-
[show abstract]
[hide abstract]
ABSTRACT: Classic Kaposi's sarcoma (KS) is frequently observed in the Mediterranean area, and is an endemic disease in Sardinia, an island situated in the central Mediterranean. Retrospective and prospective studies conducted on the island at different times, starting from 1965 and concluding in 1988, have shown an extremely high incidence of this disorder of around 1.6/100 000 inhabitants per year. The therapeutic approach to KS is based on its clinical course and tends to be conservative when the disease is localized, but more aggressive when it is generalized. The localized forms are mainly treated by local therapy including surgery and/or diathermy, local infiltration with chemotherapeutic agents and radiology. In the generalized forms, the most frequent therapies include vinca alkaloids, bleomycin or combinations of drugs, or interferon. The present study presents the results obtained in 21 patients with classic KS treated with recombinant α-2b-inferferon.
07/2009; 4(1):13-15.
-
[show abstract]
[hide abstract]
ABSTRACT: Epidemiologic studies of infection with the oncogenic human herpesvirus 8 (HHV-8) depend on serologic methods to diagnose infection. However, optimal strategies for identifying HHV-8 infection remain undefined. We therefore evaluated four enzyme-linked immunoassays (EIAs) and one immunofluorescence assay (IFA) using sera from 87 individuals with the prototype HHV-8 disease, Kaposi's sarcoma (KS), and 210 participants in a hemophilia study (who were presumed not to be infected with HHV-8). Assays performed reasonably well in distinguishing between infected and uninfected persons, with receiver operator curve areas between 0.86 and 0.96. Nonetheless, IFA had only 86% sensitivity and 88% specificity, and no EIA simultaneously had sensitivity and specificity above 90% for any of the optical density (OD) cutpoints used to define seropositivity. Some assays were markedly less sensitive with diluted KS sera, suggesting that they poorly identify low-titer antibodies present in asymptomatic infection. We also developed a classification tree that categorized individuals as seropositive if they had OD > 2.00 on recombinant K8.1 protein EIA or if they had both K8.1 OD between 0.51 and 2.00 and positive IFA results; this strategy had between 80% and 90% sensitivity and 95% and 100% specificity. Overall, assays performed adequately for use in most epidemiologic investigations, but wider applications will require improved tests.
JAIDS Journal of Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndromes 05/2000; 23(4):346-54. · 4.43 Impact Factor
-
[show abstract]
[hide abstract]
ABSTRACT: A 25-year-old woman with AIDS was submitted to HLA-identical allogeneic BMT after cytoablation with busulphan and cyclophosphamide and combined anti-HIV-1 therapy with zidovudine, IFN-alpha 2 and anti-HIV-1-specific T cell clones. Marrow engraftment occurred after 18 days and tests for HIV-1 were negative after 30 days but the hematologic reconstitution of the patient was poor. A second BM infusion from the same donor was ineffective and treatment with GM-CSF only induced a transient increase of the blood cell count, suggesting iatrogenic damage to the BM microenvironment. The development of ARDS led to the death of the patient 10 months after transplantation. Post-mortem investigation did not reveal any active infections and PCR on autopsy tissues was negative for HIV-1.
Bone Marrow Transplantation 01/1994; 12(6):669-71. · 3.75 Impact Factor
-
European Journal of Cancer and Clinical Oncology 05/1989; 25(4):759-61.
-
Antibiotics and chemotherapy 02/1987; 38:121-31.
-
[show abstract]
[hide abstract]
ABSTRACT: Twelve Sardinian patients affected by histologically defined classic Kaposi's sarcoma (KS) were HLA-A, B, C and DR typed. Compared to 220 age and ethnically matched healthy controls, KS patients showed a significant increase in HLA-DR5 (66.6 vs 23.1%, P less than 0.001) and a considerable decrease in HLA-DR3 (8.3 vs 53.6%, P = 0.0055). No definite association was observed for other HLA antigens. These results confirm the existence of an HLA associated genetic control of KS susceptibility and support the hypothesis that HLA-DR5 plays the role of a predisposition marker while HLA-DR3 bears a genetic resistance to the disease.
Tissue Antigens 05/1984; 23(4):240-5. · 2.59 Impact Factor
-
Cardiologia (Rome, Italy) 03/1983; 28(2):149-53.
-
Birth defects original article series 02/1982; 18(7):165-8.
-
Cardiologia (Rome, Italy) 02/1982; 27(1):65-8.
-
Bollettino della Società italiana di cardiologia 02/1979; 24(6):637-48.
-
Bollettino della Società italiana di cardiologia 02/1979; 24(1):69-78.
-
Bollettino della Società italiana di cardiologia 02/1979; 24(1):79-85.
-
Bollettino della Società italiana di cardiologia 02/1979; 24(1):87-91.
-
[show abstract]
[hide abstract]
ABSTRACT: Two electrophoretic tests and one based on column chromatographic method have been studied for quantitative and qualitative evaluation of HbA2. Results of 1069 assays demonstrated a satisfactory qualitative resolution for the three methods but for the best quantitative precision, the test of choice is the chromatographic one.
Quaderni Sclavo di diagnostica clinica e di laboratorio 10/1978; 15(3):373-81.
-
Bollettino della Società italiana di cardiologia 02/1978; 23(1):184-92.
-
A Pintus,
F Locci,
M Loi,
M G Batzella,
L Cengiarotti,
A L Leone,
G Ibba,
G Piludu,
G Perpignano,
G S Del Giacco,
U Carcassi
[show abstract]
[hide abstract]
ABSTRACT: The frequency of 17 HLA antigens of loci A and B has been studied by microlymphocytoxicity test in 114 subjects of islet S. Pietro, very close (a few miles) to South-west of Sardinia, but genetically very different from it, deriving the population from a region (Liguria) of continental Northern Italy. The data have been compared with those of a village of Southern Sardinia and with those of a population living in Liguria (continental Italy). The results confirm the striking genetical difference between people of the two islands (S. Pietro and Sardinia) and the close similarity between S. Pietro and Liguria from the genetical point of view.
Bollettino dell'Istituto sieroterapico milanese 10/1977; 56(4):339-42.
-
U Carcassi,
G S Del Giacco, A Pintus,
G Perpignano,
F Locci,
M Loy,
M G Batzella,
G Piludu,
L Cengiarotti,
G Ibba,
A L Leone
[show abstract]
[hide abstract]
ABSTRACT: The frequency of 17 HLA antigens from locus A and locus B has been evaluated by microlymphocytotoxicity test in a population of 233 subjects (157 normal and 76 with deficiency of glucose-6-phosphate dehydrogenase [G-6PD]in red cells) from a village of Sardinia, a mediterranean island relatively close to continental Italy. It appears that G-6-PD-deficient people show a frequency of some HLA antigens (A2, A10, B12, BW35) significatively different from normal Sardinian subjects but close to (A10, BW35) or higher (A2, B12) than that of subjects from peninsular Italy.
International archives of allergy and applied immunology 02/1977; 54(3):285-7.
