Panminerva medica
-
Retrospective analysis of data obtained from 161 patients with ocular hypertension who performed the CET in 1980, and were subsequently followed to see whether they developed OAG. CET was performed always in the morning Eyelids were closed by bandaging for 1 h in a quiet environment, with the patient seated and not sleeping. IOP was measured again 8 to 10s after opening the eyelids. ⋯ Eyelid closure for 60 minutes results in a net elevation of IOP the extent of which depends on the balance between the increase of aqueous humour secretion and its outflow. Therefore, the CET may discriminate individuals with a normal outflow from individuals with a less functional outflow, which are evidently those at a higher risk of developing glaucoma.
-
Guanosine has been reported to exert neuroprotective effects. We recently reported that, following intraperitoneal (i.p.) injection to rats, it resulted to be widely distributed. Its metabolic product guanine also rapidly increased in all the tissues, including brain, after i.p. injection of guanosine and consistently we found a significant enzymatic activity of a soluble purine nucleoside phosphorylase in the plasma of the treated animals. ⋯ Moreover the nucleobase was able to rescue the memory trace also when administered after training. Neither guanosine nor guanine had effects on locomotor activity. These results indicate that guanine can exert important biological activities which may be different from those mediated by its precursor guanosine, thus this evenience should be taken into account when the biological effects of guanosine are evaluated.
-
Cerebral microbleeds (CMBs) are frequent findings in MRI scans of elderly subjects. Depending on the MRI protocols applied 4.7% to 24.4% of community-based subjects show incidental CMBs. The rates reported for various types of ischemic strokes and intracerebral hemorrhages vary between 19.4% and 68.5%. ⋯ They do not provide enough evidence to consider CMBs as a contraindication for antithrombotic agents in primary and secondary stroke prevention. CMBs are likely to unfavourably affect cognitive functioning. It remains to be determined if direct lesion-related effects are responsible for this finding or if CMBs are sole markers of more extensive tissue damage in the wake of cerebral small vessel disease leading to widespread visible but also non-visible tissue destruction with a high likelihood for cognitive consequences.
-
Herein, we review evidence that systemic insulin-resistance diseases linked to obesity, type 2 diabetes, and non-alcoholic steatohepatitis promote neurodegeneration. Insulin-resistance dysregulates lipid metabolism, which promotes ceramide accumulation with attendant inflammation and endoplasmic reticulum (ER) stress. ⋯ These abnormalities establish or help propagate a cascade of neurodegeneration associated with increased ER stress and ceramide generation, which exacerbate brain insulin-resistance, cell death, myelin degeneration, and neuro-inflammation. The data suggest that a mal-signaling network mediated by toxic ceramides, ER stress, and insulin-resistance should be targeted to disrupt positive feedback loops that drive the AD neurodegeneration cascade.
-
Comparative Study
Time course of proadrenomedullin in the early phase of septic shock. A comparative study with other proinflammatory proteins.
It has been shown that pro-adrenomedullin is a good marker of the severity of septic shock but there are no data on the early changes in serum pro-adrenomedullin concentrations in patients with shock. ⋯ Proadrenomedullin is a reliable prognostic marker in patients with shock; further studies on a more consistent number of septic patients will definitively assess whether proadrenomedullin may replace the current prognostic markers in critically ill patients with shock due to sepsis.