Ultrasonic processes for the advanced remediation of contaminated sediments.

Sediments play a fundamental role in the aquatic environment, so that the presence of contaminants poses severe concern for the possible negative effects on both environmental and human health. Sediment remediation is thus necessary to reduce pollutant concentrations and several techniques have been studied so far. A novel approach for sediment remediation is the use of Advanced Oxidation Processes, which include ultrasound (US). This paper focuses on the study of the ultrasonic effects for the simultaneous reduction of both organic and inorganic contaminants from sediments. To this end, the US technology was investigated as a stand-alone treatment as well as in combination with an electro-kinetic (EK) process, known to be effective in the removal of heavy metals from soil and sediments. The US remediation resulted in higher organic compound degradation, with an average 88% removal, but promising desorption yields (47-84%) were achieved for heavy metals as well. The combined EK/US process was found to be particularly effective for lead. Experimental outcomes highlighted the potential of the ultrasonic technology for the remediation of contaminated sediments and addressed some considerations for the possible scale-up.

[Monovascular coronary disease in the pre-angioplasty era]. / La malattia coronarica monovascolare in epoca pre-angioplastica.

Single-vessel coronary disease has been considered so far a benign condition, for which the medical therapy may represent the optimal treatment. In order to assess the effectiveness of this approach, we studied 323 patients who had come to our attention for ischemic heart disease and resulted affected by single-vessel coronary artery disease. From our data it appears that single-vessel coronary artery disease is frequently associated with myocardial infarction and post-infarction aneurysm. Coronary angiography indicated that left anterior descending coronary artery is the most frequently affected vessel, and that its involvement is often associated with lethal outcome. Forty-two out of the 323 patients underwent coronary artery bypass surgery; the remaining patients were medically treated. Surgical patients showed a better improvement respect to the medical group, while survival was not statistically different. An unexpected result was the relatively high risk in circumflex artery lesion. These data may justify a broader utilization of invasive therapy in recent onset angina, in light of the excellent results recently obtained with percutaneous transluminal coronary angioplasty.

Expression of preS1 and preS2 in the liver of chronic hepatitis B virus carriers.

Using monoclonal antibodies we have studied the expression and distribution pattern of preS1 and preS2 proteins in the liver of 25 patients with chronic hepatitis B virus infection. Both preS1 and preS2 were detected in the liver of most cases, independently of viral replication and of the state of the viral genome in the liver. In fact, preS1 and preS2 were present in the liver of 14 out of 15 patients with HBV-DNA in the serum as well as of 7 out of 10 cases with no evidence of viral replication, including 2 with integrated HBV-DNA sequences in the liver and 5 patients with no evidence of liver damage. The pattern of distribution of preS proteins was identical to that of hepatitis B surface antigen, with exclusive cytoplasmic staining in cases without viral replication and cytoplasmic and membranous positivity in those with viral replication. These results clearly indicate that translation of preS proteins is independent of viral replication and is not necessarily associated with liver damage.

Antibody to the hepatitis B virus receptor for polymerized albumin in acute infection and in hepatitis B vaccine recipients.

A receptor for polymerized human serum albumin is encoded by the pre-S region of the hepatitis B virus genome and may mediate attachment of the virion to hepatocytes. To investigate antibody response to the virus receptor we studied sera and their IgG fractions for inhibitory activity on hemagglutination of polyalbumin-coated red cells by virus particles containing the pre-S polypeptide. By this method antibody to the receptor was detected in serum in a goat immunized with pre-S containing particles, with no relation to levels of antibody to hepatitis B surface antigen, and in the sera of 33% and 83%, respectively, of acute hepatitis B patients studied during the early phase of illness and during convalescence. In contrast, antibody to the receptor was not detected in serum in any of the 47 subjects immunized with a commercial, plasma-derived, hepatitis B vaccine. These results demonstrate that natural acute infection with hepatitis B virus leads to production of antibody to the virus receptor for polyalbumin, while such antibody response is absent after immunization with currently licensed hepatitis B vaccines.