To examine the immunological and clinical influence of 4 months' feeding with either yoghurt or partially skimmed milk or nothing, on 20 volunteers.
Thirteen subjects had a demonstrated allergic ...rhinopathy and seven were healthy subjects and participated as controls.
Either a group of seven or a group of six rhinopathic patients were fed either 450 g yoghurt or 450 g partially skimmed milk, respectively, for 4 months between March and October 1999. All subjects maintained their usual diet throughout the study. Peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMC) were isolated before and after the experimental period and cultured for periods of 40 and 64 h. Proliferation index assay and release of IFNgamma and IL-4 without and with PHA stimulation were assessed. Allergic rhinopathy was evaluated before and after the 4 months period by performing the nasal functionality tests (Active Anterior Rhinomanometry, Acoustic Rhinometry), the prick test, the nasal specific provocation test (NPT), the dosage of specific IgE blood levels, the evaluation of the symptomatological score and the nasal mucociliary transport test.
No significant change of the proliferation index was noted among the three groups. Cultured PBMC of the group fed with yoghurt released more IFNgamma and less IL-4. Cytokine plasma levels were at and remained at basal levels. Prick test, specific serum IgEs and NPT remained immodified. Muco-ciliary transport time (MCTt) and symptomatological score showed a definitive improvement after yoghurt feeding.
Yoghurt feeding appears to improve or prevent allergic recurrences in rhinopatic patients.
Since 1990 our group has been using extracorporeal circulation to ozonate blood by an original method, known as extracorporeal blood oxygenation and ozonation (EBOO), with the aim of amplifying the ...results observed with ozone autohemotherapy.
To verify the hypothesis that EBOO improves the skin lesions typical of peripheral artery disease (PAD) patients.
Twenty-eight patients with PAD were randomized to receive EBOO or intravenous prostacyclin in a controlled clinical trial. The primary efficacy parameters were regression of skin lesions and pain,and improvement in quality of life and vascularisation.
Patients treated with EBOO showed highly significant regression of skin lesions with respect to patients treated with prostacyclin. Other parameters that were significantly different in the two groups of patients were pain,pruritus, heavy legs and well-being. No significant differences in vascularisation of the lower limbs before and after treatment were found in either group. No side effects or complications were recorded during the 210 EBOO treatments.
EBOO was much more effective than prostacyclin for treating skin lesions in PAD patients and also had a positive effect on patient general condition without any apparent change in arterial circulation. This suggests other mechanisms of action of EBOO.
This paper describes the apparatus and the procedures implemented to test the front-end (FE) electronics of the LHCb muon detector multi wire proportional chambers (MWPC). Aim of the test procedure ...is to diagnose every FE channel of a given chamber by performing an analysis of the noise rate versus threshold and of the performances at the operational thresholds. Measurements of the key noise parameters, obtained while performing quality tests on the MWPC chambers before the installation on the experiment, are presented. The test suite proved to be an automatic, fast and user-friendly system for mass production tests of chambers. It provided the electronic identification of every chamber and FE board, and the storage and bookkeeping of test results that will be made available to the experiment control system during data taking.
ON the basis that ozone (O_3) can upregulate cellular antioxidant enzymes, a morphological, biochemical and functional renal study was performed in rats undergoing a prolonged treatment with O_3 ...before renal ischaemia. Rats were divided into four groups: (1) control, a medial abdominal incision was performed to expose the kidneys; (2) ischaemia, in animals undergoing a bilateral renal ischaemia (30 min), with subsequent reperfusion (3 h); (3) O_3^+ ischaemia, as group 2, but with previous treatment with O_3 (0.5 mg/kg per day given in 2.5 ml O_2) via rectal administration for 15 treatments; (4) O_2^+ ischaemia, as group 3, but using oxygen (O_2) alone. Biochemical parameters as fructosamine level, phospholipase A, and superoxide dismutases (SOD) activities, as well as renal plasma flow (RPF) and glomerular filtration rate (GFR), were measured by means of plasma clearance of p-amino-hippurate and inulin, respectively. In comparison with groups 1 and 3, the RPF and GFR were significantly decreased in groups 2 and 4. Interestingly, renal homogenates of the latter groups yielded significantly higher values of phospholipase A activity and fructosamine level in comparison with either the control (1) and the O_3 (3) treated groups. Moreover renal SOD activity showed a significant increase in group 3 without significant differences among groups 1, 2 and 4. Morphological alterations of the kidney were present in 100%, 88% and 30% of the animals in groups 2, 4 and 3, respectively. It is proposed that the O_3 protective effect can be ascribed to the substantial possibility of upregulating the antioxidant defence system capable of counteracting the damaging effect of ischaemia. These findings suggest that, whenever possible, ozone preconditioning may represent a prophylactic approach for minimizing renal damage before transplantation.
Regenerative injection therapy (RIT), also known as proliferative therapy, has been used for over 30 years in the USA in patients with spinal and peripheral joint and ligamentous pathologies. It ...involves the injection of mildly irritating medications onto ligaments and tendons, most commonly at origins and insertions. These injections cause a mild inflammatory response which “turns on” the normal healing process and results in the regeneration of these structures. At the same time they strengthen and become less sensitive to pain through a combination of neurolysis of small nerve fibers (C-fibers) and increased stability of the underlying structures.
Oxygen/ozone therapy is a well established complementary therapy practiced in many European countries. The ozone dissolves in body fluids and immediately reacts with biomolecules generating messengers responsible for biological and therapeutic activities. This results in an anti inflammatory response, which also results in a similar trophic reaction to that of RIT. It is logical to expect that combining these two modalities would result in enhanced healing and therefore improved clinical outcomes. Oxygen/ozone therapy, accomplished by autohemotherapy (AHT), is performed by either administering ozonated blood intravenously (Major AHT) or via intramuscular route (Minor AHT). These procedures result in stimulation of the immune and healing systems. Our concept is that the local injection of this activated blood injected directly to the ligamentous areas that are also being treated with RIT will act as a direct stimulation to the healing process. In addition, combining this with intravenous major AHT should stimulate the immune system to augment and support this process. RIT and oxygen/ozone therapy have been extensively studied separately. We propose a study of lumbosacral ligamentous pain to explore this therapeutic combination. We hope that this paper will stimulate general interest in this area of medicine and result in investigation of the “interface” between these treatment modalities.
The existence of a light dark force mediator has been tested with the KLOE detector at DAΦNE. This particle, called U, is searched for using the decay chain ϕ→ηU, η→π+π−π0, U→e+e−. No evidence is ...found in 1.5 fb−1 of data. The resulting exclusion plot covers the mass range 5<MU<470 MeV, setting an upper limit on the ratio between the U boson coupling constant and the fine structure constant, α′/α, of ⩽2×10−5 at 90% C.L. for 50<MU<420 MeV.
Time measurements play a crucial role in trigger and data acquisition systems of high-energy physics experiments, where synchronization between system elements, signal calibration, and ...phase-measurement accuracy is often required. In this paper, we present a fully digital time-to-digital converter (TDC) architecture and its application, based on a synthesizable digitally controlled oscillator (DCO), where the TDC is used to measure the phase relationship between a timing signal and a 40-MHz reference clock. The DCO design is technology independent; it is described by means of a hardware description language and it can be placed and routed with automatic tools. The TDC will be used in the new readout chip that is under development for the muon detector electronic upgrade in Large Hadron Collider beauty experiment at CERN. The TDC presented in this paper has the fundamental task of measuring, with a resolution of about 1.5 ns, the phase difference between the 40-MHz LHC machine clock and a digital signal coming from the muon detector.
IMMUNOREGULATORY cytokines produced by the TH1 subset and by CD8^+ T lymphocytes appear to brake naturally and sometimes arrest the progress of HIV infection in the early phase. It appears reasonable ...to assume that a mild and equilibrated stimulation of the immune system may prevent or delay the fatal transition towards the prevalent production ofTH2-type cytokines. The problem is how to stimulate the immune system in a physiological fashion. In the last 7 years we have clarified the main mechanisms of action of an unorthodox immunotherapeutic method first used 40 years ago. Optimized autohaemotherapy after a brief exposure of blood to ozone may today afford the trick of reprogramming the immune system to keep HIV at bay. The autohaemotherapeutic procedure is simple, safe, inexpensive and most likely is more effective than conventional approaches.
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