Research on SARS-COV-2 pandemic: a narrative review focused on the Italian contribution.

Background: Since late 2019, a severe acute respiratory syndrome, caused by the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus-2 (SARS-CoV-2), has spread with overwhelming speed causing over 214 million confirmed infections and more than 4.5 million deaths worldwide. In this framework, Italy had the second highest number of SARS-CoV-2 infections worldwide, and the largest number of deaths.

Lung ultrasound as a monitoring tool in lung transplantation in rodents: a feasibility study.

Background: Orthotopic lung transplantation in rats has been developed as a model to study organ dysfunction, but available tools for monitoring the graft function are limited. In this study, lung ultrasound (LUS) is proposed as a new non-invasive monitoring tool in awake rodents.

Methods: LUS was applied to native and graft lung of six rats after left orthotopic transplantation.