Anti SARS-CoV-2 antibodies monitoring in a group of residents in a long term care facility during COVID-19 pandemic peak.

Objectives Clinical laboratories plays a key role in screening, diagnosis and containment of the Coronavirus 2019 infection epidemic. The etiological diagnosis presupposes the isolation of virus genetic material in the patient's biological sample but laboratory diagnostics also make use of searching possibility for immunoglobulin (Ig)G, IgM classes antibodies. The characteristics of the antibody response are not yet completely clear.

Cost-Effectiveness of Tele-Video-Consultation for the Neuro-Surgical Emergency Management at the General Hospitals in Italy.

Neuro-surgical emergencies are serious (long-term disability and high mortality) and costly to the national health services. Tele-medicine intervention can facilitate to reduce this gap. Our study aims to evaluate the cost-effectiveness of tele-video-consultation intervention for the management of neuro-surgical emergencies in the general hospitals.

Therapy of chronic hepatitis C with PEG-IFN α-2b plus ribavirin in patients with genotype 2 or 3: 16 versus 24 weeks, clinical outcome and direct cost analyses.

Introduction: Short antiviral therapy has been proposed for patients with chronic hepatitis C, easy genotypes, low fibrosis score, low viral load at baseline, and rapid virological response (RVR). However, this approach is not completely accepted.

Objectives: The aims of this study were (a) to evaluate the sustained virological response (SVR) in noncirrhotic patients with genotype 2 or 3, achieving an RVR, randomized to receive pegylated-interferon (IFN) α-2b plus ribavirin for either 16 or 24 weeks and (b) to carry out direct cost analysis comparing patients treated for 16 versus 24 weeks.

The impact of disease stage on direct medical costs of HIV management: a review of the international literature.

The global prevalence of HIV infection continues to grow, as a result of increasing incidence in some countries and improved survival where highly active antiretroviral therapy (HAART) is available. Growing healthcare expenditure and shifts in the types of medical resources used have created a greater need for accurate information on the costs of treatment. The objectives of this review were to compare published estimates of direct medical costs for treating HIV and to determine the impact of disease stage on such costs, based on CD4 cell count and plasma viral load.

Taking decisions on expenditure for high-cost drugs at the regional level: a model for evaluating the overall impact of Trastuzumab in the Veneto Region of Italy.

Introduction: Cost-effectiveness analysis provides a ratio that indicates the value created per unit of money by a given therapy but says nothing about the total expected costs or net health and social impact of this therapy in a particular population of interest.

Objective: The main objective of this study is to define a methodology to calculate the effects of interventions from a local perspective. This will help determine parameters that provide information about resource planning and management to local decision makers.

Changing epidemiology of HCV and HBV infections in Northern Italy: a survey in the general population.

Aim: To evaluate the hepatitis B virus (HBV) and the hepatitis C virus (HCV) epidemiology in the general population of Northern Italy, a cohort of 965 subjects, all residents (including 47 immigrants), were anonymously tested for HBV and HCV infections.

Material And Methods: Serum samples were assayed for anti-HCV and anti-HBV markers by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay and for HCV-RNA by polymerase chain reaction, and the positive cases were genotyped. HBsAg-positive cases were assayed for HBeAg/anti-HBe, whereas HBsAg negatives were tested for both anti-HBc and anti-HBs.

Cost-effectiveness of tipranavir versus comparator protease inhibitor regimens in HIV infected patients previously exposed to antiretroviral therapy in the Netherlands.

Background: This study compares the costs and effects of a regimen with ritonavir-boosted tipranavir (TPV/r) to a physician-selected genotypically-defined standard-of-care comparator protease inhibitor regimen boosted with ritonavir (CPI/r) in HIV infected patients that were previously exposed to antiretroviral therapy in the Netherlands.

Methods: We compared the projected lifetime costs and effects of two theoretical groups of 1000 patients, one receiving a standard of care regimen with TPV/r as a component and the other receiving a standard of care regimen with CPI/r. A 3-stage Markov model was formulated to represent three different consecutive HAART regimens.

Prospective study of amphotericin B formulations in immunocompromised patients in 4 European countries.

Background: Amphotericin B is a widely used broad-spectrum antifungal agent, despite being associated with significant adverse events, including nephrotoxicity.

Methods: The present prospective study collected data on outcomes for 418 adult patients treated consecutively with polyenes in hematology and oncology wards in 20 hospitals in Europe.

Results: Patients initially received amphotericin B deoxycholate (62% of patients), liposomal amphotericin B (27%), or other lipid formulations of amphotericin B (11%).

Economic evaluation of HIV treatments: the I.CO.N.A. cohort study.

Objective: To describe the changes in costs of care for HIV-positive patients in Italy after the spread of antiretroviral combination therapies (HAART).

Methods: Five thousand four hundred and twenty-two patients from the I.CO.

Alcohol is an important co-factor for both steatosis and fibrosis in Northern Italian patients with chronic hepatitis C.

Background/aims: Steatosis in patients with chronic hepatitis C (CHC) may be the result of both viral and host factors. To evaluate: (1) the relationship between steatosis and either host or viral factors; (2) the correlation between steatosis and fibrosis in patients with CHC.

Methods: A consecutive series of 349 patients were evaluated for steatosis.

Association between diarrhea and quality of life in HIV-infected patients receiving highly active antiretroviral therapy.

Diarrhea is a common symptom that many HIV patients experience either as a consequence of HIV infection or of highly active antiretroviral therapy (HAART). A multicenter, prospective observational study was conducted in 11 AIDS clinics in Italy to determine the effect of diarrhea on health-related quality of life among patients receiving HAART. The study enrolled 100 consecutive HIV positive patients who had diarrhea while on HAART.

A multicentre study of patient survival, disability, quality of life and cost of care: among patients with AIDS in northern Italy.

Objective: To describe the epidemiological, clinical and economic changes that occurred in the HIV epidemic in Italy prior to and after the introduction of highly active antiretroviral therapy (HAART).

Design: A prospective, observational, multicentre case-control study was conducted comparing data, collected over 6 months, from an AIDS cohort in 1998 with that of a cohort in 1994. Out of 77 patients with AIDS in the 1998 cohort, 74 survived.

Modifications of health resource-use in Italy after the introduction of highly active antiretroviral therapy (HAART) for human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infection. Pharmaco-economic implications in a population-based setting.

Objective: To assess the impact of highly active antiretroviral therapy (HAART) on health resource utilisation (HRU) and to estimate associated direct costs in a population based setting.

Design: Retrospective study of all patients in the Institute of Infectious and Tropical Diseases (Brescia, Northern Italy) during a 4 years period related to the prescription of HAART has been performed: from 1997 (before HAART) to 2000 (after substantial period of HAART prescription).

Main Outcome Measures And Results: HIV inpatient admissions (IA's) decreased from 506.