Thyroid status and nephron loss--a study in patients with chronic renal failure, end stage renal disease and/or on hemodialysis.

Thyroid function was measured in 30 healthy subjects and 84 patients with various degrees of nephron loss (GRF: 70 +/- 15 m/min, 30 +/- 16 ml/min, 10 +/- 7 ml/min and 2.1 +/- 1.3 ml/min). A low T3 and T4 syndrome is evident when GRF is reduced to 30 +/- 16 ml/min while a blunted TSH response is detected earlier in the course of nephron loss. T3 response to TRH was normal and FT4 was not affected by renal dysfunction. The data indicate that in nephron loss hypothalamic-pituitary abnormalities occur.

Is electrodiathermy coagulation (EDC) of cervical ectropion effective in the prevention of cervical carcinoma?

The Authors report their experience on the treatment of cervical ectropion by electrodiathermy coagulation (EDC). The effectiveness of this therapeutic approach in the prevention of cervical carcinoma is examined. Finally, it seems that this treatment can be a preventive measure of the precancerous lesions of the cervix, while it results unjustified the EDC treatment of cervical ectropion and TRZ .

Transrectal ultrasonography and cervical neoplasia. A preliminary report.

Transrectal ultrasonography is a new diagnostic method recently introduced in the study of normal and pathologic pelvis. The Authors describe their preliminary experience with the use of a rectal linear probe in the evaluation of the carcinoma of the cervix. This ultrasonographic method has resulted very useful in providing an imaging of cervical cancer in evaluating its effective diffusion and in precising demeasurements of the neoplastic mass. The results are particularly encouraging and justify continued experimentation.

[Craniosynostosis: is prenatal diagnosis possible?]. / Craniosinostosi: è possibile una diagnosi prenatale?

The authors report a case which demonstrates how an interdisciplinary collaboration between the obstetrician and pediatrician may be activated in the event of a suspected fetal malformation, in this case craniosynostosis, although it is important to recognise the diagnostic limitations of ultrasonography regarding this type of pathology.

Cyclosporin A in nephrotic syndrome of childhood--a 14 month experience.

Cyclosporin A (CsA) in combination with 6-methylprednisolone was administered over a six-month period to 10 children with nephrotic syndrome (6 frequently relapsing and 4 steroid resistant) at a dose providing blood CsA concentrations of 200-400 ng/ml. In frequent relapsers 6-methylprednisolone was given initially at a dose of 60 mg/m2/day and subsequently at a dose of 35 mg/m2/48 h. In steroid resistant cases the steroid was given at an initial dose of 1 mg/kg tapering to 0.35 mg/kg by the end of the first month and to 0.22 mg/kg by the fourth month being also administered at the same dosage during the fifth and the sixth month. Among the frequent relapsers there were 30 relapsers in 116 months before CsA and 1 relapse during 70 months after CsA (in 5 patients urine was protein free and 1 relapsed after 7 months. Two of the steroid resistant cases healed. There was a modest incidence of CsA toxicity as evidenced by the usual clinical monitoring and by evaluation of creatinine clearance, plasma potassium and evolution of renal parenchymal cells as studied in the course of sequential fine needle aspiration biopsies.

Sequential fine needle aspiration biopsy in glomerulonephritis.

Cellular immune mechanisms have been shown to play a prominent role in glomerulonephritis. Cellular mediators of inflammation cause both acute and progressive glomerular and tubular injury. Understanding the mediation pathways offers the opportunity for therapeutic manipulation. In addition to polymorphonuclear leucocytes, monocytes/macrophages, B-cells and T-cells subsets are being enumerated in normal and diseased renal tissues. The correlation between immunological findings in peripheral blood and infiltrate composition in renal tissue, by using weekly Fine Needle Aspiration Biopsy (FNAB), for assessing the clinical status and monitoring the immunosuppressive therapy was the aim of this study. When determining the intensity of inflammation the numerical values of the Total Corrected Increment (T.C.I.) were defined as follows: less than 1.5 no inflammation; from 1.5 to 2.0 inflammation possible; greater than 2.0 inflammation. The ratio between OKT4 and OKT8 was used as the index: greater than 2.0 immunologic activation; greater than 2.0 no immunologic activation. When the T.C.I. was greater than 1.5 and the OKT4/OKT8 less than 2.0, or the T.C.I. less than 1.5 and the OKT4/OKT8 greater than 2.0 we used only a standard treatment. When both activation indexes were in the normal range we have not treated the patients. When the T.C.I. was greater than 1.5 and the OKT4/OKT8 was greater than 2.0 we treated the patients with standard treatment plus methylprednisolone pulses every time the activation indexes monitored by FNAB, showed an increase. A spontaneous improvement was obtained in untreated patients. The patients treated by standard therapy alone showed a different outcome. All patients treated with standard therapy plus methyl-prednisolone pulses showed a progressive clinical improvement.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)

Acute renal failure due to cisplatin.

A case of acute renal failure associated with cisplatin therapy for a stage IV neuroepitelioma of the chest wall is described. This case was associated with a normal magnesium concentration and with presence of fibrinogen in the Tubular Basement Membrane and of IgG in the interstitial infiltrates. Immunological activation was evidentiated by fine needle aspiration biopsy (FNAB) at the time of renal biopsy.

Phase contrast microscopy of the urine sediment for the diagnosis of glomerular and nonglomerular bleeding-data in children and adults with normal creatinine clearance.

In a pediatric and in an adult group of patients with hematuria and normal creatinine clearance overnight urine examination was carried out on 2 nonconsecutive days by means of phase contrast microscopy by two independent observers working in two different institutions. In this way it was possible to distinguish between patients on the basis of dysmorphic (glomerular) and isomorphic (nonglomerular) red cells in urine and to correlate the findings with the final diagnosis. A clear-cut indication (more than 80% of isomorphic and/or dysmorphic red cells) was obtained in 163 patients (102 of pediatric age) and final diagnosis of hematuria correlated with red-cell microscopy findings in 96.4% of glomerular diseases and in all cases of nonglomerular origin. Mixed hematuria (50-75% of dysmorphic red cells) was found in 2 cases of renal tuberculosis, 2 cases of polycystic kidney disease and in 1 child with viral meningoencephalitis with a bladder stone. The data indicate that the method is safe and accurate but further experience must be gathered for the many etiologies of glomerular and nonglomerular diseases hitherto not studied.