Effect of housing system on reproductive behaviour and on some endocrinological and seminal parameters of donkey stallions.

Reproductive management of male donkeys employed for artificial breeding has been poorly studied. The aim of this study was to evaluate the effect of housing system, with the animals grouped together in a paddock or kept in individual boxes, on sexual behaviour, cortisol and testosterone concentration and seminal characteristics of adult male donkeys. The study included four Amiata donkey jacks (stallions) from which ejaculates, saliva and blood were collected during two distinct 3 weeks periods, one in the group and one in the box housing system. Time needed for semen collection was shorter when donkeys were kept in paddocks compared to when they were kept in single boxes (14:57 ± 07:27 and 20:52 ± 09:31 min, p < .05). Native semen characteristics were not influenced by housing system, while cooled preservation in an Equitainer® showed that sperm motility parameters were significantly higher during the paddock period compared to the box period. Salivary cortisol was influenced by housing system, both before and 60 min after ejaculation, being statistically higher when donkeys were housed in paddocks. On the contrary, overall and basal testosterone concentrations were significantly higher when animals were kept in boxes. In conclusion, in the present study, good quality semen could be successfully collected from donkeys irrespective of the housing system despite some differences in hormone concentrations.

High-grade cervical intraepithelial neoplasia (CIN) in pregnancy: clinicotherapeutic management.

UNLABELLED: An increasing incidence of cervical intraepithelial neoplasia (CIN) among young women has been noticed in recent years. For this reason pregnancy might represent a peculiar opportunity to undergo cytocolposcopic examination for those women who do not take part in a screening program for cervical carcinoma. Diagnosis of CIN during pregnancy poses the question of the management of this disease and particularly of whether it is better to treat the lesion or not during pregnancy. To contribute to the solution of this issue we initiated a study on the management of high-grade CIN in pregnancy. MATERIAL AND METHODS: Five hundred and seventy-one pregnant women underwent cytologic, colposcopic and, when necessary, histologic examination. Those in whom a CIN was discovered in the first four months of gestation underwent laser conization. When the diagnosis of CIN was made after the sixteenth week of gestation, cytocolposcopic monitoring was performed every eighth week during pregnancy and two months after childbirth. Laser conization was performed under colposcopic guidance in the outpatient setting in all cases. All treated patients were submitted to cytologic, colposcopic and, if necessary, histologic examination every third month in the first year after treatment, every sixth month in the second year and yearly from the third year onwards. RESULTS: In 14 (2.4%) of the 571 examined women a CIN III was discovered, 6 of which associated with a human papilloma virus (HPV) infection. Of these, 8 patients, whose diagnosis was made within the sixteenth week of pregnancy, underwent laser conization. In one case a minor hemorrhage occurred during treatment. Two patients reported minor bleeding up to ten days after treatment. No major hemorrhages or cervical stenosis were observed. Histologic examination of the cones confirmed the preoperative diagnosis based on cervical biopsies and the lesion was entirely removed by conization in all cases. Seven of the 8 patients who underwent laser conization during pregnancy had a spontaneous delivery at term. The remaining patient, who had had a previous cesarean section, was again delivered by cesarean section. All treated patients were cured after the first-year follow-up visit. In 6 patients CIN was diagnosed after the sixteenth week of pregnancy. These women underwent cytocolposcopic examination every eighth week during pregnancy and two months after delivery, when the cervical changes associated with gestation had disappeared. Four of these patients showed persistence of CIN at postpartum follow-up and therefore underwent laser conization. In two patients spontaneous regression of the lesion was observed. In no case did progression to invasive carcinoma occur. CONCLUSIONS: Given the increasing incidence of CIN in young women, the beginning of pregnancy may represent a peculiar opportunity for all pregnant women who do not take part in cervical screening programs to undergo a cytocolposcopic examination. In case of a diagnosis of high-grade CIN within the first 16 weeks of pregnancy, a conservative excisional treatment, which does not expose the pregnancy to any risk, should be carried out in order to confirm the intraepithelial localization of the lesion.

[Radiosurgical excision in the treatment of cervical intraepithelial neoplasia]. / La radiochirurgia escissionale (REP) nel trattamento della neoplasia cervicale intraepiteliale.

39 patients affected by CIN had undergone radio surgical excision. This non-traumatic method employs 3.8 MHz radio waves are employed to cut and/or coagulate. The radio surgical excision was carried out by a loop electrode, or microneedle, according to the colposcopic, histologic and microcolpohysteroscopic characteristics of the cervical lesion. In fact 14 patients, among whom 11 affected by CIN I and 4 by CIN II with a total visibility of squamous columnar junction and not extended lesion of the cervical canal, had undergone radio surgical excision through various dimensions loop according to the size of the tissue to be excised. Whereas 10 CIN II patients who had not entirely visible squamous columnar junction or large cervical canal lesion, and 14 CIN III patients underwent to radiosurgical conization through a subtle and extensible tungsten thread according to the size of the tissue to be excised. In the 100% of the both groups the recovery was confirmed after three and six months. Inno cases cervical canal stenosis was observed and the squamous columnar junction resulted well visible. In both groups no thermal damages on the excised tissue, which could create difficulties on the histological diagnosis, were observed. Therefore, this method resulted an easy and cheap technique to be executed in surgery with excellent results under the therapeutic and economical aspect.

[Vulval vestibular papillomatosis: anatomo-clinical study]. / La papillomatosi vestibolare vulvare: studio anatomo-clinico.

Vestibular papillomatosis of the vulva is only by some authors considered as a viral lesion, and its origin is controversial. A study of 44 women with vestibular papillomatosis was undertaken, and in all the cases biopsies of vulvar skin were taken. We did not reveal any presence of koilocytotic change suggestive of viral infection, and no human papillomavirus sequences were detected by DNA probe technique. These results suggest that this vestibular papillomatosis of the vulva can be considered as an anatomical variant of the vestibular mucosa. Only in case of viral over-infection, ablative treatment is justified.

[Human papillomavirus infections in the lower genital tract of women]. / Le infezioni da human papillomavirus (HPV) del basso tratto genitale femminile.

Viral infections of the lower female genital tract have gained increasing clinical, epidemiological and cyto-histopathological relevance in the last few years. From January 1981 to December 1990, 14,090 patients who referred to the center of cervical-vaginal-vulvar physiopathology of the Ob/Gyn Institute (University of Florence), underwent a cytologic, colposcopic and, if necessary, histologic examination. Patients were divided in two groups: the first group consisting of 8635 women and relating to the period 1981-1986, the second group consisting of 5455 patients and relating to the period 1987-1990. This division in groups was necessary because vulvoscopy (after 3-5% acetic acid application) was performed as a routine examination starting in 1987, so that the former period could not be considered homogeneous to the latter for vulvar results. About genital condylomatosis were made some observations: localization, morphology and the different prevalence in the various age groups verifying the statistic reliability using chi 2 test. Finally the association of intraepithelial neoplasias to HPV infection was related to the age of patients, localization and morphology of condylomatous lesions. In the first group 466 patients (5.4%) were affected by genital condylomatosis, 1041 patients (19.1%) were affected in the second group. The yearly prevalence of HPV infection increased during the decade of observation changing from 1.9% of 1981 to 21% of 1990. The prevalence of condylomatous lesions reduces significantly as the age increases (p < 0.0001) showing a maximum of prevalence under twenty-five years of age. Genital condylomatosis is localized in most cases (76%) in a single seat of the lower genital tract and cervical localization is the most commonly involved (43.13% in the first group; 42.65 in the second). Sporadic is the vaginal localization as the sole one. The vulvoperineal seat, after the cervical, is the most frequently involved (1st group: 29.82%; 2nd group: 31.03%). It seems that HPV infection assumes different morphologies according to its localization, generally flat on the cervix and florid at vulvo-vaginal level.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 400 WORDS)

[Treatment of female genital condylomatosis with intramuscular beta interferon]. / Trattamento della condilomatosi genitale femminile con beta-interferone per via intramuscolare.

Intramuscular injections of beta-interferon were used to treat a first group of 64 outpatients with clinically diagnosed genital condylomata at single doses of 3 x 10(6) IU for 10 consecutive days. A second group of 30 patients affected by HPV genital infection has been treated with placebo intramuscular injections. Patients were checked at 3, 6 and 12 months after therapy and twice during a one year follow-up after the disappearance of the warts. In the first group 29 patients (45.3%) were cured after 3 months, another 6 after 6 months and 1 patient after one year. In the second group only 3 (10%) patients were cured after 3 months, while in 2 cases (6.7%) lesions disappeared after 6 months (p value less than 0.001). Therapy was most effective on flat lesions in the cervical area. Follow-up of the patients with complete regression of lesions showed three recurrences of condylomatous lesion.