Acute pancreatitis due to severe hypertriglyceridemia in the COVID-19 era: The role of therapeutic plasma exchange.

The psychosocial consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic caused multifaceted challenges in clinical and therapeutic practices. This was the case at the Therapeutic Apheresis Unit of the Padua University Hospital too. Several published reports describe the increase in alcohol and food addiction diseases.

Preparedness and activities of the anti-SARS-CoV-2 convalescent plasma bank in the Veneto region (Italy): An organizational model for future emergencies.

Background: Convalescent plasma (CP) has been used in the past in various pandemics, in particular in H1N1, SARS and MERS infections. In Spring 2020, when ongoing the SARS-CoV-2 pandemics, the Veneto Region (V-R) has proposed setting-up an anti-SARS-CoV-2 CP (CCP) Bank, with the aim of preparing a supply of CCP immediately available in case of subsequest epidemic waves.

Materials And Methods: Key-points to be developed for a quick set-up of the V-R CCP Bank have been recruitment of donors recovered from COVID-19 infection, laboratory analysis for the biological qualification of the CCP units, including titre of neutralizing antibodies and reduction of pathogens, according to National Blood Centre (CNS) Directives, adaptation of the V-R Information Technology systems and cost analysis.

Provisional recommendations for SARS-CoV-2 vaccination in patients with cryoglobulinaemic vasculitis.

People with cryoglobulinaemic vasculitis (CV) have an increased risk of infections, attributed to different causes: impairment of the immune system due to the disease itself, comorbidities, and immunosuppressive therapy. Therefore, these patients may be at high risk for a more severe course of COVID-19, including hospitalisation and death. Concerns about efficacy, immunogenicity and safety of vaccines, as well as doubts, not yet fully clarified in patients with systemic autoimmune diseases, represent other important factors for a low vaccination rate in people with (CV).

The Institute for the History of Rheumatology, an offspring of the Italian Society of Rheumatology, is born in Venice.

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To Transplant or Not to Transplant During the SARS-CoV-2 Pandemic? That Is the Question.

The novel coronavirus disease 2019 has grown to be a global public health emergency. The rapid spread of the infection has raised many questions in the oncohematological scientific community regarding the appropriateness of high-dose chemotherapy with autologous stem cell transplantation (ASCT). We here report two cases of patients who received ASCT at our Institute during the epidemic in Italy, affected with Hodgkin lymphoma and germ cell tumor, respectively.

Impact of COVID-19 pandemic in the activity of a Therapeutic Apheresis unit in Italy.

Introduction: The recent Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) outbreak has led to profound and rapid changes in the Italian and Veneto Region Healthcare System. This context also includes the quick reorganization which the Apheresis Unit (AU) of the Padova University Hospital, i.e.

Posterior reversible encephalopathy syndrome associated with Guillain-Barré syndrome: Case report and clinical management considerations.

Around half of the patients with Guillain-Barré syndrome (GBS) present autonomic dysfunction requiring admission to intensive care unit in up to a quarter of patients. Treatment of GBS consists of plasma exchange (PE) and intravenous immunoglobulins (IVIG). Posterior reversible encephalopathy syndrome (PRES) consists in a reversible subcortical vasogenic brain edema caused by endothelial damage triggered by abrupt blood pressure changes.

Therapeutic apheresis during pregnancy: A single center experience.

Introduction: Therapeutic apheresis (TA) represents a treatment option for pre-existing conditions or diseases occurring during gestation. Although pregnancy is not a contraindication per se, due to the lack of evidence-based guidelines and presumed risk of maternal/fetal adverse events there is a general resistance to its application.

Material And Methods: Between January 2005 and August 2017, at the Apheresis Unit of the University Hospital of Padua 936 TA procedures were performed during 57 pregnancies in 48 patients: 813 Plasma Exchange sessions, 119 Immunoadsorptions, 4 Red Blood Cell exchanges.

Plasma-derived industry and plasma-derived medicinal products in the Italian National Blood Transfusion Service.

The priority objectives of the Italian Transfusion System are self-sufficiency for blood components and for plasma-derived products. Currently the collection activity guarantees self-sufficiency of blood components, including plasma for clinical use, but not for plasma-derived drugs, ie albumin and immunoglobulins in particular. The National Plasma Program of 2016-2020, issued a Ministerial Decree on December, 2, 2016, aims to achieve this goal, both by increasing the collection of plasma and therefore its transfer to plasma derivation companies, and by increasing the appropriateness of the requests.

Recommendations for managing the manifestations of severe and life-threatening mixed cryoglobulinemia syndrome.

Objective: Some of the manifestations of mixed cryoglobulinemia syndrome (MCS) can be severe or life-threatening, and should be rapidly contained but, as the therapeutic approaches to such conditions are largely based on anecdotal data, a consensus conference was organised by the Italian Group for the Study of Cryoglobulinemia (GISC) with the aim of providing a set of recommendations based on an in-depth survey of the available data and expert opinion.

Methods: The consensus panel, which included specialists working in different medical fields involved in the management of MCS patients, was first asked to divide the manifestations of MCS into severe or life-threatening conditions on the basis of their own experience, after which a complete literature review was carried out in accordance with the Cochrane guidelines for systematic reviews.

Results: Therapeutic plasma exchange (TPE) was considered the elective first-line treatment in the case of life-threatening manifestations of MCS (LT-MCS) and patients with severe clinical symptoms (S-MCS) who fail to respond to (or who are ineligible for) other treatments.

The Italian Register of therapeutic apheresis: How it has grown, how it has changed.

In Italy therapeutic apheresis procedures were carried out for the first time in the '70s. in the '80s the Italian Society of Hemapheresis was founded, formerly named SIDE, now SIdEM (Italian Society of Hemapheresis and Cellular Manipulation). From the beginning, the collection and the analysis of activity data have been seen as a way to improve the knowledge on mechanisms of action, to identify the correct rationale in order to intervene in the most appropriate clinical indications.

Apheresis treatment of cryoglobulinemic vasculitis: A multicentre cohort study of 159 patients.

Objective: To assess the effectiveness of apheresis therapy (AT) in treating the clinical manifestations of patients with complicated cryoglobulinemic vasculitis (CV).

Methods: A retrospective cohort study of 159 CV patients attending 22 Italian Centers who underwent at least one AT session between 2005 and 2015. The response to AT was evaluated on the basis of a defined grading system.

Catastrophic antiphospholipid syndrome: Lessons from 14 cases successfully treated in a single center. A narrative report.

The study aimed to evaluate the clinical significance of laboratory findings in patients with catastrophic antiphospholipid syndrome (CAPS) and to report the effects of a well-defined treatment protocol in 14 consecutive cases. Thirteen patients (12 presenting one and one presenting two episodes of CAPS) were consecutively treated and monitored between 1986 and 2017. Antiphospholipid antibody (aPL) characteristics of the patients were compared with those of 64 matched controls (45 antiphospholipid syndrome patients and 19 aPL carriers) who did not develop CAPS during the same mean follow-up period (12 years ± 9.

Toward a real liquid biopsy in metastatic breast and prostate cancer: Diagnostic LeukApheresis increases CTC yields in a European prospective multicenter study (CTCTrap).

Frequently, the number of circulating tumor cells (CTC) isolated in 7.5 mL of blood is too small to reliably determine tumor heterogeneity and to be representative as a "liquid biopsy". In the EU FP7 program CTCTrap, we aimed to validate and optimize the recently introduced Diagnostic LeukApheresis (DLA) to screen liters of blood.

Therapy of scleroderma renal crisis: State of the art.

Scleroderma renal crisis (SRC) is an uncommon but still life-threatening manifestation of systemic sclerosis (SSc). The incidence of SRC has decreased in the last few decades, probably due to a widespread use of vasodilators in SSc patients. It is well-recognized that exposure to different drugs can trigger SRC (corticosteroids, cyclosporine) or might prevent its occurrence (iloprost, calcium channel blockers).

[Inclusion of a deterministic post-processing stage to increase the performance of probabilistic record linkage].

The aim of this study was to demonstrate the application of a deterministic post-processing stage, based on measures of similarity, to increase the performance of probabilistic record linkage with and without manual revision. The databases used in the study were the Brazilian Information System for Notificable Diseases and the Brazilian Mortality Information System, from 2007 to 2015, in Palmas, Tocantins State, Brazil. The probabilistic software was OpenRecLink, and a deterministic post-processing stage was applied to the data obtained from three different probabilistic linkage strategies.

Multiloci identification of Diaporthe fungi isolated from the medicinal plant Costus spiralis (Jacq.) Roscoe (Costaceae).

Aims: The purpose of this study is to identify species from genus Diaporthe associated with a medicinal plant Costus spiralis by ITS, EF 1-α, TUB and CAL gens.

Methods And Results: The 30 isolates from the genus Diaporthe associated with the medicinal plant Costus spiralis were characterized based on morphological characters and the microculture technique and grouped by DNA fingerprinting with the ISSP gene. Afterwards, a total of 12 isolates were selected for the identification of the species based on the comparative research on the blast through the sequences of the ITS gene.

Thrombocytopenia in high-risk patients with antiphospholipid syndrome.

Unlabelled: Essentials The prevalence of thrombocytopenia in patients with antiphospholipid syndrome is not well defined. We studied triple positive patients with antiphospholipid syndrome and its catastrophic variant. Prevalence of thrombocytopenia was 6% and 100% in patients who developed the catastrophic form.