International prevalence patterns of low eGFR in adults aged 18-60 without traditional risk factors from a population-based cross-sectional disadvantaged populations eGFR epidemiology (DEGREE) study.

The disadvantaged populations eGFR (estimated glomerular filtration rate) epidemiology (DEGREE) study was designed to gain insight into the burden of chronic kidney disease (CKD) of undetermined cause (CKDu) using standard protocols to estimate the general-population prevalence of low eGFR internationally. Therefore, we estimated the age-standardized prevalence of eGFR under 60 ml/min per 1.73m in adults aged 18-60, excluding participants with commonly known causes of CKD; an ACR (albumin/creatinine ratio) over 300 mg/g or equivalent, or self-reported or measured (HT) hypertension or (DM) diabetes mellitus, stratified by sex and location.

Reliability of connectivity for the assessment of hearing perception in cochlear implant recipients.

Objective: The cochlear implant (CI) is the gold standard treatment for profound hearing loss with insufficient hearing aid benefit. Using regular words and sentences as verbal stimuli showed a ceiling effect in patients with optimal perceptual abilities. The objectives of the study were: (1) to evaluate the reliability of auditory perception through connectivity, comparing it to the regular audiometry in soundbooth and (2) to analyse the use of logatomes to better assess the perceptual abilities of high-performing patients.

[Environmental justice and local knowledge in the 'One Health and Citizen Science' Project].

The "One Health and Citizen Science" (OHCS) project aims to provide an integrated intervention model useful for characterising the state of environmental quality, assessing population exposure to pollutants, investigating the association between environmental risk factors and health outcomes, and measuring the impacts associated with contamination and remediation scenarios. In pursuing this objective, the activation of participatory pathways and the use of risk communication strategies are envisaged.Within the OHCS project, training and discussion meetings were planned on a number of issues deemed central.

[Risk appraisal of dietary intake of per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances by the Veneto population living in the area with water contamination. Update based on EFSA 2020 limits. Food surveillance campaign 2016-2017].

The Veneto Region (Northern Italy) conducted a monitoring campaign in the years 2016-2017 in order to evaluate the concentration of per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFASs) in foods in the area affected by the water contamination discovered in 2013. The risk assessment for the resident population was conducted by the Italian National Institute of Health (ISS) in 2018 and updated in 2021. The European Food Safety Agency (EFSA) updated the limits used by ISS, in particular adding a limit for the sum of four PFAS molecules in 2020.

Ovarian cancer deaths attributable to asbestos exposure in Lombardy (Italy) in 2000-2018.

Objectives: We aimed to estimate the fraction of deaths from ovarian cancer attributable to asbestos exposure in Lombardy Region, Italy, using a novel approach that exploits the fact that ovarian cancer asbestos exposure is associated with pleural cancer and other risk factors for breast cancer.

Methods: This ecological study is based on the Italian National Institute of Statistics mortality data. We formulate a trivariate Bayesian joint disease model to estimate the attributable fraction (AF) and the number of ovarian cancer deaths attributable to asbestos exposure from the geographic distribution of ovarian, pleural and breast cancer mortality at the municipality level from 2000 to 2018.

Development of an Italian National Epidemiological Register on Endometriosis Based on Administrative Data.

: Endometriosis is a female chronic inflammatory disease in which endometrial tissue develops outside the uterine cavity. It is a complex pathology, which significantly contributes to morbidity in premenopausal women, leading to chronic pain, infertility, and subfertility negatively impacting physical and emotional well-being and the overall quality of life. The public health burden of endometriosis remains elusive and challenging to determine, and this uncertainty can lead to inadequate healthcare services and treatments.

Sinonasal cancer incidence in Lombardy, Italy, 2008-20.

Background: Epithelial sinonasal cancers (SNC) are rare tumours with recognized associations with known/suspected occupational carcinogens (wood/leather dust, nickel/chromium compounds and formaldehyde). In Italy, a national SNC registry organized as a network of regional registries was established by law in 2008.

Aims: To describe SNC time trends, occupational exposures and geographical distribution in Lombardy, North-West Italy, based on population registry data (2008-20).

All-cause, cardiovascular disease and cancer mortality in the population of a large Italian area contaminated by perfluoroalkyl and polyfluoroalkyl substances (1980-2018).

Background: Per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) are associated with many adverse health conditions. Among the main effects is carcinogenicity in humans, which deserves to be further clarified. An evident association has been reported for kidney cancer and testicular cancer.

[Endometriosis, a participatory study in the Serchio Valley (Tuscany Region, Central Italy): state of the art and perspectives].

Background: endometriosis is a chronic condition with a significant impact on women's health, featured by endometrial tissue outside the uterine cavity. A limited number of studies have been conducted in the general population, and the true prevalence of endometriosis is unknown for many areas of the country.

Objectives: to better estimate the prevalence of endometriosis in three Italian regions (Friuli Venezia Giulia, Tuscany, Apulia) and to assess the relationship between endometriosis and environmental factors in three participating areas (Trieste, Barga, and Taranto), with a focus on Tuscany Region.

Applying competing risks analysis to recurrences of primary breast cancer.

Introduction: in time-to-event analysis, competing risks are observed when a subject is at risk of multiple types of events. A competing risk is an event that prevents the event of interest from happening or modifies its chance to occur.

Objectives: the purposes of this article are to provide an overview of competing risks analysis and to illustrate its application to the follow-up of breast cancer patients in order to estimate the risk of disease recurrence.

The descriptive epidemiology of melanoma in Italy has changed - for the better.

A recent research project using data from a total of 40 cancer registries has provided new epidemiologic insights into the results of efforts for melanoma control in Italy between the 1990s and the last decade. In this article, the authors present a summary and a commentary of their findings. Incidence increased significantly throughout the study period in both sexes.

Epidemiologic transition of lung cancer mortality in Italy by sex, province of residence and birth cohort (1920-1929 to 1960-1969).

Space-time analysis of mortality risk is useful to evaluate the epidemiologic transitions at the subnational level. In our study, we analysed the death certificate records for lung cancer in Italy in 1995-2016, obtained from the Italian National Institute of Statistics. Our objective was to investigate the spatial-temporal evolution of lung cancer mortality by sex and province of residence (n = 107) using the birth cohort as relevant time axis.

Optogenetic manipulation of cardiac repolarization gradients using sub-threshold illumination.

Mechanisms underlying cardiac arrhythmias are typically driven by abnormalities in cardiac conduction and/or heterogeneities in repolarization time (RT) across the heart. While conduction slowing can be caused by either electrophysiological defects or physical blockade in cardiac tissue, RT heterogeneities are mainly related to action potential (AP) prolongation or abbreviation in specific areas of the heart. Importantly, the size of the area with altered RT and the difference between the short RT and long RT (RT gradient) have been identified as critical determinators of arrhythmogenicity.

Patient presentation, skin biopsy utilization and cutaneous malignant melanoma incidence and mortality in northern Italy: Trends and correlations.

Background: The global increase in incidence of cutaneous malignant melanoma (CMM) occurring in the past decades has been partly attributed to increased diagnostic scrutiny of early lesions, with a potential phenomenon of overdiagnosis. The reported positive linear relation between skin biopsy rate and incidence of early CMM is compatible with this hypothesis.

Objectives: We explored the ecological association between the trends in annual dermatologic office visit rates, skin biopsy rates, incidence rates of in situ and invasive CMM by tumour thickness category, and CMM mortality rates in the Emilia-Romagna Region (northern Italy).