RadioLab project: knowledge of radon gas in Italy.

RadioLab is an Italian project, addressed to school-age people, and designed for the dissemination of scientific culture on the theme of environmental radioactivity, with particular regards to the importance of knowledge of radon gas exposure. The project is a nationwide initiative promoted by the National Institute of Nuclear Physics- INFN. First tool used by the project, and of immediate impact to assess the public awareness on radon, is the administration of the survey "do you know the radon gas?". In the survey, together with the knowledge of radon and of its sources, information on personal, cultural and territorial details regarding the interviewees are also taken. Reasonably, the survey invests not only young people, but also their relatives, school workers and, gradually, the public. The survey is administrated during exhibitions or outreach events devoted to schools, but also open to the public. The survey is in dual form: printed and online. The online mode clearly leads RadioLab project even outside the school environment. Based on the results of the survey, several statistical analyses have been performed and many conclusions are drawn about the knowledge of the population on the radon risk. The RadioLab benefit and the requirement to carry on the project goals, spreading awareness of environmental radioactivity from radon, emerge. The dataset involves all twenty Italian regions and consists of 28,612 entries covering the 5-year period 2018-2022.

Celiac disease with cerebral calcium and silica deposits: x-ray spectroscopic findings, an autopsy study.

An increased incidence of seizures and cerebral calcifications, usually bilateral and located in the occipital cortex, has been reported in celiac patients. The histology of cerebral lesions is not well defined, and their pathogenesis is only speculative. We report the autopsy results of a patient with celiac disease, seizures, and cerebral calcifications who died following a cerebral hemorrhage caused by Fisher-Evans syndrome. Calcifications were restricted to the cortical gray matter and composed of aggregates of small calcified spicules. Calcium deposition was present as psammoma-like bodies, along small vessels, and within neurons. X-ray spectroscopy of the calcified areas revealed that calcium (43%) and silica (57%) were present in the lesions. High silica content was also found in the cerebral hemorrhagic fluid. Silica toxicity has to be considered in regard to the pathogenesis of the cerebral lesions and of the seizures.

Compensation of random eye motion in television ophthalmoscopy: preliminary results.

Involuntary eye movements make the observation of the ocular fundus on a TV monitor fatiguing for the physician, not to mention the practical impossibility of measuring dynamic phenomena such as the venous pulse observed in a sensible percentage of patients. It is therefore necessary to measure and compensate, for display and analysis, the displacement between each image in the video sequence and a reference one. This paper reports the results of a preliminary set of registration experiments, carried out on low quality photographs of the ocular fundus obtained without contrast medium. The results confirm the robustness of the chosen approach, phase correlation. The effects of choices such as computer word length or raw-data windowing on system performance are also analyzed.

Progressive cerebral calcifications, epilepsy, and celiac disease.

A case with progressive cerebral calcifications, white matter involvement, and drug-resistant epilepsy in a 9-year-old boy is described. The final diagnosis was celiac disease (CD). The relationship of CD with epileptogenic lesions is considered, and the possible significance of this association is discussed.

Intractable epilepsy: etiology, risk factors and treatment.

The data emerging from our study are the following: the presence of an identifiable cause is important: complications like tuberous sclerosis or signs of marked cerebral damage represent an adverse risk factor for IE. The presence of epilepsy among relatives, evidence of pre- or perinatal cerebral damage, mental retardation, and early onset, long periods of uncontrolled seizures before starting an adequate therapy and frequency of seizures appear to be indicative of an adverse prognosis, since differences between the two groups of responsive or unresponsive patients are statistically significant. On the contrary, the occurrence of febrile convulsions in the past history does not seem to have an adverse prognosis. Temporal lobe epilepsy and IS bear the worst prognosis. ME, CPS, GTCS, SPS, LGS and PM have a progressively better outcome in responsiveness to AEDs. Concerning therapy in patients with IE, studies indicate the results of high dose monotherapy appear to be equal or better than with polypharmacy. Because of the gravity of the situation, trials with unconventional drugs have been performed, but it is too early to draw definite conclusions about the long-term usefulness of most of them. In conclusion, our data indicate that the appearance of an IE can be predicted utilizing the above mentioned criteria, considered either alone or in combination. The issue of IE remains undoubtedly an important one among the group of convulsive disorders. Further studies considering a greater number of patients and new therpeutic strategies are to be recommended.

Radon measurements by nuclear track detectors in secondary schools in Oke-Ogun region, Nigeria.

Radon measurements were performed in secondary schools in the Oke-Ogun area, South-west, Nigeria, by solid state nuclear track detectors (SSNTDs). About seventy CR-39 detectors were distributed in 35 high schools of the Oke-Ogun area. The CR-39 detectors were exposed in the schools for 3 months and then etched in NaOH 6 N solution at 90 °C for 3 h. The tracks were counted manually at the microscope and the radon concentration was determined at the Radioactivity Laboratory, Department of Physics, University of Trieste, Trieste, Italy. The overall average radon concentration in the surveyed area was 45 ± 27 Bq m(-3). The results indicate no radiological health hazard. The research also focused on parameters affecting radon concentrations such as the age of the building in relation to building materials and floor number of the classrooms. The results show that radon concentrations in ground floors are higher than in upper floors.

Use of intravenous immunoglobulins in drug-resistant epilepsy.

Among the 257 pediatric patients examined, 104 were classified as having drug-resistant epilepsy (DRE). In all of them genetic, metabolic, chromosomal and infectious causes were investigated, and brain imaging with computed tomography scans and nuclear magnetic resonance were obtained. Since treatment with gammaglobulins (GGs) has been reported to be useful in pediatric cases of epilepsy, informed consent for GGs treatment was obtained in 43 patients with DRE. The etiology or evidence of brain lesions was identified in 16 of them. In 31 of these patients, neither conventional drug treatment, nor a trial with adrenocorticotropic hormone was successful. Intact monomeric GGs, 400 mg/kg, were given intravenously. A second dose was given after 15 days and, thereafter, every 21 days for a maximum of ten injections (protocol A), or every 2nd day for a maximum of five doses (protocol B). In every patient, the type of epilepsy was identified according to the classification of the International League Against Epilepsy. The frequency of seizures was recorded for a period beginning at least 6 months before the administration of GGs. Immunological evaluation was also performed before and after the treatment with GGs. A transient decrease of the seizure frequency was noted in 12 subjects. In another patient with infantile idiopathic myoclonic epilepsy, seizures disappeared for 30 months. In 1 case a persistent 80% reduction in the number of seizures was observed. A persistent disappearance of seizures was noted in a subject with complex partial seizures (CPS) that followed an idiopathic infantile spasm syndrome.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)

Celiac disease and epilepsy in pediatric patients.

Among 783 patients referred to our institute with different types of seizures as presenting symptom, systematic evaluation of antigliadin and antiendomysial antibodies in the serum has identified nine in whom jejunal biopsy has subsequently confirmed the diagnosis of celiac disease (CD). In three of them brain imaging showed the presence of calcified areas in the occipital region. They had complex partial seizures (CPS), associated in two with transient episodes of blindness. In another patient with CPS and generalized tonic-clonic seizures (GTCS) progressive multifocal cerebral calcifications were noted. In the other six patients with CPS and/or GTCS cerebral calcifications were absent. Symptoms of CD in all these cases were either not previously taken into account, or they were very mild or completely absent. In a group of 36 patients with clinically manifest CD, regular follow-up, and good compliance with the dietary regimen, no clinical seizures were reported. The pathogenetic mechanism and the relationship between epilepsy and an early diagnosis and treatment of celiac disease are discussed.