Anatomic vs. Ischemia-Driven Strategies for Percutaneous Coronary Revascularization in Chronic Coronary Syndrome: A Network Meta-Analysis.

Introduction: In patients with chronic coronary syndromes (CCS), the benefit of percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) added to optimal medical therapy (OMT) remains unclear. The indication to PCI may be driven either by angiographic evaluation or ischemia assessment, thus depicting different potential strategies which have not yet been thoroughly compared.

Methods: Randomized controlled trials (RCTs) comparing OMT versus PCI angio-guided or versus PCI non-invasive or invasive ischemia guided were identified and compared via network meta-analysis.

Investigating the impact of data monitoring committee recommendations on the probability of trial success.

Determining the probability of success of a clinical trial using a prior distribution on the treatment effect can significantly enhance decision-making by the sponsor. In a group sequential design, the probability of success calculated at the design stage can be updated to incorporate the information disclosed by the Data Monitoring Committee (DMC), usually consisting in a simple statement that advises to continue or to stop the trial, either for efficacy or futility, following pre-specified rules defined in the protocol. We define the "probability of success post interim" as the probability of success conditioned on the assumption that the DMC recommends continuing the trial after an interim analysis.

The Influence of COVID-19 on Antimicrobial Resistance Trends at a Secondary Care Hospital in Slovenia: An Interrupted Time Series Analysis.

Our study aimed to determine the development of antibiotic resistance during the peri-pandemic period in a regional secondary care hospital using an interrupted time series analysis. . We analyzed data from seven years, accounting for 441,149 patient days.

Treatment with tofacitinib attenuates muscle loss through myogenin activation in the collagen-induced arthritis.

Background: Sarcopenia is a muscle disease characterized by reduction of muscle strength and muscle mass. In RA, 25.9 to 43.

Sustainable dairy farming and fipronil risk in circular feeds: insights from an Italian case study.

Circular feeds, such as grain dry distillers, citrus pulp, cane molasses, and potatoes peels, are co-products of biomass processes. They are currently proposed in animal nutrition to improve the environmental and economic sustainability of the food production chain. In this paper, we report a case study involving fipronil, a pesticide currently not authorized for agriculture within the EU, but used in the Americas, Eastern Europe, and Asia.

On Some Modeling Issues in Estimating Vaccine Efficacy.

I would like to reconsider a recent analysis by Prof. Senn on the statistics of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine trial, to express some different opinions and to clarify some theoretical points, especially regarding the clinical applications of Bayesian statistics.

The Current Diagnostic Performance of MRI-Based Radiomics for Glioma Grading: A Meta-Analysis.

Background: Multiple radiomics models have been proposed for grading glioma using different algorithms, features, and sequences of magnetic resonance imaging. The research seeks to assess the present overall performance of radiomics for grading glioma.

Methods: A systematic literature review of the databases Ovid MEDLINE PubMed, and Ovid EMBASE for publications published on radiomics for glioma grading between 2012 and 2023 was performed.

Childhood-onset hypertrophic cardiomyopathy caused by thin-filament sarcomeric variants.

Up to 20% of children with sarcomeric hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (HCM) have disease-causing variants in genes coding for thin-filament proteins. However, data on genotype-phenotype correlations for thin-filament disease are limited. This study describes the natural history and outcomes of children with thin-filament-associated HCM and compares it to thick-filament-associated disease.

Normative data beyond the total scores: a process score analysis of the Rey's 15 word test in healthy aging and Alzheimer's Disease.

Background: The Rey's 15 words test is currently the most frequently used task in Italy to detect memory deficits in AD. The current standardised version is however quite outdated and lacks some cognitive indexes which may highlight problems in recall or encoding processes. The aim of the study was to update the normative data of the test and to consider some variables which were not accounted for in the original study, that is, recognition, learning rate and forgetfulness.

Occurrence of Glyphosate and Other Polar Pesticides in Honey from Lombardy and Emilia-Romagna Regions in Italy: Three-Year Monitoring Results.

Intensive agricultural practices, such as pesticides use, may negatively affect bee health and hive products. Glyphosate is one of the most widely used polar pesticides applied in crops for weed control. In this study, honey samples, collected from beekeeping farms located in the Lombardy and Emilia-Romagna regions in Italy in the framework of regional monitoring plans activated from 2020 to 2022, were analyzed for the presence of residues of polar pesticides.

Incorporation of healthy volunteers data on receptor occupancy into a phase II proof-of-concept trial using a Bayesian dynamic borrowing design.

Receptor occupancy in targeted tissues measures the proportion of receptors occupied by a drug at equilibrium and is sometimes used as a surrogate of drug efficacy to inform dose selection in clinical trials. We propose to incorporate data on receptor occupancy from a phase I study in healthy volunteers into a phase II proof-of-concept study in patients, with the objective of using all the available evidence to make informed decisions. A minimal physiologically based pharmacokinetic modeling is used to model receptor occupancy in healthy volunteers and to predict it in the patients of a phase II proof-of-concept study, taking into account the variability of the population parameters and the specific differences arising from the pathological condition compared to healthy volunteers.

Anterior pushing technique for a broken scalpel blade in lumbar discectomy: a case report.

The presence of broken surgical blades or other surgically uncontrolled sharp and pointed objects in the disc space is a rare but potentially severe complication of posterior lumbar spine procedures. Herein, we report the case of a 59-year-old female patient with a history of lumbar decompression and interspinous process device implantation who underwent an instrumented revision of the lumbosacral junction. During the L5-S1 discectomy, the scalpel blade broke, and the broken fragment could not be retrieved through the posterior approach.

Functional characteristics and subjective disease perception in patients with COVID-19 two months after hospital discharge.

Introduction: Although early inpatient and post-hospital rehabilitation is recognized as necessary, not all COVID-19 patients have access to rehabilitation. There are no published reports in the literature that investigate the outcomes of patients who do not receive rehabilitation after COVID-19. Our aim was to evaluate possible improvements in determinate functional and psychological parameters in COVID-19 patients two months after their hospital discharge.

A pilot study: Exploring the influence of COVID-19 on cardiovascular physiology and retinal microcirculation.

Background: The severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) affects the cardiovascular system. The current study investigated changes in heart rate (HR), blood pressure (BP), pulse wave velocity (PWV), and microcirculation in patients recovering from Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) infection.

Methodology: Out of 43 initially contacted COVID-19 patients, 35 (30 males, 5 females; age: 60 ± 10 years; and body mass index (BMI): 31.

Sundowning in Patients with Dementia: Identification, Prevalence, and Clinical Correlates.

Background: The term sundowning is used to describe the emergence or worsening of neuropsychiatric symptoms in late afternoon or early evening in people with dementia.

Objective: Our aim was to evaluate sundowning's prevalence and clinical manifestations among patients attending a tertiary memory clinic and to investigate its clinical and neuropsychological correlates.

Methods: Patients with dementia attending our memory clinic were enrolled in the study.

Effects of COVID-19 on cognition and mood after hospitalization and at 2-month follow-up.

A plethora of evidence links SARS-CoV-2 infection with concomitant cognitive dysfunction, which often persists weeks to months after the acute stages of illness and affects executive function, attention, memory, orientation, and movement control. It remains largely unclear which conditions or factors exacerbate the recovery. In a cohort of 37 Slovenian patients (5 females, aged  = 58, SD = 10.

Sarcopenia parameters in active older adults - an eight-year longitudinal study.

Backgroud: Sarcopenia is a common skeletal muscle syndrome that is common in older adults but can be mitigated by adequate and regular physical activity. The development and severity of sarcopenia is favored by several factors, the most influential of which are a sedentary lifestyle and physical inactivity. The aim of this observational longitudinal cohort study was to evaluate changes in sarcopenia parameters, based on the EWGSOP2 definition in a population of active older adults after eight years.

Safety Evaluation and Probabilistic Health Risk Assessment of Cow Milk Produced in Northern Italy According to Dioxins and PCBs Contamination Levels.

Contamination levels of dioxins and polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) were monitored over 2018-2021 in 214 bovine milk samples from farms located in two regions in northern Italy (Lombardy and Emilia-Romagna). The average concentrations of the sum of dioxins and dioxin-like PCBs (0.78 ± 0.

Middle aortic syndrome in children and adolescents.

Middle aortic syndrome is a rare form of renovascular disease that may present with severe hypertension during childhood. Narrowing of the abdominal aorta is often associated with narrowing of the renal and/or other visceral arteries and may be secondary to specific genetic syndromes. Following the optimization of blood pressure control, significant aortic narrowing often requires invasive management, including endovascular and surgical intervention.