Acceptability of meningococcal serogroup B vaccine among parents and health care workers in Italy: a survey.

A new meningococcal serogroup B vaccine (4 CMenB) has recently been licensed. This study assessed the acceptability of 4 CMenB vaccine among parents and healthcare workers (HCWs). From May to July 2013 in Milan, Italy, self-administered questionnaires were distributed to 2050 parents of infants presenting at immunization clinics for the mandatory hexavalent vaccination and submitted to 350 HCWs involved in immunization practices.

Fibrosis progression in paired liver biopsies from HIV/HCV co-infected patients.

Background: Chronic hepatitis C is more aggressive during HIV infection. Available data about risk factors of liver fibrosis in HIV/HCV co-infected patients derive from studies based on a single liver biopsy.

Objectives: To evaluate the risk factors of liver fibrosis progression (LFP) and to investigate the role of antiretroviral therapy (ARV) in HIV/HCV patients who underwent paired liver biopsy.

Influence of climate on emergency department visits for syncope: role of air temperature variability.

Background: Syncope is a clinical event characterized by a transient loss of consciousness, estimated to affect 6.2/1000 person-years, resulting in remarkable health care and social costs. Human pathophysiology suggests that heat may promote syncope during standing.

Lung ultrasound is an accurate diagnostic tool for the diagnosis of pneumonia in the emergency department.

Objective: The aim of this study was to evaluate the diagnostic accuracy of bedside lung ultrasound and chest radiography (CXR) in patients with suspected pneumonia compared with CT scan and final diagnosis at discharge. Design A prospective clinical study.

Methods: Lung ultrasound and CXR were performed in sequence in adult patients admitted to the emergency department (ED) for suspected pneumonia.

San Francisco Syncope Rule, Osservatorio Epidemiologico sulla Sincope nel Lazio risk score, and clinical judgment in the assessment of short-term outcome of syncope.

Objective: The study aimed to compare the efficacy of the Osservatorio Epidemiologico sulla Sincope nel Lazio (OESIL) risk score, San Francisco Syncope Rule, and clinical judgment in assessing the short-term prognosis of syncope.

Methods: We studied 488 patients consecutively seen for syncope at the emergency department of 2 general hospitals between January and July 2004. Sensitivity, specificity, predictive values, and likelihood ratios for short-term (within 10 days) severe outcomes were computed for each decision rule and clinical judgment.

Eligibility criteria in heart failure randomized controlled trials: a gap between evidence and clinical practice.

The aim of the present study was to compare the characteristics of patients referred to our heart failure outpatient clinic with those of patients enrolled in clinical trials on heart failure pharmacological treatment. Thus, we estimated the proportion of patients admitted to our heart failure outpatient clinic who would have been included in randomized controlled trials evaluating the effects of medical treatments on heart failure mortality, published over a 10 years period (1993-2003). Sixteen studies (n = 45276) and 299 consecutive outpatients, were included.

Short- and long-term prognosis of syncope, risk factors, and role of hospital admission: results from the STePS (Short-Term Prognosis of Syncope) study.

Objective: We sought to assess short- and long-term prognosis of syncope and associated risk factors.

Background: Syncope is a common clinical event, but our knowledge of its short-term outcome is largely incomplete. Further, it is unknown whether hospital admission might positively affect a patient's syncope prognosis.