Asthma and hairdressers.

Purpose Of Review: Hairdressers have an increased prevalence of respiratory diseases and are at high risk of occupational asthma. In this paper we aim to review the most recent findings in respiratory diseases related to the occupation of hairdressing to provide a background for management and prevention.

Recent Findings: Recent studies have described several cases of occupational asthma and occupational rhinitis in hairdressers.

Ranolazine, a new antianginal drug.

The increasing and unmet social and economic burden of ischemic heart disease calls for new antianginal therapies. Ranolazine, a new antianginal agent, has a different mode of action from existing therapies, which act by decreasing indices of cardiac work. Ranolazine mainly affects the late sodium current across the membrane of cardiomyocytes, inducing a cascade of electrophysiologic and metabolic effects with the potential to reduce the cardiac ischemic burden without significantly changing blood pressure and heart rate.

Balance control in peripheral neuropathy: are patients equally unstable under static and dynamic conditions?

The aim of this investigation was to assess the potentially different effects of impaired proprioceptive input in balance control under static and dynamic conditions in neuropathic patients. We recruited 20 normal subjects and 27 patients affected by neuropathies known to affect to a different extent large and medium size afferent fibres. The patients comprised 5 with Charcot-Marie-Tooth disease type 1A (CMT1A), 8 with CMT type 2 (CMT2) and 14 with Diabetes polyneuropathy (Diabetics).

Costs of occupational asthma and of occupational chronic obstructive pulmonary disease.

Purpose Of Review: The purpose of this review is to summarize the most recent findings on the costs of occupational asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, illustrating the different approaches for estimates, the results and the social and financial implications.

Recent Findings: Many published data in the literature show that occupational asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease represent a relevant proportion of the total prevalence of these diseases. Previous findings demonstrated that occupational asthma has adverse economic and employment consequences for the worker, and a significant cost related to the claims.

Clinical features and outcomes of elderly outpatients with heart failure followed up in hospital cardiology units: data from a large nationwide cardiology database (IN-CHF Registry).

Background: Congestive heart failure (HF) represents a major public health problem with an age-related increasing prevalence. Despite the high mortality and morbidity in elderly patients with HF, limited clinical and prognostic data are available for development of appropriate prevention and treatment strategies.

Methods: A cohort of 3327 outpatients consecutively enrolled in the Registry of Italian Network on Congestive Heart Failure by 133 cardiology centers was studied.

An overview of H-reflex studies in amyotrophic lateral sclerosis.

H-reflex methods were used to investigate motor neuron excitability and the basic physiology of segmental spinal reflexes. While many studies have been performed using these electrophysiological techniques, in both normal subjects and patients with different neurological diseases, few studies have focused on patients affected by amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS). This article reviews the various electrophysiological techniques which use H-reflex to study the physiology of segmental spinal reflexes in motor neuron diseases.

The shortening reaction of forearm muscles: the influence of central set.

Objective: The EMG of the forearm muscles shortened by an imposed wrist joint displacement has been studied at different levels and distribution of background muscle activity and with different instructions to the subjects, in order to test the hypothesis that the recorded EMG response (shortening reaction, ShoRe) could be deliberate in origin.

Methods: Ten normal subjects were examined. A torque motor induced 50 degrees wrist extension or flexion at 500 degrees /s.

Pulmonary mycosis in AIDS.

We retrospectively reviewed our series of 35 pulmonary mycosis in patients with AIDS, observed from 1987 to 1999, to correlate the imaging and pathologic findings. We further evaluated the frequency of fungal pneumonia before and after the use of a highly active antiretroviral therapy (HAART). Early recognition of pulmonary mycosis is imperative in these patients and improved survival can be achieved with early CT detection and prompt institution of high-dose antifungal therapy.

Long-latency auditory-evoked potentials in severe traumatic brain injury.

Objective: To detect the effects of different deviant stimuli on long-latency auditory-evoked potentials (LLAEPs) in patients with severe impairment of consciousness from traumatic brain injury (TBI) and to define their prognostic value for late functional outcome.

Design: Correlational study on a prospective cohort.

Setting: Brain injury rehabilitation center.

Incremental benefit of adding oxitropium bromide to formoterol in patients with stable COPD.

The effects of the long-acting beta(2)-agonist formoterol, the anticholinergic drug oxitropium bromide, and their combination were compared in 16 patients with partially reversible stable COPD. On each of 4 study days patients inhaled both drugs separated by 180 min in alternate sequence, with formoterol being administered in two doses (formoterol 12 microg + oxitropium bromide 200 microg; oxitropium bromide 200 microg + formoterol 12 microg; formoterol 24 microg + oxitropium bromide 200 microg; oxitropium bromide 200 microg + formoterol 24 microg). FEV(1)and FVC were measured baseline and after 30, 60, 120, 180, 210, 240, 300 and 360 min.

Heart failure-related myopathy. Clinical and pathophysiological insights.

Aims: To evaluate the relationship of skeletal and respiratory muscular dysfunction with the degree of clinical severity, cardiac impairment and exercise intolerance in patients with chronic heart failure.

Methods And Results: Ninety-one patients (age 52.7+/-8 years) on standard therapy and in a stable clinical condition with normal nutritional status underwent evaluation of (1) clinical severity and metabolic status (NYHA class, weight, albuminaemia, natraemia, cortisol, insulin, neurohormones), (2) cardiac function (Echo, right heart catheterization), (3) exercise tolerance (peak VO(2)), (4) dynamic isokinetic forces of the quadriceps and hamstring (Cybex method), and respiratory muscle strength (maximal inspiratory and expiratory pressures).

Clinical epidemiology of acute myocardial infarction.

In the United States by mid-century, cardiovascular disease accounted for more than half of all deaths. In the second half of this century, 85% of reduction in age-adjusted mortality rates from all causes can be ascribed to the decline in death from cardiovascular disease and stroke. Approximately half of such dramatic decline in mortality rates from ischemic heart disease (IHD) can be explained by primary and secondary prevention and half by therapeutic improvements.

Comparative study of dirithromycin and azithromycin in the treatment of acute bacterial exacerbations of chronic bronchitis.

We compared the clinical and microbiological efficacy of dirithromycin with that of azithromycin in outpatients with acute bacterial exacerbations of chronic bronchitis who could be graded into stage III according to Ball's system of stratification. A total of 80 patients was studied. Of these, 40 were treated with dirithromycin as a once-daily dose of 500 mg for 5 days, and 40 with azithromycin as a once-daily dose of 500 mg for 3 days.

Somatosensory and motor evoked potentials at different stages of recovery from severe traumatic brain injury.

Objective: To detect changes of somatosensory evoked potentials (SEPs) and motor evoked potentials (MEPs) at different stages of recovery from severe brain injury and to determine whether they can be used to predict late functional outcome.

Design: Correlational study on a prospective cohort.

Setting: Brain injury rehabilitation center.

The natural history and the effects of gabapentin in amyotrophic lateral sclerosis.

Glutamate excitotoxicity seems to play an important role in the aetiopathogenesis and progression of Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS). Gabapentin is a modulator of the glutamatergic system and has been shown to prolong survival in the transgenic model of familial ALS. It has also been demonstrated to slow the decline of arm strength in human sporadic cases.

Predictors of primary atrial fibrillation and concomitant clinical and hemodynamic changes in patients with chronic heart failure: a prospective study in 344 patients with baseline sinus rhythm.

Objectives: This study investigated the incidence, predisposing factors and significance of the onset of atrial fibrillation (AF) in patients with chronic congestive heart failure (CHF).

Background: The association between CHF and AF is well documented, but the factors that predispose to the onset of the arrhythmia and its impact remain controversial. Methods.

Skeletal muscle function at low work level as a model for daily activities in patients with chronic heart failure.

Aim: Metabolic exercise abnormalities have been reported in chronic heart failure patients. This study sought to evaluate whether these abnormalities affected daily activity.

Methods And Results: In 16 patients with moderate-to-severe chronic heart failure and in eight controls we measured femoral flow (thermodilution) and metabolism (glucose, lactate, free fatty acids, blood gas values) at rest and during a constant load of 20 W, which may mimic a daily activity.

H-reflex changes in the course of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis.

In this study the H-reflex and M-wave were evoked in a group of ALS patients, to correlate the findings with the clinical state, and to investigate whether a statistical approach for assessing H-reflex changes in the presence of a constant M-wave could be reproducible and helpful in monitoring the course of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS). The H-reflex and M-wave from the soleus muscle were evoked at different stimulus strengths in 35 patients with definite ALS during the course of their illness. The mean amplitude of the H-reflexes (H-mean) obtained in different sessions within an established range of mean M-response amplitude (M-mean) was calculated.

Reliability of a hand gripping endurance test.

The aim of this study was to assess the reproducibility of a new endurance test for hand grip movements. On six occasions separated by at least 3 days, 30 healthy subjects performed six maximal endurance tests in two different positions with a hand grip tool attached to an isokinetic dynamometer. The test consisted of repeated maximal grip movements (1-min bouts for men and 30-s bouts for women subjects) at an angular velocity of 45 degrees/s.

Systemic thromboembolism in chronic heart failure. A prospective study in 406 patients.

In patients with heart failure the risk of systemic thrombo-embolism and the benefit of anticoagulation are uncertain. To assess the incidence of systemic thromboembolism and the factors associated with an increased risk, 406 consecutive patients with chronic heart failure were prospectively investigated. Their left ventricular ejection fraction was 23 +/- 8%, pulmonary wedge pressure 19 +/- 10 mmHg and cardiac index 2.

Predicting endurance limits in arm cranking exercise with a subjectively based method.

The purpose of this study was to compare a method for predicting endurance capacity at different workloads based on subjective perception of effort with the technique for determining 'critical power' (CP) proposed by Moritani et al. (1981). Three trained paraplegic subjects performed two protocols during separate sessions.