Sensibility and Specificity of the VitaPCR™ SARS-CoV-2 Assay for the Rapid Diagnosis of COVID-19 in Older Adults in the Emergency Department.

(1) Background: During the COVID-19 pandemic, rapid and reliable diagnostic tools are needed for detecting SARS-CoV-2 infection in urgent cases at admission to the hospital. We aimed to assess the performances of the rapid molecular VitaPCR™ test (Menarini Diagnostics) in a sample of older adults admitted to the Emergency Department of two Italian hospitals (2) Methods: The comparison between the rapid VitaPCR™ and the RT-PCR was performed in 1695 samples. Two naso-pharyngeal swab samplings from each individual were obtained and processed using the VitaPCR™ and the RT-PCR for the detection of SARS-CoV-2 (3) Results: VitaPCR™ exhibited good precision (<3% CV) and an almost perfect overall agreement (Cohen’s K = 0.

Clusters of Comorbidities in the Short-Term Prognosis of Acute Heart Failure among Elderly Patients: A Retrospective Cohort Study.

Background and Objectives: Elderly patients affected by acute heart failure (AHF) often show different patterns of comorbidities. In this paper, we aimed to evaluate how chronic comorbidities cluster and which pattern of comorbidities is more strongly related to in-hospital death in AHF. Materials and Methods: All patients admitted for AHF to an Internal Medicine Department (01/2015−01/2019) were retrospectively evaluated; the main outcome of this study was in-hospital death during an admission for AHF; age, sex, the Charlson comorbidity index (CCI), and 17 different chronic pathologies were investigated; the association between the comorbidities was studied with Pearson’s bivariate test, considering a level of p ≤ 0.

Implementation of EHMRG Risk Model in an Italian Population of Elderly Patients with Acute Heart Failure.

Acute heart failure (AHF) is a cardiac emergency with an increasing incidence, especially among elderly patients. The Emergency Heart failure Mortality Risk Grade (EHMRG) has been validated to assess the 7-days AHF mortality risk, suggesting the management of patients admitted to an emergency department (ED). EHMRG has never been implemented in Italian ED nor among elderly patients.

Improving the EHMRG Prognostic Evaluation of Acute Heart Failure with TAPSE/PASp: A Sequential Approach.

The Emergency Heart Failure Mortality Risk Grade (EHMRG) can predict short-term mortality in patients admitted for acute heart failure (AHF) in the emergency department (ED). This paper aimed to evaluate if TAPSE/PASp, an echocardiographic marker of ventricular desynchronization, can improve in-hospital death prediction in patients at moderate-to-high risk, according to EHMRG score classification. From 1 January 2018 to 30 December 2019, we retrospectively enrolled all the consecutive subjects admitted to our Internal Medicine Department for AHF from the ED.

Coagulative modifications in patients with systemic sclerosis treated with iloprost or nifedipine.

This study compared iloprost and nifedipine to ascertain whether they could improve parameters of endothelial and platelet functions in the treatment of Raynaud's phenomenon secondary to systemic sclerosis. Thirteen patients affected by systemic sclerosis were treated with intravenous infusion of iloprost, and 7 patients were treated with oral nifedipine. Blood samples were taken at baseline and after 6 and 12 months of therapy to assess main serological indexes of endothelial damage, thrombin activation, fibrinolysis, as well as natural inhibitors of coagulation.