ABSTRACT
The aetiology of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), a rare and extremely severe neurodegenerative disease, has been associated with magnetic fields exposure. However, evidence for such a relation in the general population is weak, although the previous null results might also be due to exposure misclassification, or a relationship might exist only for selected subgroups. To test such a hypothesis we carried out a population-based case-control study in two Northern and Southern Italy regions, including 703 ALS cases newly diagnosed from 1998 to 2011 and 2737 controls randomly selected from the residents in the study provinces. Overall, we found that a residence near high-voltage power lines, within the corridors yielding a magnetic fields of ≥0.1 µT, was not associated with an excess disease risk, nor did we identify a dose-response relationship after splitting the exposed corridor according to the 0.1, 0.2 and 0.4 µT cut-points of exposure. These results were confirmed taking into account age at onset, period of diagnosis, sex, geographical area, and length of exposure. Overall, despite the residual possibility of unmeasured confounding or small susceptible subgroups not identified in our study, these results appear to confirm that the exposure to magnetic fields from power lines occurring in the general population is not associated with increased ALS risk.
Subject(s)
Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis/epidemiology , Electricity , Magnetic Fields , Radiation Exposure/analysis , Radiation Exposure/statistics & numerical data , Radiation Injuries/epidemiology , Age Distribution , Aged , Aged, 80 and over , Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis/diagnosis , Female , Humans , Italy/epidemiology , Male , Middle Aged , Prevalence , Radiation Dosage , Risk Factors , Sex DistributionABSTRACT
The authors performed single- or multiple-level unilateral laminectomy to treat lumbar spinal stenosis in patients with mild to moderate leg pain and compared the results with those from patients treated with conservative therapy in a prospective study. This decompression technique produced a 68% rate of improvement compared with a 33% rate for conservatively treated patients. The surgical group exhibited significant and sustained improvement, whereas the functional and clinical status of the conservatively managed group had returned to baseline during the same period. The preoperative dural sac cross-sectional area at the level of the most stenosis was 70.76 +/- 28.2 mm(2) for the surgical group, whereas on postoperative scans it was 108.12 +/- 31.5 mm(2), with an average correction rate of 65%. Neither new degenerative spondylolisthesis nor any evidence of instability was detected in any patient during the study.
Subject(s)
Decompression, Surgical/statistics & numerical data , Laminectomy/statistics & numerical data , Lumbar Vertebrae/surgery , Spinal Stenosis/surgery , Adult , Aged , Analysis of Variance , Female , Follow-Up Studies , Humans , Linear Models , Lumbar Vertebrae/pathology , Male , Middle Aged , Prospective Studies , Spinal Stenosis/diagnosis , Spinal Stenosis/therapyABSTRACT
Imunofluorescência de pele sä foi realizada em 29 pacientes com artrite reumatóide. O teste foi positivo em oito casos, sendo os depósitos encontrados nos vasos da derme em seis, e na junçäo dermo-epidérmica em dois. IgM foi detectado em oito casos, C3 em quatro, IgA em três e IgG em dois. Näo encontramos associaçäo entre a positividade de imunofluorescência com duraçäo e atividade da doença, presença de nódulos subcutâneos, síndrome de Sjögren, uso de drogas e positividade de FAN e fator reumatóide
