Emergence of West Nile virus lineage 2 belonging to the Eastern European subclade, Greece.

West Nile virus (WNV) emerged in Greece in 2010 and since then human outbreaks occurred every year except 2015 and 2016. An early start and prolonged WNV transmission season was observed in 2018 with a record number of 316 reported cases and 47 fatalities. The Greek WNV strains detected during 2010-2018 clustered within the central European subclade of lineage 2.

Arrhythmogenesis in patients with stable chronic obstructive pulmonary disease.

Objective: Fatal arrhythmias are a common cause of death in chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). Two major hypotheses for arrhythmogenesis in COPD have been proposed: arrhythmias are a consequence of hypoxaemia, hypercapnia or (tissue localised) acid-base disturbances, or arrhythmias are the result of the autonomic neuropathy that characterises COPD. Our objective was to verify these two hypotheses.