Search

Cataract is a very frequent finding in adults with diabetes mellitus. On the contrary, acutely developed cataract in young insulin dependent diabetes mellitus (IDDM) patients at the onset of the disease has been rarely reported. In this paper we describe three cases of acute cataract in young patients with Type 1 Diabetes.

Background Hyperbilirubinemia can lead to potentially irreversible bilirubin-induced neurotoxicity. Transcutaneous bilirubin (TcB) determination has become a valuable aid in non invasive screening of neonatal jaundice. The aim of this study is to compare the performance of three most widespread transcutaneous bilirubinometers on a multiracial population of term and late pre-term neonates. Methods Bilirubin concentration was determined using traditional photometric determination and transcutaneously with Bilicheck, BiliMed and JM-103, in random order. Total serum bilirubin (TSB) was determined over a wide concentration range (15,8–0,7 mg/dl) with a mean of 9,5 mg/dl. Related TcB values using Bilicheck (TcB-BC), BiliMed (TcB-BM), and JM-103 (TcB-JM) are reported in Table 1. Results A multiracial population of 289 neonates was enrolled with a gestational age ranging from 35 to 41 weeks; birth weight ranging from 1800to 4350 grams; hours of life ranging from 4 to 424. In the total study population correlation analysis using Pearson coefficients showed good results for Bilicheck (r = 0.86) and JM-103 (r = 0.85) but poor for BiliMed (r = 0,70). Similar results were found for the non-Caucasian neonates subgroup. Bilicheck and JM-103 had a greater area under the curve than BiliMed when TSB =14 mg/dl was chosen as a threshold value both for the total study population and the non-Caucasian subgroup. Conclusions Bilicheck and JM-103, but not BiliMed, are equally reliable screening tools for hyperbilirubinemia in our multiracial neonatal population.

Background and Aim: Very-low-birth-weight (VLBW) neonates maydevelop severe intolerance to standard preterm formula especially if theyare associated with intrauterine growth restriction (IUGR). We tested thehypothesis that these infants may tolerate an elemental, amino acid–basedformula as a rescue feeding strategy.Methods: In a prospective, case-control pilot study, we enrolled VLBWIUGR infants enterally fed with standard preterm formula (SPF) at dailyincrements of 16mL/kg. If gastric residuals accounted for >70% of milkfeed in the previous 24hours, then feedings were temporarily withheld andthen resumed with amino acid formula (AAF) increased at the same speed.Cases on AAF were compared to controls on SPF and with cases themselveswhile on SPF. Primary outcome was the time to reach full enteral feedings.Secondary outcomes were time on parenteral nutrition, time on centralvenous catheter, and formula tolerability based on the amount of gastricresidual volume.Results: Sixty-four infants (22 cases) were enrolled. Although during thetotal durationof nutrition,caseshad worseprimaryand secondaryoutcomes,when on AAF, cases were comparable to controls in time to full enteralfeeding (14.4 vs 14 days), time on parenteral nutrition, and time on centralvenous catheter. Cases on AAF and controls had similar gastric residualvolumes. At day 3 after AAF introduction, cases had a significantly reducednumber (%) of gastric residual volume >5mL/kg over total numberof feedings (5.6 vs 1.5%; P

The first genome wide screening performed on Italian affected sib-pair families (Greco et al. 1998) gave evidence for linkage with coeliac disease in the 5q region. This finding was replicated in a second independent dataset (Greco et al. 2001). Overall, pooling both samples, the highest MLS value (2.92) was found for the most centromeric marker tested, D5S640. In the present study, the 5q31-q33 region was saturated with 12 new markers around D5S640, in order to verify whether there would be a shift of the MLS position. This study allowed us to support our previous finding of linkage for the region 5q31-q33, with the most significant MLS value at D5S2014, very close to the marker D5S640. No evidence for interaction between this risk factor and the one in the HLA region was found. Furthermore, many different groups have independently obtained analogous results for this region, confirming the presence of a susceptibility locus in the region 5q31-q33. This region contains several interesting candidate genes for coeliac disease.