Publications by authors named "Valentina Cristofaro"

Article Synopsis
  • A study was conducted on 54 adult patients with submandibular stones who underwent a robotic surgery called sialendoscopy-assisted TORSS between January 2019 and June 2023 to evaluate its safety and effectiveness.
  • The overall success rate of the procedure was 81.5%, with better outcomes for patients with palpable stones compared to those with non-palpable stones (92.7% vs. 46.2%).
  • Results indicated that stone characteristics such as size and location are important for predicting surgical success, emphasizing the need for careful pre-operative planning to select appropriate candidates for the procedure.
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Background: Radiation therapy (RT) is a mainstay for the treatment of head and neck (HN) cancers, with 80% of patients receiving such treatment. Radiation-induced malignancies represent a life-threatening long-term effect of RT, with an incidence of 0.5% to 15%.

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Objectives: To evaluate the quality of the reports of loco-regional staging computed tomography (CT) or magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) in head and neck (H&N) cancer.

Methods: Consecutive reports of staging CT and MRI of all H&N cancer cases from 2018 to 2020 were collected. We created lists of quality indicators for tumor (T) for each district and for node (N).

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Objective: The most widely used diagnostic technique for severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) infection is real-time reverse transcriptase-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR). It can be done on different samples: nasopharyngeal swabs (NPS) or oropharyngeal swabs (OPS), and self-collected saliva. However, negative findings do not rule out infection.

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Background: Diagnosis of Severe Acute Respiratory Coranavirus-2 (SARS-CoV-2) infection is currently based on real-time PCR (RT-PCR) performed on either nasopharyngeal (NPS) or oropharyngeal (OPS) swabs; saliva specimen collection can be used, too. Diagnostic accuracy of these procedures is suboptimal, and some procedural mistakes may account for it.

Methods And Results: The video shows how to properly collect secretions from the upper airways for nonserologic diagnosis of COVID-19 by nasopharyngeal swab (NPS), oropharyngeal swab (OPS), and deep saliva collection after throat-cleaning maneuver, all performed under videoendoscopic view by a trained ENT examiner.

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Background And Aim: Cerebral ischemia is characterized by both acute and delayed neuronal injuries. Neuro-protection is a major issue that should be properly addressed from a pharmacological point of view, and cell-based treatment approaches are of interest due to their potential pleiotropic effects. Endothelial progenitor cells have the advantage of being mobilized from the bone marrow into the circulation, but have been less studied than other stem cells, such as mesenchymal stem cells.

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