Publications by authors named "Michela Franchini"

Breast cancer holds the highest diagnosis rate among female tumors and is the leading cause of death among women. Quantitative analysis of radiological images shows the potential to address several medical challenges, including the early detection and classification of breast tumors. In the P.

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Breast cancer (BC) has overtaken lung cancer as the most common cancer in the world and the projected incidence rates show a further increase. Early detection through population screening remains the cornerstone of BC control, but a progressive change from early diagnosis only-based to a personalized preventive and risk-reducing approach is widely debated. Risk-stratification models, which also include personal lifestyle risk factors, are under evaluation, although the documentation burden to gather population-based data is relevant and traditional data collection methods show some limitations.

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Background: immigrant women diagnosed with gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM) have additional language and cultural obstacles in following lifestyle and dietary recommendations within a Western health care setting.

Objectives: to describe: • sociodemographic characteristics and dietary and lifestyle behaviours in Italian and immigrant pregnant women who underwent a GDM screening; • any differences in these aspects among GDM Italian and immigrant women; • any differences in terms of primary maternal-neonatal outcomes among GDM and normal glucose tolerance (NGT) cohorts.

Design: survey.

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Low back pain (LBP) carries a high risk of chronicization and disability, greatly impacting the overall demand for care and costs, and its treatment is at risk of scarce adherence. This work introduces a new scenario based on the use of a mobile health tool, the Dress-KINESIS, to support the traditional rehabilitation approach. The tool proposes targeted self-manageable exercise plans for improving pain and disability, but it also monitors their efficacy.

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A multicenter, cross-sectional observational study (Italian GENder Differences in Awareness of Cardiovascular risk, IGENDA study) was carried out to evaluate the perception and knowledge of cardiovascular risk among Italian women. An anonymous questionnaire was completed by 4454 women (44.3 ± 14.

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Objective: To evaluate the long-term effects of a combination of isoflavones, agnus castus and magnolia extracts (combined isoflavone compound [CIC]) on climacteric symptoms and cardiometabolic risk in symptomatic postmenopausal women.

Methods: This interventional, prospective study evaluated climacteric symptoms, mood and sleep disorders using the 21-item Greene Climacteric Scale (GCS) and 7-item Insomnia Severity Index (ISI) questionnaires; and cardiovascular, metabolic and thrombotic risk markers at baseline (T0) and after 12 months of CIC treatment (T1).

Results: In healthy postmenopausal women ( = 71), 12-month CIC treatment significantly reduced patient-reported vasomotor symptoms (100% 17%), mood disorders (67% .

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Objective To investigate sex- and gender-based differences linked to SARS-COV-2 infection and to explore the role of hormonal therapy (HT) in females. Study design Data from the self-administered, cross-sectional, web-based EPICOVID19 survey of 198,822 adults living in Italy who completed an online questionnaire during the first wave of the epidemic in Italy (April-May 2020) were analyzed. Main outcomes measures Multivariate binary logistic and multinomial regression models were respectively used to estimate the odds ratios (ORs) with 95% confidence intervals (CIs) for positive nasopharyngeal swab (NPS) test results and severe SARS-CoV-2 infection.

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Article Synopsis
  • Digital technologies were widely used during the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic, leading to the creation of the EPICOVID19 survey, which studied adult Italian volunteers in two phases - the first wave (April-May 2020) and the second wave (January-February 2021).
  • The survey utilized validated scales and questionnaires to gather socio-demographic, medical, and behavioral data, revealing that over half (52.8%) of participants had undergone nasopharyngeal swab tests, with 13.2% testing positive.
  • A significant finding was that 72.8% of participants who tested positive via serological tests had negative or no results from nasopharyngeal tests, indicating many individuals remained und
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Innovation in governance and services should be the target of the Italian National Recovery and Resilience Plan. Monitoring processes, impacts, and outcomes requires a system of new indicators that are practical to collect. Secondary data sources, their availability, and their information potential should be evaluated, and primary sources should be implemented to supplement traditional disease surveillance.

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Breast cancer is a clear example of excellent survival when it is detected and properly treated in the early stage. Currently, screening of this cancer relies on mammography, which may be integrated by new imaging techniques for more exhaustive evaluation. The Personalized, Integrated, Network, Knowledge (P.

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Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) pandemic management is limited by great uncertainty, for both health systems and citizens. Facing this information gap requires a paradigm shift from traditional approaches to healthcare to the participatory model of improving health. This work describes the design and function of the Doing Risk sElf-assessment and Social health Support for COVID (Dress-COV) system.

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Chronicity is the real challenge for public healthcare systems especially in relation to multi-morbidity. The growing demand for multidisciplinary care could be addressed by implementing integrated programs in the primary care field and facilitating other specific care only as necessary. Some models of long-term management have been suggested since the 2000s.

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Modern medicine remains dependent on the accurate evaluation of a patient's health state, recognizing that disease is a process that evolves over time and interacts with many factors unique to that patient. The project represents a concrete attempt to address these issues by developing reproducible algorithms to support the accuracy in detection of complex diseases. This study aims to establish and validate the approach and algorithm for identifying those patients presenting with or at risk of heart failure (HF) by studying 153,393 subjects in Italy, based on patient information flow databases and is not reliant on the electronic health record to accomplish its goals.

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Background: Frailty has been defined in different ways and several diagnostic tools exist, but most of them are not applicable in routine primary care. Nonetheless, general practitioners (GPs) have a natural advantage in identifying frailty, due to their continued access to patients, patient-centered approach and training. GPs have also an advantage in conducting population-based evaluation as consequence of their role of gatekeepers of the health care system.

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To date, the actual rate of successful translation has been extremely low although those few successes have been notable and provide for continued and expanding enthusiasm and support. This paper examines whether the fundamental premise may be flawed. Could the success rate be improved to further enhance quality of life and cost optimization for patients by changing the paradigm to "bedside to bench to bedside", and focusing the research on addressing unmet clinical needs? It examines all aspects of the healthcare ecosystem to understand issues that arise with real world patients and in real world clinical practice and how addressing these should be the focus of translational research.

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Clinical medicine faces many challenges, e.g. applying personalized medicine and genomics in daily practice; utilizing highly specialized diagnostic technologies; prescribing costly therapeutics.

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Objective: This project aims to investigate the role of alcoholic drinks (ADs) as triggers for primary headaches.

Methods: Patients followed in the Headache Centre and presenting with migraine without aura, migraine with aura (MA), chronic migraine (CM), and tension-type headache (TH) were asked if their headache was precipitated by AD and also about their alcohol habits. Individual characteristics and drink habits were evaluated within two binary logistic models.

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This review evaluates the epidemiological literature on health effects in relation to incineration facilities. Several adverse health effects have been reported. Significant exposure-disease associations are reported by two thirds of the papers focusing on cancer (lung and larynx cancer, non-Hodgkin's lymphoma).

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Aims And Background: In the last decades, many epidemiological studies have implicated outdoor environmental carcinogens in the onset of lung cancer. The present investigation evaluated lung cancer mortality in two areas of the Province of La Spezia (Northern Italy) exposed to environmental pollution emitted by a coal-fired power station and other industrial sources, including a waste incinerator.

Methods: In the two exposed areas, lung cancer mortality risk for the 1988-1996 calendar period was evaluated using the whole Province population as referent.

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The South-eastern Area (SA) of the Municipality of La Spezia (Liguria Region, Italy) is characterised by a heavy environmental lead (Pb) contamination, chiefly due to the emissions of a Pb-processing plant in operation since 1930. In order to assess the risk of Pb poisoning of residents of SA, and to estimate the degree of association between the blood Pb level (BLL) and haematocrit % (HCT), intended as a biomarker of early haematological dysfunction, we reanalysed data of 785 individuals collected in 1992 as a part of a larger national biological monitoring project. Multiple normal regression modelling was applied to estimate the role of residence on log-transformed BLL, and Median Ratio (MR) was used as an index of effect.

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During 1998-1999 a survey assessed the health impact of living in an area (Zona D) of the city of La Spezia (Liguria Region, Italy) characterised by industrial plants, urban waste disposal sites and incinerators, a coal-fired power-station and a heavily trafficked thoroughfare. One of the main results was an excess prevalence and incidence of self-reported anaemia among residents in area D compared to those of the control area (Zone C). Given the environmental lead pollution in Zone D due to the emissions of a lead processing plant active since 1930, and in order to confirm the validity of previous findings, was investieable the association between residence and blood lead levels, as well as the relationship between the latter and an anaemia-specific biomarker.

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