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Background: Aim of the study is to assess outcomes in the management of 81 patients with diagnosis of oropharyngeal dysphagia., Design: retrospective study on the outcome of logopedic treatment., Setting: patients have been assessed and treated as in- and out-patients of the Azienda Ospedaliera "S. Giovanni Battista" of Turin., Patients: 81 patients, 37 female and 44 male, mean age of 61,3 years, with diagnosis of oropharyngeal dysphagia., Intervention: phoniatric and logopedic assessment and management including: food consistency change, compensatory head posture, oropharyngeal muscle strengthen and pharyngeal sensibility stimulation., Survey: tube feeding, dietary adjustments, presence of aspiration or penetration and postural techniques utilization were used as outcome measures., Results: The number of patients on tube feeding changed from 50 out of 81 before treatment to 36 out of 81 at discharge time. Subjects who couldn't take anything by mouth decreased from 55 to 9. The number of patients with aspiration or penetration changed respectively from 47 and 8 to 20 and 4. Postural techniques were used in 15 cases., Conclusions: The data suggest that outcomes of oropharyngeal dysphagia rehabilitation are promising. The role of tube feeding and of food consistencies is of key importance in the management of deglutition disorders. All clinicians dealing with dysphagic patients should know the importance of food rheologic characteristics, the consequences of alimentation by nasogastric tube and percutaneous endoscopic gastrostomy.

The immunophenotypes (IF) on peripheral lymphocytes of 24 B-CLL in different stage, 2 PLL and 14 leukemic B-non Hodgkin lymphomas were investigated. As regard to B-CLL and PLL, the results are similar to those reported so far. In stage A and B of B-CLL the IF appear less variable than in advanced stages where a decrease of CD21+ and an increase of both CD25+ and CD38+ lymphocytes were observed. In the lymphocytic, small cleaved cell lymphomas and splenic lymphomas, the peripheral IF correspond to the theoretical ones of respective lymphoma tissues. On the contrary they disagree in three cases of large cells, mixed small and cleaved cell, immunoblastic lymphomas. These features are discussed.

The paper deals with study of long-term stability as far as concerns Dacron vascular prostheses in woven and knitted double velour. Among our vascular prostheses case-reports, we evaluated three of them explanted after 11, 12, 20 years; all of the prostheses were patent. Chemical-physical, histopathological and ultrastructural analysis have been carried on in order to evaluate in vivo ageing of the examined prostheses. The results all indicate strong alterations of the original properties related to double velour of knitted prostheses and weak alterations of woven one.

An analysis of the cholera epidemic which occurred in Bari in 1973, is carried out under the assumption that the main infection source has been the widespread consumption of "raw fish". The analysis is based on a chain-binomial model which appears to be suitable to describe the epidemic. A statistical evaluation of the parameters of the model confirms the initial hypothesis, owing to the observed rapid decreasing of the probability of infection, which occurs immediately after the disinfection of the sewage going into the sea.

An in vitro analysis was conducted to investigate the hypothetical antibacterial and antimycotic activity of the common anesthetic gases (halothane, enflurane, isoflurane, methoxyflurane) in view of the clinical absence of bronchopulmonary pathology after inhalation narcosis despite the many risk factors involved. For this purpose scalar dilutions of the four gases were prepared on cultures of Klebsiella pneumoniae and Candida albicans and the antibacterial action of the gases was tested in vitro. Even with the weaker concentrations used, halothane and methoxyflurane totally inhibited both microorganisms. Enflurane had less effect on Klebsiella p. and almost none on Candida. Isoflurane, a new halogen ether anesthetic was found to have an excellent inhibitory effect. In conclusion it is hypothesised that the anesthetic gases considered might have an in vivo antibacterial activity considering the experimental results obtained in vitro.

In this paper the systematic analysis of oro-faecal infectious diseases is continued. In order to propose a dynamic model for the evolution of the endemic typhoid fever, we have studied the behaviour of the number of cases of this disease in the town of Bari (Italy) during the years 1955-1978, by the methods of time series analysis. The analysis has pointed out the typical seasonal character of such a disease, and in particular the presence of a main winter cycle followed by a less evident summer cycle. The stochastic model which has been identified on the basis of the data from 1964 to 1978 allows a forecast for the years after 1978.