Reconstructive Surgery of the Head and Neck in Organ Transplant Recipients: A Case Report and a Review of the Literature.

The number of solid organ transplant recipients (SOTRs) is growing as a consequence of an increase in transplantations and longer survival; these patients, thus, frequently suffer various comorbidities and are subjected to the detrimental effects of immunosuppressive agents, which expose them to a higher risk of developing malignancies. These drugs also complicate the surgical treatment of neoplasms, as they can hinder wound healing, especially when associated with other unfavorable factors (e.g.

A Pilot Study on Attentional Focus in Prescribing Physical Exercise in Outpatients with Obesity.

This pilot study compared the effects of two attentional focus strategies on fitness parameters and body composition in outpatients with obesity. This was a randomized, controlled study that enrolled 94 obese individuals and allocated them into an internal focus group (IF) or an external focus group (EF) while performing six weeks of a home-based training program. The home-based exercise program was the same for both groups except for the instructions that shifted the attention to an external or an internal condition.

Effects of a Randomized Home-Based Quality of Movement Protocol on Function, Posture and Strength in Outpatients with Obesity.

The aim of this study was to determine the effects of two different home-based training interventions on functional parameters and body composition in obese patients. Sixty-four obese patients were recruited at the IRCCS Istituto Auxologico Italiano and randomly assigned into a movement quality group (MQ) and a conventional training group (CT). In the MQ, the training protocol combined various stimuli based on whole-body movement patterns, mobility, motor control and diaphragmatic breathing.

Effect of continuous positive airway pressure in hypertensive patients with obstructive sleep apnea and high urinary metanephrines.

Objective: Some cases of pseudopheochromocytoma have been described among hypertensive patients with obstructive sleep apnea (OSA). This study examined whether a pathological rise of urinary metanephrines is a common feature in hypertensive OSA patients and, in such a case, whether the ventilation treatment during sleep (continuous or biphasic positive airway pressure) may normalize high metanephrines levels.

Methods: Patients with endocrine diseases, drug abuse, therapy with TCA and cardiovascular events in the previous 6 months were excluded.

Effect of a Modest Weight Loss in Normalizing Blood Pressure in Obese Subjects on Antihypertensive Drugs.

Objective: To assess the effect of a lifestyle intervention in lowering/normalizing blood pressure (BP) levels in hypertensive (controlled or not) obese patients.

Methods: In this prospective observational study, 490 obese hypertensive patients, 389 controlled (BP < 140/90 mm Hg; CH) and 101 uncontrolled (BP ≥ 140/90 mm Hg; UH) attended a 3-month lifestyle intervention. Before and after the intervention we assessed weight, waist circumference, fat mass, BP, metabolic and renal variables, and physical activity.

Glucose tolerance and weight loss in obese women with obstructive sleep apnea.

Background: The association of obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) with glucose intolerance and the beneficial effect of lifestyle intervention have been poorly investigated in women particularly before menopausal status. The study explored 1) whether OSA is associated with impaired glucose homeostasis in obese non diabetic premenopausal and menopausal women and 2) the effects of a 3- month lifestyle intervention on glucose homeostasis in OSA women.

Design And Methods: We consecutively recruited 98 obese women (39 premenopausal) from those referred for a weight loss intervention.

Insulin sensitivity deteriorates after short-term lifestyle intervention in the insulin sensitive phenotype of obesity.

Objective: To investigate the effects of a 3-month lifestyle intervention on insulin sensitivity and its related cardiometabolic factors in obese patients.

Methods: Anthropometry, body composition, oral glucose tolerance test, lipids, alanine aminotransferase, insulin sensitivity (insulinogenic index (ISI), homeostasis model assessment, β-cell performance (disposition index)) were evaluated in 263 obese women and 93 obese men before and after 3 months of hypocaloric low fat/high protein diet associated with physical activity 30 min/day.

Results: Patients were divided into 3 groups according to the intervention-induced ISI changes: group 1 (decrease), group 2 (stability) and group 3 (increase).

Favourable survival of in-hospital compared to out-of-hospital refractory cardiac arrest patients treated with extracorporeal membrane oxygenation: an Italian tertiary care centre experience.

Objective: Extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO) support has been suggested to improve the survival rate in patients with refractory in- and out-of-hospital cardiac arrest (IHCA and OHCA). The aim of our study is to report our experience with ECMO in these patients.

Design: Retrospective, single-centre, observational study.

Inter-hospital extracorporeal life support.

A 60-year-old man with history of hypertension and unspecified left ventricular dysfunction had chest pain at home at 9 am. At 1 pm he was transported to a peripheal hospital and treated for acute myocardial infarction. At 4.

Predictors of the early impairment of renal disease in human obesity.

Objective: The mechanisms underlying the association of the increased albumin excretion rate (AER) with adiposity have yet to be clarified. We therefore investigated (1) the predictors of AER after 3 months of lifestyle intervention in a large cohort of nondiabetic obese women and (2) the relationships between AER and the adipose tissue gene expression of adipokines linked to inflammation and insulin resistance.

Subjects: A total of 269 obese nondiabetic women (age 49.

D2 dopamine receptor (DRD2) gene Taq1A polymorphism and the eating-related psychological traits in eating disorders (anorexia nervosa and bulimia) and obesity.

Objective: Food is considered a reinforcing agent, like a variety of substances such as alcohol and other drugs of abuse that produce pleasure. Psychopathological traits related to food intake are demonstrated in eating disorders as in obesity with different genetic aspects for these diseases. Recently, the prevalence of TaqA1 allele has been associated to alcohol, drug abuse and carbohydrate preference.

Low-K+ dependent QT prolongation and risk for ventricular arrhythmia in anorexia nervosa.

Background: QT prolongation and ventricular arrhythmia have been proposed as the mechanism for sudden death in anorexia nervosa. The prevalence and the cause of QT prolongation remain controversial.

Objectives: 1) to evaluate ventricular repolarization in patients with anorexia; 2) to evaluate factors that may influence repolarization, with focus on electrolyte plasma levels and heart rate.

Nutritional management of anorexic patients with and without fluoxetine: 1-year follow-up.

This study evaluated the efficacy of nutritional management with and without fluoxetine (FLX) in anorexia nervosa diagnosed according to Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-IV) criteria. Twenty-one patients, with a mean body mass index (BMI) of 15.21+/-2.

Salivary cortisol measurement in normal-weight, obese and anorexic women: comparison with plasma cortisol.

Objective: To compare salivary, plasma and urinary free cortisol (UFC) measurements in patients with anorexia nervosa, in whom an overdrive of the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis is well established but information on salivary cortisol is lacking, in viscerally obese patients in whom subtle abnormalities of cortisol secretion and metabolism are postulated, and in normal-weight healthy women. PARTICIPANTS AND EXPERIMENTAL DESIGN: Measurement of salivary cortisol offers a convenient way to assess the concentrations of free, biologically active cortisol in plasma in different physiopathological settings. Forty-seven drug-free, newly diagnosed women with active restrictive anorexia nervosa, 30 restrictive anorexic women undergoing chronic psychopharmacological treatment, 47 women with mild-to-moderate visceral obesity, 103 women with severe central obesity and 63 normal-weight healthy women entered the study.

A single blind comparison of amisulpride, fluoxetine and clomipramine in the treatment of restricting anorectics.

1. The study evaluated the efficacy of amisulpride, fluoxetine and clomipramine at the beginning of the re-feeding phase of the treatment of restricting anorexia nervosa according to DSM-IV criteria. 2.

Intragastric balloon for morbid obesity causing chronic gastric dilatation.

We describe the radiographic findings observed in a morbidly obese and diabetic patient with an intragastric air-filled balloon introduced as a therapeutic measure to reduce food intake. The balloon was associated with chronic gastric dilatation and had to be removed 3 months after insertion. However, together with diet and behavioural therapy, it proved effective in reducing body weight and ameliorating glycaemic control.

[Acute cardiotoxicity from 5-fluorouracil: un underestimated toxicity].

The most common toxicity in clinical trials with 5-FU, in mono or polychemotherapy, is stomatitis, diarrhea, hand-foot syndrome. In this case report, the 5-fluorouracil (5-FU) cardiotoxicity, an uncommon 5-FU-related toxicity, has been investigated. Cardiotoxicity reports are uncommon because the problem is not well known.

Glucocorticoid receptors in anorexia nervosa and Cushing's disease.

Background: Patients with anorexia nervosa do not display cushingoid features in spite of elevated cortisol plasma levels. Whether a cortisol resistance or a reduced availability of the metabolic substrates necessary to develop the effect of glucocorticoids is responsible for this has not been established.

Methods: Twenty-two patients with severe restrictive anorexia nervosa, 10 patients with active Cushing's disease, and 24 healthy volunteers without psychiatric disorders or mood alterations were investigated.

Apoptosis and myocardial infarction.

Myocardial infarction was produced in rats and the contribution of apoptotic and necrotic myocyte cell death was measured quantitatively. Myocyte cell death by apoptosis involved 2.8 million cells at 2 hours after coronary artery occlusion and necrosis only 90,000 cells.

Two distinct pathways of muscarinic current responses in rabbit sino-atrial node myocytes.

Acetycholine (ACh) slows the heart rate by acting on sino-atrial node currents. Low ACh concentrations act on muscarinic receptors to inhibit the hyperpolarization-activated current (if) by a adenosine 3',5'-cyclic monophosphate (cAMP)-dependent cytoplasmic pathway. ACh also activates a muscarinic potassium conductance (iK,ACh) via a pertussis toxin-sensitive guanine nucleotide-binding protein (G-protein) that gates the channel directly.

Effects of constitutive overexpression of insulin-like growth factor-1 on the mechanical characteristics and molecular properties of ventricular myocytes.

Recently, insulin-like growth factor-1 (IGF-1) has been claimed to positively influence the cardiac performance of the decompensated heart. On this basis, the effects of constitutive overexpression of IGF-1 on the mechanical behavior of myocytes were examined in transgenic mice in which the cDNA for the human IGF-1B was placed under the control of a rat alpha-myosin heavy chain promoter. In mice heterozygous for the transgene and in nontransgenic littermates at 2.

Coronary constriction impairs cardiac function and induces myocardial damage and ventricular remodeling in mice.

To establish whether coronary artery narrowing (CAN) in mice was accompanied by depressed ventricular function, tissue injury, and modifications in cardiac anatomy, the left coronary artery was constricted in FVB/N mice and the animals were killed 7 days later. CAN consisted of a 53% reduction in luminal diameter, which resulted in a twofold increase in left ventricular end-diastolic pressure. Left ventricular systolic pressure and left ventricular + and -dP/dt decreased 15, 21, and 11%, respectively.