Increasing hepatitis B vaccination coverage among healthcare workers in Italy 10 years apart.

Background: In Italy, vaccination against hepatitis B virus infection was strongly recommended for healthcare workers since 1985. Update findings on vaccination coverage are lacking.

Aim: To assess current vaccination coverage against hepatitis B in this job category.

Mutations in HIV-1 reverse transcriptase potentially associated with hypersusceptibility to nonnucleoside reverse-transcriptase inhibitors: effect on response to efavirenz-based therapy in an urban observational cohort.

Background: Hypersusceptibility to nonnucleoside reverse-transcriptase inhibitors (NNRTIs) was described in association with reverse-transcriptase (RT) mutations conferring resistance to nucleoside reverse-transcriptase inhibitors (NRTIs). We evaluated the effect of RT mutations associated with hypersusceptibility to NNRTIs on the response to efavirenz-based therapy.

Methods: We analyzed an observational database of patients for whom highly active antiretroviral therapy failed and who received genotypic resistance testing-guided therapy, either efavirenz or protease inhibitor (PI) based.

Gynecomastia in male HIV patients MRI and US findings.

Purpose: To evaluate the role of MRI and sonography in differential diagnosis between gynecomastia and lipomastia in adult male HIV patients treated with high-activity antiretroviral therapy (HAART) for guide management.

Materials And Methods: Nineteen adult male HIV patients with enlargement of the breast, which developed during treatment with HAART, were examined with ultrasound (US) and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI).

Results: MRI was performed with SPIR T2WI, depicted in 95% of the patients, true gynecomastia and in the remaining 5% lipomastia; US demonstrated in all patients, in the subareolar region, a hypoechoic area, but was enable to make a differential diagnosis between glandular tissue and fat accumulation.

Metabolic and morphologic disorders in patients treated with highly active antiretroviral therapy since primary HIV infection.

Unlabelled: Our objective was to describe morphologic and metabolic disorders in patients treated with highly active antiretroviral therapy (HAART) since primary HIV infection (PHI). Our method was prospective evaluation of patients with PHI initiating HAART at the time of diagnosis. Outcome measures were: development of hyperglycemia, hypercholesterolemia, hypertriglyceridemia, and of body shape abnormalities indicative of lipodystrophy, assessed through self-reported questionnaires and physical examination.

Treatment with ribavirin and interferon-alpha reduces interferon-gamma expression in patients with chronic hepatitis C.

Recent studies in vitro and in animals have suggested that ribavirin may potentiate the antihepatitis C virus (HCV) activity of interferon-alpha (IFN-alpha) by up-modulating the production of T cell-derived cytokines, such as interleukin (IL)-2 and IFN-gamma, which play a key role in the cellular immune response against HCV. To study the immune-modulatory mechanisms of ribavirin further, cytokine production by activated T cells and circulating cytokine levels were studied by FACS analysis and ELISA testing in 25 patients with chronic hepatitis C unresponsive to IFN-alpha, before and after treatment with either ribavirin plus IFN-alpha or IFN-alpha alone. After 16 weeks of treatment, both the expression of IFN-gamma by activated T cells and the blood levels of IFN-gamma, were significantly reduced with respect to pretreatment values in patients treated with ribavirin and IFN-alpha but not in those undergoing treatment with IFN-alpha alone.