[Mortality triplicates in acute myocardial infarction patients affected by chronic renal failure]. / L'insufficienza renale triplica il rischio di morte intraospedaliera nell'Infarto del Miocardio.

In order to calculate the cardiovascular risk in patients with chronic renal failure (CRF), we retrospectively analyzed 1482 acute myocardial infarctions (AMIs) treated in the ICU at C. Poma General Hospital, Mantua, Italy, from 1 December 2004 to 31 July 2007. Of these patients, 133 suffered from CRF at hospital admission (eGFR <40 mL/min/1.73 m2 body surface and/or serum creatinine >2 mg/dL). During hospitalization for AMI, the CRF-affected patients showed a 2.7 times higher relative risk of mortality than patients without CRF (Yates chi square 14.46; p = 0.0001432). The evaluated comorbidities (hypertension, type 2 diabetes, supra-aortic vascular stenosis >70%, previous PTCA, COPD, previous AMI, previous coronary artery bypass and chronic obliterative peripheral arteriopathy) increased the relative risk of death 1.2- to 3.76-fold in those affected. In accord with recent evidence in the international literature, our results point to the importance of early assessment of CRF for the prognosis of patients with AMI.

[Prevention and therapy of critical ischemia in hemodialyzed patients]. / Prevenzione e terapia dell'ischemia critica nell'uremico in terapia dialitica.

The cardiovascular disease is largely increased in chronic renal failure and the patients have a 10-20 times higher mortality respect normal population. Besides habitual risk-factors they add the mineral metabolism alterations, iperomocisteine and chronical vessel flogosis. In these patients the vascular disease is often lately diagnosed, but early diagnosis would be extremely important to establish appropriate pharmacologic or surgical treatment (PTA or by pass). The basic diagnostic methods are still digital angiography, angio-NMR or angio-CT. In our experience appears that dialysed patients present high total mortality and re-vascolarization (particularly for peripheral occlusive disease) gives less guarantee of success. During last years endovascular surgery procedures extremely improved short-term prognosis for these patients. When there is no space for the re-vascolarization and the situation is strongly compromised by the presence of extended gangrene or infected lesion, amputation is still indicated and can be considered the only possible solution.

Personality changes in Alzheimer's disease.

BACKGROUND: Assessment of personality changes in patients with dementia has received little systematic investigation, although caregivers report personality modifications in every phase of dementia. METHODS: A group of 52 patients with probable Alzheimer's disease (AD) vs. a group of fifteen control subjects were selected for these personality tests before and after the manifestation of dementia using an Italian version of Brooks and McKinaly's Personality Inventory (PI). RESULTS: After the onset of AD, a significant shift from positive to negative characteristics in PI was observed in 12 of 18 bipolar pairs of adjectives constituting the instrument and the total mean PI score decreased significantly (p < 0.001), indicating a substantial worsening of personality profile. In the control group however, evaluated before and after retirement, personality traits and total mean PI score did not show a significant change. The association of personality traits and total PI score with demographic, cognitive and functional characteristics of AD patients was calculated. CONCLUSION: Personality changes have been depicted to be influenced by severity of cognitive, functional and behavioural complaints rather than age, sex, education and disease duration. These first applications of the Italian version of PI confirmed that personality modifications make a consistent aspect of the phenomenology of AD although in the negative direction. Further studies are needed to understand the nature of personality changes in dementia and the utility of PI to investigate these changes.

Effectiveness of a cognitive rehabilitation program in mild dementia (MD) and mild cognitive impairment (MCI): a case control study.

Data support the evidence that neuropsychological rehabilitation is effective in Alzheimer disease (AD), to strengthen the pharmacological treatment to delay the progression of dementia. At moment, a few studies have examined the efficacy of non-pharmacological treatment in MCI. This is a controlled study that assesses the effectiveness of neuropsychological rehabilitation on cognitive and behavioral symptoms and functional status in a group of community-dwelling subjects with MCI and MD. Our results demonstrate that a systematic rehabilitation, that provides a computerized cognitive program training, produces an improvement in cognitive and affective status of patients with MCI and MD, while a rehabilitation program not providing a punctual stimulation of cognitive functions, does not have significant effects.

[Type 2 diabetic nephropathy: clinical course and prevention proposals 2004]. / Diabete di 2 tipo e nefropatie: storia naturale e proposte di prevenzione 2004.

The first clinical evidence of nephropathy is the appearance of low, but abnormal, albumin levels in the urine (>30 mg/day or 20 mg/min), microalbuminuria. Without specific interventions, approximately 80% of type 1 diabetics have their urinary albumin excretion increase at a rate of 10-20%/yr to the stage of overt nephropathy or clinical albuminuria (>300 mg/24h or >200 mg/min) over 10-15 yrs, developing hypertension along the way. Approximately 30% of individuals with type 2 diabetes are found to have microalbuminuria or overt nephropathy shortly after the diagnosis of their illness, because diabetes is actually present for many years previously and because the presence of albuminuria can depend on other concomitant nephropathies, as shown by biopsy studies. Without specific intervention, 20-40% of type 2 diabetic patients with microalbuminuria progress to overt nephropathy, but 20 yrs after onset only 20% progress to end-stage renal failure (ESRD). The rates of decline in glomerular filtration rate (GFR) are highly variable from one individual to another, but they may not be substantially different between patients with type 1 and type 2 diabetes. As therapies and interventions for coronary artery disease continue to improve, more elderly type 2 diabetes patients can be expected to survive long enough to develop renal failure. The recently published Italian Society of Nephrology (SIN) guidelines for diagnosis and therapy of diabetic nephropathy present the route for the best strategies in prevention and therapy, from earlier onset to advanced ESRD.

[A good vascular access allows an effective treatment]. / Un buon accesso vascolare permette un trattamento efficace.

Vascular access (VA) for dialysis is defined as the 'Achilles heel', but also the 'Cinderella' of dialysis, indicating the poor consideration of the problem whether in the surgical environment, or in incomprehensible way in that nephrologic. It can only aspire to the definition 'Fundamental detail'. However, presupposed effective dialysis is a blood flow rate of 300-350 mL/min. Good VA must be easy to prepare, long lasting, free from complications, and aesthetically acceptable and economical. The arteriovenous fistula (AVF) of Cimino and Brescia, from 1966, represents the gold standard and the model of comparison for other systems, more technologically advanced. It must be programmed with an adapted margin (1-2 months) to allow maturation and access certainty for the first puncture, and never carried out sooner than 14 days from the operation. It is known from hemodynamic studies that the good functional flow of the new fistula can already regain 400-500 ml/min in the first week, with cardiological implications like the increase in cardiac throw, in ejection fraction and in the cardiac index. Health workers, patients and dialysis staff must follow a continuous educational program to protect the VA and avoid 'routine and absent-minded management', a basis for its premature failure. The nephrologist must take the responsibility upon himself not to carry out 'medical malpractice'. In the Dialysis Center of Mantova, the VA 'road map' previews all patients (young and old, affections from mono or pluropathology), first the fistula to the wrist, then the cephalic proximal. It follows the basilic vein transposition, the vascular graft to the arm or to the groin, as an alternative to peritoneal dialysis. The permanent central venous catheter (CVCp) is the last choice in patients with reduced life expectancy, heart failure, neoplastic patients with vascular patrimony destroyed by chemotherapy and ischemic lesions produced by the fistula. There were 180 afferent prevailing patients at the Mantova Dialysis Center . The natural fistula rate was 91%, grafts 7% and CVCps 2%. Between 2000 and 31 March 2004 we prepared 367 VAs. Average patient age was 65 yrs, range 20-90 yrs; 59% male and 41% female. Eighty-eight percent of operations were performed by the nephrologist (distal fistula, rescue and cephalic proximal) and 12% by the vascular surgeon (basilic vein transposition, graft in PTFE stretch to the arm and to the groin and permanent catheter in the jugular vein). The fistula with native veins was the better solution, the graft must be prepared after the exhaustion of natural possibilities, and the CVCp, for serious complications (inadequate flow and infections), must be the last alternative.

[Acute renal failure caused by VIP-secreting tumor]. / Una causa rara di insufficienza renale acuta: il VIPoma.

A 74-year-old woman had secretory diarrhea, severe metabolic acidosis, hypokalemia, hypovolemia, and acute renal failure caused by a pancreatic vasoactive intestinal polypeptide (VIP)-secreting tumor. Vipoma is a rare neuroendocrine tumor. Morbidity and mortality are related to long-standing dehydration and electrolyte and acid-base disturbance resulting in acute renal failure. Diagnosis requires the documentation of large volumes of secretory diarrhea, elevated VIP plasma levels, and the localization of the VIP-secreting tumor. Metastases are present in 50% of patients at the time of diagnosis. Treatment includes correction of volume, electrolyte, and metabolic abnormalities; CVVH during ARF; pharmacotherapy to decrease gastrointestinal secretion; and surgical resection of the vipoma.

[Vascular access validity and treatment efficiency in hemodialysis]. / Validita' dell'accesso ed efficienza terapeutica in emodialisi.

The vascular access is the "Achille's heel" of the modern hemodialysis. In order to obtain a good depuration, the blood flow in dialysis must be of 250-300 mL/min, at least. The procedures for the preparation and their complications are cause of the 25% of the hospital admissions in patients with chronic uremia in substitutive therapy. Gold standard is still represented from the distal arteriovenous fistulas of Cimino and Brescia. The alternatives to the native veins as the syntetic graft and the tunneled central venous catheteters or the Dialock system, revealed useful in the patients that have exausted the superficial veins, but are of second choice. The native fistula has an advanced validity, demonstrated from lower risk of mortality in the patients who use it, diabetic or not. These affirmations come just from USA, where the arteriovenous grafts prevail and the percentage of central venous catheters is elevated. Thrombosis, infections and reduced depurative efficiency are the main causes. In the Dialysis Unit of Mantova we adopted an aggressive approach to the construction of distal fistula. Out of 172 patients in chronic hemodialysis, 165 use an arterovenous fistula, 4 an arterovenous grafts (PTFE) and 3 a tunnelled central venous catheters (2 Permcath and 1 Tesio). The surgical activity between 1987 and 2001 included 858 procedures on 516 patients (medium ages 59.1 years): Among these, 815 are created from native veins, 28 by arterovenous graft fistulas and 15 with tunnelled hemodialysis catheters. Our current strategy recommended to candidate to permanent venous catheter only patients on chronic hemodialysis with exhausted periferal vascular bed and only when peritoneal dialisys is'nt possible. Generally, the management of the vascular access must preview one tight collaboration between nephrologists, nurses, patient, vascular surgeons and radiologists.

Erythroblastic islands in the bone marrow of rheumatoid arthritis with anaemia.

An increase of erythroblastic islands with recognizable central macrophages was observed in bone marrow of six rheumatoid arthritis (RA) patients suffering from anaemia. Since erythroblastic islands are more prominent in anaemic conditions associated with ineffective erythropoiesis, it is possible that this morphological finding might be an expression of the increased ineffective erythropoiesis observed in RA patients with anaemia.