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Ascites often appears as a complication of several illnesses. The therapy is essentially based on the use of low-sodium diet, plasma or albumin infusion, diuretics and low-dosed ACE-inhibitors. To use the simple paracentesis or special techniques as Rhodiascit or Lee Veen Shunt means not to resolve definitively the problem and sometimes to cause undesirable complications. The authors present a new therapeutic tactics that joins the use of technique of double filtration of ascitic fluid and reinfusion of concentrated proteins (DFAF) with the injection in the peritoneal cavity of beta-interferon and the venous infusion of ATIII. Twenty patients affected by hepatic cirrhosis with the presence of ascitic fluid not treatable with the usual therapy have been subjected to this treatment. All the patients showed an immediate improvement of the clinical situation. After one year of observation, we describe our results. Twelve patients needed a further treatment with the DFAF technique, two patients died for the original pathology and six patients just needed an adjustment of pharmacologic therapy.

The development of new technologies implying the use of semidialytic synthetic membranes in therapeutic apheresis, lays stress also on the problem of biocompatibility. The first alterations of plasma proteins and of the immune system are observable 15 minutes after the beginning of the apheretic session. This may suggest that the acute clinical reactions observed during apheresis are related to biocompatibility. However, the first chronic side effects, comparable to those observed in hemodialysis, do not occur before 10-20 sessions. It is known, in fact, that even when inactive materials, such as the last generation membrane, are used, plasma exchange affects the immune system and may determine plasma protein alterations (protein film, erythrocytic damage, ADP release, beginning of the coagulation process, complement consumption). The whole system or the type of membrane, the involucre, the potting glue and the lines affect the interactions. The contact of blood with a foreign surface initiates a number of local reaction, with subsequent reactivity of the organism. The activation of the complement system, coagulative system, fibrinolytic system and callicrein-kinin system is therefore responsible for the cell functional modifications. It is necessary to underline the role of the membrane surface used, in that the activation of the complement system, of the gathering of platelets and of the cell activity modification all increase with the increase in surface. Biocompatibility may be affected not only by the membranes, but also by the substitution fluids and by the anticoagulant used.

La casuale scoperta della catacomba di via Anapo risvegliò l'interesse dell'opinione pubblica verso gli antichi cimiteri sotterranei, abbandonati e dimenticati da secoli. Proprio in quell'anno nasceva Antonio Bosio, primo studioso di antichità cristiane in epoca moderna.

The canonization of Teresa of Avila in 1622 triggers a dinamic missionary irradiation of the Carmelite Order, as well as the renewal of the Teresian iconography and of the convent types. Friars-architects, like the famous fray Andrés de san Miguel, play a leading role in updating European and Iberian convents and transmitting models and construction techniques. La canonización de Teresa de Ávila en 1622 desencadena una animada irradiación misionera de la Orden Carmelita, así como la renovación de la iconografía teresiana y de los tipos conventuales. Frailes-arquitectos, como el famoso fray Andrés de san Miguel, son protagonistas de la actualización de los conventos europeos e iberoamericanos, y de la transmisión de modelos y técnicas de construcción.