Burden of Disease of Breast Cancer in Italy: A Real-World Data Analysis.

Background: Breast cancer (BC) constitutes a significant public health challenge in Italy, with a considerable impact on healthcare resources and societal costs. Despite advancements in diagnostics and therapies, the economic burden of BC remains substantial, necessitating a comprehensive evaluation to inform healthcare policy and resource allocation. The aim of this study is to estimate both direct health costs and social security costs related to BC.

Presence and Role of Associations of Cancer Patients and Volunteers in Specialist Breast Centres: An Italian National Survey of Breast Centres Associated with Senonetwork.

This article aims to present the results of a national, cross-sectional, voluntary, online survey on the presence and roles of associations of breast cancer patients and volunteers in Italian specialist breast centres. The survey was developed according to standard methods. The questionnaire was pre-tested by a random sample of three breast centres, loaded onto the SurveyMonkey platform, and piloted by one volunteer breast centre.

Integrating mammography screening programmes into specialist breast centres in Italy: insights from a national survey of Senonetwork breast centres.

Background: Despite recommendations, mammography screening is often insufficiently integrated into specialist breast centres. A national, cross-sectional, voluntary, online survey on this issue was carried out among the Italian breast centres associated with Senonetwork, the Italian network of breast cancer services.

Methods: A 73-item questionnaire was created, pre-tested and piloted.

Addressing disparities and challenges in underserved patient populations with metastatic breast cancer in Europe.

People with metastatic breast cancer face many challenges and disparities in obtaining optimal cancer care. These challenges are accentuated in underserved patient populations across Europe, who are less likely to receive quality healthcare for reasons including socioeconomic inequalities, educational or cultural status, or geographic location. While there are many local and national initiatives targeted to address these challenges, there remains a need to reduce disparities and improve access to healthcare to improve outcomes, with a focus on multidisciplinary stakeholder engagement.

A giant exoplanet orbiting a very-low-mass star challenges planet formation models.

Surveys have shown that super-Earth and Neptune-mass exoplanets are more frequent than gas giants around low-mass stars, as predicted by the core accretion theory of planet formation. We report the discovery of a giant planet around the very-low-mass star GJ 3512, as determined by optical and near-infrared radial-velocity observations. The planet has a minimum mass of 0.

Smoke exposure as a risk factor for asthma in childhood: a review of current evidence.

Asthma is a common chronic multifactorial disease that affects >300 million people worldwide. Outdoor and indoor pollution exposure has been associated with respiratory health effects in adults and children. Smoking still represents a huge public health problem and millions of children suffer the detrimental effects of passive smoke exposure.

The value of FeNO measurement in childhood asthma: uncertainties and perspectives.

Asthma is considered an heterogeneous disease, requiring multiple biomarkers for diagnosis and management. Fractional exhaled nitric oxide in exhaled breath (FeNO) was the first useful non-invasive marker of airway inflammation in asthma and still is the most widely used. The non-invasive nature and the relatively easy use of FeNO technique make it an interesting tool to monitor airway inflammation and rationalize corticosteroid therapy in asthmatic patients, together with the traditional clinical tools (history, physical examination and lung function tests), even if some controversies have been published regarding the use of FeNO to support the management of asthma in children.

Array-CGH and clinical characterization in a patient with subtelomeric 6p deletion without ocular dysgenesis.

Subtelomeric terminal 6p deletion has been recognized as a clinically identifiable syndrome including facial dysmorphism, malformation of the anterior eye chamber, hearing loss, heart defects, and developmental delay. Genotype-phenotype correlations of previously published patients have strongly suggested anterior eye segment anomalies as one of the major malformations of the syndrome if the critical 6p25 region contains the FOXC 1 gene. In addition, the presence in this region of one or more genes involved in hearing loss has been hypothesized.

Medium-term effects of bisoprolol administration on renal hemodynamics and function in mild to moderate essential hypertension.

Arterial hypertension is a significant cause of end-stage renal failure; effective treatment of hypertensive patients reduces the rate of progression of this disorder. ss-Blockers, particularly nonselective agents, are associated with deterioration of renal function in patients with chronic renal failure. Previous studies on the interaction of the beta1-selective adrenergic antagonist bisoprolol with kidney function have been performed only acutely and over the short term.

[Clinical experience with imipenem-cilastatin in intensive therapy].

The authors describe their experience with imipenem-cilastatin in 36 patients in critical conditions due to multiresistant bacterial infections. The efficacy and tolerability of the antibiotic are stressed.

Serum lipoprotein pattern variations in dementia and ischemic stroke.

Blood levels of triglycerides, total cholesterol, isolated lipoprotein fractions (VLDL-LDL- and HDL-cholesterol) and apoproteins (Apo-A1 and Apo-B) were examined in multi-infarct dementia, senile dementia of the Alzheimer type, ischemic stroke associated with carotid atherosclerosis and in control subjects. Forty patients divided into 10 consecutive patients for each group were studied. Alzheimer patients showed mean total cholesterol and Apo-B values significantly higher than control subjects.

Italian Multicentre Study on Dementia (SMID): a neuropsychological test battery for assessing Alzheimer's disease.

For the Italian Multicentre Study on Dementia, a longitudinal survey on Alzheimer's disease (AD) initiated in 1982, we developed a neuropsychological test battery for screening, staging and monitoring cognitive impairment in AD patients and for delineating their pattern of cognitive decline. The tests measured higher cortical functions primarily involved in AD, such as short- and long-term memory, orientation, language, and praxis, and spanned a large enough range of difficulty to minimize ceiling and floor effects. We administered this battery to 143 clinically diagnosed AD patients and 146 hospital controls whose scores were corrected for age and educational level.

Remote effects of caudate hemorrhage: a clinical and functional study.

Clinical, anatomical and functional findings in two cases of previous caudate nucleus hemorrhage, with good recovery, are presented. CBF data obtained with SPECT and 123 I-HIPDM well correlate with functional residual deficit, despite normal TCT examinations. These observations are suggestive of a partial "wallerian" diaschisis.

Effects of thalamic stroke on energy metabolism of the cerebral cortex. A positron tomography study in man.

Positron emission tomography was used to study the effects of unilateral vascular thalamic lesions on cortical oxygen and glucose utilization in 10 patients. There was significant ipsilateral cortex hypometabolism in 9 of the 10 patients, affecting the whole cortical mantle diffusely. The only patient spared was free of neuropsychological deficit at the time of positron emission tomography.

[Cortical hypometabolism after a thalamic lesion in man: positron tomography study].

We used positron emission tomography to study the effects of unilateral vascular thalamic lesions on cortical oxygen or glucose utilisation in 10 patients. There was a significant ipsilateral cortex hypometabolism in 9 of the 10 patients, affecting diffusely the whole cortical mantle. The only patient spared was free of neuropsychological deficit at time of PET study.

Subcortical dementia. Frontal cortex hypometabolism detected by positron tomography in patients with progressive supranuclear palsy.

The dementia associated with progressive supranuclear palsy (PSP) is considered to be subcortical because the cerebral cortex, unlike the subcortical structures, is usually free from major neuropathological lesions; the characteristic symptoms point to a dysfunction of the prefrontal lobe. The regional cerebral metabolic rate of glucose (rCMR Glu) was studied by positron emission tomography and 18F-fluoro-2-deoxyglucose18FDG in 6 patients presumed to have PSP and was compared with values found in 8 control subjects of similar age. The results obtained showed a highly significant rCMR Glu decrease in the prefrontal cortex of our patients.

In vivo quantitative imaging of dopamine receptors in human brain using positron emission tomography and [76Br]bromospiperone.

The brain regional distribution and kinetics of [76Br]bromospiperone, a derivative of a neuroleptic (spiperone) labeled with the positron emitter bromine-76, were studied by time-of-flight tomography after i.v. injection in man.