Relationships between blood lead concentration and aminolevulinic acid dehydratase in alcoholics and workers industrially exposed to lead.

Blood lead concentration (Pb-B), aminolevulinic acid dehydratase (ALAD), and gamma-GT were measured in 265 workers industrially exposed to lead and in 184 patients with liver disease resulting from alcohol consumption. The first group was divided according to alcohol use, i.e., nondrinkers, moderate drinkers, and heavy drinkers. The second group was divided according to the following criteria: hepatopatic without cirrhosis, hepatopatic with compensated cirrhosis, and hepatopatic with decompensated cirrhosis. Heavy drinkers who were industrially exposed had the highest Pb-B (40.4 +/- 14.6 micrograms/dl) and the lowest ALAD (22.2 +/- 9.1 U/L). The correlations between Pb-B and ALAD show no significant change with the increase of Pb-B. In the alcoholic group, 76 patients with alcoholic liver disease without cirrhosis had the highest Pb-B (40.3-9.1 micrograms/dl) and ALAD the lowest (18.6 +/- 7.7 U/L). The negative correlation between Pb-B and log ALAD disappeared completely in individuals with Pb-B that exceeded 50 micrograms/dl, independent from the seriousness of illness.

[Variable behavior of urinary hydroxyproline in breast cancer with osseous metastases]. / Comportamento variabile dell'idrossiprolina urinaria nel cancro mammario con metastasi ossee.

Serial estimations of the hydroxyproline (OHP) excretion during chemotherapy were performed in 24 women bearing advanced breast carcinoma with skeletal metastases. There was a significant correlation between sensitivity of the metastases to treatment and OHP content of urine. Many factors, including age of patients, type, number and extent of metastases, don't influence OHP excretion. The estimation of the urinary OHP levels, with the changes after antiblastic treatment, can be useful in prognostic evaluation of the metastatic breast cancer.

[Comparative evaluation of a new method for the determination of alpha-amylase]. / Valutazione comparativa di un nuovo metodo per il dosaggio dell'alfa-amilasi.

A new method for alpha-amilase determination has been compared with other two methods already tested. All these methods have been evaluated by linearity, precision, accuracy and correlation tests. Affinity of the three different substrates for pancreatic and salivary isoenzymes has been valued too. The new method is based on the use of a mixture of p-nitrophenimaltopentaoside and p-nitrophenilhexaoside and it has given excellent results in the different tests and it has shown to be easily adaptable to automatized and centrifugal analysis. Moreover the hydrolysis of well defined substrates gives products which absorb in the visible part of the spectrum and it is an evident advantage. Therefore, this method is one of the most satisfactory for alpha-amilase determination too.

[Significance of the study of bile salts in acute and chronic liver disease]. / Significato del dosaggio dei sali biliari nelle epatopatie acute e croniche.

The diagnostic value of fasting and after meal test total bile acid determination in control subjects and in patients suffering from chronic persistent and active hepatitis, fatty liver and cirrhosis has been evaluated with fluorimetric method. Our results demonstrated the good sensitivity of determination of bile acids after meal test in evaluating the different forms of liver damage.

[Bile salts, copper, ceruloplasmin in meal test]. / Sali biliari, rame, ceruloplasmina in corso di "meal test".

Biliary salts determination after meal test is an useful liver function test. We evaluated both biliary salts and copper-ceruloplasmin after meal test in different liver diseases. Copper-ceruloplasmin determination does not seem to be useful in the diagnosis of liver diseases because copper has only partial hepatic clearance.

Selenium status and effect of selenium supplementation in a group of elderly women.

Plasma selenium was determined in 92 elderly women: a marked decrease was observed from the age of 65 years. Se-status in 20 elderly women was explored by investigation of the effects of 30 days' Se-supplementation with enriched tablets (Selevit-E) 66 micrograms per day. Serial determination was performed for Se plasma, e-GSH-Px (glutathione peroxidase), MDA (malondialdehyde) and Vitamin E. Significant changes were observed in Se, e-GSH-Px and MDA.

Blood-lead levels in patients with chronic liver diseases.

Blood-lead concentrations (Pb-B) were measured in 318 adult inpatients with chronic liver diseases. The Pb-B was highest (387 +/- 96 micrograms/l) in 102 patients with alcoholic liver disease without cirrhosis. The Pb-B was still high, but significantly lower in 60 patients with compensated alcoholic cirrhosis (342 +/- 100 micrograms/l) and in 72 patients with decompensated alcoholic cirrhosis (312 +/- 97 micrograms/l). This difference was in part due to a significant decrease of the hematocrit which fell from 44.4 +/- 4.9% to 42.4 +/- 27.2% and to 39.2 +/- 7.4% respectively. In patients with viral or cryptogenic liver diseases the Pb-B was 211 +/- 69 micrograms/l in 11 patients with chronic persistent hepatitis, 219 +/- 72 micrograms/l in 19 with chronic active hepatitis, 206 +/- 94 micrograms/l in 28 with compensated cirrhosis, and 226 +/- 98 micrograms/l in 26 with decompensated cirrhosis, without any significant difference. The Pb-B of the male patients showed no correlation to age, with the exception of 25 male patients with chronic persistent and active hepatitis (r = 0.626, P less than 0.001).