Publications by authors named "Laccetti R"

The immune system is a highly integrated network of cells sensitive to a number of environmental factors. Interestingly, recent years have seen a dramatic increase in our understanding of how diet makes a crucial contribution to human health, affecting the immune system, secretion of adipocytokines and metabolic pathways. Recent experimental evidence indicates that diet and its components are able to profoundly influence immune responses, thus affecting the development of inflammatory and autoimmune diseases.

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Background & Aims: Low-grade systemic inflammation associated with obesity may worsen the clinical course of psoriasis. This study aimed to assess the effectiveness of an energy-restricted diet, enriched in n-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFAs) and poor in n-6 PUFAs, on metabolic markers and clinical outcome of obese patients with psoriasis.

Methods: Forty-four obese patients with mild-to-severe plaque-type psoriasis treated with immuno-suppressive drugs were randomized to assume for six months either their usual diet or an energy-restricted diet (20 kcal/kg/ideal body weight/day) enriched of n-3 PUFAs (average 2.

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Objective: To assess the prevalence and geographic distribution of major cardiovascular risk factors in a large community-wide sample of the Italian population.

Design: A cross-sectional survey. Standardized methods were used to collect and measure cardiovascular risk factors.

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Background And Aim: Elevated serum phosphate and calcium-phosphate levels play an important role in the pathogenesis of vascular calcifications in uraemic patients and appear to be associated with increased cardiovascular mortality. We aimed to evaluate the effects of a partial replacement of food protein with a low-phosphorus and low-potassium whey protein concentrate on phosphate levels of dialysis patients with hyperphosphataemia.

Methods And Results: Twenty-seven patients undergoing chronic haemodialysis were studied for a 3-month period.

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Background: Obese subjects frequently show skin diseases. However, less attention has been paid to the impact of obesity on skin disorders until now.

Objective: The purposes of this study are: to highlight the incidence of some dermatoses in obese subjects and to study the water barrier function of the obese skin using transepidermal water loss (TEWL).

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Objective: Reducing the glycemic index (GI) of the diet may decrease metabolic risk, primarily through reduction and stabilization of blood glucose. The objective of this research was to investigate whether incorporation of lower or higher GI foods into mixed meals had different effects on daylong glucose profiles, measured in interstitial fluid by a continuous glucose-monitoring system.

Methods: The study was a randomized, balanced, two-way crossover intervention of 2 x 1-wk periods of lower and higher GI diets.

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Background: Obesity, dyslipidemia, hypertension, and diabetes mellitus are common features after heart transplantation and they lead to coronary artery disease and graft loss.

Aim: To determine the effects of a dietary intervention on nutritional status and metabolic outcome of two groups enrolled during or after the first year from the transplant.

Methods: Forty two subjects (mean age 51.

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Background: In these last years, several traditional risk factors for cardiovascular disease, like obesity, dyslipidaemia, hypertension and post-transplant diabetes mellitus have been also identified as important non-immunological risk factors leading to the development of chronic allograft nephropathy, the first cause of graft loss in transplanted patients. The aim of the present study was to determine the effects of a 12-month dietary regimen on the nutritional status and metabolic outcome of renal transplant recipients in the first post-transplant year.

Methods: Forty-six cadaver-donor renal transplant recipients (mean age 40.

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Background And Aim: Significant changes in body composition that have important health related effects may occur in the elderly. In this study, we evaluated the bioelectrical characteristics in a large group of apparently healthy Caucasian men in the age range 50-80 years, as a function of age and body mass index.

Methods: We studied 315 men with ages ranging from 50 to 80 years.

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Objective: To describe bioelectrical impedance vector distribution in relation to BMI (body mass index; body weight/stature(2)) in a population of healthy children in order to detect possible changes in body composition status.

Design: Observational study involving 464 healthy 8-year-old children. The subjects were divided into three groups based on their BMI: 218 normal weight (NW) children with BMI<18.

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Background: Obesity, hyperlipemia and cardiovascular complications contribute to a significant proportion of morbidity and mortality of renal transplant patients and have negative effects on renal survival. Aim of the present study was to evaluate the main abnormalities in body composition and the prevalence of some cardiovascular risk factors in a population of hemodialyzed (HD) patients awaiting renal transplantation.

Methods: We studied 151 HD patients, all included in a waiting list for renal transplantation, 97 males and 54 females, with mean age 47.

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Background And Aim: To compare the body fluid status assessments provided by conventional bioelectrical impedance analysis (BIA) and vector BIA in moderate and severe obesity.

Methods And Results: We studied 516 normotensive Caucasian women (mean age: 48 +/- 9.2 years), who were age-matched and divided into four groups on the basis of their body mass index (BMI): 99 normal weight women with a BMI of 19-25 Kg/m2; 228 preobese overweight women with a BMI of 25-30 Kg/m2; 132 women with class I-II obesity (BMI: 30-35 Kg/m2), and 57 women with class III obesity (BMI: 40-64 Kg/m2).

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Pregnancy in dialysis patients is a rare occurrence. When pregnancy does occur, the risk of spontaneous abortion, stillbirth and neonatal complications, such as prematurity and growth retardation, are fairly high. The authors describe their experience in the follow-up of a patient with chronic renal failure who became pregnant during regular dialysis treatment and followed nutritional care.

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Flaviviridae-hepatitis C virus (HCV) and GB virus C/hepatitis G virus (GBV-C/HGV)--and human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) frequently show similar modes of transmission. HCV and GBV-C/HGV infection was assessed in 134 consecutive patients with evidence of HIV infection, living in Campania, Italy. Data obtained from this cohort were compared with those obtained from 252 age- and sex-matched HCV infected patients without evidence of HIV infection (HCV control group).

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