Resumo em Inglês:

This paper outlines the working hypothesis that immune response is triggered, beside antigenicity referred to by the two major theories of Burnet (1959) and Jerne (1974) by the kinetics of the antigen that enters the body or, in the case of an endogenous origin, there is released from compartments where it is normally sequestered. This hypothesis, for simplicity called immunokinetics, postulates that the intensity of the immune response grows with the increase of the rapidity of the above contact or release and, conversely, declines with its decrease. Sublingual administration allows, by speeding up the vaccines absorption, to optimize their efficacy, safety and uses. Kinetics is also discussed in connection with homeostatic and adaptive processes involved in evolution.

Resumo em Inglês:

INTRODUCTION: This article deals with the description and diagnosis of a new nosographic syndrome, which received the eponym of "Cugini's syndrome" by the name of the Author who discovered its clinical picture. This syndrome is characterized by the binomial: "minimal target organ damage associated to monitoring prehypertension". CLINICAL HISTORY AND DIAGNOSIS: Between the years 1997 and 2002, the Author published a series of investigations regarding some office normotensives who inexplicably showed incipient signs of target organ damage (TOD). Investigated via ambulatory (A) blood (B) pressure (P) monitoring (M), these subjects were surprisingly found not to be hypertensive. Neverthless, the office normotensives with TOD exibited the daily mean level of their systolic (S) and diastolic (D) BP (DML SBP/DBP) significantly more elevated as compared to true normotensives. Because of these ABPM findings, the Author realized that the investigated subjects were false normotensives whose TOD was associated with a monitoring prehypertension (ABPM-diagnosable prehypertension alias monitoring prehypertension alias masked prehypertension). The year after the last Cugini's investigation, the INC-7 Reports introduced the term: "prehypertension" in its classification of arterial hypertension, as an office sphygmomanometric condition in between office normotension and office hypertension. The ABPM cut-off upper limits for a differential diagnosis between monitoring normotension, prehypertension and hypertension are reported, as calculated by the Author in its collection of ABPMs. The eponym of "Cugini's syndrome" was assigned in 2007 and confirmed in 2009. CONCLUSIVE REMARKS: The monitoring prehypertension is a further condition of discrepancy between office sphygmomanometry and ABPM, as per a masked prehypertension, whose diagnosis has to be immediately diagnosed, for preventing the onset of a TOD. There are reported the present investigations dealing with the possible need for an early antihypertensive treatment of prehypertension. A pharmacological treatment seems to be especially justified in the presence of a Cugini's syndrome.

Resumo em Inglês:

INTRODUCTION: Idiopathic macular hole (MH) is a full-thickness retinal damage typical of the advanced age with a high social impact because, as it affects the macula, it produces severe loss of vision. AIM: This study aims to evaluate the therapeutic efficacy of surgery and to determine prognostic factors, considering how hypovision weighs on individual quality of life and on public health. METHODS: All patients affected by MH were evaluated with an ophthalmic visit, measurement of visual acuity and Optical Coherence Tomography (OCT) documentation before surgical intervention. Surgical treatment followed and, subsequently, all the patients were examined with the same documentation at 7 days, 1 month, 3 months, 6 months and 12 months. RESULTS: Surgical therapy, with the modern techniques available, demonstrated the efficacy of anatomical recovery and retinal function. Furthermore, the quantitative characteristics of the MH in the OCT scanning revealed an important prognostic function.