Transesophageal echocardiography for the initial evaluation of the widened mediastinum in trauma patients.

Traumatic disruption of the thoracic aorta is an injury that is rapidly fatal if not recognized and treated early. Increasingly, transesophageal echocardiography (TEE) is being used to evaluate the thoracic aorta after trauma with reported sensitivity and specificity rates of up to 100%. To confirm these results, we instituted a protocol using TEE as the initial diagnostic study for excluding a ruptured thoracic aorta in patients with widened mediastinum.

Study of IL-2, IL-6, TNF alpha, IFN gamma and beta in the serum and synovial fluid of patients with juvenile chronic arthritis.

In the last few years the important role played by various cytokines in the pathogenesis of chronic inflammatory diseases has emerged. In the present study, serum and synovial fluid levels of IL-2, IL-6, TNF alpha, IFN beta and IFN gamma were evaluated in a group of 66 patients with juvenile chronic arthritis (JCA). At the same time the ESR, CRP, hemoglobin, immunoglobulins, platelet count and Ritchie index were measured.

Localized scleroderma after infection with Epstein-Barr virus.

Over a period of three years (1989-1992) five children suffering from localized scleroderma were seen at the Department of Pediatrics of the University of Trieste. Evidence of a previous infectious mononucleosis (IM) was present in four out of five patients. The clinical history of these four children is reported.

[Spontaneous pneumomediastinum in an adolescent].

Spontaneous pneumomediastinum is defined as nontraumatic mediastinal air leak in patients without underlying lung disease. In children and adolescents it is rarely described and is likely to be underdiagnosed. We describe a case.