Cytogenetic mapping of a major locus for resistance to Fusarium head blight and crown rot of wheat on Thinopyrum elongatum 7EL and its pyramiding with valuable genes from a Th. ponticum homoeologous arm onto bread wheat 7DL.

KEY MESSAGE: A major locus for resistance to different Fusarium diseases was mapped to the most distal end of Th. elongatum 7EL and pyramided with Th. ponticum beneficial genes onto wheat 7DL. Perennial Triticeae species of the Thinopyrum genus are among the richest sources of valuable genes/QTL for wheat improvement. One notable and yet unexploited attribute is the exceptionally effective resistance to a major wheat disease worldwide, Fusarium head blight, associated with the long arm of Thinopyrum elongatum chromosome 7E (7EL). We targeted the transfer of the temporarily designated Fhb-7EL locus into bread wheat, pyramiding it with a Th. ponticum 7el1L segment stably inserted into the 7DL arm of wheat line T4. Desirable genes/QTL mapped along the T4 7el1L segment determine resistance to wheat rusts (Lr19, Sr25) and enhancement of yield-related traits. Mapping of the Fhb-7EL QTL, prerequisite for successful pyramiding, was established here on the basis of a bioassay with Fusarium graminearum of different 7EL-7el1L bread wheat recombinant lines. These were obtained without resorting to any genetic pairing promotion, but relying on the close 7EL-7el1L homoeology, resulting in 20% pairing frequency between the two arms. Fhb-7EL resided in the telomeric portion and resistant recombinants could be isolated with useful combinations of more proximally located 7el1L genes/QTL. The transferred Fhb-7EL locus was shown to reduce disease severity and fungal biomass in grains of infected recombinants by over 95%. The same Fhb-7EL was, for the first time, proved to be effective also against F. culmorum and F. pseudograminearum, predominant agents of crown rot. Prebreeding lines possessing a suitable 7EL-7el1L gene/QTL assembly showed very promising yield performance in preliminary field tests.

Anthropomorphic ultrasound elastography phantoms - characterization of silicone materials to build breast elastography phantoms.

In this paper a mechanical characterization of low cost and simply available materials to build efficient anthropomorphic ultrasound elastography phantoms is described. The class of silicone materials was selected because of their deformability, durability and the possibility of reproducing specific tissue properties and shapes. Innovative formulations of silicone mixtures with echogenic and/or softening additives were tested. The proposed models have good acoustic properties and tactile feedback; moreover they are durable and do not require special storage since they do not dehydrate or decompose over time.

Advances in finite element simulations of elastosonography for breast lesion detection.

Among the available tools for the early diagnosis of breast cancer, the elastographic technique based on ultrasounds has many advantages such as the noninvasive measure, the absence of ionizing effects, the high tolerability by patients, and the wide diffusion of the ecographic machines. However this diagnostic procedure is strongly affected by many subjective factors and is considered not reliable enough even to reduce the number of biopsies used to identify the nature of lesions. Therefore in the literature experimental and numerical simulations on physical and virtual phantoms are presented to test and validate procedures and algorithms and to interpret elastosonographic results. In this work, first a description of the elastographic technique and a review of the principal finite element (FE) models are provided and second diagnostic indexes employed to assess the nature of a lump mass are presented. As advances in FE simulations of elastosonography, axisymmetric phantom, and anthropomorphic models are described, which, with respect to the literature, include some features of breast mechanics. In particular deterministic analyses were used to compare the various details of virtual elastograms and also to investigate diagnostic indexes with respect to the regions where strains were considered. In order to improve the reliability of the elastosonographic procedure, univariate and multivariate sensitivity analyses, based on a probabilistic FE approach, were also performed to identify the parameters that mostly influence the deformation contrast between healthy and cancerous tissues. Moreover, synthetic indicators of the strain field, such as the strain contrast coefficient, were evaluated in different regions of interest in order to identify the most suitable for lesion type assessment. The deterministic analyses show that the malignant lesion is characterized by a uniform strain inside the inclusion due to the firmly bonding condition, while in the benign inclusion (loosely bonded) a strain gradient is observed independently from the elastic modulus contrast. The multivariate analyses reveal that the strain contrast depends linearly on the relative stiffness between the lesion and the healthy tissue and not linearly on the interface friction coefficient. The anthropomorphic model shows other interesting features, such as the layer or curvature effects, which introduce difficulties in selecting a reference region for strain assessment. The results show that a simple axisymmetric model with linear elastic material properties can be suitable to simulate the elastosonographic procedure although the breast curvature and layer distinction play a significant role in the strain assessment.

Decrease in NTproBNP plasma levels indicates clinical improvement of acute decompensated heart failure.

Thirty-seven consecutive patients with acute decompensated heart failure (ADHF) admitted to emergency departments for acute dyspnea were investigated. Ten patients with acute exacerbation of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and 10 patients with hypertension crisis were also included as controls. For each patient, a plasma amino-terminal pro-B-type natriuretic peptide (NTproBNP) concentration measurement was performed at admission, 4, 12, and 24 hours later, and on the day of discharge. In patients with ADHF, the observation of a progressive reduction to a complete relief of symptoms of heart failure was accompanied by a reduction of 58% of NTproBNP plasma levels on the day of discharge. Amelioration of symptoms was accompanied by improvement of physiologic parameters and New York Heart Association functional class. In the control population (chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and hypertension crisis patients), no significant variation of NTproBNP levels in comparison with those at admission was found at each time point. In conclusion, a plasma profile obtained with sequential measurements indicates that a significant decrease in NTproBNP levels is associated with the clinical improvement of patients with ADHF at the time of discharge.

[Asthma: current therapeutic approach]. / Asma bronchiale: iter terapeutico.

Asthma is a chronic reversible respiratory disease characterized by inflammation and bronchial smooth muscle contraction. The therapeutic approach must improve the acute symptoms, avoid disease exacerbations and prevent the pulmonary functional decay.

[Hibernating and stunned myocardium. Pathogenetic mechanisms during and after myocardial ischemia]. / Miocardio ibernato e stordito. Meccanismi patogenetici durante e dopo ischemia miocardica.

In this paper the Authors consider the concept of stunning/hibernating myocardium, analizing the most recent articles and reviews in literature, until April 2002 (database PubMed). Dysfunctional segments with normal perfusion and normal glucose utilization are considered to be "stunned", and dysfunctional segments with reduced perfusion and preserved glucose utilization are considered to be "hibernated". Together with the two major hypothesis (generation of oxygen-derived free radicals and transient calcium overload) in developing of dysfunctional myocardium after ischaemia, recent studies have demonstrated an important role in down-regulation of beta-adrenergic receptors both in the stunned and in the hibernated segments. Moreover, the increase of negatively inotropic cytokines TNF-alpha and NOS2 has been observed in dysfunctional segments. The number of copies of mRNA has been quantified by reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (reverse-PCR).