Annali italiani di medicina interna : organo ufficiale della Societa italiana di medicina interna最新文献

We present the case of a 55-year-old patient who underwent total parathyroidectomy for severe hyperparathyroidism unresponsive to medical therapy, 4 years after having started hemodialysis treatment. It was decided to perform total parathyroidectomy because at macroscopic evaluation the parathyroid glands appeared completely compromised. After surgery, the patient developed hungry bone disease, characterized by severe hypocalcemia and hypophosphatemia. After parathyroidectomy, serial measurements were made for the long-term monitoring of the calcemia, phosphatemia and the serum levels of intact parathormone and bone alkaline phosphatase, a marker of bone turnover that mainly expresses bone formation. There was initially a slight decrease in the circulating levels of bone alkaline phosphatase as the calcemia dropped dramatically, then a new increase that anticipated the subsequent calcemia increase and finally, 6 months later, a decrease to very low values. We believe that the calcemia and blood bone alkaline phosphatase could be useful for the laboratory monitoring of the hungry bone state, providing information which may be useful to avoid excessive calcium administration and the dangerous consequences such as soft-tissue calcification.

We present a rare case of adult Still's disease with cardiac involvement (myocarditis and coronary arteritis). The autonomic nervous system function was evaluated by heart rate variability (HRV) analysis performed by 24-hour electrocardiographic recording during the acute phase of the disease and the remission (after 1 month and 1 year). The HRV parameters were studied in the time (standard deviation of all NN intervals-total power - SDNN, square root of the mean of the sum of the squares of the differences between adjacent NN - RMS-SD and HRV index) and frequency domains (low frequency, high frequency, and low frequency/high frequency). The results of the analysis of the HRV highlight that in the acute phase of the disease with cardiac involvement the autonomic nervous system is globally altered, with modifications of the sympathovagal balance, due to impairment of the parasympathetic component. This trend tends to persist in the short period (1 month), but seems to resolve completely within 1 year. An altered sympathovagal balance should be considered as a possible marker of vasculitis-related ischemia.

Compliance to treatment is of crucial importance in medicine. High levels of noncompliance to treatment have been reported in the most relevant diseases such as hypertension, coronary artery disease, diabetes and asthma. The aim of this article was to fully evaluate the lack of adherence to treatments in internal medicine. The prevalence of noncompliance and methods to cope with it are presented. The theory of the stages of change is thoroughly examined. Motivational interviewing in low-compliant patients is illustrated dealing both with the theoretical principles and practical applications. Several communication blocks which interfere with the relationship between doctor and patient are finally presented through concrete examples.

Cognitive impairment and dementia are more and more common in the elderly. The first begins, it advances silently and it leads to dementia in few years. Arterial hypertension represents the most important cerebrovascular risk factor after age. In numerous studies an inverse relationship between blood pressure values and cognitive performance emerges: it is possible that arterial hypertension plays a role in the pathogenesis of cognitive decline. Even in asymptomatic subjects the magnetic resonance signs of cerebral damage accompany cognitive impairment development. Antihypertensive therapy influence on cognitive function represents a subject of actual interest. The most studied drugs are calcium antagonists and ACE-inhibitors; they seem to have a protective effect on cognitive impairment, with regard to diuretics and beta-blockers. It would be important to study hypertensive patients, above all young asymptomatic hypertensives, even about cognitive functions, to prevent and consider cognitive decline and effective organ damage.

We report the case of a 41-year-old woman, affected by Vaquez syndrome, admitted to our hospital for a severe pain in the right hypochondrium, suddenly followed by hepatomegaly and ascites. The clinical and laboratory data were suggestive of hepatic insufficiency and abdominal ultrasonography, integrated by color Doppler and computed tomography, revealed an interrupted hepatic venous outflow. In addition a spontaneous prolonged partial thromboplastin time was present and the patient was found to be positive for lupus anticoagulant. A transient clinical improvement, with a partial reperfusion of suprahepatic veins, was achieved with medical treatment by using anticoagulants, diuretics and paracentesis. However, the patient showed a subsequence of suprahepatic venous thrombosis, although two transjugular intrahepatic portosystemic shunts with stent placement and local thrombolysis were performed. The polycythemia vera is a disease mainly associated with Budd-Chiari syndrome but, in our patient, the thrombotic event occurred in spite of normal values of hematocrit and platelet count. Certainly in this case the lupus anticoagulant positivity represents an additional thrombogenic factor. Nowadays the antiphospholipid antibody syndrome is a recognized and not unusual cause of Budd-Chiari syndrome but, to our knowledge, this is the first case characterized by the presence of polycythemia vera and antiphospholipid antibody syndrome to be reported.

The aim of this study was to evaluate in 65 patients, who had previously undergone allogenic bone marrow transplantation (ABMT), the bone mineral density (BMD), the skeletal turnover and the prevalence of vertebral fractures. At the moment of recruiting, 10 of 65 transplanted subjects (15.3%) presented with signs of rejection of the transplanted tissue, thus they were excluded. The remaining 55 patients (21 males, 34 females, mean age 30.8 +/- 6.4 years), with a follow-up of 60 +/- 9 months after the transplant and without any treatment inducing osteopenia, underwent ABMT respectively for: chronic myeloid leukemia (n = 24); acute myeloid leukemia (n = 18); acute lymphatic leukemia (n = 13). One hundred and ten healthy control subjects (42 males and 68 females, mean age 31.0 +/- 3.7 years) matching with the patients for age, weight and height, were successively enrolled. All the participants were submitted to a densitometric evaluation (DEXA) of lumbar spine (L1-L4), of femoral neck and total femur; besides some skeletal metabolism parameters were dosed, such as: total alkaline phosphatase, bone alkaline phosphatase and urinary excretion of C-terminal telopeptide fragments normalized to creatinine. On the contrary, the morphometric evaluation, performed through a lateral dorsolumbar radiography, was actually carried out only in patients who had already undergone ABMT. The L1-L4 BMD study showed: 10/55 osteoporotic (18.1%), 19/55 osteopenic (34.5%) and 26/55 normal patients (47.4%). In transplanted patients BMD values, obtained at the three considered sites, resulted significantly reduced (p < 0.01) in comparison to controls. Moreover, in patients who underwent ABMT, a statistically significant increase was observed, in comparison to healthy subjects, in total alkaline phosphatase (p < 0.01), in bone alkaline phosphatase (p < 0.01) and in urinary excretion of C-terminal telopeptide fragments normalized to creatinine levels (p < 0.001). Seven of the 55 transplanted patients (12.7%) presented at the moment of Rx morphometric evaluation at least one vertebral fracture: 6 of whom were affected by osteoporosis and 1 by osteopenia. In conclusion, the subjects who had previously undergone ABMT maintain, even at a certain time after the transplant and without any rejection, an increased skeletal turnover and BMD values meanly lower than normal, leading to an increased risk for vertebral fracture.

Liver cirrhosis is characterized by a long course that lasts between 15 and 20 years. The natural history of this disease depends mainly on the occurrence and progression of single complications which are today more fully understood and therefore more treatable. More specifically, those complications involving hemodynamic mechanisms have been extensively studied in recent years. Indeed, the mechanisms involved in the occurrence of sodium positive balance and ascites, with or without renal dysfunction, have been clarified. It is now possible to distinguish between two different stages in the presence of hemodynamic modifications. In the first stage, an increasing accumulation of water and sodium may occur, leading to an increase in total plasma flow. Subsequently, there is a period of vascular instability and finally, the progressive appearance of typical signs of hyperdynamic circulation. During the second stage, cardiac function may be modified and consequently profoundly altered. The early administration of diuretics (antialdosteronics) seems to be capable of modifying cardiac dysfunction, leading to a return towards a physiological status through a rapid increase in diuresis and natriuresis and a decrease in plasma volume.