Transcranial color Doppler in stroke-free adult patients with sickle cell disease.

The threshold velocity ≥200 cm/s at transcranial Doppler (TCD) evaluation is a useful cut-off for preventing the stroke (STOP trial) in pediatric patients with sickle cell disease (SCD), term including different types of sickle genotypes. Scanty data are available for adult SCD patients. We compared intracranial blood flow velocities between adult SCD patients and controls using transcranial color Doppler (TCCD), measuring the peak of systolic velocity (PSV) with the insonation angle correction and the pulsatility index (PI), an indicator of endothelial elasticity. Fifty-three adult SCD patients (aged >18 years) were enrolled (15 sickle cell anemia, 26 sickle cell thalassemia, and 12 HbS/HbC). None of the patients presented neurological signs. PSVs in middle cerebral artery (MCA) were higher in SCD patients than in controls (p = 0.001). In sickle cell anemia patients, PSVs were higher when compared to HbS/ßThal (p < 0.0060) and HbS/HbC patients (p < 0.0139). PI was within the lower range of normality in SCD patients compared to controls. Moreover, MCA-PSV was higher with lower Hb levels and higher HbS%; PI did not change with variation of Hb levels and HbS%.PSV and PI in SCD adult patients could be a relevant index to indicate the abnormal cerebral blood flow and to detect the sickle endothelial damage, in order to prevent cerebrovascular accidents.

Doppler examination in varicocele. A standard method of evaluation.

Doppler sonography is considered a reliable method for detecting reflux due to venous valvular incompetence, which occurs in varicocele. It is, however, a matter of debate whether the characteristics of this reflux can be correlated quantitatively in a clinical setting. In this study, a two-step method was utilized to identify reflux in basal conditions with the patient standing and breathing spontaneously and to determine the time of centrifugal secondary venous reflux of the distal spermatic cord during the squeezing and relaxing maneuver. This method is closely related to that used by the vascular surgeon to detect valvular incontinence of the saphenous vein. Since Doppler sonography is much more reproducible than Valsalva's maneuver, it is therefore much more reliable. In a 12-month period, 625 patients with pathologic findings in at least two spermiograms were studied. Thirty percent showed constant basal reflux not influenced by respiratory exhilation. The squeezing and relaxing maneuver induced secondary reflux longer than 1.6 seconds in 17%, between 0.8 and 1.6 seconds in 17% and less than 0.8 seconds in 36% of the patients. The higher sensitivity and specificity of Doppler examination compared with thermography and angiography, as well as its low cost and noninvasiveness, make this the procedure of choice in the diagnosis of venous reflux in varicocele.

Predictive factors for cholelithiasis complications.

BACKGROUND: Cholelithiasis is a benign disease that is very frequently encountered throughout the world. Its surgical mortality is usually minimal (0.1%), but the risk is considerably greater (2-10%) in patients developing complications particularly if they are elderly. The identification of possible predictive signs of complications is therefore crucial for the indication of preventive surgery. METHODS: The present study retrospectively examined 490 patients admitted to hospital because of complicated and uncomplicated cholelithiasis in order to establish the existence of previous (clinical or instrumental) symptoms that may be predictive of the course of the disease. The analysis of some variables (age, sex, pregnancy, diet, ethanol consumption, smoking, previous/concomitant diseases, and blood chemistry and instrumental test results) and the specific symptoms of cholelithiasis made it possible to identify two potential risk factors: an age of more than 60 years and the onset of biliary colic. RESULTS: The risk of developing complications is 3.2 times greater in patients aged more than 60 years than in those who are younger, and 3.3 times greater in symptomatic than in asymptomatic patients. Statistical analysis also revealed that the risk of complications is about ten times greater in patients with both risk factors than in those with neither. CONCLUSIONS: In conclusion, the indication for surgery must be considered absolute in symptomatic patients aged more than 60 years and relative to younger symptomatic patients.

Indications and results of the surgical treatment in Raynaud's phenomenon.

203 patients submitted in the last 20 years to surgery, first by Smithwick's sympathectomy, then by Adson's gangliectomy and lastly by Telford's gangliectomy, were controlled. The frequency of true Raynaud's disease is with time decreasing and is found today in the minority of the patients suffering from Raynaud's phenomenon and surgically treated. Immunological tests detect frequent associated autoimmune disorders to be treated before surgery. Surgical indication is today selective. For this reason long term results are improving: 90% of positive results in the last series against 73% and 60% respectively in the previous series.

The effects of a hydrocolloid dressing on bacterial growth and the healing process of leg ulcers.

Thirty patients with lower extremity ulcers of different aetiologies, although mainly of venous origin, were treated with an occlusive hydrocolloid dressing twice a week for a maximum period of 12 weeks. No antibacterial chemotherapy was utilized. A culture was taken of the exudate of the ulcer before commencement of treatment and weekly or bi-weekly thereafter. The results showed a mixed flora with prevalence of Staphylococcus aureus. The average duration of the treatment period was 67 +/- 11 days with a total of 26 patients being healed by the end of this period. The average interval between dressing changes was 4.1 days. Subsequent bacterial cultures showed a persistence of the original flora, but there was no correlation between the type of flora present and clinical evidence of infection or between the type of flora present and the rate of healing of the ulcer. Clinical evaluation of the results obtained with the hydrocolloid dressing was favourable in respect to reduced risk of contamination of the ulcer, lower pain perception and less trauma to the granulation tissue during dressing changes.

Effects of buflomedil in a group of patients with chronic peripheral arterial diseases. Clinical and hemorheological evaluation.

Fifty-three patients suffering from chronic arterial diseases of the lower limbs were treated with buflomedil, a vasoactive drug with vasodilating and hemorheological action on the microcirculation. The patients suffered from pain on walking or pain at rest; they were given 300 mg buflomedil orally twice a day for a period of about 2 months. The walking distance before pain onset was checked in all patients before and after the trial. Blood and plasma viscosity, haematocrit and fibrinogen and a Doppler velocimetry were also recorded. A significant improvement of the walking distance before pain onset was observed in nearly all patients, and in most patients the morphology of the velocity waves improved, too. No clear correlation between the positive clinical results and the hemorheological parameters studied could be observed.

[Pancreas transplantation. II]. / Il trapianto di pancreas. Parte seconda.

So far no really successful therapy has been found for diabetes mellitus, though it is a common disease and its complications, involving microangiopathy, are extremely serious. The serious limitation of all forms of insulin therapy (various types of insulin and insulin pump) is the impossibility of achieving a fast, successful response to either the variations in blood sugar levels after eating or increased glucogenogenesis caused by glycosteroids and adrenalin. The prolonged hyperglycaemic peaks which result, may well be one of the possible causes of microangiopathy. Only a system which responds to blood sugar variations by stimulating adequate insulin secretion immediately will provide correct prophylaxis for the complications of diabetes mellitus. At the moment only P-pancreatic cells have this capacity and in theory pancreas transplantation seems to be the best treatment for diabetes. However out of 105 complete pancreas transplants only 5 survived for over a year, with the aid of immunosuppressants. Equally none of the 66 allotransplants of pancreatic islands in immunosuppressed patients was successful in the long term. It is also important to bear in mind that long term immunosuppression may prove more dangerous than microangiopathy itself. For these reasons a new cell transplant system using molecular sieve membranes to create an immunological barrier is being investigated. Although it is too early to forecast long-term results, continuous progress is being made and recent discoveries about the physiology of beta pancreatic cells encourage the belief that this approach may be successful in the future.

[Doppler ultrasonic method of blood velocity measurement in Raynaud's phenomenon]. / La velocimetria Doppler nel fenomeno di Raynaud.

Ten patients, 3 males and 7 females, aging less then 50 years (M: 37), suffering from at least one year for a Raynaud's phenomenon surely not due to a costo-clavicular syndrome, were studied. A Doppler ultrasound evaluation was first done recording the pressure and the speed at the omeral, radial, ulnar, and digital arteries. The patients were then submitted to an angiography in general anaesthesia through puncture of the omeral artery and to screening tests to detect possible associated immunopathological diseases. In the patients affected by Raynaud's phenomenon the vascular lesions are generally distal to the omeral artery; the only surgical indication is a thoracic gangliectomy. Our experience shows that the Doppler velocimetry gives all the data necessary to check the efficacy of a pharmacological treatment and to state a correct surgical indication.

[Treatment of acute symptoms of hemorrhoid disease with high-dose oral O-(beta-hydroxyethyl)-rutosides]. / Trattamento dei sintomi acuti della malattia emorroidaria con O-(beta-idrossietil)-rutosidea ad alte dosi per via orale.

The pharmacological treatment is widely used in the therapy of haemorrhoids. An efficient treatment is particularly useful in case of haemorrhoids of 2nd, 3rd and 4th degree, when phlogosis, oedema and pain are present. Forty patients were treated with either O-(beta-hydroxyethyl)-rutosides (4 g/day orally) or placebo in a double blind randomized comparative trial. The groups of treatment were homogeneous. O-(beta-hydroxyethyl)-rutosides induced a statistically significant reduction of pain and bleeding; placebo did not induce any significant improvement. Tolerability was good and similar for both treatments. It has never been necessary to stop treatment for side effects. The results obtained in this study confirm the usefulness on administering an oral treatment, and not only a local treatment, to patients with acute symptoms of haemorrhoids, both in case of intermittent treatment and in case it is used to prepare quickly the patient for surgery.

[Peripheral stenosing-occlusive arteriopathies. Doppler echographic and digital angiographic evaluation]. / Arteriopatie steno-occlusive periferiche. Valutazione ecografica Doppler e angiografia digitale.

The value of Doppler ultrasound examination and digital intravenous angiography was comparatively evaluated in 207 patients with peripheral vascular disease submitted to both techniques. Owing to the fact that in some patients more than one vascular district was examined, the overall number of evaluations was 232 Doppler ultrasounds and 233 digital angiographies. Doppler ultrasound revealed a normal picture in 18/232 cases, steno-occlusive disease in 186/232 cases and various pathological conditions in the remaining 18 cases. With digital angiography, normal vascularity was observed in 33/233 patients, while steno-occlusive disease was present in 164/233 and vascular anatomical abnormalities, like kinking, were found in 20 cases. Doppler/angiographical correlation was fairly good, being complete in 83/207 patients and substantial (i.e.: the same diagnosis but different degree of pathological involvement) in 79 additional cases: the overall diagnostic agreement between Doppler and angiography was 162/207 cases (78%). False negative Doppler results were 29/207, while the false positive Doppler examinations were 16/207. The most common causes of diagnostic errors are evaluated and discussed, both for Doppler ultrasound and for digital angiography. Arterial kinking and vascular abnormalities are recognized as an obvious cause of wrong Doppler diagnoses which can be easily discovered by the angiographic picture. The usefulness of performing both techniques in combination is demonstrated and stressed.

[The trophic venous ulcer. The physiopathological, microbiological and pharmacological aspects]. / L'ulcera trofica venosa. Aspetti fisiopatologici, microbiologici e farmacologici.

The ulcus cruris is an ulcerative lesions caused by chronic venous stasis and chronic venous hypertension. Every pathologic obstacle to venous return can cause ulcus cruris. Ulcus could be brought back to 3 situations: postphlebitic syndrome, chronic venous insufficiency and primitive varicosities. The common denominator is always the increase in venous pressure, the appearance of reflux and venous stasis. Venous ulcers are possibly characterized by tissue degeneration and by bacterial superinfection. A particular bacterial flora is found in these injuries, it is qualitatively different from that of healthy skin. The therapy of ulcus cruris cannot leave out by its etiopathogenesis: the first treatment always consists in the stasis suppression to arrive quickly to a complete cicatricial would repair. In it three moments are recognizable: ulcus abstersion, disinfection and cicatrization. The venous ulcer is not cured when it is closed, but when it has no recurrency: the cicatrization is obtainable treating the principal causes, eliminating the venous stasis and anticipating the relapses.

[Notes on cryosurgery in proctology]. / Annotazioni in tema di criochirurgia in proctologia.

The A. in a review of the outpatient proctologic practice suggest the application of the crioprobe to the piles first and second degree, and to polyps small ones. A pathogenetic hypothesis of this narrowing application is supported on the basis of the unpractible mucosa, affected by 3rd degree piles. Furthermore the N2O employment seems to be unusefull in the treatment of the polyps and a further improvement of the probes is required.

[Plasma and erythrocyte magnesium concentration in the postoperative period. Relations between calcium and magnesium]. / La concentrazione del magnesio plasmatico ed eritrocitario nel decorso postoperatorio. I rapporti tra calcio e magnesio

Transient hypomagnesiaemia was noted postoperatively, particularly on the 1st day in patients submitted to intestinal procedures. Slight hypocalcaemia was also observed; this was often related to a low plasma Mg value. A hormonal mechanism is presumed to be the cause of this stress-linked fall in blood magnesium.

[Venous Doppler velocimetry: ten years of development of a method]. / La velocimetria Doppler venosa: dieci anni di evoluzione di un metodo.

Doppler velocimetry enables three haemodynamic parameters that are extremely useful for the study of venous diseases to be evaluated: blood flow direction, the morphology of the velocity wave and venous pressure. These three parameters are used in association depending on the particular requirements of the diagnostic problem. In the case of suspected deep venous thrombosis, study of the morphology of the velocity wave and clinostatism pressure give good diagnostic possibilities for the iliaco-femoral axis but poor for the leg trunks. In post-thrombotic syndrome, Doppler velocimetry is not so useful because the patient has to remain immobile during the examination while this specific pathology features insufficiency of the muscular pump during walking. In varicose disease, the investigation offers a very high diagnostic capability by evidencing the site and extent of valvular incontinence in the saphena and perforating vessels. The only limitation is the presence of numerous incontinent perforating vessels, but this is infrequent. In this pathology, Doppler v. has almost completely supplanted phlebography because it responds to the needs of modern medicine to replace invasive diagnostic investigations with non-invasive techniques that are equally effective. Finally, two other fields of application are very important for this investigation: the study of a patient with varices prior to saphenic stripping and prior to sclerotherapy. Definition of the origin and course of the reflux ways makes an optimal result possible, even allowing for the evolution of varicosity.