Clinical Characteristics and Risk of Exacerbations Associated With Different Diagnostic Criteria of Asthma-COPD Overlap.

Introduction: There is currently no universally accepted definition of asthma-COPD overlap (ACO).

Objective: To compare the prevalence of ACO in patients with asthma or COPD, and to assess their clinical characteristics and the capacity of the different definitions to predict the risk of exacerbation.

Method: Prospective observational study with a 12-month follow-up in an asthma cohort and a COPD cohort.

Comparison of Costs and Clinical Outcomes Between Hospital and Outpatient Administration of Omalizumab in Patients With Severe Uncontrolled Asthma.

Objectives: To compare clinical outcomes and costs between two administration strategies of omalizumab treatment.

Method: We evaluated two cohorts of patients with uncontrolled severe asthma over a 1-year period. Patients received the treatment in the primary care center in Hospital A and conventional hospital administration in Hospital B.

Does prolonged onset of symptoms have a prognostic significance in community-acquired pneumonia?

Background And Objective: Severity assessment is made at the time of the initial clinical presentation in patients with community-acquired pneumonia (CAP). It is unclear how the gap between time of presentation and duration of symptoms onset may impact clinical outcomes. Here we evaluate the association of prolonged onset of symptoms (POS) and the impact on clinical outcomes among hospitalized patients with CAP.

Management of tracheobronchial amyloidosis with therapeutic bronchoscopic techniques.

Amyloidosis is a systemic disease caused by abnormal deposition of amyloid material that is detected with Congo red staining and is difficult to diagnose. Involvement of the tracheobronchial tree is rare and is a challenge for pulmonologists because of the wide differential diagnosis of this disease. We present two cases where tracheobronchial affectation has been observed: in one of them as a primary disease, and in another as secondary affectation.

The burden of distress in caregivers of elderly demented patients and its relationship with coping strategies.

Objective: Previous studies have shown that taking care of elderly, demented patients carries a high cost to caregivers' health, and is associated with negative consequences for physical and mental health. The aim of this study is to investigate which socio-demographic and clinical variables are significantly associated with higher levels of distress in caregivers, and the relationship between caregivers' levels of distress and the coping strategies they adopt.

Patients And Participants: The study samples 112 caregivers of demented patients, consecutively admitted to the Department of Neurology of San Raffaele-Turro Hospital (Milan, Italy).

Personality disorders and adult attachment dimensions in a mixed psychiatric sample: a multivariate study.

The associations between personality disorders and adult attachment dimensions were assessed in a sample of 487 consecutively admitted psychiatric subjects. Canonical correlation analysis showed that two sets of moderately correlated canonical variates explained the correlations between personality disorders and adult attachment patterns. The first and second attachment variates closely resembled the avoidance and anxiety attachment dimensions, respectively.

History of childhood attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder symptoms and borderline personality disorder: a controlled study.

To evaluate the association between history of childhood attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) symptoms and the diagnosis of borderline personality disorder (BPD) in adulthood, the Wender Utah Rating Scale (WURS) was administered to 42 consecutively admitted BPD subjects, 94 consecutively admitted controls with any cluster B personality disorder (PD) diagnosis other than BPD, 38 consecutively admitted controls with any cluster A or cluster C PD diagnosis but no cluster B PD diagnosis, and 69 consecutively admitted controls with no PD diagnosis. A fourth control group was composed by 201 nonclinical volunteers. According to Dunn-Bonferroni contrasts, BPD subjects showed a significantly higher mean WURS total score compared to all control groups (minimum t = 7.

Temperament, character, and attachment patterns in borderline personality disorder.

The aim of this study was to assess the specificity of the association between temperamental vulnerability, character deficits, and Borderline personality disorder (BPD), controlling for the effects of attachment patterns. A total of 44 BPD patients were compared with 98 non-BPD patients with other cluster B Personality Disorder (PD) diagnoses, 39 patients with any cluster A or cluster C PD diagnoses, 70 patients with no PD diagnosis, and 206 nonclinical patients. All patients were administered the Temperament and Character Inventory, the Parental Bonding Instrument, and the Attachment Style Questionnaire.

The retrospective assessment of childhood attention deficit hyperactivity disorder in adults: reliability and validity of the Italian version of the Wender Utah Rating Scale.

To assess the reliability and validity of the Wender Utah Rating Scale (WURS), 759 Italian undergraduate students were administered the Italian version of the WURS. In this sample, the WURS showed good internal consistency reliability (Cronbach alpha =.888).

Latent class analysis of DSM-IV schizotypal personality disorder criteria in psychiatric patients.

The aim of the study was to evaluate the latent structure of DSM-IV schizotypal personality disorder (SPD) diagnostic criteria. The sample consisted of 564 consecutively admitted inpatients and outpatients. Exploratory latent class analysis identified a four-class model as the best fitting model for DSM-IV SPD criteria.

Patterns of covariation of DSM-IV personality disorders in a mixed psychiatric sample.

The covariation patterns of DSM-IV personality disorders (PDs) were studied in 431 consecutively admitted psychiatric patients. The co-occurrence rate was greater than 50% for all DSM-IV PDs. Both bivariate association tests and loglinear models showed distinct significant covariation patterns among PDs which were stable across confounder strata.

A psychometric study of DSM-IV passive-aggressive (negativistic) personality disorder criteria.

The passive-aggressive (negativistic) personality disorder (PAPD) is one of the most controversial personality disorders. In order to assess DSM-IV PAPD psychometric properties and comorbidity pattern in a mixed psychiatric sample, 379 consecutively admitted in- and outpatients were administered SCID-II, Version 2.0.

Latent structure analysis of DSM-IV borderline personality disorder criteria.

The aim of this study was to evaluate the structure of DSM-IV borderline personality disorder (BPD) criteria. The study group consisted of 564 consecutively admitted inpatients and outpatients. BPD criteria discriminatory power was tested by using corrected item-to-total and item-to-diagnosis correlations.

Brief communication: criterion validity of the Personality Diagnostic Questionnaire-4+ (PDQ-4+) in a mixed psychiatric sample.

Three hundred consecutively admitted in- and outpatients were administered the Personality Diagnostic Questionnaire-4+ (PDQ-4+). The Structured Clinical Interview for DSM-IV Axis II Personality Disorders, Version 2.0 (SCID-II) was used as the external diagnostic standard for personality disorder (PD) assessment.

Interrater reliability and internal consistency of the structured clinical interview for DSM-IV axis II personality disorders (SCID-II), version 2.0.

Interrater reliability and internal consistency of the SCID-II 2.0 was assessed in a sample of 231 consecutively admitted in- and outpatients using a pairwise interview design, with randomized rater pairing and blind interview assessment. Interrater reliability coefficients ranged from .

Psychological stress in nurses' relationships with HIV-infected patients: the risk of burnout syndrome.

To assess the role played by psychological stress and sociodemographic factors as predictors of burnout in nurses, we administered the AIDS Impact Scale (AIS) and the Maslach Burnout Inventory (MBI) to nurses in the AIDS field. The sample was composed of 410 nurses from 19 departments for the treatment of infectious diseases. In these subjects we observed a low level of burnout in the MBI, but a small proportion had a high level of burnout We did not find significant associations between sociodemographic variables and the MBI scales.

An assessment of self-esteem in HIV-positive patients.

The objective of this research is to assess how self-esteem levels differ in HIV-infected subjects in three different risk behaviours: drug addicts, homosexuals, heterosexuals. The sample (n = 104) consisted of: drug addicts (n = 46); homosexual (n = 26); heterosexuals (n = 32). The Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale (RSES) and the Eysenck Personality Inventory (EPI) were used.