Comorbidities in people living with HIV (PLWH) represent a major clinical challenge today, and metabolic syndrome (MTBS) is one of the most important. Our objective was to assess the prevalence of MTBS and the role of both clinical/socio-behavioral risk factors for MTBS in a cohort of PLWH. All PLWH, over 18 years of age, attending all Infectious Disease Units in Calabria Region (Southern Italy) for their routine checks from October 2019-January 2020 were enrolled.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFPatients with COVID-19 are at high risk of thromboembolic events; for this reason, the use of heparin is largely recommended but, in addition to thrombotic complications, bleeding is a significant cause of morbidity in patients with COVID-19. Idiopathic iliopsoas hematoma is a very rarely described hemorrhagic complication in patients with COVID-19. We report here two cases of iliopsoas hematoma in male patients with COVID-19 and being treated with heparin.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFLack of specific antiviral treatment for COVID-19 has resulted in long hospitalizations and high mortality rate. By harnessing the regulatory effects of adenosine on inflammatory mediators, we have instituted a new therapeutic treatment with inhaled adenosine in COVID-19 patients, with the aim of reducing inflammation, the onset of cytokine storm, and therefore to improve prognosis. The use of inhaled adenosine in COVID19 patients has allowed reduction of length of stay, on average 6 days.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFWe enrolled 33 patients with COVID-19 (23 men and 10 women; age 59 ± 15; males, n = 23; females, n = 10) admitted to the Department of Infectious Diseases of Grande Ospedale Metropolitano "Bianchi-Melacrino-Morelli" of Reggio Calabria, Italy, between March and May 2020. Whole blood samples were collected before the start of therapeutic treatment using all virus spread containment measures. Sample preparation protocols were designed in order to minimize operators direct specimen's manipulation.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: SARS-Cov2 infection may trigger lung inflammation and acute-respiratory-distress-syndrome (ARDS) that requires active ventilation and may have fatal outcome. Considering the severity of the disease and the lack of active treatments, 14 patients with Covid-19 and severe lung inflammation received inhaled adenosine in the attempt to therapeutically compensate for the oxygen-related loss of the endogenous adenosine→A2A adenosine receptor (A2AR)-mediated mitigation of the lung-destructing inflammatory damage. This off label-treatment was based on preclinical studies in mice with LPS-induced ARDS, where inhaled adenosine/A2AR agonists protected oxygenated lungs from the deadly inflammatory damage.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground And Objectives: HIV epidemics may differ among epidemiological contexts. We aimed at constructing an HIV clinical cohort whose main epidemiological, clinical and therapeutical characteristics are described (the CalabrHIV cohort, Calabria Region, Southern Italy).
Methods: The CalabrHIV Cohort includes all HIV patients on active follow-up in all infectious disease centers in the Calabria Region as at October 2014.
Hepatitis B virus (HBV) surface antigen (HBsAg) to anti-HBsAg (anti-HBs) antibody seroconversion is the best, final objective for all available chronic hepatitis B (CHB) treatments. Unfortunately, this goal is rarely obtained with the currently utilized therapeutic approaches. Here we describe the case of a CHB patient who was very successfully treated with a particular therapeutic schedule.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFSerum biochemical liver tests (LTs) (ALT, AST, GGT) and platelet counts are often used to screen for chronic liver disease. Population-based data on abnormal LTs in Mediterranean areas are lacking. The prevalence and etiology of abnormal LTs were assessed from 2002 to 2003 in a 1 in 5 systematic random sample of the general population who were 12 years of age or older in Cittanova, a southern Italian town with 10,600 inhabitants.
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