Color vision study to assess the impaired retina-brain cortex pathway in type 2 diabetes: a pilot study in Calabria (Southern Italy).

The present pilot study was undertaken to investigate the impaired acquired color vision on Calabrian male sample showing this parameter as a biological marker in type 2 diabetes. All patients and controls underwent three pseudo-isochromatic clinical test batteries: Ishihara test, Farnsworth test, and City University test. The results show a specific loss of short-wavelength (blue sensitivity) and typical tritan responses in diabetic patients.

A brief history of syphilis by its synonyms.

The history of a disease can be described or revisited by different main roads analyzing archival documents or rich bibliography, or studying biographies of different renowned men. Other different main roads can be apparently less important, too. These can be described as studying different therapies, renowned affected men or synonyms for diseases.

Casimir Funk: his discovery of the vitamins and their deficiency disorders.

The history of the discovery of vitamins is the history of their deficiency disorders. Their discoverer was Casimir Funk, who is considered the 'father of vitamin therapy'. In his experimental research, Funk studied the interrelationships in the human body of those elements that Eijkman had demonstrated in animals, particularly in birds.

Paul Ehrlich: the Nobel Prize in physiology or medicine 1908.

We wish to commemorate Paul Ehrlich on the centennial of his being awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1908. His studies are now considered as milestones in immunology: the morphology of leukocytes; his side-chain theory where he defined the cellular receptor for first time; and his clarification of the difference between serum therapy and chemotherapy. Ehrlich also invented the first chemotherapeutic drug: compound 606, or Salvarsan.

Alois Alzheimer: a hundred years after the discovery of the eponymous disorder.

The familiar term "Alzheimer's disease" was coined by Emil Kraepelin to honour his pupil, Alois Alzheimer. However, little is known about the life of the man after whom this important and well-known disease was termed. On the centennial of the discovery of Alzheimer's disease, it is appropriate to report some aspects of the life and scientific work of Alois Alzheimer.