Publications by authors named "Anna Cantarutti"

Purpose: Acute appendicitis during pregnancy poses unique challenges due to altered anatomical and physiological dynamics and concern about foetal well-being. This study aimed to assess management strategies and outcomes of acute appendicitis during pregnancy, focusing on non-operative management versus surgical intervention.

Methods: The study is based on the computerized healthcare utilization database of Lombardy.

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Background: A time-dependent analysis, usually by means of Poisson and Cox regression models, can be applied to prevent immortal time bias. However, the use of the Poisson model requires the assumption that the event rate is constant over time. This study aims to assess the potential consequences of using the Poisson model to cope with immortal time bias on estimating the exposure-outcome relationship in the case of time-varying risks.

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: Seasonal influenza annually puts a significant burden on the pediatric population, especially the youngest, causing severe illness and death. Additionally, associated healthcare costs cause a significant financial strain on healthcare systems. While vaccination is the most effective prevention method, its cost-effectiveness for healthy children remains unassessed.

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  • The study investigates the combination of a plasma 24-microRNA signature classifier (MSC) with low-dose computed tomography (LDCT) to improve screening strategies for lung cancer in 1024 participants with suspicious findings.
  • Results showed that MSC testing significantly increased the risk of lung cancer incidence and mortality in patients with positive LDCT results, highlighting the classifier's effectiveness for determining individual risk.
  • The findings suggest that using MSC in routine LDCT screening enhances the accuracy of predicting lung cancer and supports its role in managing uncertain radiologic findings.
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Importance: Point prevalence surveys (PPSs) are used globally to collect data on antibiotic prescriptions. However, the optimal frequency for data collection to ensure comprehensive understanding of antibiotic use and to target and monitor stewardship interventions remains unknown.

Objective: To identify the optimal frequency for collecting data on antibiotic use among the pediatric population through PPSs leveraging administrative data.

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Objective: To evaluate the association between maternal migration status and preterm birth, and whether a better adherence to antenatal care during pregnancy mitigates the risk of preterm birth.

Design: Population-based cohort.

Setting: Administrative databases of the Lombardy region, Italy.

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  • - The study evaluated how different medically assisted reproduction (MAR) strategies, like ovarian stimulation with insemination and various IVF techniques, affect the risk of multiple births over a 15-year period in Lombardy, Italy.
  • - Out of 30,900 births after MAR, 15.6% were multiple births, but this rate decreased significantly from 22.0% in 2007 to 8.7% in 2022, particularly due to changes in IVF practices.
  • - First line treatments had a stable multiple birth rate, while IVF-related multiple births saw a sharp decline, illustrating the impact of legislative changes on reproductive strategies in Italy.
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Background: Childhood obesity is a significant public health problem representing the most severe challenge in the world. Antibiotic exposure in early life has been identified as a potential factor that can disrupt the development of the gut microbiome, which may have implications for obesity.

Objective: This study aims to evaluate the risk of developing obesity among children exposed to antibiotics early in life.

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  • The COVID-19 pandemic worsened heart failure (HF)-related mortality, but it's unclear how much was due to healthcare changes versus the virus itself.
  • A study analyzed healthcare databases in Lombardy, Italy, identifying new HF patients from 2018 to 2021 to assess treatment use and mortality outcomes.
  • Findings showed that during the pandemic, there was decreased use of key HF treatments and an overall increased risk of mortality among HF patients, primarily due to SARS-CoV-2 infection.
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Imbalanced angiogenesis is characteristic of normal placental maturation but it also signals placental dysfunction, underlying hypertensive disorders during pregnancy. This study aimed to investigate the relationship between angiogenic placental aging, measured by markers placental growth factor (PlGF) and soluble fms-like tyrosine kinase-1 (sFlt-1) using the new index "Multiples of a normal term placenta" (Mtp) and the duration of pregnancy. A retrospective observational study was conducted, including singleton pregnancies diagnosed or suspected of hypertensive disorders after the 20th gestational week.

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  • Preterm birth is linked to an increased risk of starting antidepressant medication in the year following delivery, with a 38% increase for moderate to late preterm and 83% for extremely and very preterm births.
  • A study conducted in Lombardy, Northern Italy, examined 727,701 deliveries from 2010 to 2020 and found that 0.9% of women filled at least one antidepressant prescription within a year after giving birth.
  • The risk of antidepressant use, even when excluding those with a single prescription or other psychotropic drug users, remained significantly higher for women who experienced preterm births.
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  • Respiratory tract infections (RTIs) are typically caused by viruses, and a study compared the severity of historical RTIs with recent SARS-CoV-2 infections in children.
  • The research analyzed 767 cases from two different periods, finding that COVID-19 had a lower risk of hospitalization, the need for respiratory support, and antibiotic treatment compared to other viral infections.
  • The results suggest that while COVID-19 is similar to other viral RTIs in children, it tends to be less severe, indicating that preventive measures for COVID-19 should also apply to other respiratory viruses like RSV and Influenza.
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  • - The COVID-19 pandemic has negatively impacted the mental health of children and adolescents, leading to changes in medication use in Norway, Sweden, and Italy, particularly in terms of psychotropic medications.
  • - A study analyzing drug prescriptions and dispensings from January 2018 to December 2021 revealed varied impacts on different medications, with notable trends for ADHD, antidepressants, and anxiolytics increasing among adolescents in Norway and Sweden after March 2020.
  • - While some medications like insulin showed minor changes, asthma medications experienced a dip in dispensing initially, followed by an overall increasing trend, especially among younger age groups across all studied countries.
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Understanding the correlation between immune response and protection from COVID-19 will play a pivotal role in predicting the effectiveness of vaccines in children. We studied SARS-CoV-2 reinfection risk in children 12 months post-mild COVID-19. Children under 5 years old exhibited lower reinfection risk than older infected or vaccinated siblings during 12 months postimmunization.

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Background And Objectives: mRNA vaccines elicit a durable humoral response to SARS-CoV-2 in adults, whereas evidence in children is scarce. This study aimed to assess the early and long-term immune response to the mRNA vaccine in children with or without previous SARS-CoV-2 infection.

Methods: In a multicentre prospective observational study, we profiled the immune response to the Pfizer BioNTech (BNT162b2) vaccine in 5-11-year-old children attending the University Pediatric Hospital of Padua and Bambino-Gesù Hospital in Rome (Italy) from December-2021 to February-2023.

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There is growing evidence that inflammatory, immunologic, and metabolic status is associated with cancer patients survival. Here, we built a simple algorithm to predict lung cancer outcome. Perioperative routine blood tests (RBT) of a cohort of patients with resectable primary lung cancer (LC) were analysed.

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  • A study in Italy examined influenza cases and healthcare usage in children aged 0-14 over 10 seasons, revealing an average of 8,892 diagnosed cases annually from a sample of 1.4 million children.
  • Vaccination rates were notably low, at 3.6% for diagnosed cases and 6.8% for non-diagnosed cases, highlighting a significant gap in preventive measures.
  • Healthcare utilization was substantial, with frequent pediatric visits and notable complications, including otitis media and pneumonia, yet no flu-related deaths were reported during the study period.
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Aim: Children have largely been unaffected by severe COVID-19 compared to adults, but data suggest that they may have experienced new conditions after developing the disease. We compared outcomes in children who had experienced COVID-19 and healthy controls.

Methods: A retrospective nested cohort study assessed the incidence rate of new-onset conditions after COVID-19 in children aged 0-14 years.

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Introduction: COVID-19 features changed with the Omicron variant of SARS-CoV-2 in adults. This study aims to describe COVID-19 symptoms in children and adolescents during the Parental, Delta, and Omicron eras.

Methods: A single-centre, prospective observational study was conducted on individuals aged 0-20 years attending the University Hospital of Padua (Italy) from April 2020 to December 2022.

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Background: Knowledge about the effectiveness of antidepressants in pregnancy is limited. We aimed to evaluate the association of antidepressant continuation in pregnancy and adherence with the risk of antenatal hospitalization for depression/anxiety.

Methods: In a population-based study based on the healthcare databases of the Lombardy region, Italy (2010-2020), we included 17,033 live-birth pregnancies within 16,091 women with antidepressant use before pregnancy.

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Background: Bronchiolitis is the most common lower respiratory tract infection (LRTI) in children and is mainly caused by the Respiratory Syncytial Virus (RSV). Bronchiolitis presents seasonally and lasts about five months, usually between October to March, with peaks of hospitalizations between December and February, in the Northern Hemisphere. The burden of bronchiolitis and RSV in primary care is not well understood.

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  • A study analyzed the prevalence and risk factors of birth weight discordance (BWD) in same-sex twins using healthcare data from Lombardy, Italy, over a 14-year period.
  • BWD was defined as a 30% or greater weight difference between twins, with findings indicating that older maternal age, lower education levels, and assisted reproductive technologies (ART) are independent risk factors for BWD.
  • The research also revealed that adverse neonatal outcomes were more common in BWD pairs, while ART showed some protective effects on these outcomes, suggesting that although ART increases the risk of BWD, it may benefit the health of twins in other ways.
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Using electronic data from a large population-based network of Family Paediatricians (Pedianet), we aimed to describe the use of topical antimicrobials, including ozenoxacin 1% cream, in impetigo in children in Italy. We included 2929 children aged 6 months-14 years from 2016 to 2019 with at least one episode of impetigo treated with topical antimicrobials. Overall, 3051 cases of impetigo were included in the analysis.

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