1,812 research outputs found
C-reactive protein in aortic valve disease
Aortic Valve Disease, includes a range of disorder severity from mild leaflet thickening without valve obstruction, "aortic sclerosis", to severe calcified aortic stenosis. It is a slowly progressive active process of valve modification similar atherosclerosis for cardiovascular risk factors, lipoprotein deposition, chronic inflammation, and calcification. Systemic signs of inflammation, as wall and serum CRP, similar to those found in atherosclerosis, are present in patients with degenerative aortic valve stenosis and may be expression of a common disease, useful in monitoring of stenosis progression
Paediatric non-alcoholic fatty liver disease: impact on patients and mothers' quality of life
Background: Non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) is one of the causes of fatty liver in adults and is currently the primary form of chronic liver disease in children and adolescents. However, the psychological outcome (i.e. the behavioural problems that can in turn be related to psychiatric conditions, like anxiety and mood disorders, or lower quality of life) in children and adolescents suffering of NAFLD has not been extensively explored in the literature. Objectives: The present study aims at evaluating the emotional and behavioural profile in children suffering from NAFLD and the quality of life in their mothers. Patients and Methods: A total of 57 children (18 females/39 males) with NAFLD were compared to 39 age-matched control children (25 females/14 males). All participants were submitted to the following psychological tools to assess behavior, mood, and anxiety: the Multidimensional Anxiety Scale for Children (MASC), the Child Behavior Checklist (CBCL), and the Children's Depression Inventory (CDI). Moreover, the mothers of 40 NAFLD and 39 control children completed the World Health Organization Quality of Life-BREF (WHOQOL-BREF) questionnaire. Results: NAFLD children scored significantly higher as compared to control children in MASC (P = 0.001) and CDI total (P < 0.001) scales. The CBCL also revealed significantly higher scores for NAFLD children in total problems (P = 0.046), internalizing symptoms (P = 0.000) and somatic complaints (P < 0.001). The WHOQOL-BREF revealed significantly lower scores for the mothers of NAFLD children in the overall perception of the quality of life (P < 0.001), and in the "relationships" domain (P = 0.023). Conclusions: Increased emotional and behavioural problems were detected in children with NAFLD as compared to healthy control children, together with an overall decrease in their mothers' quality of life. These results support the idea that these patients may benefit from a psychological intervention, ideally involving both children and parents, whose quality of life is likely negatively affected by this disease
Predictive role of nasal functionality tests in the evaluation of patients before nocturnal polysomnographic recording
Obstructive sleep apnoea syndrome is a disease characterized by a collapse of the pharyngeal airway resulting in repeated episodes of airflow
cessation, oxygen desaturation, and sleep disruption. It is a common disorder affecting at least 2-4% of the adult population. The role
of nasal resistance in the pathogenesis of sleep disordered breathing and sleep apnoea has not been completely clarified. Aim of the present
study was to establish whether nasal resistance and nasal volumes, measured by means of Active Anterior Rhinomanometry and Acoustic
Rhinometry together with Muco-Ciliary Transport time play a positive predictive role in the evaluation of Obstructive sleep apnoea
syndrome patients before running a nocturnal polysomnographic recording. A retrospective study was performed analysing 223 patients
referred for suspected Obstructive sleep apnoea syndrome. All patients were submitted to complete otorhinolaryngological evaluation and
underwent nocturnal polysomnography. On the basis of polysomnographic data analysis, the apnoea-hypopnoea index and snoring index,
patients were classified into two groups: Group 1 (110/223 patients) with a diagnosis of mild-moderate Obstructive sleep apnoea syndrome
(apnoea-hypopnoea index < 30) and Group 2 (113/223 patients) affected by snoring without associated hypoxaemia/hypercapnia. A control
group of 76 subjects, not complaining of sleep disorders and free from nasal symptoms was also selected. The results showed, in all the
snoring and Obstructive sleep apnoea syndrome patients, total nasal resistance and increased Muco-Ciliary Transport time compared to
standard values. Furthermore, the apnoea-hypopnoea index was significantly higher in patients with higher nasal resistence and significantly
different between the groups. These results allow us to propose the simultaneous evaluation of nasal functions by Active Anterior
Rhinomanometry, Acoustic Rhinometry, and Muco-Ciliary Transport time in the selection of patients undergoing polysomnography
Effects of the rearing season on carcass and meat quality of suckling Apennine light lambs
The aim of this study was to evaluate the effects of the rearing season (autumn vs winter) on the carcass and
meat quality of light lambs, obtained according to the traditional farming system usual in central Italy. Eighty
carcasses from 60 d±3 old unweaned Apennine single birth male lambs, permanently reared indoor, half in
autumn (receiving milk from ewes permanently pastured) and half in winter (which dams did never
acceded to pasture), were weighed, classiïŹed according to the EU classiïŹcation system for light lambs, and
their Longissimus lumborum meat was analysed for pH, colour, drip and cooking losses, proximate
composition and fatty acids proïŹle of intramuscular fat. Most of the carcasses fully responded to the 1st
quality EU requirements and no effects of the rearing season was evident on carcass characteristics. On the
contrary, L. lumborum of lambs born and reared in autumn, receiving milk from ewes permanently pastured,
evidenced a lower Lightness L* (P=0.02), a higher Chroma C* (P=0.01), with a higher fat content (P=0.04)
than lambs reared in winter, which dams were permanently stall-fed. Moreover the intramuscular fat of the
former was characterized by a greater PUFA concentration (P=0.01), a more favourable n-6/n-3 ratio
(Pb 0.001), and a higher CLA content (Pb0.001) than the latter, as a result of the difference related to the
sheep traditional feeding system
Measurements of Multi-Layer Insulation at High Boundary Temperature, using a Simple Non-Calorimetric Method
In spite of abundant literature, the thermal performance of Multi-Layer Insulation (MLI) still deserves dedicated investigation for specific applications, as the achievable insulation strongly depends on installation details. Furthermore, less accurate information is available for warm than for cold boundaries, since errors due to edge effects in small test benches increase strongly with warm boundary temperature. We establish here the thermal performance of MLI between 300 K and 77 K or 4 K, without bringing calorimetric methods into play, through the accurate measurement of a temperature profile. A cylinder in thin copper, wrapped with MLI, is cooled at one extremity while suspended under vacuum inside a sheath at room temperature. For known thermal conductivity and thickness of the tube, the heat flux can be inferred from the temperature profile. In-situ measurement of the thermal conductivity is obtained by applying a know heat flow at the warm extremity of the cylinder. Results, cross-checked with a calibrated heatmeter, compare well with what previously obtained on a large-scale measuring facility
Molecular Mechanisms Underlying Cell Death in Spinal Networks in Relation to Locomotor Activity After Acute Injury in vitro
Understanding the pathophysiological changes triggered by an acute spinal cord injury is a primary goal to prevent and treat chronic disability with a mechanism-based approach. After the primary phase of rapid cell death at the injury site, secondary damage occurs via autodestruction of unscathed tissue through complex cell-death mechanisms that comprise caspase-dependent and caspase-independent pathways. To devise novel neuroprotective strategies to restore locomotion, it is, therefore, necessary to focus on the death mechanisms of neurons and glia within spinal locomotor networks. To this end, the availability of in vitro preparations of the rodent spinal cord capable of expressing locomotor-like oscillatory patterns recorded electrophysiologically from motoneuron pools offers the novel opportunity to correlate locomotor network function with molecular and histological changes long after an acute experimental lesion. Distinct forms of damage to the in vitro spinal cord, namely excitotoxic stimulation or severe metabolic perturbation (with oxidative stress, hypoxia/aglycemia), can be applied with differential outcome in terms of cell types and functional loss. In either case, cell death is a delayed phenomenon developing over several hours. Neurons are more vulnerable to excitotoxicity and more resistant to metabolic perturbation, while the opposite holds true for glia. Neurons mainly die because of hyperactivation of poly(ADP-ribose) polymerase-1 (PARP-1) with subsequent DNA damage and mitochondrial energy collapse. Conversely, glial cells die predominantly by apoptosis. It is likely that early neuroprotection against acute spinal injury may require tailor-made drugs targeted to specific cell-death processes of certain cell types within the locomotor circuitry. Furthermore, comparison of network size and function before and after graded injury provides an estimate of the minimal network membership to express the locomotor program
- âŠ