Color vision study to assess the impaired retina-brain cortex pathway in type 2 diabetes: a pilot study in Calabria (Southern Italy).

The present pilot study was undertaken to investigate the impaired acquired color vision on Calabrian male sample showing this parameter as a biological marker in type 2 diabetes. All patients and controls underwent three pseudo-isochromatic clinical test batteries: Ishihara test, Farnsworth test, and City University test. The results show a specific loss of short-wavelength (blue sensitivity) and typical tritan responses in diabetic patients. Generally, in later stages of the disease, the red-green mechanisms are involved. By the impaired color vision study in diabetic patients, we can confirm the impaired retina-brain cortex pathway. We believe that the above not invasive test analysis can support the other instrumental and imaging analysis to study the impaired retina-brain cortex pathway. Moreover, we think that the present clinical method can be useful in terms of preventive medicine.

First World War and Mental Health: a retrospective comparative study of veterans admitted to a psychiatric hospital between 1915 and 1918.

AIM: The association between mental illness and war has been repeatedly investigated. Higher levels of depressive symptoms and an increased suicidal risk have been found in veterans. In this study we investigated the mental health conditions among Italian soldiers during the "Great War", who were hospitalized in a mental health hospital in Italy. METHODS: The study sample consists of 498 soldiers who were admitted during the World War I between 1915 and 1918, and 498 civilian patients admitted in two different periods (1898-1914, 1919- 1932). Psychiatric diagnoses have been recorded retrospectively by a detailed examination of clinical records. Socio-demographic informations, diagnosis at first admission, number of admissions, and deployment in war zones were collected. A logistic regression analysis was performed, the diagnosis of depression was considered as dependent variable while clinical and demographic variables as independent predictors. RESULTS: Soldiers deployed in war zones were more likely to have a diagnosis of depression compared to those not serving on the frontline. The logistic regression analysis showed that the diagnosis of depression is predicted by being a soldier and being deployed in a war area. DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSIONS: Our data confirm that soldiers engaged in war are at higher risk of developing depression compared to non-deployed soldiers.

A brief history of syphilis by its synonyms.

The history of a disease can be described or revisited by different main roads analyzing archival documents or rich bibliography, or studying biographies of different renowned men. Other different main roads can be apparently less important, too. These can be described as studying different therapies, renowned affected men or synonyms for diseases. We choose this latter main road studying the syphilis disease by the historical course of its numerous different synonyms during five centuries.

Casimir Funk: his discovery of the vitamins and their deficiency disorders.

The history of the discovery of vitamins is the history of their deficiency disorders. Their discoverer was Casimir Funk, who is considered the 'father of vitamin therapy'. In his experimental research, Funk studied the interrelationships in the human body of those elements that Eijkman had demonstrated in animals, particularly in birds. In his experimental research, Funk identified the dietetic factors whose lack caused the 'deficiency disorders', as he called human beri-beri, scurvy, rickets and pellagra. In 1911, he designated these factors 'vitamins' ('vita' = life, and 'amine' = a nitrogenous substance essential for life); this name was accepted by the scientific community in 1912.

Paul Ehrlich: the Nobel Prize in physiology or medicine 1908.

We wish to commemorate Paul Ehrlich on the centennial of his being awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1908. His studies are now considered as milestones in immunology: the morphology of leukocytes; his side-chain theory where he defined the cellular receptor for first time; and his clarification of the difference between serum therapy and chemotherapy. Ehrlich also invented the first chemotherapeutic drug: compound 606, or Salvarsan. We have used some original documents from the Royal Society of London, where Ehrlich was a fellow, and from Leipzig University, where he took a degree in medicine.

Alois Alzheimer: a hundred years after the discovery of the eponymous disorder.

The familiar term "Alzheimer's disease" was coined by Emil Kraepelin to honour his pupil, Alois Alzheimer. However, little is known about the life of the man after whom this important and well-known disease was termed. On the centennial of the discovery of Alzheimer's disease, it is appropriate to report some aspects of the life and scientific work of Alois Alzheimer. The authors contacted all the libraries of the Universities where Alzheimer studied and/or worked to receive any original material regarding Alois Alzheimer. This review is based for a most part on an original biography written by Konrad and Urlike Maurer after the interviews to Alzheimer's nieces, Hildegard Koeppen, Ilse Lieblein, Bärbel Lippert, Karin Weiß, and his nephew, Rupert Finsterwalder. The authors obtained this biography from the Central Library of Medicine in Koeln.