Italian multicentre study found infectious and vaccine-preventable diseases in children adopted from Africa and recommends prompt medical screening.

Aim: This study evaluated the prevalence of infectious diseases and immunisation status of children adopted from Africa.

Methods: We studied 762 African children referred to 11 Italian paediatric centres in 2009-2015. Clinical and laboratory data were retrospectively collected and analysed.

Intracardiac left atrial tuberculoma in an eleven-month-old infant: case report.

Background: Cardiac tuberculosis is rare and usually manifests as tuberculous pericarditis. Involvement of other part of the heart is unusual and descriptions in the pediatric literature are confined to few case reports regarding mainly myocardial tuberculosis.

Case Presentation: We describe a case of pulmonary miliary tuberculosis associated with intracardiac left atrial tuberculoma in an immunocompetent eleven-month-old infant successfully treated with surgery and antituberculous therapy.

Chagas disease in Italy: breaking an epidemiological silence.

Chagas disease, a neglected tropical disease that due to population movements is no longer limited to Latin America, threatens a wide spectrum of people(travellers, migrants, blood or organ recipients,newborns, adoptees) also in non-endemic countries where it is generally underdiagnosed. In Italy, the available epidemiological data about Chagas disease have been very limited up to now, although the country is second in Europe only to Spain in the number of residents from Latin American. Among 867 at-risk subjectsscreened between 1998 and 2010, the Centre for Tropical Diseases in Negrar (Verona) and the Infectious and Tropical Diseases Unit, University of Florence found 4.

Interferon-gamma release assay improves the diagnosis of tuberculosis in children.

Background: Interferon-gamma release assays (IGRAs) have been recently developed for the diagnosis of tuberculosis (TB) infection. The aim of the present study was to evaluate the performance of an enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA)-based IGRA for detecting TB in children.

Methods: A prospective study in 336 children at risk for TB infection was carried out.

Reference values of interrupter respiratory resistance in healthy preschool white children.

Background: Interrupter respiratory resistance (Rint) is reported to be useful in evaluating lung function in poorly collaborating patients. However, no reference values are available from large samples of preschool children using the standard interrupter method. The aim of this study was to define reference Rint values in a population of healthy preschool children.