Unilateral occipital lesion causing hemianopia affects the acoustic saccadic programming.

Infrared oculographic recordings of saccades evoked by auditory or visual targets in four patients with hemianopia due to an occipital lesion showed that these patients employed a different strategy to find visual and auditory targets in each hemifield. In the seeing hemifield, the patients acquired auditory targets with both monosaccadic and multiple saccadic refixations. The first saccade, the largest, brought the eyes toward the target; the following smaller saccades completed the search as in normal subjects. Saccades to visual targets consisted of one orthometric saccade or two saccades. By contrast, in the blind hemifield the patients acquired auditory targets by a staircase strategy consisting of stepwise saccadic search movements similar to those used for visual targets in the same hemifield. The similarity of strategy to auditory and visual targets suggests a common motor program controlled by the visual input. The latency, accuracy, and velocities of visual and acoustic responses were equal in both hemifields.

[Course and regression of HELLP syndrome]. / Evoluzione e regressione della sindrome HELLP.

The authors reported the outcome of a retrospective study of patients with HELLP syndrome to verify whether this pathology is a clinical entity with models of evolution, regression and well defined treatment. A total of 20 individual cases were reported at the Division of Obstetrics and Gynecology at the G. Gaslini Institute during the period from January 1990 to September 1995. All cases showed the normalisation of the various clinical and hematochemical parameters within a maximum of 8 days after birth. The rapid diagnosis, the immediate extraction of the fetus and appropriate medical treatment led to the prompt resolution of this severe pathology without the need for demolitive surgery frequently used in the past.