[Thrombocytopenia associated with brucellosis: a case report]. / Trombocitopenia in corso di brucellosi: descrizione di un caso.

Brucellosis, a common disease in some areas of the world, beside its typical signs and symptoms, as fever, arthropathy, hepatomegaly and splenomegaly, sometimes can complicate into thrombocytopenia, even in severe forms. The pathogenesis of thrombocytopenia in course of brucellosis is variable, and a main role is played by immunological reactions. Authors describe a case report of an eight years child who presented a severe thrombocytopenia in course of acute brucellosis. The patient responded efficaciously to the antibiotic therapy combined with immunoglobulin intravenous therapy.

[Epidemiology of symptomatic infections of the urinary tract in the first two years of life]. / Epidemiologia delle infezioni sintomatiche delle vie urinarie nel primo biennio di vita.

The incidence of symptomatic Urinary Tract Infection (U.T.I.) in 2980 children aged under 2 years was valued. The study was performed in the Pediatric Clinic of Palermo between January 1988 and December 1989 involving a number of out paediatricians. The U.T.I. incidence was found to be 3.38%, with a higher frequency in males (4.7%) than in females (2.03%). Urinary tract malformations was diagnosed in 60% of patients with U.T.I. echographically and radiographically examined.

[Urinary tract infections in the first 2 years of life. Usefulness of anamnesis in the identification of at risk subjects with malformation uropathies]. / Le infezioni delle vie urinarie nel primo biennio di vita. Utilità dell'anamnesi nell'identificare i soggetti a rischio di uropatie malformative.

We have retrospectively studied 101 patients with an age below 24 months consecutively hospitalized, for symptomatic urinary tract infections, in the "Ospedale dei Bambini" of Palermo and subjected to radiological studies (urography and voiding cystouretrography). We have considered if the symptoms and the clinical objectivity could have given useful indications in the choice of the patients to be subjected to radiological studies. The clinical-anamnestic data have not allowed to distinguish, among patients with U.T.I., between the individuals with an abnormal conformation those with a normal one; however they have allowed to focus our attention on patients with U.T.I. through the singling out of some symptoms such as fever, vomit, cyanosis and anomaly micturition. Another datum standing out from our study is that the beginning of the symptoms in patients with U.T.I. was more precocious if at their basis there was urinary malformation.

[Renal abscess in childhood: a case report]. / Ascesso renalein età pediatrica:descrizione di un caso.

We describe the case of a previously healthy six-year-old boy with a right renal abscess due to a methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus, which necessitated a radical nephrectomy. Although renal ultrasonography is often the initial tool to identify fluid collection, in our case the diagnosis was obtained only after performing an abdominal CT with intravenous contrast. It is therefore necessary to combine these different imaging techniques in all children with fever and abdominal/lumbar pain without any apparent cause in order to obtain an early diagnosis and minimise organ damage.

The non-conserved region of cucumopine-type Agrobacterium rhizogenes T-DNA is responsible for hairy root induction.

The T-DNA regions of three strains of Ri plasmids 1855, 8196, 2659 (agropine, mannopine and cucumopine type respectively) share two highly conserved regions flanking a non-homologous central part. We have cloned segments of the cucumopine Ri plasmid 2659 T-DNA in the binary vector system Bin 19 and infected carrot discs with recombinant Agrobacterium strains. We show here that the central non-conserved region is crucial in hairy root induction as it is sufficient to induce rooting on the apical (auxin-rich) surface of carrot discs; in order to observe rooting on the basal (auxin-depleted) side of the discs, a longer T-DNA fragment, also encompassing part of the right conserved region, had to be utilized in conjunction with a Agrobacterium strain carrying aux genes. Differences of growth properties in culture are exhibited by roots transformed with different fragments of pRi 2659 T-DNA, although all transformed roots show the plagiotropic behaviour typical of hairy roots.

[Quantitative determination of urine bacteria in the diagnosis of urinary tract infections in children]. / La batterioscopia urinaria quantitativa nella diagnosi di infezione delle vie urinarie in età pediatrica.

Bacteria counts in fresh, unstained, uncentrifuged urine specimens, using a phase-contrast microscope, magnification X 400, and a hemocytometer chamber, proved to be a very useful method not only of excluding (specificity 0.92) but also identifying urinary tract infection (sensitivity 0.90) in children. The presence of greater than 5/0.1 ml bacteria in the urine was taken as the threshold value. The evaluation of leukocyturia alone did not alter the sensitivity of the method, even when it was associated with bacteriuria. When Proteus was isolated from urine cultures, the bacteria count proved negative in 60% of cases; otherwise when different bacteria were isolated in urine cultures, they were then identified during the bacteria count. The method is simple, inexpensive and rapid (it requires only a few minutes) and it may be used in a pediatric outpatient or hospital setting.