Publications by authors named "Ricardo Laurini"

Screening is a key tool for early cancer detection/prevention and potentially saves lives. Oral mucosal vascular aberrations and color changes have been reported in hereditary nonpolyposis colorectal cancer patients, possibly reflecting a subclinical extracellular matrix abnormality implicated in the general process of cancer development. Reasoning that physicochemical changes of a tissue should affect its optical properties, we investigated the diagnostic ability of oral mucosal color to identify patients with several types of cancer.

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Objective: To relate Doppler velocimetry findings in fetoplacental and uteroplacental circulation to placental histomorphology.

Material And Methods: In 14 uncomplicated and 31 high-risk pregnancies Doppler velocimetry was performed in umbilical artery and vein, and in maternal uterine veins and arteries during the second half of gestation. Histopathology of the placentas was examined, especially for signs of ischemia and inflammation.

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A 61-year-old man was admitted to our department with radicular back-pain and progressive gait-difficulties. On examination he had flaccid paraparesis and bladder-retention. He subsequently developed palsy of n.

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Bariatric surgery is increasingly used to treat morbidly obese patients. Fertility in women may be enhanced after these procedures, owing to substantial weight loss and possibly a decreased absorption of oral contraceptives. We report a pregnancy that occurred two months after biliopancreatic diversion with duodenal switch in a 32-year-old woman.

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Congenital high airway obstruction syndrome (CHAOS) is a rare but life-threatening condition that results from the obstruction of the upper airways.We describe a female newborn, from a Grávida II, Para 0, 36-year-old woman, with a routine ultrasound at 30 weeks' gestation that showed polyhydramnios. She delivered a live-born female baby at 36 weeks without any dismorphic features but with respiratory distress.

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Background: Recurrent otitis media with effusion (OME) is a leading cause of acquired hearing loss in childhood. Histological chorioamnionitis (HCA) is an important cause of preterm delivery and neonatal morbidity and mortality. Here, we tested the hypothesis of an association between recurrent OME during the first 3 years of life and HCA in very low birth weight (VLBW) infants.

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Objective: To correlate cervical and amniotic fluid cytokines and macrophage-related chemokines to the development of histological chorioamnionitis (HCA) in patients with preterm labor (PTL) and preterm prelabor rupture of the membranes (PPROM).

Study Design: Cervical and amniotic fluid interleukin (IL)-6, IL-8, IL-18, monocyte chemotactic protein (MCP)-1, MCP-2, and MCP-3 from pregnant women (at View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Down syndrome is a leading genetic cause of mental retardation. Here, we show high fractal dimensions and Lempel-Ziv complexity and lower minimum path fractal dimension (P < or = .0006) for the oral vascular networks of patients (n = 14) and their unaffected parents.

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A 34-year-old healthy gravida 2 para 1 presented after an uncomplicated pregnancy at term with a 2-day history of diminished fetal movements. Fetal anemia was suspected by fetal heart rate monitoring and Doppler estimation of the fetal peak blood flow velocity of the middle cerebral artery. We were also fortunate to register pathological ST waveform changes of the fetal ECG indicating fetal hypoxia.

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Background: Placental bed subinvolution is an underestimated cause of severe, late-onset postpartum hemorrhage.

Case: A case of placental bed subinvolution caused abnormal uterine bleeding in the late postpartum period. Because of difficulties in establishing the diagnosis, massive, intractable and life-threatening uterine hemorrhage occurred, leading to hysterectomy.

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This analysis of DNA-ploidy heterogeneity in advanced gastric carcinomas is consistent with the hypothesis of the emergence of a single aneuploid cell clone as a crucial mechanism in the progression from early gastric carcinoma to advanced gastric cancer. The prognostic value of DNA-ploidy in gastric cancers has been a matter of controversy. Tumour DNA-ploidy heterogeneity, the presence within the same tumour of multiple stemlines differing in DNA content, has been described in various tumours including gastric cancers.

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Objective: The pathogenesis and clinical significance of true umbilical cord knots remain controversial. Here, we tested the hypothesis of the presence of congenital oral mucosal changes in newborns with true umbilical cord knots.

Study Design: Seven consecutive infants with true umbilical cord knots and 50 gestational age- and sex-matched controls were enrolled.

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Background: Cervico-isthmic pregnancy is a rare occurrence and until the use of current ultrasonographic techniques was associated with a disastrous outcome for women desiring to maintain their fertility.

Case Report: A 39-year-old woman was diagnosed at 12 weeks of amenorrhoea with an intra-uterine non-viable pregnancy and a low implantation of the gestational sac. Medical management of this situation with a regimen of intravaginal misoprostol was unsuccessful.

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The authors describe a 9-year-old boy who had an accident with his bicycle. He presented with hematuria a few weeks later, and cystoscopy results showed a polypod lesion near the veru montanum. The lesion was resected, and histologic examination showed a nephrogenic adenoma (NA), which recurred 6 years later with hematuria.

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To investigate the possible role of nitric oxide (NO) produced locally or intramurally in the quiescence of the pregnant myometrium, nitric oxide synthase (NOS) activity was measured in samples from first trimester (villous, and non villous-trophoblast), term placenta and pregnant myometrium. Trophoblast tissue was obtained from psychosocial termination of pregnancy (9-12 weeks' gestation) whereas placenta and myometrium, from the same patient, at deliveries by Caesarean section. NOS activity was measured in both cytosolic and particulate fractions by the formation of 14C-citrulline from 14C-arginine.

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Background: Upregulation of proinflammatory endothelial cell adhesion molecules and decreased bioactivity of endothelial nitric oxide (NO) are important in the pathogenesis of atherosclerosis. We investigated the effects of co-infection with Chlamydia pneumoniae and Helicobacter pylori on these two events in apoE-KO mice.

Methods: Thirty-two apoE-KO mice, 8 weeks old, were equally divided into 4 groups.

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Objective: To investigate associations between structural, functional and circulatory placental changes in pregnancies complicated by impaired glucose metabolism.

Design: Umbilical artery (UA) blood flow resistance was measured by Doppler velocimetry in 21 gravidae with diabetes/impaired glucose tolerance (IGT) and 10 healthy gravidae. Umbilical and placental vessel segments were incubated for determination of prostacyclin and thromboxane synthesis, and tissues histologically examined.

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The peroxisome proliferator activated receptors (PPARs) are ligand activated receptors which belong to the nuclear hormone receptor family. As with other members of this superfamily, it is thought that the ability of PPAR to bind to a ligand was acquired during metazoan evolution. Three different PPAR isotypes (PPARalpha, PPARbeta, also called 6, and PPARgamma) have been identified in various species.

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