Efficacy and safety of different antiarrhythmic protocols used for rate control in dogs with secondary atrial fibrillation.

Introduction/objectives: Studies comparing the effects of antiarrhythmic protocols used for rate control in dogs with secondary atrial fibrillation (AF) are currently limited; therefore, this study aimed to report detailed data on the efficacy and therapy-related side-effects (TRSEs) of different antiarrhythmic protocols in dogs with secondary AF.

Animals, Materials, And Methods: Dogs with secondary AF treated with combination therapy with diltiazem and digoxin (CT), diltiazem monotherapy (MT), digoxin monotherapy (MT), or amiodarone monotherapy (MT) were retrospectively evaluated. Signalment, clinical, diagnostic, therapeutic, and outcome data were retrieved.

Lesson in understanding parents' perspective: perception of quality of care and COVID-19-related fears among users of paediatric health services over the COVID-19 pandemic in 11 facilities in Italy.

Background: The COVID-19 pandemic had an important psychological impact on children and their families. This study aims to explore paediatric health services users' perceptions of quality of care (QOC) and COVID-19-related fears, and their evolution over time in relation to COVID-19 pandemic.

Methods: In a multicentre cross-sectional study involving 11 public hospitals providing paediatric care across the Italian territory, we collected data from services users through a validated questionnaire.

Interpreting Variations in Fugl-Meyer Assessment Protocols: Results and Recommendations From a Nominal Group Consensus Process.

Objective: To identify variations among administration and scoring instructions of 6 upper extremity Fugl-Meyer Assessment (FMA-UE) protocols and to achieve consensus regarding optimal administration procedures.

Design: Nominal group consensus technique comprised of iterative independent reviews of protocol content, anonymous voting, and group consensus meetings.

Setting: Clinicians working in clinical practice and research settings participated in virtual meetings via Zoom.

Evaluation of the WHO standards to assess quality of care for children with acute respiratory infections: findings of a baseline multicentre assessment (CHOICE) in Italy.

Background: Experience is lacking on the implementation of the WHO standards for improving the quality of care (QOC) for children at facility level. We describe the use of 10 prioritised WHO standard-based quality measures to assess provision of care for children with acute respiratory infections (ARI) in Italy.

Methods: In a multicentre observational study across 11 emergency departments with different characteristics, we collected 10 WHO standard-based quality measures related to case management of children with ARI and no emergency/priority signs.

Implementation of the WHO Standards to assess quality of paediatric care at the facility level using service users' perspective as source of data: a multicentre quality improvement study in Italy.

Objectives: There is little experience in the use of the WHO Standards for improving the quality of care (QOC) for children at the facility level. We describe the use of 75 WHO Standard based Quality Measures to assess paediatric QOC, using service users as a source of data, in Italy.

Study Design: In a cross-sectional study including 12 hospitals, parents/caregivers of admitted children completed a validated questionnaire including 75 Quality Measures: 40 pertinent to the domain of experience of care; 25 to physical/structural resources; 10 to COVID-19 reorganisational changes.

Implementation of the WHO standards to assess quality of care for children with acute pain in EDs: findings of a multicentre study (CHOICE) in Italy.

Background: There is little experience on the use of the WHO Standards for improving the quality of care (QOC) for children. We describe the use of four prioritised WHO Standard-based Quality Measures to assess the provision of care for children with pain in emergency departments (EDs).

Methods: In a multicentre observational study in 10 EDs with different characteristics in Italy, we collected data on 3355 children accessing the EDs between January 2019 and December 2020.

Implementation of the WHO standards to assess the quality of care for children with acute diarrhoea: findings of a multicentre study (CHOICE) in Italy.

Background: There is no documented experience in the use of the WHO standards for improving the quality of care (QOC) for children at the facility level. We describe the use of 10 prioritised WHO-Standard-based Quality Measures to assess QOC for children with acute diarrhoea (AD) in Italy.

Methods: In a multicentre observational study in 11 paediatric emergency departments with different characteristics and geographical location, we collected data on 3061 children aged 6 months to 15 years with AD and no complications.

Efficacy and safety of antiarrhythmic therapy in dogs with naturally acquired tachyarrhythmias treated with amiodarone or sotalol: a retrospective analysis of 64 cases.

Introduction/objective: Studies on the use of amiodarone or sotalol are limited in dogs. Therefore, this study aimed to provide data on the efficacy and safety of these drugs in dogs with ventricular tachyarrhythmia (VT) and/or supraventricular tachyarrhythmia (SvT).

Animals, Materials, And Methods: Dogs with VT and/or SvT treated with amiodarone or sotalol as a first-line therapy were retrospectively evaluated.

Human RNase 1 can extensively oligomerize through 3D domain swapping thanks to the crucial contribution of its C-terminus.

Human ribonuclease (RNase) 1 and bovine RNase A are the proto-types of the secretory "pancreatic-type" (pt)-RNase super-family. RNase A can oligomerize through the 3D domain swapping (DS) mechanism upon acetic acid (HAc) lyophilisation, producing enzymatically active oligomeric conformers by swapping both N- and C-termini. Also some RNase 1 mutants were found to self-associate through 3D-DS, however forming only N-swapped dimers.

Recovery characteristics and parental satisfaction in pediatric procedural sedation.

Background: Despite being a standard of care for children undergoing stressful procedures, little data exist on parental perception of pediatric sedation.

Aims: This study aimed to investigate recovery characteristics and parental satisfaction for pediatric sedations performed with four widely used sedative regimens.

Methods: A prospective observational study was conducted at the Institute for Maternal and Child Health of Trieste, Italy, enrolling children undergoing procedural sedation with one of the following pharmacological regimens: propofol, propofol + midazolam, ketamine + propofol, and dexmedetomidine + midazolam.

Measuring Ambulation, Motor, and Behavioral Outcomes with Post-stroke Fluoxetine in Tanzania: The Phase II MAMBO Trial.

We test the safety of fluoxetine post-ischemic stroke in sub-Saharan Africa. Adults with acute ischemic stroke, seen <14 days since new-onset motor deficits, were enrolled from November 2019 to October 2020 in a single-arm, open-label phase II trial of daily fluoxetine 20 mg for 90 days at Muhimbili National Hospital, Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. The primary outcome was safety with secondary outcomes of medication adherence and tolerability.

Dimerization of Human Angiogenin and of Variants Involved in Neurodegenerative Diseases.

Human Angiogenin (hANG, or ANG, 14.1 kDa) promotes vessel formation and is also called RNase 5 because it is included in the pancreatic-type ribonuclease (pt-RNase) super-family. Although low, its ribonucleolytic activity is crucial for angiogenesis in tumor tissues but also in the physiological development of the Central Nervous System (CNS) neuronal progenitors.

Characteristics and risk factors for SARS-CoV-2 in children tested in the early phase of the pandemic: a cross-sectional study, Italy, 23 February to 24 May 2020.

BackgroundVery few studies describe factors associated with COVID-19 diagnosis in children.AimWe here describe characteristics and risk factors for COVID-19 diagnosis in children tested in 20 paediatric centres across Italy.MethodsWe included cases aged 0-18 years tested between 23 February and 24 May 2020.

RNase A Domain-Swapped Dimers Produced Through Different Methods: Structure-Catalytic Properties and Antitumor Activity.

Upon oligomerization, RNase A can acquire important properties, such as cytotoxicity against leukemic cells. When lyophilized from 40% acetic acid solutions, the enzyme self-associates through the so-called three-dimensional domain swapping (3D-DS) mechanism involving both N- and/or C-terminals. The same species are formed if the enzyme is subjected to thermal incubation in various solvents, especially in 40% ethanol.

NMR Characterization of Angiogenin Variants and tRNA Products Impacting Aberrant Protein Oligomerization.

Protein oligomerization is key to countless physiological processes, but also to abnormal amyloid conformations implicated in over 25 mortal human diseases. Human Angiogenin (h-ANG), a ribonuclease A family member, produces RNA fragments that regulate ribosome formation, the creation of new blood vessels and stress granule function. Too little h-ANG activity leads to abnormal protein oligomerization, resulting in Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS) or Parkinson's disease.

Recommendations for Reporting on Rehabilitation Interventions.

Clear reporting on rehabilitation treatments is critical for interpreting and replicating study results and for translating treatment research into clinical practice. This article reports the recommendations of a working group on improved reporting on rehabilitation treatments. These recommendations are intended to be combined with the efforts of other working groups, through a consensus process, to arrive at a reporting guideline for randomized controlled trials in physical medicine and rehabilitation (Randomized Controlled Trials Rehabilitation Checklist).

Can kinematic parameters of 3D reach-to-target movements be used as a proxy for clinical outcome measures in chronic stroke rehabilitation? An exploratory study.

Background: Despite numerous trials investigating robot-assisted therapy (RT) effects on upper-extremity (UE) function after stroke, few have explored the relationship between three-dimensional (3D) reach-to-target kinematics and clinical outcomes. The objectives of this study were to 1) investigate the correlation between kinematic parameters of 3D reach-to-target movements and UE clinical outcome measures, and 2) examine the degree to which differences in kinematic parameters across individuals can account for differences in clinical outcomes in response to RT.

Methods: Ten chronic stroke survivors participated in a pilot RT intervention (eighteen 1-h sessions) integrating cognitive skills training and a home-action program.

Characteristic of COVID-19 infection in pediatric patients: early findings from two Italian Pediatric Research Networks.

Detailed data on clinical presentations and outcomes of children with COVID-19 in Europe are still lacking. In this descriptive study, we report on 130 children with confirmed COVID-19 diagnosed by 28 centers (mostly hospitals), in 10 regions in Italy, during the first months of the pandemic. Among these, 67 (51.

First Insights into the Urinary Metabolome of Captive Giraffes by Proton Nuclear Magnetic Resonance Spectroscopy.

The urine from 35 giraffes was studied by untargeted H-NMR, with the purpose of obtaining, for the first time, a fingerprint of its metabolome. The metabolome, as downstream of the transcriptome and proteome, has been considered as the most representative approach to monitor the relationships between animal physiological features and environment. Thirty-nine molecules were unambiguously quantified, able to give information about diet, proteins digestion, energy generation, and gut-microbial co-metabolism.

Monitoring oral iron therapy in children with iron deficiency anemia: an observational, prospective, multicenter study of AIEOP patients (Associazione Italiana Emato-Oncologia Pediatrica).

Oral ferrous salts are standard treatment for children with iron deficiency anemia (IDA). The objective of our study was to monitor oral iron therapy in children, aged 3 months-12 years, with IDA. We prospectively collected clinical and hematological data of children with IDA, from 15 AIEOP (Associazione Italiana di Ematologia ed.

Onconase Restores Cytotoxicity in Dabrafenib-Resistant A375 Human Melanoma Cells and Affects Cell Migration, Invasion and Colony Formation Capability.

Melanoma is a lethal tumor because of its severe metastatic potential, and serine/threonine-protein kinase B-raf inhibitors (BRAFi) are used in patients harboring BRAF-mutation. Unfortunately, BRAFi induce resistance. Therefore, we tested the activity of onconase (ONC), a cytotoxic RNase variant, against BRAFi-resistant cells to re-establish the efficacy of the chemotherapy.

A Paradigm Shift: Rehabilitation Robotics, Cognitive Skills Training, and Function After Stroke.

Robot-assisted therapy for upper extremity (UE) impairments post-stroke has yielded modest gains in motor capacity and little evidence of improved UE performance during activities of daily living. A paradigm shift that embodies principles of motor learning and exercise dependent neuroplasticity may improve robot therapy outcomes by incorporating active problem solving, salience of trained tasks, and strategies to facilitate the transfer of acquired motor skills to use of the paretic arm and hand during everyday activities. To pilot and test the feasibility of a novel therapy protocol, the Active Learning Program for Stroke (ALPS), designed to complement repetitive, robot-assisted therapy for the paretic UE.