Publications by authors named "Francesco Torre"

Background: Behçet disease (BD) is a rare disease in childhood and its uveitis may lead to blindness if not properly treated.

Objectives: We aim to describe a cohort of paediatric BD patients with uveitis.

Design: This is a multicentric retrospective study.

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  • The study aimed to explore gender differences in the phenotypical expression of Behçet's disease (BD) using data from the International AIDA Network Registry, focusing on damage index, disease manifestations, and cardiovascular risk.
  • A total of 1024 patients (567 males and 457 females) were examined, revealing that males had a significantly higher overall damage index and more frequent occurrences of uveitis and vascular involvement, while females showed higher instances of arthralgia, arthritis, and CNS involvement.
  • Key factors associated with major organ involvement included male gender, treatment with biologic agents, origin from endemic regions, and longer disease duration, indicating a more severe course of BD in males compared to females.
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Objective: To evaluate the cardiac involvement in patients with Still's disease with a focus on myocarditis included in the multicenter AIDA (AutoInflammatory Disease Alliance) network Still's disease registry. To exploit the predictive factors for myocarditis in deriving a clinical risk patient profile for this severe manifestation.

Methods: A multicenter observational study was built up assessing consecutive patients with Still's disease characterized by the cardiac involvement among those included in the AIDA Network Still's Disease Registry.

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Introduction: Although familial Mediterranean fever (FMF) is a relevant disease in countries surrounding the Mediterranean Sea, there are still few reports from Italy.

Methods: We retrospectively evaluated patients with FMF diagnosed according to the EuroFever/PRINTO classification criteria in three pediatric rheumatology referral centers in central-southern Italy. Logistic regression analysis assessed the associations between age at disease onset and symptoms.

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Background: Artificial intelligence (AI) has become a popular tool for clinical and research use in the medical field. The aim of this study was to evaluate the accuracy and reliability of a generative AI tool on pediatric familial Mediterranean fever (FMF).

Methods: Fifteen questions repeated thrice on pediatric FMF were prompted to the popular generative AI tool Microsoft Copilot with Chat-GPT 4.

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  • The study investigates the effects of stopping TNF inhibitors (TNFi) in children with juvenile idiopathic arthritis (JIA) who show persistent disease inactivity and identifies factors related to relapse.
  • A multicentric analysis of medical records from 136 JIA patients who discontinued TNFi treatment revealed that 79.4% experienced a relapse within a median of 5 months after stopping therapy.
  • Key predictors for relapse include younger age at onset, presence of uveitis, duration of treatment tapering, and not having persistent oligoarticular JIA.
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  • The study focused on replacing NaCO in sodium manganese ferrite with various eutectic or eutectoid alkali carbonate mixtures, which enhanced hydrogen production speed, especially with the (LiNa)CO mixture.
  • The fast hydrogen production was linked to the partial melting of the eutectoid carbonate, which facilitates ion diffusion, but this came at the cost of overall reversibility in hydrogen production upon cycling.
  • While the nonsubstituted Na mixture displayed the best reversibility, the 50%Li-Na and Li-K-Na mixtures completely failed to produce hydrogen after the first cycle, primarily due to unwanted phase formation and increased sintering in the carbonate mixtures.
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Objectives: The aim of the study was to establish an international multicenter registry to collect data on patients with Multisystem Inflammatory Syndrome in Children (MIS-C), in order to highlight a relationship between clinical presentation, age of onset and geographical distribution on the clinical outcome.

Study Design: Multicenter retrospective study involving different international societies for rare immunological disorders.1009 patients diagnosed with MIS-C between March and September 2022, from 48 centers and 22 countries were collected.

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  • The study investigates the relationship between Familial Mediterranean fever (FMF), a severe inflammatory condition, and the risk of cancer development compared to other diseases like fibromyalgia, Still's disease, and Behçet's disease.
  • Results show that FMF patients have a significantly lower risk for malignancies compared to fibromyalgia patients, with a risk ratio (RR) of 0.26; however, this risk is less clear when comparing with the other conditions.
  • Factors influencing cancer risk in FMF patients include age at onset and diagnosis, frequency of disease attacks, and treatment with specific biotechnological agents.
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Purpose: The clinical relevance of human leukocyte antigen (HLA) subtypes such as HLA-B51 on Behçet's disease (BD)-related uveitis and non-infectious uveitis (NIU) unrelated to BD remains largely unknown.

Methods: Data were prospectively collected from the International AIDA Network Registry for BD and for NIU. We assessed differences between groups (NIU unrelated to BD and positive for HLA-B51, BD-related uveitis positive for HLA-B51 and BD-related uveitis negative for HLA-B51) in terms of long-term ocular complications, visual acuity (VA) measured by best corrected visual acuity (BCVA), anatomical pattern, occurrence of retinal vasculitis (RV) and macular edema over time.

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A new concept of active thermal coating based on the use of reversible thermochemical reactions is presented in this paper. The new active thermal barrier coating uses redox reactions to buffer the temperature changes that a metallic component may suffer at high temperatures. The heat is stored when the temperature is equal/above the reduction temperature of the active coating (endothermic reaction) and the heat is released when the temperature is equal/below the oxidation temperature (exothermic reaction).

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Background: Dienogest (DNG) improves endometriosis-associated pain (EAP) and patients' quality of life; however, the modern cornerstone of the management of endometriosis is the long-term adherence of the patient to medical treatment.

Objective: To evaluate DNG as a long-term treatment of endometriosis, focusing on patients' compliance and side effects, also correlating with different phenotypes of endometriosis.

Methods: This was a cohort study on a group of patients with endometriosis ( = 114) undergoing long-term treatment with DNG.

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Introduction: This study aims to characterize ocular manifestations of juvenile Behçet's disease (jBD).

Methods: This was a registry-based observational prospective study. All subjects with jBD from the Autoinflammatory Diseases Alliance (AIDA) Network BD Registry showing ocular manifestations before 18 years were enrolled.

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  • This study evaluated the effectiveness of a systemic score in predicting severe outcomes in patients with Still disease, including the risk of mortality and severe complications like macrophage activation syndrome.
  • Involving 597 patients, the study found that a higher systemic score significantly correlated with life-threatening outcomes, with scores of 7 or above indicating a greater risk.
  • Key components that were most predictive of severe outcomes included liver and lung involvement, emphasizing the importance of these factors in managing Still disease.
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Systemic autoinflammatory diseases (SAIDs) are disorders of innate immunity, which are characterized by unprovoked recurrent flares of systemic inflammation often characterized by fever associated with clinical manifestations mainly involving the musculoskeletal, mucocutaneous, gastrointestinal, and nervous systems. Several conditions also present with varied, sometimes prominent, involvement of the vascular system, with features of vasculitis characterized by variable target vessel involvement and organ damage. Here, we report a systematic review of vasculitis and vasculopathy associated with inborn errors of immunity.

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Chronic diseases are a growing problem for global health due to the large number of people they involve, the repercussions they have on the mental and physical well-being of those affected, and the costs to society. Particularly, chronic illnesses of childhood have important psychological implications, not only for affected children but also for their parents. Among these pathologies, neurodevelopmental disorders (NDDs) and uveitis associated with juvenile idiopathic arthritis (JIA-U) may affect mental and physical health, emotions, memory, learning, and socializing.

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  • Many biological drug patents have expired, leading to the development of biosimilar agents (BIOs), but their use in children raises concerns, prompting a study on their efficacy and safety for treating pediatric non-infectious uveitis (NIU).
  • Data collected from pediatric patients treated with TNF inhibitors BIOs showed a significant decrease in flare-ups and ocular complications, as well as a reduction in the need for glucocorticoids during treatment.
  • The study included 47 patients, demonstrating strong treatment retention rates and maintaining visual acuity throughout the therapy, while only recording a few minor adverse events.
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Introduction: The effectiveness of canakinumab may change according to the different times it is used after Still's disease onset. This study aimed to investigate whether canakinumab (CAN) shows differences in short- and long-term therapeutic outcomes, according to its use as different lines of biologic treatment.

Methods: Patients included in this study were retrospectively enrolled from the AutoInflammatory Disease Alliance (AIDA) International Registry dedicated to Still's disease.

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Objectives: Limited information is available on the clinical features, treatment modalities and outcomes of the juvenile idiopathic arthritis (JIA) categories of enthesitis-related arthritis (ERA) and juvenile psoriatic arthritis (JPsA). This study was aimed to describe the characteristics of Italian children with ERA and JPsA and to compare them with those of patients with the other categories of JIA.

Methods: Patients were part of a multinational sample included in a study aimed to investigate the prevalence of disease categories, treatment approaches, and disease status in patients from across different geographical areas (EPOCA Study).

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The present narrative review aims to discuss the available data on the incidence and the risk factors of uterine fibroids (UFs) recurrence after different types of conservative surgical or radiologic procedures in women wishing to preserve their uterus. UFs are the most common benign tumors in women all over the world. Clinical presentation, including abnormal uterine bleeding (AUB), pelvic pain, bulky symptoms, and infertility affect patients' quality of life, and a large variety of conservative treatments are available especially for those with desire of pregnancy.

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  • - This study investigates whether pediatric-onset, adult-onset, and elderly-onset Still's disease are the same condition or different diseases by comparing demographic, clinical, and treatment response data across these age groups.
  • - Out of 411 patients surveyed, most were adults (76.4%), while 15.8% were pediatric and 7.8% were elderly, with significant differences found in symptoms like skin rash and arthritis being more prevalent in children, and pleuritis in the elderly.
  • - Overall, while some minor differences in symptoms and lab results were noted among the age groups, the study concludes that Still's disease has similar demographic and treatment characteristics across pediatric, adult, and elderly patients.
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Background: Different patient clusters were preliminarily suggested to dissect the clinical heterogeneity in Still's disease. Thus, we aimed at deriving and validating disease clusters in a multicentre, observational, prospective study to stratify these patients.

Methods: Patients included in GIRRCS AOSD-study group and AIDA Network Still Disease Registry were assessed if variables for cluster analysis were available (age, systemic score, erythrocyte sedimentation rate (ESR), C reactive protein (CRP) and ferritin).

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  • The study focuses on patients with Still's disease to identify clinical and laboratory signs associated with macrophage activation syndrome (MAS), a serious complication.
  • Out of 414 patients examined, 39 (9.4%) developed MAS, with several significant variables like liver involvement and high ferritin levels linked to its occurrence.
  • Multivariate analysis revealed that having hepatomegaly and monoarthritis were directly associated with MAS, while factors like a normal platelet count were protective against its development.
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Respiratory tract infections (RTI) represent a frequent condition, particularly among preschool children, with an important burden on the affected children and their families. It has been estimated that recurrent RTIs affect up to 25% of children during the first 4 years of life. These infections are mainly caused by viruses and are generally self-limiting.

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