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The purpose of the present study was to evaluate the influence of nutrition, age, and Vitamin D status on fasting urinary calcium (Ca) as a function of creatinine excretion (Ca/Cr) and of glomerular filtration rate (Ca/GFR) in postmenopausal women. Fasting urinary calcium, urinary Cr and GFR were measured in 18 women aged 54 to 91 years before and after six days of a calcium (400 mg/die) and sodium (100 mEq/die) restricted diet with a controlled content of proteins, lipids and glucides. Aged (over 64 y.) women having an adequate vitamin D status showed fasting urinary Ca/Cr and Ca/GFR after the controlled diet significantly lower than those showed before. It is concluded that fasting Ca/Cr and Ca/GFR may be nutrition-dependent. A revision of the significance of the fasting urinary Ca excretion is consequently suggested.

Bone mineral content (BMC) at two different radial sites (mid-diaphysis and ultra-distal epiphysis), anthropometric measurements (Body Mass Index, Lipidic Area, and Muscular Area) and nutrients intake were measured in two populations of women selected on the basis of early (< 9 years) or remote (> 15 years) menopause. The results show the presence of positive relationships between BMC, and protein and lipid intakes in the population of women in early menopause; in the other population no relationships were found. Glucid, fibre and calcium intakes were not related to the BMC of both populations. The positive relationships between BMC, and protein and lipid intakes in the population of women in early menopause is likely mediated by anthropometric characteristics as Body Mass Index and Muscular Area.

The purpose of this study was to verify if a decreased inhibition of PTH secretion (abnormal suppressibility) in response to physiological increment of plasma calcium is present in patients with osteoporosis. The plasma concentration curve of intact PTH 1-84 following an oral calcium load (Pak) has been calculated in a selected population of 38 osteopenic patients (16 males and 22 females) and in a control group of 9 young healthy adults. All the patients included in this study a) had no past or present diseases and medications of potential influence on calcium homeostasis, b) showed a maximal calcemic response to the oral calcium load equal to that of the control group. PTH suppressibility was significantly smaller in the osteoporotic patients (-42% in males and -32% in females) than in the control group (-76%). This abnormal suppressibility of PTH is independent on sex and, in the females, also on postmenopausal estrogen deficiency. These results support the hypothesis that osteoporosis is associated to an altered secretory response of parathyroid glands maybe due to reduced sensitivity of the parathyroid cells to extracellular calcium.

The oral calcium load test, originally proposed for evaluating the intestinal calcium absorption and the renal calcium leak triggers some endocrine and metabolic responses addressed to correct the "calcemic error" induced by the load. Besides the increased plasma calcium there are: plasma PTH drop, increment in the urinary calcium excretion and in the threshold of tubular phosphate reabsorption. These responses have been measured and reciprocally correlated in 9 young adults at different times after the oral calcium load. The responses can be assessed with high precision in clinical practice and are in agreement with the known physiological models. The oral calcium load test is proposed as a tool for studying in the osteopenic population in the individual's capacity of correcting the calcemic error induced by the load.

Bone mineral content measurement is not as widely used in experimental conditions as in clinical practice because of the lack of adequate experimental methods. An in vivo measurement method of bone mineral content in the rat is here presented. Measurements were made at the proximal tibio-peroneal segment, which has a mainly trabecular structure, by means of single photon absorptiometry. The presence of the fibula, having cortical structure, has been shown not to affect the read values, which can be therefore attributed to the tibial metaphysis, having a mainly trabecular structure. Expressing mineral content values as a function of the measured bone diameter has proven useless. Limb repositioning on the instrument holding device is critical for the reproducibility of the measurement, but the latter is not affected by the repositioning method. Method reproducibility (depending on either the intrinsic instrumental error or the repositioning error) is 5-6%. This relatively low reproducibility of the suggested method does not prevent its use in the study of physiological and pathological variations of bone mineral content in rats, and of the means to influence it.

Diabetes and osteoporosis are linked. The question remains, however, as to whether insulin has any direct effect on bone formation. To test this hypothesis we have measured, as a marker of osteoblast activity, alkaline phosphatase (ALP) released by rat limb intact bones incubated in the presence and in the absence of physiological concentration of insulin. The results indicate that insulin significantly (p less than 0.012) increases ALP by a mean value of 48% (from 5.4% to 215%) over matched controls. We conclude that insulin has a direct stimulatory effect on osteoblast activity, and that in the absence of this effect, as in diabetes, bone loss might occur.

After some preliminary remarks of a biochemical and pharmacological nature, the authors have started a clinical study to test the antiinflammatory activity of the S-adenosyl-methionine (SAMe). An open trial, carried out on 90 patients with severe degenerative arthropathies has shown that 30 mg SAMe intravenously twice a day for 14 days have a marked anti-inflammatory effect a rather term and no side-effects. In a "double-crossover" investigation, SAMe was next compared to indomethacin by i.m. administrations to 15 arthropathic patients. The therapeutic responses of the two drugs proved exactly alike, whereas the side-effects following indomethacin administration were not present after SAMe. In 9 patients affected with rheumatoid arthritis administrations of SAMe have proved less effective, although some clinical parameters showed improvements.

The conditions where metallic implants may be exposed to metric and centimetric electromagnetic irradiation have been experimentally produced "in vitro". Irradiation doses equal to those currently chosen for human physiotherapy, induce temperature increases which seem to be well tolerated by muscular and connective tissues. Conditions of maximal temperature increase around the metallic implant are those where the relative position of the electrodes to the body segments never occurs in practice.

Taking a case of duodenal schwannoma, that they had observed, as a starting point, on the base of their experience and the data of literature, the authors discuss the epidemiological, of classification and anatomo-pathological aspects of this rare neoplastic form. They particularly outline the clinical aspect, the diagnostic pre-operating iter and the correct and radical surgical behaviour that must be practiced during laparatomy.