Assessing disease activity of rheumatoid arthritis patients and drug-utilization patterns of biologic disease-modifying antirheumatic drugs in the Tuscany region, Italy.

The disease activity associated with the drug-utilization patterns of biologic Disease Modifying Anti-Rheumatic Drugs (DMARDs) is poorly investigated in real-world studies on rheumatoid arthritis (RA) patients. To investigate the relationship between biologic DMARD initiation/discontinuations in RA patients identified in the healthcare administrative databases of Tuscany and the Disease Activity Score 28 (DAS28) reported in the medical charts. This retrospective population-based study included RA's first-ever biologic DMARD users of the Pisa University Hospital from 2014 to 2016.

Renovation and creation of a Biocontainment Unit: the experience of Azienda Ospedaliero-Universitaria Pisana (Pisa, Italy).

Infectious diseases are a major public health concern. In recent decades, there has been a succession of bacterial and viral diseases, which when added to the endemic diseases found in certain areas of the world, can become a global health problem. In emergency medicine we talk a lot about Mass Casualty Incident (MCI) preparedness, but the main focus today is bio-preparedness.

Validation of algorithms for selecting rheumatoid arthritis patients in the Tuscan healthcare administrative databases.

Validation of algorithms for selecting patients from healthcare administrative databases (HAD) is recommended. This PATHFINDER study section is aimed at testing algorithms to select rheumatoid arthritis (RA) patients from Tuscan HAD (THAD) and assessing RA diagnosis time interval between the medical chart date and that of THAD. A population was extracted from THAD.

Mechanisms underlying the hormetic effect of conjugated linoleic acid: Focus on Nrf2, mitochondria and NADPH oxidases.

Nuclear factor erythroid 2-related factor2 (Nrf2) is a redox-sensitive transcription factor. Its activation by low dietary intake of ligands leads to antioxidant effects (eustress), while pro-oxidant effects (oxidative distress) may be associated with high doses. NADPH oxidases (NOXs) and the mitochondrial electron transport chain are the main sources of intracellular ROS, but their involvement in the biphasic/hormetic activity elicited by Nrf2 ligands is not fully understood.