal diagnostic-therapeutic follow-up.

Well-differentiated thyroid neoplasms may be included among the most frequently occurring thyroid carcinomas. Papillary ca. is without doubt the best behaved type.

[Correlation between surgical intervention, adjuvant therapy, and long-term survival in patients operated on for breast neoplasia].

Introduction: Breast cancer is the most frequent cancer among female sex, above all in rich countries where it occurs ten times more than the others. The most incidence of breast cancer is in female over 45 yrs and over 70 yrs with a plateau during menopause. So it is really very uncommon before 30 yrs.

Prevalence of carotid stenosis in type 2 diabetic patients asymptomatic for cerebrovascular disease.

Stroke, with an incidence of 2.5 x 10(3) yr(-1) (95% CI, 2.3-2.

Malignant thyroid nodules: comparison between color Doppler diagnosis and histological examination of surgical samples.

The aim of this study was to verify the reliability of the differential diagnosis between benign and malignant thyroid nodules on the basis of vascularization. The study was conducted on 108 patients with a scintigraphically "cold" thyroid nodule, including 54 carcinomas and 54 benign nodules. All patients underwent total thyroidectomy.

Scintigraphy with 99mTc-MIBI and echography in the study of primitive hyperparathyroidism.

Background: The authors analyse the value of the exams preoperative for the identification of the pathological parathyroid glands.

Methods: The authors examined 58 patients affected by primitive hyperparathyroidism (HPTp) who had undergone surgical treatment for primary hyperparathyroidism at the Third Surgical Department of University "La Sapienza" of Rome, in 175 patients affected by primitive hyperparathyroidism observed between January 1970 and June 2000; all patients had undergone echotomography of the neck and 99mTc-MIBI scintigraphy in the diagnostic phase. The histological valuation confirmed the diagnosis by I.

[Artificial nutrition in acute pancreatitis].

Nutritional support for acute pancreatitis is a matter of debate, clear guidelines based on objective data do not exist. We report our experience in patients with severe disease. Parenteral nutrition appears to be a safe initial therapy, but the enteral route has many practical and theoretical advantages and should be started as soon as possible.

[Surgery of differentiated cancer of the thyroid].

A retrospective study on patients with differentiated thyroid carcinoma operated on at the 3rd Department of General Surgery of the University "La Sapienza" of Rome from 1970 to 1996 was performed. In 709 patients total thyroidectomy was performed as the minimal procedure acceptable, while 19 patients had subtotal thyroidectomy out of necessity. A functional ipsilateral or bilateral lymphnectomy of the neck was performed in 256 cases.

[Gastrointestinal carcinoids and carcinoid syndrome: classification, diagnosis and therapy].

Historically, carcinoids have long been known as a morphologically distinct class of rare intestinal tumors which behave less aggressively than the more common intestinal adenocarcinomas. In recent decades refined methods in pathology improved our knowledge on the diffuse neuroendocrine system, leading to some confusion in classification and nomenclature of carcinoids. The World Health Organization (WHO) classification of endocrine tumors has cleared the definition of carcinoids.

[Surgical repair of laparocele with expanded PTFE: technicalities].

Surgical repair of ventral hernias may often be quite difficult; however, the use of prosthesis, now generally accepted by many surgeons, has improved the results of such type of surgery. The Authors experience confirm the safety of the expanded PTFE and its versatility of employment, obtaining good functional and aesthetic results.

[PTFEe in the treatment of facial wrinkles].

The first signs of skin aging appear quite early, around 30 years of age, and show as glabella and facial wrinkles particularly pronounced around the eye, lips and nasolabial area. None of these imperfections can be expressively modified through a cervicofacial rhytidectomy (facelift). The use of PTFEe in reconstructive surgery has been established by years of positive experience; therefore, the well known characteristics of such material suggested the idea of extending its use to aesthetic surgery.

[Malignant fibrous histiocytoma of the pancreas].

The authors report a case of pancreatic malignant fibrous histiocytoma (approximately 22 cm). Clinical and instrumental approach for preoperative diagnosis is discussed and the anatomopathological features of the lesion, which is rarely localized in the pancreatic gland, are stressed. Surgical treatment is outlined as well.

[Report on surgical strategy in reoperation of esophageal achalasia].

Surgical therapy for achalasia of the esophagus gives good results in only 80-90% of cases. Several reasons could be responsible for this 10-20% failure; the most frequent causes are inadequate cardiomyotomy and reflux esophagitis. We report our experience and our procedure in the management of recurrent achalasia.

[Mastectomy operation with expected reconstruction of the breast: anatomo-surgical notes].

The Authors, on the basis of their experience, underline the importance general surgeon has in carrying out a radical surgery for breast cancer without compromising a subsequent reconstruction. The latter, in fact, is nowadays considered a second step in the surgical management of breast cancer.

[Symptomatologic and surgical definition of functioning parathyroid carcinoma].

Hyperparathyroidism due to parathyroid carcinoma is rare. The natural history of this neoplastic disease is poorly understood for the extremely small number of cases reported in literature. The Authors observed three cases and discuss the clinical features illustrating how to recognize and treat this neoplasia.