Breast hypertrophy and asymmetry: a retrospective study on a sample of 344 consecutive patients.

BACKGROUND: Preoperative evaluation of the anatomical features of the region around the breast is strongly recommended in order to choose the most appropriate technique of reductive mammaplasty. Normally breast hypertrophy presents itself as a bilateral clinical picture, but no study in the literature refers to the incidence of volumetric asymmetry. AIMS: This study aims to analyze weight differences between the right and left breast on a selected sample of patients who underwent reductive mammaplasty or mastopexy over the last five years at our Plastic Surgery Unit and have maintained a good postoperative symmetry for at least 1 year subsequently. PATIENTS AND METHOD: 344 consecutive cases treated between January 2005 and April 2010 were considered for this study. Patients were classified according to the degree of hypertrophy and age. Breast asymmetry was scored, according to the senior author's original classification, on the weight difference of glandular resection. RESULTS AND CONCLUSION: In 20% of the patients a difference greater than 200 g was found. The statistical analysis showed no significant differences in the predominant side (left or right). Breast hypertrophy is confirmed as a substantially bilateral pathology, but in 1 out of 5 patients a difference of more than one quadrant can be present: thus a careful evaluation is essential in order to decide the correct surgical strategy.

Experimental aluminium encephalopathy: quantitative EEG analysis of aluminium bioavailability.

Single oral doses of aluminium hydroxide (50 to 200 mg/kg) were found to induce in mice a dose-dependent diminution of the power of the 7.5 to 12 Hz frequency band, with a parallel dose-dependent increase of aluminium content in the brain, as early as 45 min after administration, and indicated that aluminium hydroxide is readily absorbed through an empty stomach or duodenum and is able to induce alterations of background EEG rhythms at doses equivalent to the ones used in human therapy. These data suggest that the EEG disturbances of the background type, (which are observed during the early stage of dialysis encephalopathy in man), may be partly due to a pharmacological and therefore reversible effect induced by an increase in aluminium level in the brain.

[Determination of total bromine content in imported cereals and in other foodstuffs (author's transl)]. / Determinazione di bromo totale in cereali importati ed in altri prodotti pronti per il consumo.

Samples of raw cereals imported in Italy and of other foodstuffs that can be treated with bromine-containing fumigants were analysed for the total bromide content. The analysis were carried out by X-ray fluorescence-spectrometry. Results obtained in 145 samples of raw cereals and in 50 samples of other foodstuffs are reported along with some considerations.