H1N1 pneumonia: our experience in 50 patients with a severe clinical course of novel swine-origin influenza A (H1N1) virus (S-OIV).

Purpose: The authors reviewed chest radiographs (CXR) and thin-section computed tomography (CT) findings of pulmonary complications in a selected population of 50 consecutive patients with severe novel swine-origin influenza A (H1N1) virus (S-OIV) pneumonia who were seen at the Subintensive Respiratory Unit (UTSIR) and at the Intensive Care Unit (ICU) at Monaldi Hospital, Naples, Italy.

Materials And Methods: CXR and CT findings of 50 patients who fulfilled the World Health Organisation (WHO) criteria for S-OIV infection were reviewed by four radiologists. The final study group of 50 patients was divided into two subgroups on the basis of clinical course: group 1 consisted of 42 patients requiring noninvasive mechanical ventilation and admitted to the UTSIR; group 2 consisted of eight patients who required ICU admission and extracorporeal membrane oxygenation or advanced mechanical ventilation from October 2009 to December 2009.

Immunopharmacology of human mast cells and basophils.

Human mast cells and basophils play a key role in the pathogenesis of several immunological and inflammatory disorders, not only by producing inflammatory and fibrogenic mediators, but also by directly (CD40 ligand) and indirectly secreting various cytokines and chemokines. Studies carried out to evaluate the effects of drugs that modulate the release of mediators and cytokines from these cells have contributed to clarifying the biochemical mechanism by which immunological and non-immunological stimuli activate these cells. Significant differences have been documented between human mast cells and basophils as regard the pharmacological agents that modulate the release of mediators, between mast cells isolated from different anatomical sites, and between compounds of the same class of drugs.

[Double cardiac fibroma in a newborn infant].

The authors describe the autopsy finding of two fibromas within the left ventricular wall of a five-day-old newborn. Histochemistry and immunohistochemistry showed the lesion as a purely fibroblastic proliferation, with intense elastic fibers formation and secondary morphological alteration and biological damage of the pre-existing muscular fibers. The authors, on the basis of the phases of the cardiac metamers development and of myocardial tissue differentiation, exclude any relationship with disembryogenetic factors, and hence the hamartomatous origin of the lesion, despite their onset in the first months of intrauterine growth.

[Pulmonary malformations associated with congenital cardiopathy].

The authors describe, in a series of 132 pediatric autopsies in the period January 1979-December 1994, the associations between congenital cardiopathies and pulmonary malformations. These latter were present in 13 of 46 cases (34.8%) in which cardiopathy was associated to a malformation of other discricts.

[Ventricular hypoplasia in congenital heart diseases].

Twenty-seven cases of autopsy showing hypoplasia of one of the ventricular cavities, prevalently the left, were selected from a series of 103 congenital cardiopathies (1979-1990). In 9 cases ventricular hypoplasia formed part of complex malformative syndromes with a well-known physiognomy: a further 18 cases showed a complete (9 cases) or incomplete (9 cases) hypoplastic heart syndrome. Subjects were prevalently female and the presence of other malformations indicating a genetic dysfunction was less evident than in other cardiopathies.