Microbiome and diversity indices during blood stem cells transplantation - new perspectives?

Objective: The human body is colonized by bacteria, fungi and viruses. Resident commensal bacteria are a fundamental line of resistance to colonization by exogenous microbes. They actively regulate the production of nutrients by the host through a negative feedback mechanism, in order to prevent the availability of nutrients for potential pathogens.

Predictive factors for pregnancy after controlled ovarian stimulation and intrauterine insemination: A retrospective analysis of 4146 cycles.

Background: The variability in indications and low rate of pregnancy compared to IVF have led many authors to dismiss IUI and offer IVF first-line instead.

Objectives: To determine what are the predictive factors for clinical pregnancy (CP) and live birth (LB) in intrauterine insemination (IUI) cycles following controlled ovarian stimulation (COS).

Methods: Retrospective unicentric study, between January 2009 and December 2016.

Thrombogenesis in Thrombophilic Pregnancy: Evaluation of Low-Molecular-Weight Heparin Prophylaxis.

The aim of this study is to investigate thrombogenesis and the hypercoagulable changes in pregnant women affected by thrombophilia who received low-molecular-weight heparin (LWMH) prophylaxis. We included 21 pregnant women affected by thrombophilia treated with LWMH and 20 nontreated normal pregnant women as the control group. The sample group of thrombophilic pregnant women included different conditions (factor V Leiden mutation, protein C deficiency, protein S deficiency, antiphospholipid antibodies syndrome, and combined defects).

Similar in vitro maturation rates of oocytes retrieved during the follicular or luteal phase offer flexible options for urgent fertility preservation in breast cancer patients.

Study Question: Are in vitro maturation (IVM) rates of cumulus-oocyte complexes (COCs), retrieved from breast cancer patients seeking urgent fertility preservation (FP) before neoadjuvant chemotherapy, different between those recovered in the follicular or in the luteal phase of the cycle?

Summary Answer: The present investigation reveals no major difference in the number of COCs recovered or their IVM rates whatever the phase of the cycle at which egg retrieval is performed, suggesting that IVM is a promising tool for breast cancer patients seeking urgent oocyte cryopreservation.

What Is Known Already: FP now represents a standard of care for young cancer patients having to undergo gonadotoxic treatment. Mature oocyte cryopreservation after IVM of COCs has been proposed for urgent FP, especially in women, who have no time to undergo ovarian stimulation, or when it is contraindicated.

Manual accidents, biological risk control, and quality indicators at a children's hospital in north-east Italy.

Background: Working in health care carries the risk of transmission of infected blood to patients by hospital workers and to other health personnel in the form of occupational infections. Conscientious application of the standard precautions is the main method used to avoid needle stick injuries, contamination of skin and mucous membranes, cuts with sharp tools, and inadequate disposal and recapping of needles. The aim of this work was to investigate in Friuli Venezia Giulia, a region in north-east Italy, the enhancement carried out to prevent situations of biologic risk for health care workers, and to verify the related laboratory analyses.

Female fertility preservation in cancer patients: an instrumental tool for the envisioning a postdisease life.

Aim: To verify whether fertility preservation (FP) improves the way women contemplate their life after the disease.

Materials & Methods: 285 cancer patients referred for FP counseling were prospectively studied. A standardized questionnaire was submitted to all participants.

Hematology point of care testing and laboratory errors: an example of multidisciplinary management at a children's hospital in northeast Italy.

Involvement of health personnel in a medical audit can reduce the number of errors in laboratory medicine. The checked control of point of care testing (POCT) could be an answer to developing a better medical service in the emergency department and decreasing the time taken to report tests. The performance of sanitary personnel from different disciplines was studied over an 18-month period in a children's hospital.

[How to preserve female fertility before cancer treatments?].

Over the past decades, major advances in diagnosis and treatment have markedly improved the rates of cure for many young adults and children cancers. As a result, the field of fertility preservation (FP) has developed to overcome the adverse effects of cancer treatments on gonadal function. The strategy of FP will depend on patient's age, the puberty status, and the time frame before the initiation of gonadotoxic treatments.

Public banking of umbilical cord blood or storage in a private bank: testing social and ethical policy in northeastern Italy.

Background: In northeastern Italy, according to Italian legislation, authorized public facilities can accept the donation and preservation of cord blood stem cells (CB-SC). Attitudes and knowledge in pregnant women differs between the local and immigrant (non-European Union [EU]) population. In this study we assessed the choices that pregnant women have with respect to the public and private harvesting system and the main reasons driving their decisions.

In vitro maturation of oocytes: uncommon indications.

Retrieval of immature oocytes from unstimulated ovaries, followed by in vitro maturation (IVM) was initially proposed to avoid the risks and side effects of exogenous gonadotropin administration. Therefore, during the past decades, IVM was mainly offered to patients with polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS) at high risk of ovarian hyperstimulation syndrome (OHSS). However, the development of fertility preservation has recently opened new perspectives in the field of IVM.

New trends in female fertility preservation: in vitro maturation of oocytes.

As antineoplastic treatments have become more successful, an increasing number of women with cancer survive to endure the long-term consequences of chemotherapy. One of the most important of these consequences in young females is premature ovarian failure and infertility. Owing to increasing survival rates, many of these young women are seeking methods to preserve their fertility.

Autologous cord blood harvesting in North Eastern Italy: ethical questions and emerging hopes for curing diabetes and celiac disease.

Background: The Friuli Venezia Giulia (FVG), a region of North Eastern Italy, has passed legislation (Decree No 2324/2010) to regulate the banking of umbilical cord blood samples for personal, autologous, or family-directed use, and to implement the Agreement of the State-Regions Permanent Conference (Decree No 62/CSR/2010). This paper aims to identify the formalities and the reasons why families collect and bank their cord blood in foreign banks for both personal and private use.

Methods: To this end, at the Institute for Maternal and Child Health of Trieste (the regional capital city of the FVG), Italy, which assists about 1800 pregnant women a year, 129 questionnaires, drafted from January 2010 to December 2011 and concerning the granting of authorization to export samples, were examined.

Ovarian tissue and follicle transplantation as an option for fertility preservation.

Objective: To review and summarize data from the scientific literature on ovarian tissue and follicle transplantation as an option for fertility preservation.

Design: Review of pertinent literature.

Setting: University hospital.

Application of reticulated platelets to transfusion management during autologous stem cell transplantation.

Background: The immature (or reticulated) platelet fraction (IPF) is rich in nucleic acids, especially RNA, and can be used as a predictive factor for platelet recovery in platelet immunomediated consumption or in postchemotherapy myelosuppression. Our aim was to determine if transfusions with IPF-rich solutions, during autologous peripheral blood stem cell transplantation, reduce the occurrence of bleeding and hemorrhagic complications.

Patients And Methods: Transfusions were administered to 40 children, affected with hematological pathologies, who underwent autologous peripheral hematopoietic progenitor cell transplantation.

Management of immigration and pregnancy screening in northeastern Italy.

This study assesses the impact of immigration in Friuli Venezia Giulia, a region of northeastern Italy, on the epidemiological features of hemoglobin patterns and on prothrombotic and trisomy risk in pregnancy for patients of non-Italian origin. This study follows a series of studies on the incidence of thalassemia and other hemoglobinopathies with reduced globin chain synthesis, that were performed during the postwar (1939-45) period in Friuli Venezia Giulia following immigration into the region from Istria and Sardinia (regions of northern and central Italy). Current data show that today's constantly growing immigration into the region differs from previous decades, in terms of origin and quantity of migrants, who mainly come from third world countries.

Serum anti-Müllerian hormone as a predictive marker of polycystic ovarian syndrome.

Background: The anti-Müllerian hormone (AMH) is a dimeric protein secreted by the female ovaries and has two fundamental roles in follicle genesis. It delays the entrance of the primordial follicle into the pool of follicles in growth and diminishes the sensitivity of the ovarian follicle towards follicle-stimulating hormone (FSH). The purpose of this work was to study the AMH (nv 2.

Celiac disease and immigration in Northeastern Italy: the "drawn double nostalgia" of "cozonac" and "panettone" slices.

Many investigators consider children's drawings to be an important test in the evaluation of stress and anxiety, but few studies have examined the reliability and validity of indicators of emotional distress in children's projective drawings. In this report, we describe screening tests in children coming to the Friuli Venezia Giulia region in Northeastern Italy from non-European Union regions and suspected to have celiac disease, the problems involved in diagnosis of the disease, and the "drawn double nostalgia" of Romanian children for both Italian food and traditional Romanian foods. Of 3150 Western European cases, we found 712 with positive antibodies for IgA/IgG antitransglutaminase, 174 with a positive antiendomysium antibody confirmation test, and 20 with an IgA deficit.

Leukocyte peroxidase and leptin: an associated link of glycemic tolerance and bronchial asthma?

Recent observations suggest the presence of an interaction between leptin and the inflammatory system during bronchial asthma. Although there is evidence of a positive association between asthma and obesity in adults and children, little is yet known about the role of serum leptin, as a potential mediator for bronchial epithelial homeostasis, and intraleukocyte myeloperoxidase (MPO), a hemoprotein with a molecular weight of 140 kDa, expression of the inflammatory system, in asthmatic children. Glycemic tolerance is an important pathogenetic element in developing type 2 mellitus diabetes and a confirmed predictor of incident asthma-like symptoms in adults.

Correlation between the immunological condition and the results of immunoenzymatic tests in diagnosing infectious mononucleosis.

Background And Aim Of The Work: A symptom-based diagnosis of infectious mononucleosis is not sufficiently accurate, since some clinical symptoms of infectious mononucleosis are also detected in other virally induced diseases. Moreover, not all patients suffering from infectious mononucleosis show circulating atypical lymphocytes, which are considered characteristic of this disease. Therefore, when this disorder is suspected, serum analyses are carried out to detect the presence of certain immunoglobulins associated with infectious mononucleosis in the patient's blood.

Antiphospholipid antibodies and lipoprotein(a) in obese children.

Aim: Antiphospholipid (aPL) antibodies, Lipoprotein(a) [Lp(a)] and obesity are considered three independent risk factors for development of cardiovascular diseases. We investigate the presence of aPL antibodies and the Lp(a) concentration in 190 obese and 30 healthy children divided into prepubertal and pubertal, compared with healthy adults.

Results: aPL antibodies were detected in 2.