Prescribing Behavior of General Practitioners for Generic Drugs.

The factors influencing General Practitioners' (GPs) prescribing behavior are diverse in terms of health care policies and regulations, GPs' education and experience, demographic trends and disease profiles. Thus, it can be useful to analyze the specific local patterns, as they affect the quality of healthcare and the stability of the healthcare market. The aim of the present longitudinal retrospective study is to investigate the prescription of generic drugs in a database of about 4.

Prevalence and correlates of Benign Pancreatic Hyperenzymemia in a large general population sample: The Damocles sword perception.

Background: Benign Pancreatic Hyperenzymemia (BPH) is characterized by a long-term increase of serum pancreatic enzymes (PE) in otherwise healthy subjects. The study investigates the prevalence and correlates of the condition using data from Electronic Health Records (EHR) in a large sample of general population, to identify subjects potentially affected by BPH.

Methods: Cross-sectional retrospective observational study integrated by a follow-up visit.

General Practitioners Records Are Epidemiological Predictors of Comorbidities: An Analytical Cross-Sectional 10-Year Retrospective Study.

Background: Comorbidity represents the co-occurrence of pathological conditions in the same individual, and presents with very complex patterns. In most cases, reference data for the study of various types of comorbidities linked to complex diseases are those of hospitalized patients. Such patients may likely require cure due to acute conditions.

Under-dilated TIPS Associate With Efficacy and Reduced Encephalopathy in a Prospective, Non-randomized Study of Patients With Cirrhosis.

Background & Aims: Portosystemic encephalopathy (PSE) is a major complication of trans-jugular intrahepatic porto-systemic shunt (TIPS) placement. Most devices are self-expandable polytetrafluoroethylene-covered stent grafts (PTFE-SGs) that are dilated to their nominal diameter (8 or 10 mm). We investigated whether PTFE-SGs dilated to a smaller caliber (under-dilated TIPS) reduce PSE yet maintain clinical and hemodynamic efficacy.

The Risk of Hepatocellular Carcinoma After Directly Acting Antivirals for Hepatitis C Virus Treatment in Liver Transplanted Patients: Is It Real?

Introduction: Since directly acting antivirals (DAAs) for treatment of hepatitis C virus (HCV) were introduced, conflicting data emerged about the risk of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) after interferon (IFN)-free treatments. We present a case of recurrent, extra-hepatic HCC in a liver-transplanted patient soon after successful treatment with DAAs, along with a short review of literature.

Case Presentation: In 2010, a 53-year old man, affected by chronic HCV (genotype 1) infection and decompensated cirrhosis, underwent liver resection for HCC and subsequently received orthotopic liver transplantation.

A challenging case of pregnancy with placenta accreta and very rare irregular antibodies versus Cromer blood group system: a case report.

Introduction: This report describes the challenges of treating a pregnant woman who had a rare case of critical placenta accreta with concurrent Cromer system anti-Tc(a) and anti-Kidd A alloantibodies. No previous case of such alloimmunization in a patient with placenta accreta has been reported.

Case Presentation: A 28-year-old African woman with anti-Cromer Tc(a) antibodies, anti-Kidd A antibodies and placenta accreta was admitted to the obstetric emergency department at our university hospital with persistent vaginal bleeding.

Post-transplantation hepatocellular carcinoma recurrence: Patterns and relation between vascularity and differentiation degree.

Aim: To evaluate the relationship between hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) vascularity and grade; to describe patterns and vascular/histopathological variations of post-transplantation recurrence.

Methods: This retrospective study included 165 patients (143 men, 22 women; median age 56.8 years, range 28-70.

Absence of viable HCC in the native liver is an independent protective factor of tumor recurrence after liver transplantation.

Background: Prognostic factors for hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) recurrence after liver transplantation (LT) are still a matter of debate. The absence of viable tumor in the native liver, due to effectiveness of pre-LT locoregional treatment or liver resection, is an intriguing prognostic factor that had never been evaluated.

Methods: Between November 2000 and December 2011, 210 LTs were performed in patients with evidence of HCC and cirrhosis.

Network analysis of drug prescriptions.

Purpose: Networks exist in many different aspects of the world, at social, economical, biological, and molecular levels. Network science studies their parameters, or quantitative indicators; its instruments make it possible to draw and analyze networks from a mathematical perspective. The present study is an attempt to apply network science techniques to the drug prescription process, a typical subject of Epidemiology for Public Health studies.

Role of chemoembolization as a rescue treatment for recurrence of resected hepatoblastoma in adult patients.

Introduction: Hepatoblastoma is the most common malignant liver tumor in children, but it is extremely rare in adults.

Materials And Methods: A 33-year-old man was admitted with nausea, vomiting, weight loss, and right upper quadrant pain. A preoperative magnetic resonance imaging showed a nodular hepatic lesion infiltrating the lesser curvature of the stomach.

Intermittent gastric outlet obstruction due to a gallstone migrated through a cholecysto-gastric fistula: a new variant of "Bouveret's syndrome".

Bouveret's syndrome, defined as gastric outlet obstruction due to a large gallstone, is still one of the most dramatic biliary gallstone complications. Although new radiological and endoscopic techniques have made pre-surgical diagnosis possible in most cases and the death rate has dropped dramatically, "one-stage surgery" (biliary surgery carried out at the same time as the removal of the gut obstruction) should be still considered as the gold standard for the treatment of gallstone ileus.In this case, partial gastric outlet obstruction resulted in an atypical and insidious clinical presentation that allowed us to perform the conventional one-stage laparatomic procedure that completely solved the problem, thus avoiding any further complications.

Impact of dose and volume on subcutaneous fibrosis.

The multifactorial genesis of radiation-induced fibrosis makes a general outline of the occurence of this late toxicity fairly unpredictable. Scientific knowledge about dose fractionation, irradiated volume, total time, conformation procedures including IMRT can help provide better treatments. Chemical and physical therapies aimed at the removal of fibrosis are still limited or under study.

Biological optimization of the dose in stereotactic radiotherapy of brain tumors.

The techniques of radiotherapy with a high dose gradient require several demanding choices but represent a major innovation in the radiation therapy of brain tumors. To optimize the expected outcomes in terms of effectiveness and efficacy some recent acquisitions of biological parameters of integration of the linear-quadratic model are illustrated, aimed at the progressive understanding of the role of histology, dose fractionation, timing, toxicity and combined modality therapy.

Biological factors and therapeutic modulation in brain tumor radiotherapy.

Diagnosticotherapeutic approaches aimed at the improvement of prognosis of the most aggressive brain tumors tend to include new tools of investigation. Functional imaging, biologic markers, radiosensitizers, the combination of different modalities of radiation therapy and chemotherapy are being experimented. These new approaches to the neoplastic metabolism require increased resources and a close follow-up during treatment to better define the biological target volume.

[Locoregional treatment of hepatocellular carcinoma: comparison between percutaneous alcohol administration and intraarterial chemoembolization].

Between 1991 and 1998, 45 cirrhotic patients with hepatocellular carcinoma (1 or 2 lesions smaller than 5 cm) were treated either with percutaneous ethanol injection (26 patients) or with trans arterial chemoembolization (19 patients) in our Department. Percutaneous ethanol injection was performed on 37 nodules: mean diameter of 3.1 +/- 0.