[Treatment of diabetes mellitus with an artificial pancreas]. / Trattamento del diabete mellito con il pancreas artificiale.

The results obtained with an artificial pancreas in 34 diabetics (15 women, 19 men) are reported. The group included 20 insulin dependent and 14 non-insulin dependent cases and the applicability of the technique is discussed.

Spontaneous formation of regions with different properties in neural nets.

This paper is intended to demonstrate the presence, in a nervous network, of "separate spatial areas", each with its own functional properties, when a "regular external stimulus" occurs. In this preliminary study we deal only with a linear situation, treating a network as a one-dimensional line described by co-ordinate x. We use a continuous approximation with a neuron of the network in each x position.

[Diabetes and surgical interventions]. / Diabete e interventi chirurgici.

Due to the ways their disease develops diabetics are more likely to require surgery than the rest of the population and operations constitute a stress factor with high rates of morbidity and post-operative mortality due essentially to cardiovascular and infectious complications. In normal subjects the stimulation of the hypothalamohypophyseal axis and the suprarenal marrow induced by surgical stress mobilizes energy substrates that provoke the secretion of insulin that prevents their accumulation and improves their utilization. In diabetics the inadequacy or lack of insulin secretion unbalances these mechanisms to the great danger of the patients themselves. For this reason patients' pre-operative conditions must be very carefully assessed and treatment designed to prevent the increase of catabolic ways due to the lack of insulin must be given. Some of the many treatment protocols proposed are described and discussed, a distinction being made between diet, non insulin and insulin dependent diabetics. The post-operative risk constituted by the onset of non-ketoacidotic hyperosmolar coma, as occurs in other severe stress situations should also be remembered.

[Relations between the site of insulin absorption and hypoglycemia in insulin-dependent diabetes during physical exertion]. / Rapporto tra sedi di assorbimento dell'insulina e ipoglicemia nel diabete insulino-dipendente durante l'esercizio fisico.

Hypoglycaemia often arises after physical exercise in insulin-dependent diabetics treated with fast and slow acting insulin. Some claim that this is closely linked to the injection site for fast insulin and related to altered mobilization of the hormone from its subcutaneous deposit. Others attribute it to hyperinsulinism. The hypoglycaemia occurring after physical exercise in subjects treated with slow insulin and that arising even hours after physical exercise are then considered.