How do we transfuse children in Italy? Results of a national survey.

Background: Adherence to optimal practices in the preparation and issuance of pediatric blood components can significantly influence patient care outcomes. This study aims to examine the blood banking procedures across prominent Italian children's hospitals, with the goal of identifying both consistent and potentially divergent standards within this field.

Materials And Methods: A survey was conducted among the blood banks affiliated with the Italian Association of Pediatric Hospitals.

On the trail of CBCT-guided adaptive rectal boost radiotherapy, does daily delineation require a radiation oncologist?

Introduction: Dose-escalation radiotherapy for rectal tumours is increasingly considered as a non-operative approach, with online-adaptive radiotherapy (oART) supporting this approach by correcting inter-fraction tumour position errors. However, using cone-beam computed tomography (CBCT)-guided oART requires daily target volume delineation by different operators, leading to inter-operator delineation variability and potential dosimetric issues. This study aims to compare and quantify the inter-operator and inter-professional delineation variability of the rectal boost volume on CBCT, including volumes by an automatically delineated oART treatment planning system.

Tolerance of Concurrent Adjuvant Radiation Therapy and Pembrolizumab for Triple Negative Breast Cancer: Real Life Experience.

Purpose: The current standard-of-care management of locally advanced triple negative breast cancer (TNBC) is based on neoadjuvant chemo-immunotherapy with pembrolizumab, surgery, radiation therapy (RT), and adjuvant pembrolizumab. However, the safety of combining pembrolizumab with adjuvant breast RT has never been evaluated. This study evaluated the tolerance profile of concurrent pembrolizumab with adjuvant RT in patients with locally advanced TNBC.

Photoinitiator Selection and Concentration in Photopolymer Formulations towards Large-Format Additive Manufacturing.

Photopolymers are an attractive option for large-format additive manufacturing (LFAM), because they can be formulated from structural thermosets and cure rapidly in ambient conditions under low-energy ultraviolet light-emitting diode (UV LED) lamps. Photopolymer cure is strongly influenced by the depth penetration of UV light, which can be limited in the 2-4 mm layer thicknesses typical of LFAM. Photoinitiator (PI) systems that exhibit photobleaching have proven useful in thick-section cure applications, because they generate a photoinitiation wavefront, but this effect is time-dependent.

Global management of brain metastasis from renal cell carcinoma.

During the last decade, major improvements have been made in the treatment of renal cell carcinoma (RCC) with the development and use of multiple tyrosine kinase inhibitors and immune checkpoint inhibitors. Brain metastases in RCC patients (BM-RCC) is associated with poor outcome and their management represents a challenge for clinicians. In most of case, brain metastases in this context require local intervention such as radiotherapy, stereotactic radiotherapy/stereotactic radiosurgery and whole brain radiation therapy.

Acute pancreatitis due to severe hypertriglyceridemia in the COVID-19 era: The role of therapeutic plasma exchange.

The psychosocial consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic caused multifaceted challenges in clinical and therapeutic practices. This was the case at the Therapeutic Apheresis Unit of the Padua University Hospital too. Several published reports describe the increase in alcohol and food addiction diseases.

Severe polymyositis occurring in a cancer patient directly after chemotherapy: etiology and management.

A 72-year-old woman was diagnosed with metastatic colorectal cancer and treated with oxaliplatin-based chemotherapy and bevacizumab. One week after the second administration of chemotherapy, she presented acute-onset dysphagia and rapidly progressing proximal muscle weakness, associated with elevation of the creatinine phosphokinase enzymes. Magnetic resonance imaging raised suspicion of polymyositis.

A 44-Year-Old Man With Acute Chest Pain.

A 44-year-old man consulted in April 2020 for a 1-week persistent left lateral chest pain, increased with deep breathing and change of position. He had left lower limb pain without redness or swelling 2 weeks before presentation. He did not complain of shortness of breath, cough, hemoptysis, syncope, fever, nor general status alteration.

To Transplant or Not to Transplant During the SARS-CoV-2 Pandemic? That Is the Question.

The novel coronavirus disease 2019 has grown to be a global public health emergency. The rapid spread of the infection has raised many questions in the oncohematological scientific community regarding the appropriateness of high-dose chemotherapy with autologous stem cell transplantation (ASCT). We here report two cases of patients who received ASCT at our Institute during the epidemic in Italy, affected with Hodgkin lymphoma and germ cell tumor, respectively.

Impact of COVID-19 pandemic in the activity of a Therapeutic Apheresis unit in Italy.

Introduction: The recent Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) outbreak has led to profound and rapid changes in the Italian and Veneto Region Healthcare System. This context also includes the quick reorganization which the Apheresis Unit (AU) of the Padova University Hospital, i.e.

Therapeutic apheresis during pregnancy: A single center experience.

Introduction: Therapeutic apheresis (TA) represents a treatment option for pre-existing conditions or diseases occurring during gestation. Although pregnancy is not a contraindication per se, due to the lack of evidence-based guidelines and presumed risk of maternal/fetal adverse events there is a general resistance to its application.

Material And Methods: Between January 2005 and August 2017, at the Apheresis Unit of the University Hospital of Padua 936 TA procedures were performed during 57 pregnancies in 48 patients: 813 Plasma Exchange sessions, 119 Immunoadsorptions, 4 Red Blood Cell exchanges.

The Italian Register of therapeutic apheresis: How it has grown, how it has changed.

In Italy therapeutic apheresis procedures were carried out for the first time in the '70s. in the '80s the Italian Society of Hemapheresis was founded, formerly named SIDE, now SIdEM (Italian Society of Hemapheresis and Cellular Manipulation). From the beginning, the collection and the analysis of activity data have been seen as a way to improve the knowledge on mechanisms of action, to identify the correct rationale in order to intervene in the most appropriate clinical indications.

Italian Registry of Therapeutic Apheresis.

Since the 80s the Italian Society of Apheresis and Cell Manipulation (SIdEM) started to monitor the adverse events of therapeutic apheresis (TA) procedures. In subsequent years other variables were added and a national TA registry was created, with a fluctuating adhesion over the years. From 2010 to 2013 the Registry was shared with the Italian Society of Nephrology (SIN): the collection method required data of each patient and a lack of adhesion was observed, mainly because of a heavy workload needed to fill out all the fields.

Thrombocytopenia in high-risk patients with antiphospholipid syndrome.

Unlabelled: Essentials The prevalence of thrombocytopenia in patients with antiphospholipid syndrome is not well defined. We studied triple positive patients with antiphospholipid syndrome and its catastrophic variant. Prevalence of thrombocytopenia was 6% and 100% in patients who developed the catastrophic form.

Personalized treatment with immunoadsorption and intravenous immunoglobulin in a case of severe Rh alloimmunization during pregnancy unresponsive to plasma - exchange.

Introduction: Despite prophylaxis, a small proportion of RhD-negative women may develop anti-D antibodies after a sensitizing event occurring during pregnancy or delivery of a D-positive baby. Intrauterine transfusion (IUT) is the treatment of choice in case of fetal anemia, but it cannot be performed early during pregnancy. Combined treatment with therapeutic plasma-exchange (TPE) and intravenous immunoglobulin (IVIG) can avoid or delay IUT.

BALB/c mice immunized with a combination of virus-like particles incorporating Kaposi sarcoma-associated herpesvirus (KSHV) envelope glycoproteins gpK8.1, gB, and gH/gL induced comparable serum neutralizing antibody activity to UV-inactivated KSHV.

Infection with Kaposi sarcoma-associated herpesvirus (KSHV) is estimated to account for over 44,000 new cases of Kaposi sarcoma annually, with 84% occurring in Africa, where the virus is endemic. To date, there is no prophylactic vaccine against KSHV. KSHV gpK8.

Treosulfan-Based Conditioning Regimen in Sibling and Alternative Donor Hematopoietic Stem Cell Transplantation for Children with Sickle Cell Disease.

Background And Objectives: Lack of suitable donors and regimen related toxicity are major barriers for hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (HSCT) in patients with sickle cell disease (SCD). The aim of the study is the assessment of efficacy and toxicity of Treosulfan-based conditioning regimen for SCD also when alternative donors such as mismatched unrelated donor and haploidentical donor are employed.

Methods: We report our single-center experience: 11 patients with SCD received HSCT with a Treosulfan/Thiotepa/Fludarabine/Anti-thymoglobulin conditioning regimen between 2010 and 2015.

Novel Epstein-Barr virus-like particles incorporating gH/gL-EBNA1 or gB-LMP2 induce high neutralizing antibody titers and EBV-specific T-cell responses in immunized mice.

Previous Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) prophylactic vaccines based on the major surface glycoprotein gp350/220 as an immunogen have failed to block viral infection in humans, suggesting a need to target other viral envelope glycoproteins. In this study, we reasoned that incorporating gH/gL or gB, critical glycoproteins for viral fusion and entry, on the surface of a virus-like particle (VLP) would be more immunogenic than gp350/220 for generating effective neutralizing antibodies to prevent viral infection of both epithelial and B cell lines. To boost the humoral response and trigger cell-mediated immunity, EBV nuclear antigen 1 (EBNA1) and latent membrane protein 2 (LMP2), intracellular latency proteins expressed in all EBV-infected cells, were also included as critical components of the polyvalent EBV VLP.

Successful treatment of pyoderma gangrenosum with granulocyte and monocyte adsorption apheresis.

Pyoderma gangrenosum is a neutrophilic dermatosis clinically characterised by the presence of painful skin ulcerations with erythematous and undetermined borders and histologically by the presence of neutrophilic infiltrates in the dermis. Granulocyte and monocyte adsorption apheresis, also called granulocytapheresis, is a therapeutic strategy for extracorporeal immunomodulation that selectively removes activated granulocytes and monocytes/macrophages from the peripheral blood. Here, we report a case of a 73-year-old patient affected by a severe form of pyoderma gangrenosum presenting with multiple painful ulcers and pustules on his trunk and extremities.

Diaphragmatic excursion measurement in emergency patients with acute dyspnea: toward a new diagnostic tool?

Introduction: During acute dyspnea (AD), respiratory exhaustion is mainly due to diaphragm fatigue. The primary objective was to validate interobserver reproducibility of diaphragmatic excursion (DE) in emergency department (ED) patients admitted for AD. The secondary objectives were to assess the feasibility of DE measurement and intraobserver reproducibility.