Publications by authors named "Belli M"

Infective endocarditis (IE) is an uncommon but potentially fatal complication in patients affected by hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (HCM). The risk has been described to be significantly higher than in the general population, but the incidence of IE in HCM population remains unknown. The complex pathophysiology of this disease, characterized by structural alterations of the mitral valve apparatus and the presence of turbulent flow that promotes the deposition of microorganisms, could provide a substrate for IE and may, to some extent, explain its higher incidence in this specific population.

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Atrial cardiomyopathy (AC) has been defined by the European Heart Rhythm Association as "Any complex of structural, architectural, contractile, or electrophysiologic changes in the atria with the potential to produce clinically relevant manifestations".1 The left atrium (LA) plays a key role in maintaining normal cardiac function; in fact atrial dysfunction has emerged as an essential determinant of outcomes in different clinical scenarios, such as valvular diseases, heart failure (HF), coronary artery disease (CAD) and atrial fibrillation (AF). A comprehensive evaluation, both anatomical and functional, is routinely performed in cardiac imaging laboratories.

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Aim: This study aimed to examine the relationship between nursing students' math anxiety and their self-efficacy in pediatric medication administration.

Background: Medication errors in pediatric patients are often linked to the precision required in dose calculations, posing significant risks to patient safety. Math anxiety, characterized by fear and worry, can impair students' performance in mathematical tasks, potentially reducing self-efficacy in medication administration.

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Founded in 1894, the Museum "G. Sergi" houses a variety of osteological materials and other collections, including several plaster facial casts from different human populations. This paper investigates this collection, which has been acquired (at least in part) in the framework of Italian colonialism, focusing on expeditions respectively led by Lidio Cipriani and Corrado Gini during the fascist regime.

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  • The left atrium (LA) plays an active role in heart function, and its impaired compliance in severe mitral regurgitation (MR) can lead to increased pressures and symptoms like dyspnea.
  • This study analyzes LA function in patients with severe degenerative MR to see how it correlates with symptom onset, classifying patients into symptomatic and asymptomatic groups.
  • Results indicate that LA dysfunction is significantly linked to symptoms, with a specific marker (LASr) being a strong predictor, suggesting that recognizing LA dysfunction can help manage asymptomatic patients effectively.
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  • The study aimed to evaluate how well right ventricular free wall longitudinal strain can predict peri-operative mortality in patients with severe tricuspid regurgitation undergoing tricuspid valve surgery, compared to traditional risk scores.
  • Researchers analyzed data from 110 patients, ultimately focusing on 79 who met criteria, finding that 9% died within 30 days post-surgery.
  • Results showed that right ventricular free wall longitudinal strain was the strongest predictor of mortality, outperforming classic risk scores when combined, indicating its potential importance in patient assessment before surgery.*
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  • Antineutrophil cytoplasmic autoantibody (ANCA)-associated vasculitis (AAV) primarily targets small- and medium-sized arteries, leading to conditions like rapidly progressive glomerulonephritis, particularly affecting the kidneys.
  • Infections are known triggers for this autoimmune disorder, and recent studies suggest a link between SARS-CoV-2 infection and acute kidney injury (AKI).
  • The text presents a specific case of a 61-year-old man who developed new-onset diffuse proliferative ANCA-associated glomerulonephritis following COVID-19.
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Introduction: Mild traumatic brain injury (mTBI) represents a major public health concern and affects millions of people worldwide every year. Diagnosis mainly relies on clinical criteria and computed tomography (CT) scans. GFAP (glial fibrillary acidic protein) and UCH-L1 (ubiquitin carboxyl-terminal hydrolase-L1) have been recently studied as potential biomarkers of mTBI.

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  • Mitral annular disjunction (MAD) can present as either True-MAD or Pseudo-MAD, with the study identifying their prevalence in patients with mitral valve prolapse (MVP) using transthoracic echocardiography (TTE).
  • Of the 603 patients studied, True-MAD was found in 7% while Pseudo-MAD was found in 37%, suggesting a significant reclassification of cases traditionally thought to be MAD.
  • TTE proved to be a highly accurate and reliable tool for assessing mitral conditions, with accuracy ratings of 0.89 and strong intra/inter-rater reliability, affirming its value as a first-line assessment method in clinical settings.
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  • A 32-year-old woman experienced recurring migraines after having a percutaneous patent foramen ovale (PFO) closure, which was initially done due to a previous embolism.
  • Transoesophageal echocardiography revealed that the original PFO closure device was partially displaced, leading to a residual interatrial shunt.
  • After successfully placing a second occluder to overlap with the first, the patient reported no migraines during a 6-month follow-up, suggesting this approach effectively managed her condition.
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Aims: The prevalence, the aetiologies, and the clinical features of tricuspid regurgitation (TR) in the context of concomitant degenerative mitral valve (MV) disease are poorly defined. This paper aims to assess the prevalence, determinants, and clinical consequences of TR in severe degenerative mitral regurgitation (DMR).

Methods And Results: Clinical and echocardiographic characteristics were collected among patients with severe DMR.

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Extracellular vesicles (EV), key players in cell-to-cell communication, may contribute to disease propagation in several neurodegenerative diseases, including Alzheimer's disease (AD), by favoring the dissemination of neurotoxic proteins within the brain. Interestingly, growing evidence supports the role of herpes simplex virus type 1 (HSV-1) infection in the pathogenesis of AD. Here, we investigated whether HSV-1 infection could promote the spread of phosphorylated tau (ptau) among neurons via EV.

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  • The study investigated patients with significant tricuspid regurgitation (TR) in the context of severe mitral or aortic valvular disease, analyzing their characteristics and long-term outcomes.
  • A total of 975 patients with moderate to severe TR were sorted into four groups based on their specific valvular conditions, with the primary goal to examine all-cause death rates and heart failure-related outcomes.
  • Results showed that patients with severe aortic stenosis and TR had poorer outcomes; however, after adjusting for various factors, differences in death rates between groups became insignificant, highlighting the serious impact of TR across different valvular diseases.
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Acinetobacter baumannii is a critical opportunistic pathogen associated with nosocomial infections. The high rates of antibiotic-resistance acquisition make most antibiotics ineffective. Thus, new medical countermeasures are urgently needed.

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Rotenone is a pesticide used in research for its ability to induce changes similar, in vivo and in vitro, to those observed in Parkinson's disease (PD). This includes a selective death of dopaminergic neurons in the substantia nigra. Nonetheless, the precise mechanism through which rotenone modifies structure and function of neurons remains unclear.

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  • The Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant accident has prompted research into the effects of chronic low-dose-rate radiation exposure on biological systems, particularly its impact on the reproductive system and potential infertility.
  • A study was conducted on the testis ultrastructure of wild large Japanese field mice from contaminated areas with varying radiation levels, revealing preserved seminiferous tubules similar to unexposed controls, but with some structural changes.
  • Findings indicated increased lipid droplet clusters in spermatogenic cells and changes related to spermatogenesis, suggesting that while there were ultrastructural modifications, the overall process of spermatogenesis remained normal in mice exposed to low-dose radiation.
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Background: The limited ability of enzyme replacement therapy (ERT) in removing globotriaosylceramide from cardiomyocytes is recognized for advanced Fabry disease cardiomyopathy (FDCM). Prehypertrophic FDCM is believed to be cured or stabilized by ERT. However, no pathologic confirmation is available.

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Background: Echocardiographic grading of mitral regurgitation (MR) in mitral valve prolapse (MVP) is challenging. Three-dimensional (3D) vena contracta area (VCA) has been proposed as a valuable method. However, data defining the cutoff values of severity and validation in the subset of patients with MVP are scarce.

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Introduction: Fabry's disease (FD) is a genetic X-linked systemic and progressive rare disease characterized by the accumulation of globotriaosylceramide (GB3) into the lysosomes of many tissues. FD is due to loss-of-function mutations of α-galactosidase, a key-enzyme for lysosomal catabolism of glycosphingolipids, which accumulate as glycolipid bodies (GB). In homozygous males the progressive deposition of GB3 into the cells leads to clinical symptoms in CNS, skin, kidney, etc.

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Objective: We investigated motivation levels across the general Brazilian population and subgroups and their willingness to spend for surgery without a cervical scar.

Methods: This random-sample survey was performed by a specialized third-party research institute. In this study, we created a hypothetical thyroidectomy scenario, and the transcervical and transoral endoscopic thyroidectomy vestibular approach (TOETVA) were used.

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In a previous investigation, the authors proposed nitrogen as a possible candidate for exploiting the donor spin in silicon quantum devices. This system is characterized by a ground state deeper than the other group V impurities in silicon, offering less stringent requirements on the device temperature necessary to access the unionized state. The nitrogen donor is slightly displaced from the substitutional site, and upon heating, the system undergoes a motional transition.

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