Retinal vascular events and relationship to CANCER development.

Background: Central retinal vein occlusion (CRVO) is a frequent and clinically relevant vascular pathology. The main risk factors are the same as systemic cardiovascular risk factors, but recently other significant risk factors have been studied. The aim of this study is to analyse the risk factors for retinal venous thrombosis and their relationship with the development of cancer.

Workplace aggressions on hospital workers: A current and prevalent problem with a high demand for training.

Background: Workplace aggressions on hospital workers is a very frequent and under-reported problem.

Objective: The novel objective of our study was to analyze the number of workplace aggressions per hospital worker. Other objectives of the study were to analyze the management knowledge and interest in receiving training on aggressions by hospital workers.

Mean platelet volume and mortality in patients with alcohol use disorder.

Several recent studies have pointed out the relationship of platelet size with increased mortality or adverse clinical course. Most studies show that increased mean platelet volume (MPV) may be associated with a deleterious outcome in different settings such as sepsis or neoplasia, whereas other researchers have found the opposite. In inflammatory conditions there is an altered secretion of several cytokines, some of them exerting a marked influence on platelet biogenesis and/or on platelet activation and aggregation.

Sclerostin, vascular risk factors, and brain atrophy in excessive drinkers.

Objective: Heavy alcohol consumption causes several organic complications, including vessel wall calcification. Vascular damage may be involved in the development of brain atrophy and cognitive impairment. Recently, sclerostin (whose levels may be altered in alcoholics) has emerged as a major vascular risk factor.

Ferritin and liver fibrosis among patients with chronic hepatitis C virus infection.

Introduction: In chronic hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection there is increased iron absorption leading to iron overload, a fact that may promote ferritin synthesis. Theoretically, increased ferritin should promote ongoing liver fibrosis but disparate results have been described.

Objective: We analyze the behavior of iron metabolism- related variables, comparing them with fibrosis and inflammatory activity in liver biopsy in HCV infected patients.

Incidence of cancer and mortality among heavy alcoholics.

Background And Aims: Cancer risk is increased in alcoholics. Heavy ethanol consumption is also associated with other potentially lethal conditions such as cirrhosis, diabetes, hypertension, dyslipidemia or malnutrition, that increase mortality. The aim of the present study is to analyze the impact on mortality of new cancer development in a cohort of heavy alcoholics.

Prognostic Value of Serum Iron, Ferritin, and Transferrin in Chronic Alcoholic Liver Disease.

Ethanol increases iron absorption. Therefore, increased amount of iron reaches the liver, and exerts pro-oxidant effects and stimulates ferritin synthesis and hepatic stellate cell activation, promoting fibrosis and inflammation. These mechanisms would theoretically support a role of ferritin as a marker of the transition to liver cirrhosis, and, consequently, as a prognostic factor, but there is controversy regarding its behavior in alcoholics.

Transforming Growth Factor Beta 1 and Vascular Risk in Alcoholics.

Introduction: Transforming growth factor beta-1 (TGF-β1) is a pleiotropic cytokine. Its relationship with atherosclerosis is debatable, protective or deleterious effects have been described. Alcoholics are at increased vascular risk.

Lipid profile and bone mineral density in heavy alcoholics.

Background & Aims: Some studies have illustrated the association between serum lipid profile and bone mineral density (BMD) or fractures. None of these studies was performed among alcoholics, despite the fact that alcoholism may affect both bone mass and lipid metabolism. We here analyse the relationship of serum lipid profile with bone mass among a population of 280 heavy alcoholics (29 women).

Alpha Klotho and Fibroblast Growth Factor-23 Among Alcoholics.

Aims: Alcoholism may be a cardiovascular risk factor. Osteocyte derived molecules such as fibroblast growth factor 23 (FGF-23) and soluble α Klotho have recently been associated with cardiovascular disease, but their role in alcoholics is unknown. We here analyze the behavior of FGF23 and α Klotho in alcoholics.

Liver steatosis in hepatitis C patients.

There is controversy regarding some aspects of hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection-associated liver steatosis, and their relationship with body fat stores. It has classically been found that HCV, especially genotype 3, exerts direct metabolic effects which lead to liver steatosis. This supports the existence of a so called viral steatosis and a metabolic steatosis, which would affect HCV patients who are also obese or diabetics.

Vitamin D, vascular calcification and mortality among alcoholics.

Aims: To analyze the relationship between low vitamin D levels and mortality among alcoholics.

Methods: One hundred twenty-eight alcoholic patients admitted to our hospital were followed up as outpatients. Nutritional status was evaluated measuring percentages of fat and lean mass in different body compartments.

Changes in cytokine levels during admission and mortality in acute alcoholic hepatitis.

Cytokine levels are raised in acute alcoholic hepatitis. However, there are disparate results regarding the duration of altered plasma levels, and there are also discrepancies about the relation of changes during the first 15 days after admission with short-term (in-hospital) or long-term mortality. In 56 patients with acute alcoholic hepatitis we found that IL-8, IL-4, Interferon-γ (IFN-γ), malondialdehyde and C-reactive protein remained higher in patients than in 18 age- and sex-matched controls at admission, at the 7th day and at the 15th day after admission.

Interleukin-15 and other myokines in chronic alcoholics.

Aims: Interleukin (IL)-15 is highly expressed in skeletal muscle, where it exerts anabolic effects, increasing protein content in muscle fibres and promoting muscle growth. Alcoholics frequently suffer myopathy. Therefore, we analyse the behaviour of IL-15 (and other myokines, such as IL-6, IL-8 and tumour necrosis factor α (TNF-α)) in alcoholics.

Factors involved in the paradox of reverse epidemiology.

Background & Aims: The hypothesis of reverse epidemiology holds that some cardiovascular risk factors, such as obesity, hypercholesterolemia and hypertension, in the elderly or in some chronic diseases are not harmful but permit better survival. However, this phenomenon is controversial and the underlying reasons are poorly understood.

Objective: To search for factors simultaneously linked to reverse epidemiology and to short or long term survival.

[Vascular risk factors and retinal occlusive disease].

Background And Objective: The aim of the present study is to define the risk factors associated with different retinal occlusive diseases, such as retinal venous thrombosis, arterial emboli and ischaemic anterior optic neuritis. Patients with any of these entities entered the study.

Patients And Method: A cross-sectional study on 284 consecutive subjects, aged 25-93, who were initially attended at the ophthalmology unit and then sent to the internal medicine unit.

Pro-inflammatory cytokines in stable chronic alcoholics: relationship with fat and lean mass.

Cytokines are mediators of the inflammatory response, secreted by many tissues, including adipocytes. Chronic alcoholic liver disease and alcoholic hepatitis are associated with elevated serum cytokine levels which yield prognostic value in this situation. Most studies have been performed in patients with acute alcoholic hepatitis.

[Pain and amyotrophy in upper members in a cirrhotic patient with Pott's disease].

We report the case of a 56 year old cirrhotic woman who presented during the course of a tuberculous spondylodiscitis affecting T9-T10, a clinical picture consistent with neuralgic amyotrophy affecting the right shoulder first, and later also the left one (Parsonage-Turner syndrome). This is an uncommonly diagnosed entity of unknown etiology and pathogenesis. Magnetic resonance images (MRI) include high signal intensity in supra and infraspinatus muscles and other muscles of the shoulder girdle, compatible with muscle oedema associated with denervation.

Case report. Pulmonary involvement in an adult male affected by type B Niemann-Pick disease.

We report the case of a 39-year-old male patient affected by type B Niemann-Pick disease, in whom pulmonary involvement became evident 15 years after the initial diagnosis. Pulmonary involvement was discovered incidentally during the evaluation of a dry cough and exertional dyspnoea which occurred in the context of an acute febrile, self-limiting illness. In this case, the pulmonary involvement is clinically mild, with minimal alteration of the diffusing capacity for carbon monoxide (DL(CO)), despite moderate fibrosis and widespread infiltration of both alveoli and interstitium by sea blue histiocytes.

Hair zinc and copper in chronic alcoholics.

Chronic alcoholics frequently show associated malnutrition. Both ethanol and malnutrition exert profound changes on zinc and copper metabolism. In this study, we found higher hair zinc and copper values in 43 male alcoholics than in 39 controls.

Prognostic value of cytokines in SIRS general medical patients.

We studied 174 patients with SIRS criteria, 45 with sepsis, eight with severe sepsis and 13 with septic shock. Serum TNF-alpha, IL-6, IL-8 and IL-10 levels were raised in SIRS patients, even in those cases in which an infection could not be documented, and more intensely in severe sepsis and in patients who died (11%). The slope of the regression line between IL-10 and TNF-alpha was sharper in patients with severe sepsis and in those who died; an imbalance between pro- and anti-inflammatory cytokines may be related to poor prognosis.