Multicentre clinical and bacteriological study of sulbenicillin in patients with bronchopulmonary infection.

In view of the pharmacodynamic and therapeutic properties of a broad-spectrum semisynthetic penicillin recently introduced in Italy, namely sulbenicillin, the authors conducted a multicentre clinical and bacteriological trial of the drug administered by intramuscular or intravenous injection in daily doses of 4, 6 or 8 g given in two or three administrations daily to a group of 66 patients with acute bronchopulmonary infection, mainly exacerbation of chronic infection, hospitalized in four Pneumology Centres of Sardinia. The authors assessed clinical, radiological, microbiological, and biohumoral parameters before and after treatment to provide a basis for assessing test product effectiveness and tolerability. On the strength of their findings, the authors concluded that the clinical and bacteriological activity of sulbenicillin was satisfactory and its local and general tolerability was excellent. The assembled findings indicate that the new antibiotic molecule can be used to advantage in the treatment of nontubercular bronchopulmonary infections, including severe or otherwise "difficult" cases, providing that the drug is administered at adequate dosages and for sufficiently long treatment periods.

[Evaluation of nutritional state of patients with esophageal cancer treated by total parenteral nutrition]. / Valutazione dello stato di nutrizione di pazienti portatori di carcinoma dell'esofago, sottoposti a nutrizione parenterale totale.

Six patients with carcinoma of the esophagus (proximal and middle one-third) underwent intravenous artificial nutrition (TPN) both during preoperative radiation therapy and during the periods preceding radical surgery. From admission on, their conditions were evaluated and followed according to an established pattern of assessment of the nutritional state. Besides a certain improvement of the nutritional state at the level both of the muscular and adipose tissues, the results showed the reliability and the reproducibility of the serial anthropometric indexes adopted. With regard to the biochemical indexes most commonly utilized for evaluating the nutritional state, the results confirmed the doubts already casted about the reliability of a great part of these indexes when applied to this specific kind of patients.

[Effects of reversing the feeding cycle and the light period on the spontaneous activity of the rat (author's transl)]. / Effetti della inversione del ciclo alimentare e del periodo di luce sulla attività spontanea del ratto

The amount and the circadian distribution of spontaneous activity in the rat are influenced by a number of factors, whose importance and interrelationships are still deeply discussed. In order to check the reliability of previous studies about the effects of meal-eating on the spontaneous activity (wheel running) of rats of our Sprague-Dawley strain, the adjustment to the modifications of the normal day-night cycle and of the normal nocturnal feeding rhythm have been controlled. Reversing the normal light and dark periods caused the rats, after a 24 hours period, to lower and to irregularly distribute their spontaneous activity. Rats shifted their pattern of maximal activity by 12 hours in the new period of darkness in about five days, and showed to have completely fixed the new reversed running habit. Also feeding habits changed in a similar way, but more slowly. The levels of mean daily activity did not change. In a second experiment, rats, received food during light hours, and were deprived during dark hours. Their activity increased considerably and irregularly during dark hours, while a very slight rise of wheel running was shown during light hours. Body weight gain and food consumption were similar to those of the control group. These results slightly differ from those obtained using other rat strains, and are an interesting example of reinforcement of a spontaneous behavior resulting more from the light-dark cycle than from cues provided by food deprivation.

Effect of age and duration of meal-eating on body composition and on lipogenesis and cellularity of adipose tissue in male rats.

Several studies indicate that in rats changing the rhythm of feeding from nibbling to meal-eating results in hyperlipogenesis and higher body fat deposition. Among the factors influencing this phenomenon, the effects of age and duration of treatment are not yet clear. Male rats of 4, 6, 12 and 18 weeks have been meal-fed (two 1-hour meals per day) for 5, 10, 20 and 30 days. Pair-fed Nibblers were used as controls. Adipocyte diameters and number from epididymal adipose tissues were determined, and lipogenesis measured my glucose-U-14-C incorporation into lipids. The results show that cellularity, glucose-U-14-C incorporation into adipocyte lipids and CO2 and body fat deposition are not affected by short-term meal-eating treatment in growing animals. In the adult rats, only after 30 days do the parameters studied show significant higher values in the meal-eating animals. The results are discussed in view of the possible interrelationships among the different factors influencing animal response to modifications in feeding frequency.