Psychopathological symptoms and their association with the quality of life and the sexual functioning in women affected by systemic scleroderma: a preliminary investigation.

Objective: This study aimed to investigate the presence of psychopathological symptoms and the relations of these dimensions with the quality of life and sexual function in a group of women affected by systemic scleroderma.

Subjects And Methods: Seventy-one women with systemic scleroderma were invited to participate in the study; 65 agreed to participate, while 6 declined. Four questionnaires were administered to the patients: a specific socio-demographic questionnaire, the Symptom Checklist-90-Revised (SCL-90-R), the Female Sexual Function Index (FSFI), and the Quality-of-Life Questionnaire of the European Foundation for Osteoporosis (QUALEFFO-41).

Potential pathophysiologic mechanisms underlying the inherent risk of cancer in patients with atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease.

Emerging evidence demonstrates an intimate interplay between cardiovascular disease and cancer pathophysiology. The aim of this review is to shed light on the common biological pathways underlying cardiovascular disease and cancer. These common pathways form the basis of "reverse cardio-oncology".

Infections and Smartphone Use in Nursing Practice: A Systematic Review.

Aim: Nurses use their smartphones during the work shift. The objective of this review is to investigate the presence of bacteria on mobile phones and the procedures to disinfect or decontaminate the smartphone and decrease the infection rate.

Method: This systematic review was carried out through a search on the main scientific databases by following the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses guidelines.

Fatigue in Kidney Transplantation: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis.

Fatigue is still present in up to 40-50% of kidney transplant recipients (KTR), the results of studies comparing the prevalence among patients on hemodialysis (HD) and KTR led to conflicting results. Fatigue correlates include inflammation, symptoms of depression, sleep disorders and obesity. Fatigue in KTR leads to significant functional impairment, it is common among KTR poorly adherent to immunosuppressive therapy and is associated with a serious deterioration of quality of life.

The opinions and feelings about their educational needs and role of familial caregivers of Parkinson's Disease patients: a qualitative study.

Background And Aim Of The Work: In the advanced stages of Parkinson's Disease, patients need complex care and support, especially at home, where they often receive assistance by familial caregivers. However, caregivers may be or feel unable to cope with their role and, despite the needs of caregivers are often assessed in the literature, their opinions and feelings about these needs are not widely explored yet. This study aimed at exploring the opinions and feelings about their educational needs and role of familial caregivers of Parkinson's Disease patients.

Effectiveness of implementing link nurses and audits and feedback to improve nurses' compliance with standard precautions: A cluster randomized controlled trial.

Background: To prevent health care-associated infections, health organizations recommend that health care workers stringently observe standard precautions (SPs). Nevertheless, compliance with SPs is still suboptimal, emphasizing the need for improvement interventions.

Methods: A cluster randomized controlled trial with a pretest-post-test design was conducted with 121 clinical nurses who worked in different wards of a university hospital.

Stress-related vulnerability and usefulness of healthcare education in Parkinson's disease: The perception of a group of family caregivers, a cross-sectional study.

Parkinson's Disease is associated with a high assistive complexity, thus generating in caregivers a burden proportional to the intensity of the care provided. This study aims to evaluate whether the stress-related level of caregivers is related to their perception of the need for healthcare education. A cross-sectional study was conducted on 69 family caregivers that completed the Stress-related Vulnerability Scale (SVS scale) with a tool of proposed interventions stratified according to caregivers' need as "nothing", "somewhat", "moderately" and "extremely".

Experiences of compliance with standard precautions during emergencies: A qualitative study of nurses working in intensive care units.

Unlabelled: Aim To explore factors that influence intensive care nurses' experiences of being compliant with standard precautions (SP) during emergencies.

Background: Intensive care nurses can be exposed to a greater risk of biohazardous exposure during an emergency. The primary strategy to address the complex variety of biological hazards in clinical practice is represented by the implementation of SP guidelines.

Can nurses' shift work jeopardize the patient safety? A systematic review.

Objective: Medication administration accounts for 40% of the nursing clinical activity in hospitals and nurses play a central role in granting the patient safety, as they are directly responsible for the patient care. This review aims at analyzing the correlation between the clinical risk management and the occurrence of medication errors and the effects of the shift work (such as excessive fatigue and sleep deprivation after a shift in hospital) on inpatient nurses.

Materials And Methods: This paper adheres to the relevant EQUATOR guidelines.

Free light chains a novel biomarker of cardiovascular disease. A pilot study.

Objective: Atherosclerosis and ischemic heart disease (IHD) are the major cause of morbidity and mortality but their inflammatory pathogenesis is still unclear. In this scenario, the role of serum free light chains (sFLC) has never been fully evaluated. The aim of the present study is to assess the clinical and pathogenetic role of sFLC in patients with IHD and to propose their use as a new biomarker for cardiovascular disease.

Compliance with Standard Precautions among Clinical Nurses: Validity and Reliability of the Italian Version of the Compliance with Standard Precautions Scale (CSPS-It).

Background: The compliance with Standard Precautions (SPs) guidelines, as a primary strategy for the prevention of healthcare associated infections, is still suboptimal among healthcare providers. However, no instrument measuring nurses' compliance with SPs is available in Italian. This study aims to assess the validity and reliability of the Compliance with Standard Precaution Scale⁻Italian version (CSPS-It) among clinical nurses.

A Mobile App for the Remote Monitoring and Assistance of Patients with Parkinson's Disease and their Caregivers.

The remote monitoring of patients is based on digital systems that enable the remote collection, usually at home, of health data and its transmission to health centers. The telemedicine paradigm is of particular interest in chronic diseases, fragile population and elderly monitoring. Parkinson's disease (PD) is a neurodegenerative disorder having high impact on the lives of patients and their families.

The effects of a multidisciplinary education course on the burden, health literacy and needs of family caregivers.

Chronic diseases are mostly managed by family caregivers that often face the "caregiver burden". This study aimed to understand whether a multidisciplinary theoretical-practical training course could influence the burden, health literacy and needs of caregivers. Seventy-six familial caregivers were asked to complete the Caregiver Burden Inventory-CBI, Caregiver Needs Assessment-CNA, and Health Literacy Questionnaire-HLQ, before and after the course.

One-year results of the randomized, controlled, short-term psychotherapy in acute myocardial infarction (STEP-IN-AMI) trial.

Background: Previous studies on cognitive and interpersonal interventions have yielded inconsistent results in ischemic heart disease patients.

Methods: 101 patients aged ≤ 70 years, and enrolled one week after complete revascularization with urgent/emergent angioplasty for an AMI, were randomized to standard cardiological therapy plus short-term humanistic-existential psychotherapy (STP) versus standard cardiological therapy only. Primary composite end point was: one-year incidence of new cardiological events (re-infarction, death, stroke, revascularization, life-threatening ventricular arrhythmias, and the recurrence of typical and clinically significant angina) and of clinically significant new comorbidities.

Atrial fibrillation and the 4P medicine.

Although the paradigm of the 4P medicine - Predictive, Personalized, Preemptive, and Participatory - has been suggested several years ago, its application to atrial fibrillation is still far away. Given the increasing prevalence and incidence of this pathology it is the time to promote preventive strategies, by identifying the risk factors associated to life style and by incentivizing innovative diagnostic technologies. The promotion of the correct life style and of the use of diagnostic devices based on innovative and reliable technologies, represent a first step towards the full realization of the revolution of 4P medicine in atrial fibrillation.

A new echo-Doppler method to measure interatrial conduction time. Validation and clinical usefulness.

Aim: The aim of this study was to assess if knowing the interatrial conduction time is useful to better program atrioventricular delay in sequential pacing. The study proposes a new echo-Doppler method to measure interatrial conduction time, correlating it with electrophysiological measures.

Methods: The new method was tested in 30 subjects who underwent electrophysiological study.

Recovery of distal coronary flow reserve in LAD and LCx after Y-Graft intervention assessed by transthoracic echocardiography.

Background: Y- graft (Y-G) is a graft formed by the Left Internal Mammary Artery (LIMA) connected to the Left Anterior Descending Artery (LAD) and by a free Right Internal Mammary Artery (RIMA) connected to LIMA and to a Marginal artery of Left Circumflex Artery (LCx). Aim of the work was to study the flow of this graft during a six months follow-up to assess whether the graft was able to meet the request of all the left coronary circulation, and to assess whether it could be done by evaluation of coronary flow reserve (CFR).

Methods: In 13 consecutive patients submitted to Y-G (13 men), CFR was measured in distal LAD and in distal LCx from 1 week after , every two months, up to six months after operation (a total of 8 tests for each patient) by means of transthoracic echocardiography (TTE) and Adenosine infusion (140 mcg/kg/min for 3-6 min).

Role of endothelial progenitor cells in restenosis and progression of coronary atherosclerosis after percutaneous coronary intervention: a prospective study.

Objectives: We prospectively investigated the relationship of circulating endothelial progenitor cells at time of percutaneous coronary intervention to the subsequent development of in-stent restenosis or progression of coronary atherosclerosis.

Background: Endothelial progenitor cells provide an endogenous repair mechanism of the dysfunctional endothelium and therefore can play a pathogenic role in coronary atherosclerosis.

Methods: We studied 155 consecutive stable angina patients (92 men, age 60 +/- 11 years).

Angiotensin II receptor antagonism with telmisartan increases number of endothelial progenitor cells in normotensive patients with coronary artery disease: a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled study.

Introduction: Circulating endothelial progenitor cells (EPCs) provide an endogenous repair mechanism of the dysfunctional endothelium and therefore can play a crucial role in the pathophysiology of coronary artery disease (CAD). Angiotensin II receptor antagonism has been shown to be able to increase EPCs in hypertension but its effect in patients with CAD is unknown. Aim of this study was to evaluate whether telmisartan, an angiotensin II receptor antagonist, can modify the number of subpopulations of EPCs and may in turn affect the endothelial function of normotensive patients with CAD.

Rationale and trial design of a randomized, controlled study on short-term psychotherapy after acute myocardial infarction: the STEP-IN-AMI trial (Short Term Psychotherapy in Acute Myocardial Infarction).

Objective: A number of previous studies addressed the effect of psychological interventions in patients after acute myocardial infarction (AMI), but it is not known whether psychotherapy might be beneficial after medical and interventional therapy of AMI. We designed a randomized, controlled study to assess the effects of a short-term psychotherapy (STP) on the clinical outcomes of patients who underwent an emergency percutaneous coronary intervention after AMI.

Methods: One hundred consecutive patients undergoing an emergency percutaneous coronary intervention will be randomized 1 week after AMI to medical therapy (control group, C group) or to medical therapy and STP (STP group).

Endothelial progenitor cells in patients with coronary artery disease and left ventricular dysfunction.

Objectives: Endothelial progenitor cells (EPCs) play a key role in maintenance of endothelial integrity and postnatal neovascularization. We verified whether the number of subpopulations of EPCs is different in patients with coronary artery disease (CAD) and normal or impaired left ventricular (LV) function.

Methods: Sixty-eight consecutive patients (37 men, age 60+/-18 years) with CAD were studied.

Circulating endothelial progenitor cells in postmenopausal women with and without coronary artery disease.

Background: Middle-aged women have a lower prevalence of coronary artery disease (CAD) compared with age-matched men, but mechanisms underlying this phenomenon remain controversial. To verify whether there is a link between circulating endothelial progenitor cells (EPCs) and gender-specific difference of CAD, we compared subpopulations of EPCs among postmenopausal normal women, patients with CAD, and age-matched men.

Methods: We studied 71 consecutive middle-aged patients with stable CAD (30 postmenopausal women and 41 men) and 40 middle-aged normal controls (20 postmenopausal women and 20 men).

C-reactive protein and left atrial appendage velocity are independent determinants of the risk of thrombogenesis in patients with atrial fibrillation.

Background: The association between inflammatory status and thrombosis in patients with atrial fibrillation (AF) is unclear. We studied the correlation between inflammation and the risk of thrombogenesis in patients with AF and the relationship of inflammation with other factors associated with thrombotic risk.

Methods: We studied 150 consecutive patients (69 men, age 65+/-12 years) with persistent non-valvular AF who had transesophageal echocardiography prior to cardioversion.