Predictive validity of the Q16 questionnaire: a comparison between reported symptoms and neurobehavioral tests.

The correspondence between the answers to the Q16 questions regarding memory and attention-concentration and relevant neurobehavioral performance test scores has been evaluated. The sensitivity, specificity and diagnostic validity of Q16 have been assessed, taking the relevant neurobehavioral test score as a reference diagnostic criterion, the lower quartile of performance being considered as a poor response. The group under study consisted of 74 volunteers (24 females), aged 40 years on average (SD:7.5) and recruited among styrene-exposed workers and healthy controls. The test battery included the logical memory (short- and long-term) and the verbal learning (short- and long-term) tests of the Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale (WAIS). The answers to the Q16 questions were poorly related to the performance: self-perceived forgetfulness showed a limited agreement with the long-term logical memory test (r=-0.23, p<0.05). The number of false negatives (no symptom but low test scores) was generally high, giving rise to a very low sensitivity of the questionnaire, despite a relatively high specificity. Accordingly, the positive diagnostic validity was low (<30%), whereas the negative diagnostic validity was high (>80%). Different methods used to investigate subtle neurological changes give rise to inconsistencies between self-perceived disturbances and objective measurements of relevant functions. Owing to its low sensitivity and positive diagnostic value, the Q16 cannot be recommended as a screening tool among workers occupationally exposed to neurotoxic chemicals.

[The feasibility and current limits in the prevention of diabetic nephropathy]. / Fattibilità e limiti attuali nella prevenzione della nefropatia diabetica.

Diabetic nephropathy is the leading cause of uremia in Italy and other industrialized countries: once diabetic nephropathy commences, it advances slowly but inexorably to uremia. Prevention begins with strict control of blood sugar to inhibit or normalize glomerular hyperfiltration, and control of blood pressure to prevent glomerular hypertension and decrease microalbuminuria. Pharmacological measures include ACE-inhibitors and calcium channel blockers, alone or in combination, to reduce proteinuria and preserve renal function. It is believed that some classes of anti-hypertensive drugs have a direct pharmacological depressive effect on cell growth factors that lead to mesangial sclerosis: ACE-inhibitors would thus depress angiotensin II, and the calcium channel blockers would inhibit the increase in intracellular calcium of the mesangial cells which increases gene expression of early growth. Dietary sodium restriction seems to correct the expansion of the sodium pool and related volemic expansion hypertension. A protein-poor diet limits the precapillary glomerular vasodilatation resulting from protein-induced hyperaminoacidemia. The earlier dietetic and pharmacological measures are taken, the more effective they become: while they cannot arrest diabetic nephropathy once it has commenced, they are able to delay evolution of the disease to uremia.

[The paradigm of evidence based medicine applied to occupational health: an intervention model]. / Il paradigma della medicina basata sulle prove applicato alla salute occupazionale: un modello di intervento.

The Evidence Based Medicine paradigm has been used for searching literature data to be used for solving workers' health problems. Results show that useful information has been found in 9 problems out of 17 selected cases.