[Health promotion and education in the secondary schools]. / Educazione sanitaria nelle scuole medie: conoscenze e informazioni in tema di AIDS.

To prevent the risks of HIV infection, some meetings have been carried with the students of secondary school; actually the school is the best and the most appropriate place to conduct these health promotion and education meetings. Two questionnaires have been given to the students, a pre-test before the interview, to evaluate their knowledge about drugs, and a re-test after the interview to evaluate whether the knowledge objectives suggested had been reached. After the meeting the students appear to be more informed; differences were statistically significant between the percentages of the correct answers of the pre-test and the re-test.

[Health promotion and education in secondary schools: knowledge on drugs abuse]. / Educazione sanitaria nelle scuole medie: conoscenze e informazioni sulle sostanze da abuso.

To prevent behaviours at risk for the use of substances that induce dependence, some meetings have been planned with children primary school, age in which it's still possible to prevent the contact with drugs and children are more receptive. Two questionnaires have been given to the students, a pre-test before the interview, to value their knowledge about drugs, and a re-test after the interview, to value if the knowledge objectives suggested had been reached. After meeting the students seemed to be more informed because there were statistically significative differences between the percentages of the correct answers of the pre-test and the re-test.

[Lysteria monocytogenes in samples of swines sent to the human alimentary chain]. / Listeria monocytogenes in campioni di suini avviati alla catena alimentare umana.

Animal food-stuffs are known to be potential vehicles of Listeria monocytogenes. The contamination can be caused from processing or enviromental sources and from infected animals. This hypothesis has been checked in the present work. The authors found that 13.2% of 189 swines were carriers of Listeria monocytogenes, the microrganism was isolated from salivary glands, mesenterial gangles and tonsils. The authors suggest some preventive intervention to reduce both the environmental circulation of Listeria monocytogenes and the human risk of infection.

[Prevalence of congenital cardiopathies among newborn infants in a department of pediatric cardiology]. / Prevalenza delle cardiopatie congenite in età neonatale in un reparto di cardiologia pediatrica.

This study consists of a prevalence congenital heart disease (CHD) registered in the Pediatric Cardiology Department of Umberto I General Hospital in Rome between January 1st 1992 and December 31-th 1993. Cases recorded in this period have been taken part of a larger study called Italian Multicentric Study for recording and follow-up of congenital heart disease (IMS-CHD); the purpose is to determine the prevalence of CHD in Italy and discover the outcome of affected children. In this duration, 187 new cases have been recorded, in which 63.6% had a single defect while 36.4% had multiple defects. These isolated defects were most frequently occurred (51.9%) following the stenosis of the pulmonary artery (15.5% and the defects of the interatrial septum (15%).

Chlamydia trachomatis-associated respiratory disease in the very early neonatal period.

Of 103 preterm neonates admitted consecutively to the neonatal intensive care unit soon after birth for respiratory distress, 8 were found to be Chlamydia trachomatis-positive as early as within the first 24 h of life. All these patients required mechanical ventilation and supplemental oxygen. Six infants had evidence on chest radiographs of hyaline membrane disease, one of pneumonia, and one of slight bilateral parenchymal changes. Our results suggest that the presence of C. trachomatis in preterm infants with neonatal respiratory distress is probably not an infrequent event.

[Prevalence of obesity in school age: preliminary study on students from 2 Roman schools]. / Studio sulla prevalenza dell'obesità nell'età scolare: indagine preliminare sugli alunni di due scuole romane.

The present study, aimed at the prevention of infantile obesity was carried out in two schools of Roma and regarded also the alimentary education. 295 students 101 males and 194 females was considered; the result pointed out that 114 (38.6%) were found obese, 57 (19.3%) overweight and 124 (42.0%) normal weight. The alimentary behaviour was the same of other students: usually three meals and often snacks use during the day, a lot of the student use to eat watching the television and the physical activity is done not so much. The results of these paper are related to the literature data.

[Prevalence of Toxoplasma gondii infections in groups of individuals in Rome and its environment]. / Prevalenza delle infezioni da Toxoplasma gondii in gruppi di individui di Roma e provincia.

This study was aimed out to point out the prevalence of Toxoplasma gondii infections in Roma and in the province. The results pointed out that the percentage of antibodies positivity has been 45% this prevalence was the same of the prevalence reported by other authors in Italy. The presence of a lot of women without anti-Toxoplasma gondii antibodies shows that is necessary to continue the control of the young women especially at the beginning of the pregnancy.

Surgical treatment of subdural empyema: a critical review.

Between 1990 and 1992 six cases of subdural empyema were surgically treated at the Neurosurgical Division of Emergency Department of Cardarelli Hospital in Naples. Three cases were associated with paranasal sinusitis and three cases with otitis media. Headache and fever were the presenting symptoms in all cases; in only two cases they were associated with seizures and altered mental status. CT scans showed convexity low density collections in five cases and multilocalized pus collection in one; concurrent paranasal or mastoid infections were visualized as well. The organisms responsible for the subdural empyema were Peptococcus in four cases, Streptococcus and anaerobius in the other two cases. In five cases surgical treatment consists in pus drainage by selective burr hole and placement of a subdural small silicon tube for local antibiotic therapy. In one case with a loculated diffuse empyema, craniotomy was performed in order to provide a better access to all the localizations. In all cases drainage of the wound and intravenous antibiotic therapy were used. Paranasal sinus drainage or mastoidectomy performed by the otolaryngologist when a localized collection of pus was present, grave a quicker regression of symptoms. A full recover of the original neurological status was achieved in all cases; a 20 months mean followup confirms the results.

[The prevalence of rhinopharyngeal staphylococcal carriers among those employed in the communal food services of the province of Rome]. / Prevalenza di portatori rino-faringei di stafilococchi tra gli addetti ai servizi di ristorazione collettiva della provincia di Roma.

Microbial food contamination is at present less frequent than in the past. Nevertheless, Staphylococcus aureus food poisoning is still among the most frequent ones in Italy. The authors screened nasal swabs of 112 person working in five communal feeding services in Rome province; of these, 53 were found to be positive. This percentage (48.3%) does not differ substantially from those found by other researchers in various Italian cites.