Search results for "APS"

Double-Balloon Enteroscopy: Preliminary Experience in Patients with Obscure Gastrointestinal Bleeding or Chronic Abdominal Pain

2003

Background and Study Aims: Even in the era of capsule endoscopy, diseases of the small bowel are sometimes difficult to diagnose, and endoscopic treatment is not possible without surgical laparotomy. The new method of carrying out enteroscopy using a double-balloon technique allows not only diagnostic but also therapeutic endoscopic interventions for lesions in the small bowel. Preliminary experience with this new method is reported here. Patients and Methods: Between the end of March 2003 and August 2003, eight patients (four women, four men; mean age 59 ± 23 years, range 20 - 90) with chronic gastrointestinal bleeding or abdominal pain, or both, underwent enteroscopy using the double-bal…

Enteroscopy and its relationship to radiological small bowel imaging

2009

The field of radiological small bowel imaging is changing rapidly, as is small bowel enteroscopy. New techniques allow the depiction of intraluminal, mural, and extraintestinal features of various small bowel disorders, such as Crohn disease, small bowel polyposis syndromes, small intestinal malignancies, and celiac disease. For patients requiring repeated small bowel imaging, modalities that do not use ionizing radiation, such as ultrasound or magnetic resonance imaging, should be considered.

Rare NLRP12 variants associated with the NLRP12-autoinflammatory disorder phenotype: an Italian case series.

2013

Evaluation of the autoimmune regulator (AIRE) gene mutations in a cohort of Italian patients with autoimmune-polyendocrinopathy-candidiasis-ectoderma…

2009

Summary Objective   Autoimmune-polyendocrinopathy-candidiasis-ectodermal-dystrophy (APECED) is a rare syndrome characterized by chronic candidiasis, chronic hypoparathyroidism and Addison's disease. APECED has been associated with mutations in autoimmune regulator (AIRE) gene. Our aim is to perform a genetic analysis of the AIRE gene in Italian APECED patients and in their relatives. Design  AIRE mutations were determined by DNA sequencing in all subjects. Patients were tested for clinical autoimmune or non-autoimmune diseases, or for organ and non-organ specific autoantibodies. Patients   A total of 24 Italian patients with APECED (15 from the Venetian region, 2 from Southern-Tyrol, 4 from…

Roles of capsaicin-insensitive nociceptors in cutaneous pain and secondary hyperalgesia.

2001

Polymodal nociceptors respond to mechanical, thermal and chemical stimuli. Whereas sensitivities to heat and to the irritant substance capsaicin have recently been linked via the properties of the vanilloid receptor type 1 receptor ion channel, sensitivity to noxious mechanical stimuli such as the pinpricks used in clinical neurology seems to be unrelated. We investigated the peripheral neural basis of pinprick pain using quantitative psychophysical techniques combined with selective conduction block by nerve compression and selective desensitization by topical capsaicin treatment. Complete A-fibre block by compression of the superficial radial nerve (criterion: loss of first pain sensation…

Evidence of Wallerian degeneration in normal appearing white matter in the early stages of relapsing-remitting multiple sclerosis

2003

Objective: Wallerian degeneration in normal appearing white matter in early relapsing-remitting multiple sclerosis (RRMS), and its correlation with the number of relapses and disease duration. Background Recent pathological studies have demonstrated Wallerian degeneration in normal appearing white matter (NAWM) in multiple sclerosis (MS), in established RRMS, and in chronic MS. However, the presence of Wallerian degeneration early in the disease and its correlation with relapse and with disease duration has not been studied. Methods: We performed proton magnetic resonance spectroscopic imaging in 21 MS patients, and 4 healthy controls, age and gender matched, aged under 45 years, with a max…

The efficacy of acupuncture in human pain models: A randomized, controlled, double-blinded study

2012

Acupuncture is frequently used to treat pain, although data supporting the analgesic efficacy from placebo-controlled studies is sparse. In order to get evidence for acupuncture analgesia we performed a study with 2 well-recognized experimental human pain models - the cold-pressor (CP) test and intradermal capsaicin injection. Fifty healthy men were included. Our study compared Traditional Chinese Medicine-based acupuncture to sham acupuncture with Streitberger placebo needles in a randomized, controlled, double-blinded trial. The primary endpoint was the reduction of mean pain intensity during 3minutes of CP test or of mean pain intensity within 10minutes after capsaicin injection. Seconda…

Posterior chamber phakic intraocular lenses to correct high myopia: A comparative study between Staar and Adatomed models

2001

ABSTRACT PURPOSE: To determine the feasibility of using posterior chamber phakic intraocular lenses (PIOLs) to treat high myopia, comparing two different models, Staar and Adatomed. METHODS: Twenty-four eyes from 12 patients were studied prospectively. A phakic Staar IOL was implanted in one eye of each patient, and the other eye received a phakic Adatomed IOL. Patients with uveitis or ocular trauma prior to ocular surgery, diabetic retinopathy, or capsular pseudoexfoliation were excluded. The mean preoperative spherical equivalent refraction was -16.00 ± 5.05 D for the Staar group and -15.39 ± 2.83 D for the Adatomed group. Average follow-up was 32.4 months (range, 19 to 46 mo) for the Ada…

Corpus callosum function in verbal dichotic listening: inferences from a longitudinal follow-up of Relapsing-Remitting Multiple Sclerosis patients.

2009

This study conducted a follow-up of 13 early-onset slightly disabled Relapsing-Remitting Multiple Sclerosis (RRMS) patients within an year, evaluating both CC area measurements in a midsagittal Magnetic Resonance (MR) image, and Dichotic Listening (DL) testing with stop consonant vowel (C-V) syllables. Patients showed a significant progressive loss of posterior CC areas (isthmus and splenium) related to increasing EDSS scores and an enhancing right ear advantage (REA) over time. A significant correlation between posterior CC areas and DL scores emerged in both evaluations, being negative for the right and positive for the left ear. The pattern of correlations suggests that the CC can serve …

Maxillary reconstruction using rectus femoris muscle flap and sagittal mandibular ramus/coronoid process graft pedicled with temporalis muscle

2018

Background Maxillary reconstruction using various pedicled and free-tissue transfer techniques with bone graft or without bone graft has some drawbacks. In this study, we demonstrate maxillary reconstruction using femoris rectus muscle flap and sagittal mandibular ramus/coronoid process graft pedicled with temporalis muscle through the modified lateral lip-submandibular approach. Material and Methods Nine patients suffering from maxillary defects secondary to maxillary cancer ablation, who underwent maxillary reconstruction using rectus femoris muscle flap and sagittal mandibular ramus/coronoid process graft pedicled with temporalis muscle, were enrolled into this study between November 201…