The prevalence of Molar Incisor Hypomineralisation (MIH) in a group of Italian school children.

AIM: This epidemiological study in a group of Italian children was undertaken in order to increase our knowledge of the prevalence of Molar Incisor Hypomineralisation (MIH) in different European countries. METHOD: A population of school children aged 7.3 - 8.3 years, living in Lissone, Northern Italy, was examined for the presence and severity of MIH. RESULTS: Of a total of 227 children (113 females), 31 (13.7%) had MIH, the tooth prevalence in the permanent first molars being 5.8%. Fifteen children (6.6%) had demarcated opacities in the incisors with a tooth prevalence of 2.1%. The defects in the molars were mild with the exception of one child who had severe defects. CONCLUSION: MIH was quite common in this Italian town, and the prevalence figures were near those reported in Scandinavian countries but clearly higher than those from Dresden, Germany.

Serum dioxin levels in Seveso, Italy, population in 1976.

On July 10, 1976, an explosion at a chemical plant near Seveso, Italy, released a mixture of chemicals, including 2,3,7,8-tetrachlorodibenzo-p-dioxin and 2,4,5-trichlorophenol. As a result, several thousand people in the Seveso area may have been exposed to those chemicals. At that time, human exposure assessment was based primarily on soil levels of 2,3,7,8-tetrachlorodibenzo-p-dioxin. Medical examinations of this potentially exposed population and control subjects were begun in 1976 and in some cases continued until 1985. In 1988, we began assessing human exposure in this population by measuring 2,3,7,8-tetrachlorodibenzo-p-dioxin in small volumes of serum specimens remaining from the medical examinations. As expected, we found that the median serum dioxin levels were highest among people who lived closest to the explosion and were progressively lower among groups living farther away. These measurements have allowed us to assess exposure more accurately among individuals in this population and to relate exposure to various health effects. We found that some individuals in the exposed population had among the highest serum dioxin levels ever reported, yet chloracne was the only unequivocal effect found; cancer risks are still being investigated. We also found that other individuals with as high or higher serum dioxin levels did not develop chloracne. We also found that the serum half-life of dioxin in this population was 7-8 years, which agrees with other findings although we do report some differences in the serum half-life of TCDD for women and children. We also observed an increase in the percentage of female newborns to parents who resided in Zone A at the time of the explosion, and we also report on the 1976 serum dioxin levels in people who later developed cancer.

[Clinical usefulness of thallium-201 myocardial scintigraphy with dipyridamole pharmacodynamic test in ischemic heart disease (author's transl)]. / Utilita' clinica della scintigrafia miocardica con tallio 201 con test farmaco-dinamico al dipiridamolo nelle cardiopatie ischemiche.

A clinical evaluation of the dipyridamole in the myocardial perfusional scintigraphy (MPS) was carried out in a series of patients, comprehensive of cases of unstable angina, aiming to assess the feasibility and diagnostic validity of the test and to state its possible role in comparison with exercise stress test. On the whole, 107 subjects were examined (34 with stable angina, 23 with unstable angina, 19 with recent myocardial infarction, 15 with atypical angina, 10 with chest pain of uncertain origin and 6 healthy volunteers), performing 108 scintigraphic studies (48 after dipyridamole infusion and 37 after bicycle exercise). In the studies with physical or pharmacologic stress a redistribution scintigraphy was also performed (4 hour after the injection). The dipyridamole stress test was well tolerated by patients with unstable angina too and showed a diagnostic sensitivity equivalent to that with exercise stress, although the latter appears better as regards image quality and can give an increase of sensitivity provided electrocardiographic findings are evaluated. Post-stress redistribution of 201 Tl in delayed scans was shown either after dipyridamole or after exercise in patients with typical angina without prior infarction. The computation, by the Bayes's theorem, of the predictive value of the two tests leads the Authors to the following conclusions: in atypical angina (prevalence of CAD: about 40%) the association MPS + exercise ECG is preferable; in patients with chest pain of uncertain origin or with asymptomatic electrocardiographic alterations (prevalence of CAD: about 15%) it is better to take into account only the scintigraphic findings obtained after exercise or pharmacologic stress, to avoid an excess of false positive results.