Publications by authors named "Antonina Sciacca"
We carried out a prospective observational study to evaluate whether Monocyte Distribution Width (MDW) may play a role in identifying patients with sepsis in comparison with Procalcitonin (PCT). We prospectively enrolled all consecutive patients hospitalized at the Infectious Diseases Unit of Pescara General Hospital for bacterial infection or sepsis. MDW values were collected for all patients.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFArticle Synopsis
- - A study investigated the role of psychological factors, specifically alexithymia and depressive symptoms, in predicting cardiovascular disease (CVD) and mortality among HIV patients across six regions in Italy.
- - Data was collected from a cohort of 712 HIV-positive individuals, revealing that 31.6% had carotid plaques (CPs) and that alexithymia significantly increased the odds of having CPs and being at risk for vascular events (VEs) and all-cause mortality (ACM).
- - Findings suggest that alexithymia could be a useful psychological indicator for assessing cardiovascular health risks in people living with HIV, highlighting the need for consideration of mental health in their overall care.
Prevention and control of hospital and community acquired infections caused by multi drug resistant organisms (MDROs) are one major priority nowadays for health care systems worldwide. To improve actions and plans to tackle this problem, the creation of automated regional, national and international MDRO surveillance networks is a mandatory path for international health Institutions and Ministries. In this paper, the authors report on the surveillance system designed for the Abruzzo Region (Central Italy) to monitor the prevalence of MDROs in both infected and colonized patients, to verify appropriateness of antibiotic prescription in hospitalized patients and to interact with other national and sovra-national networks.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFWeb-Based HIV Testing in Abruzzo, Italy: Analysis of 15-Month Activity Results.
AIDS Patient Care STDS
October 2016
Undiagnosed cases of HIV infection in developed countries are estimated at 20-30% of individuals living with HIV. Web-based strategies may represent a new approach to easier, wider, and unrestricted access to early testing. The Abruzzo Region, Italy, developed a Web-based tool to recruit persons at high risk of HIV and other sexually transmitted infections (STIs).
View Article and Find Full Text PDFAvailable commercial assays may yield inaccurate hepatitis C virus (HCV) genotype assignment in up to 10% of cases. We investigated the cost-effectiveness of re-evaluating HCV genotype by population sequencing, prior to choosing a direct acting antiviral (DAA) regimen. Between March and September 2015, HCV sequence analysis was performed in order to confirm commercial LiPA-HCV genotype (Versant HCV Genotype 2.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: As HIV infection turned into a chronic treatable disease, now ranking as one of the most costly in medicine, long-term sustainability of highly active antiretroviral treatment (HAART) expenses became a major issue, especially in countries with universal access to care. Identification of determinants of higher HAART costs may therefore help in controlling costs of care, while keeping high levels of retention in care and viral suppression.
Methods: With this aim, we enrolled a large multicentric sample of consecutive unselected human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) patients followed at five sites of care in Italy, and evaluated annual individual HAART costs in relation to a number of sociodemographic, clinical, and laboratory variables.