[Incidence of dyslipidemia and diseases associated with arteriosclerosis in a hospital population]. / Incidenza delle dislipidemie e malattie associate all'arteriosclerosi in una popolazione ospedaliera.

The authors present the results of a research on 3,888 patients (1,768 males and 2,120 females) admitted to the 1st Internal Medicine Department of Leghorn Hospital during two years (from July 1993 to June 1995). The research is intended to value the hyperlipidaemia's incidence in hospitalized patients, and the association between hyperlipidaemias and some diseases generally considered as consequences or favouring conditions of atherosclerosis. The results of the study show the not secondary role of hyperlipidaemias in hospitalization phenomen and their frequent association with important cardiovascular and metabolic diseases.

[Thrombosis of the superior vena cava and lateral-cervical lymphadenopathy (probably of metastatic origin). Report of a case]. / Trombosi della vena cava superiore e linfoadenopatia laterocervicale (di probabile origine metastatica). Descrizione di un caso.

The authors describe a case of superior vena cava thrombosis with laterocervical lymphoadenopathy (probably of metastatic origin). Vascular tumors are a large neoplasm family with a wide clinical and histological spectrum. They may localize on the skin, soft tissues, liver, spleen and parotid gland. The case describes a 65 year-old male, affected by COLD and chronic hepatitis. He came to the hospital for strong gastric pain, which did not vary with meal assumption and objectivity of inflated superficial veins of arms, jugular veins, chest superficial veins and venous capillars and of the epigastric zone, accompanied with right laterocervical lymphoadenomegaly. Endoscopic ultrasonic and X-ray examinations showed a superior vena cava thrombosis determining superficial collateral, azygos and emiazygos vein inflation. The histologic examination of pathologic lymph nodes resulted as hemangioendotelioma/angiosarcoma, a rare case of lymphonodal vascular tumor with a very poor prognosis.

[Lymphoblastic lymphoma of the renal cavity associated with hemorrhagic pericarditis. Description of a case]. / Linfoma linfoblastico della loggia renale associato a pericardite emorragica. Descrizione di un caso.

The authors describe a case of lymphoblastic lymphoma of the renal lodge complicated by hemorrhagic pericarditis, cardiac tamponade and quickly evolved in an unfavourable way. Lymphoblastic lymphoma is classified into lymphocytic lymphomas (or non-Hodgkin) with a higher grade of malignancy. These lymphomas have, in 40% of cases, an initially extra-lymph node localization: among these, the renal or perirenal localization is not very frequent. The concomitant presence of a pericarditis of hemorrhagic type is also less frequent. Unlike Hodgkin's lymphomas, lymphocytic lymphomas are frequently in an advanced stage at the moment of diagnosis, and their evolution is of acute-subacute, often fatal type. The case report is about a 70 year old male, who arrived at the clinical investigation for the subjective presence of asthenia, dyspnea, tachycardia and the objective evidence of jugular turgor, hepatomegaly and distal edemas, hypophonesis of right lung basis, according to a clinical picture of systemic venous congestion which instrumental examinations confirm to be of pericardial origin. The abdominal echographic examination showed an occupation of the perirenal space, so the CAT characterized as a 25 cm long formation (from the renal cavity to pelvis), with a dislocation of close structures. Unfortunately, the clinical picture had a quick evolution towards the exitus for cardiac tamponade, only permitting us a bioptic examination for the diagnosis of the case.

Biological effects of PEMF (pulsing electromagnetic field): an attempt to modify cell resistance to anticancer agents.

Pulsing Electromagnetic Field (PEMF) effects lead to a modification of the multidrug resistance (MDR) of cells in vitro and in vivo. The murine leukemic doxorubicin-resistant cell line, P388/Dx, subjected to PEMF irradiation in vitro, showed a significant difference in thymidine incorporation when the concentration of doxorubicin reached a level of 1 microgram/mL, which corresponds to the inhibition dose 50 (ID50). The human lymphoblastic leukemia vinblastine-resistant cell line, CEM/VLB100, also showed a significant modification under the same experimental conditions at the in vitro ID50 corresponding to a vinblastine concentration of 100 ng/mL. BDF1 mice transplanted with P388/Dx cells also had an increase in their life span when doxorubicin was injected intraperitoneally in fractionated doses, while being subjected to PEMF irradiation.

Effects of thiobenzamide on the rat immune system.

Thiobenzamide (TB) is a thiono-containing compound endowed with liver-damaging properties and promoting ability on liver carcinogenesis. When administered in a single dose to normal as well as to adrenalectomized rats, this compound induced a striking thymus cortex involution without relevant effects on the morphological features of other lymphoid organs such as spleen and lymph nodes. The proximal TB metabolite TB-S-oxide (TBSO) shared these effects with the parent compound, whereas the terminal metabolite benzamide (BA) was ineffective. The effect of TB on thymus was found to be dose- and age-dependent. Furthermore, acute TB treatment 12h before priming with the T-dependent antigen sheep erythrocytes impaired the secondary antibody response. In addition, TB administration affected not only cell-mediated immunity (as evidenced by a decreased delayed hypersensitivity response) but also mitogen-induced proliferation of blood lymphocytes. On the contrary, the chemotactic response of polymorphonuclear leukocytes obtained from TB-treated rats was unchanged.

[Immunosuppressive effect and promotor activity for hepatic carcinogenesis of thiobenzamide]. / Effetto immunosoppressore ed attivita' promovente sulla cancerogenesi epatica da parte della tiobenzamide.

Thiobenzamide (TB) administration to rats (1 g/Kg of diet for 4 weeks) 10 days after a single i.p. injection of dimethylnitrosamine promotes the growth of preneoplastic liver lesions as evidenced by the sharp increase in number and area of gamma-glutamyltranspeptidase-positive hepatocellular foci. At the same time the number of the plaque forming cells isolated from the spleen of rats challenged with sheep red blood cell after the completion of a TB cycle is significantly lower than in the controls 5 as well 13 days after immunization. Accordingly, TB could act as immunodepressant in the rat; this should be taken into account as far as the promoting ability of such xenobiotic is concerned.