Adaptation and validation of the cardiovascular version of the Return-to-Work Obstacles and Self-Efficacy Scale (ROSES-CVD) to the Italian context.

Purpose: Effective cardiac rehabilitation interventions must provide adequate support to overcome psychosocial return-to-work (RTW) barriers. No validated instrument is available for this aim for cardiovascular patients. The Return-to-work Obstacles and Self-Efficacy Scale (ROSES) measures RTW obstacles workers perceive and the self-efficacy for overcoming them through 46 items and ten dimensions.

Quality of work experience after angioplasty or heart surgery: a monocentric cohort study.

Purpose: The study evaluated work experience changes and its determinants after return to work (RTW) in angioplasty or heart surgery patients.

Methods: During a 1-year period (2014) in a Rehabilitation Hospital in northwestern Italy, we approached 253 patients (19.3% of inpatients).

Soluble form of the endothelial adhesion molecule CD146 binds preferentially CD16+ monocytes.

The cell adhesion molecule CD146 is normally located at the endothelial cell-to-cell junction and colocalizes with actin cytoskeleton. The soluble form of CD146 (sCD146) has been identified in the endothelial cell supernatant and in normal human plasma, and is increased in pathologic conditions with altered endothelial function. Soluble CD146 binding to monocytes promotes their transendothelial migration, which represents a central step in the development of atherosclerotic plaque.

CD14CD16 monocyte subset levels in heart failure patients.

Our aim was to define the distribution of monocyte subsets in a cohort of congestive heart failure (CHF) patients, to verify whether increased severity of CHF is linked to the expansion of specific monocyte subsets, and finally to investigate the relationship between monocyte subset relative frequencies, laboratory parameters of inflammation, and monocyte ACE expression. Thirty consecutive CHF patients and 26 healthy control subjects were evaluated for peripheral blood monocyte expression of CD14, CD16 and CD143 (ACE) by flow-cytometry, and for endothelial-derived soluble CD146 levels by ELISA. CD14++ CD16+ frequency was significantly higher in CHF patients than in Controls (%, median value and IQ) (12.

[Clinical and organizational evidence of the efficacy and effectiveness from cardiac rehabilitation: an update].

The increasing evidence on the favourable cost/effectiveness impact of the comprehensive cardiac rehabilitation program for the treatment of a wide spectrum of cardiovascular conditions have imposed to healthcare services a major attention on a critical analysis of the results in different clinical indications and delivery organisations. The Regional Health Agency of Liguria, in the occasion of drawing up regional guidelines directed to define the clinical indications and the effectiveness of the cardiac rehabilitation delivery model (in-patients, out-patients and home-based) and its requisites, indications and procedures, has updated the reference guidelines (PLNG and SIGN) with the evidence provided by the more recent literature, focusing its attention on the clinical and, in particular, organizational effectiveness. The document, on the base of these evidences, provides some effective proposals and some organizational advices.

Increased neutrophil lifespan in patients with congestive heart failure.

Aims: Congestive heart failure (CHF) can be thought of as a state of chronic immune activation. Polymorphonuclear neutrophil (PMN) apoptosis is one of the mechanisms responsible for the resolution of inflammation. A reduced PMN apoptotic rate in CHF patients may generate a persistent inflammatory response and hence mediate tissue damage in this group of patients.