Frida Kahlo. Illustrated biographies of an icon

L’immagine di Frida Kahlo è ormai da tempo un’icona universale. Nondimeno la biografia dell’artista, altrettanto nota, sembra capace di toccare le corde più intime dell’animo umano ed è tanto ricca da generare continue riscritture e reinterpretazioni. In particolare, rileviamo la persistenza del personaggio e della sua inconfondibile immagine negli albi illustrati, nei quali, oltre alla passione dell’arte, attraverso la storia e le storie di Frida, emergono i temi dell’identità, della malattia, della disabilità, dell’amore, della fragilità, del genere. Il presente contributo si propone di osservare alcune tra le più significative pubblicazioni dedicate alla pittrice che hanno fatto la loro comparsa nel panorama editoriale destinato ai ragazzi negli ultimi venti anni in Italia e di evidenziare le scelte tematiche e stilistiche operate da autori e illustratori impegnati nel racconto della vita di un simbolo della cultura latinoamericana, espressione di resilienza, anticonformismo e emancipazione.The image of Frida Kahlo has been recognized for a long time as a universal icon. Furthermore the artist’s biography, equally well-known, seems capable of touching the deepest chords of the human soul and looks so rich that can generates continuos rewriting and reinterpretations. In particular, we note the persistence of the character and her unmistakable image in some picturebooks in which, in addition to the passion for art, emerge the themes of identity, illness, disability, love, fragility, along with gender issues. This contribution aims to observe some of the most significant picturebooks published in Italy in the last twenty years about the painter and intends to highlight the thematic and stylistic choices made by authors and illustrators grappling with the life story of a Latin American symbol, an expression of resilience, non-conformism and emancipation

Age-related brain atrophy may be mitigated by internal jugular vein enlargement in male individuals without neurologic disease.

Objectives To assess the relationship between cross-sectional area of internal jugular veins and brain volumes in healthy individuals without neurologic disease. Methods A total of 193 healthy individuals without neurologic disease (63 male and 130 female; age > 20 to < 70 years) received magnetic resonance venography and structural brain magnetic resonance imaging at 3T. The internal jugular vein cross-sectional area was assessed at C2–C3, C4, C5–C6, and C7–T1. Normalized whole brain volume was assessed. Partial correlation analyses were used to determine associations. Results There was an inverse relationship between normalized whole brain volume and total internal jugular vein cross-sectional area (C7–T1: males r = −0.346, p = 0.029; females r = −0.301, p = 0.002). After age adjustment, association of normalized whole brain volume and normalized gray matter volume with internal jugular vein cross-sectional area became positive in males (normalized whole brain volume and right internal jugular vein cross-sectional area (C2–C3) changed from r = −0.163 to r = 0.384, p = 0.002), but not in the females. Conclusion Sex differences exist in the relationship between brain volume and internal jugular vein cross-sectional area in healthy individuals without neurologic disease

Assessment of internal diameters of abdominal and femoral blood vessels in 250 living subjects using Color Doppler ultrasonography

Acquiring data about venous or arterial vessel size is important for several reasons, given the increasing incidence of thomboembolic phenomena and arterial aneurysms and the emerging new vascular techniques. We studied 250 healthy subjects (125 men and 125 women; age range: 50 to 91 years) with no known vascular pathology, nor hypertension, nor diabetes. We assessed the caliber of abdominal aorta, inferior vena cava, iliac and femoral arteries and viens by color doppler ultrasonography, and analyzed the results with regard to sex, height, weight and body surface of each subject. The mean caliber measure of the large abdominal vessels appeared lower than the value obtained from cadavers. There was a direct proportion between the left and right vessels of the same subject. The difference in vessel caliber between male and female subjects was statistically significant. There was no correlation between vessel caliber and age, height or body surface area