Publications by authors named "N MASERA"

Article Synopsis
  • Acute chest syndrome (ACS) is a common reason for hospitalizations in children with sickle cell disease (SCD), but knowledge about its best treatment practices is still lacking in many areas.
  • A retrospective study examined ACS management in kids from 11 centers in Italy from 2013 to 2018, involving 122 children and 208 ACS episodes.
  • The findings showed that while adherence to treatment guidelines was generally good, there were significant differences in care between specialized centers and general hospitals; thus, improvements in transfer protocols and treatment methods are needed.
View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Context: The lack of syndrome-specific reference ranges for thyroid function tests (TFT) among pediatric patients with Down syndrome (DS) results in an overestimation of the occurrence of hypothyroidism in this population.

Objective: To (a) outline the age-dependent distribution of TFT among pediatric patients with DS; (b) describe the intraindividual variability of TFT over time; and (c) assess the role of elevated thyrotropin (TSH) in predicting the future onset of overt hypothyroidism.

Methods: In this retrospective, monocentric, observational analysis, we included 548 patients with DS (0-18 years) longitudinally assessed between 1992 and 2022.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Background: Environmental factors seem to influence clinical manifestations of sickle cell disease (SCD), but few studies have shown consistent findings. We conducted a retrospective multicentric observational study to investigate the influence of environmental parameters on hospitalization for vaso-occlusive crises (VOC) or acute chest syndrome (ACS) in children with SCD.

Methods: Hospital admissions were correlated with daily meteorological and air-quality data obtained from Environmental Regional Agencies in the period 2011-2015.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Unlabelled: Sickle cell disease (SCD) is a worldwide distributed hereditary red cell disorder characterized by recurrent acute vaso-occlusive crises (VOCs and anemia). Gold standard treatments are hydroxycarbamide (HC) and/or different red blood cell (RBC) transfusion regimens to limit disease progression. Here, we report a retrospective study on 1,579 SCD patients (median age 23 years; 802 males/777 females), referring to 34 comprehensive Italian centers for hemoglobinopathies.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Context: dexamethasone has been demonstrated to elicit GH secretion in adults, but few data are available about its effectiveness as a provocative in the diagnostic work-up of GH deficiency (GHD) in childhood.

Objective: to assess the clinical value of dexamethasone stimulation test (DST) as a diagnostic tool for pediatric GHD.

Design And Setting: retrospective single-center analysis.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF