Arrhythmic risk stratification in patients with left ventricular ring-like scar.

Aims: Left ventricular (LV) ring-like scar on cardiac magnetic resonance (CMR) has been linked to malignant arrhythmias in patients with non-ischemic cardiomyopathy. This study aimed to perform a comprehensive evaluation of this phenotype and to identify risk factors for life-threatening arrhythmic events (LAEs), a composite of sudden cardiac death (SCD), aborted SCD, and sustained ventricular tachycardia.

Methods And Results: One-hundred-fifteen patients (median age 39 [IQR 28-52], 42% females) were identified at 6 referral centres.

Knowledge over Time of Action Codes for Perceived Objects: An Exploratory Study on Developmental Children.

Over the past 20 years, there has been a growing interest in the processing of tool objects, and in the spatial S-R correspondence effects obtained with pictures of manipulable objects. Beyond the original affordance activation account, a location coding account has been proposed for such behavioral effects, which states that the location of the visually salient portion of an object speeds up spatially aligned motor responses and slows down misaligned ones. Furthermore, an additional action coding account has been proposed, according to which it is the direction of the action of the perceived object (e.

Antepartum pelvic floor muscle training (PFMT) plus perineal massage vs. postpartum PFMT alone: analysis of pelvic floor disorders, Quality of Life and sexual function.

Background: The aim of this study was to analyze how antepartum pelvic floor muscle training (PFMT) plus perineal massage associated with postpartum PFMT have a significant impact on pelvic floor health during pregnancy and after delivery.

Methods: One thousand two hundred thirty-three women were enrolled from January 2019 to December 2021. They were divided into two groups: 786 women underwent postpartum PFMT only, 447 women experienced both prepartum perineal massage and PFMT and postpartum PFMT.

Critical Issues in Assessing Occupational Exposure to Diesel Dust Exhaust.

The Italian Interministerial Decree of February 11, 2021, introduces the diesel engine exhaust (DDE) among the carcinogenic occupational compounds, also establishing an occupational exposure limit. Elemental carbon (EC), improperly called black carbon, has been proposed as a tracer of DDE exposure; EC is the carbon that is quantified in the ambient matrixes after all the organic carbon has been removed; traditionally, EC is measured with a thermo-optical analytical technique. EC determination and relative interpretation are challenging for the following reasons: (i) the scarce availability of equipped laboratories hampers EC analysis, (ii) EC interpretation is not easy due to the lack of reference values.

Spinal cord size as promising biomarker of disability outcomes after hematopoietic stem cell transplantation in multiple sclerosis.

Background: Biomarkers predictive of disability outcomes in individual multiple sclerosis (MS) patients undergoing autologous haematopoietic stem cell transplantation (AHSCT) are currently lacking. As correlations between spinal cord atrophy and clinical disability in MS were previously described, in this study spinal cord size was investigated in MS patients treated with AHSCT, exploring whether baseline spinal cord volume may predict disability progression after AHSCT.

Methods: relapsing-remitting (RR-) and secondary-progressive (SP-) MS patients treated with AHSCT (BEAM/ATG regimen) at a single academic centre in Florence, who performed at least two standardized brain magnetic resonance imaging (MRIs) scans (acquired between one-year pre-AHSCT to 5 years after AHSCT) were included.