Diagnostic and Predictive immunocytochemistry in Head Neck lesions.

The application of immunocytochemistry (ICC), as a diagnostic and predictive tool in the workup of head and neck lesions has followed the changes and progresses in the surgical pathology evaluation. The contribution of ICC has shown a significant role in the head and neck cytology, demonstrating as its contribution can support the diagnosis in many lesions. Furthermore, its role has been evolving as an important asjuvant tool in targeted therapies.

Some uncommon cystic lesions in the anterior head and neck region: Pitfalls to be avoided on cytology.

Cystic lesions of the anterior head and neck region are a challenging and frequent finding on cytological smears. The scant amount of cellular material in cystic slides poses the greatest difficulty to interpretation, so that frequently they are diagnosed as inadequate or with minimal cellular component. Despite the majority of cystic lesions being benign, a minor portion consist of malignant cystic entities.

Diagnostic role of FNA cytology in the evaluation of cervical lymph nodes in thyroid cancers: Combined evaluation of thyroglobulin in eluate from FNA cytology.

Background: The presurgical evaluation of cervical lymph nodes (CLNs) in the management of thyroid malignant lesions is crucial for the extent of surgery or detection of metastases. In these last decades, fine-needle aspiration cytology (FNAC) has been shown to have a central role in the detection of nodal thyroid metastases. It is adopted for the possibility of confirming suspected metastases either in the presurgical phase or in the follow-up of patients after thyroidectomy.

Updates from Our Institutional Experience with Thyroid Nodules Diagnosed as Metastases.

Background: Thyroid metastases (TMs) are a rare entity, ranging between 0 and 24% in the autopsy series. In the assessment of the best management, the discrimination between a primary and a metastatic thyroid lesion is crucial. In this regard, fine needle aspiration cytology (FNAC) is likely to play a crucial role especially when ancillary techniques (i.

Primary Mucinous Cystadenocarcinoma of the Breast Intermixed with Pleomorphic Invasive Lobular Carcinoma: The First Report of This Rare Association.

Primary mucinous cystadenocarcinoma (MCA) is a rare breast carcinoma subtype showing overlapping histopathological features with mucinous cystadenocarcinoma of the ovary and pancreas. Current literature data suggest a favorable prognosis of breast MCAs despite its immunoprofile usually revealing lack of expression of estrogen receptor, progesterone receptor and HER-2 and high Ki67. As far as we know, only 36 cases have been reported in the literature to date.

Incidence of second primary malignancies in relapsed/refractory B-cell non-Hodgkin's lymphoma patients in England.

Background: Treatments for relapsed/refractory (r/r) B-cell non-Hodgkin's lymphoma (NHL) may be associated with an increased risk of second primary malignancies (SPMs). Currently available SPM incidence benchmarks are unreliable due to small sample sizes.

Methods: The Cancer Analysis System (CAS), a population-level cancer database in England, was used to identify patients with incident B-cell NHL diagnosed during 2013-2018 with evidence of r/r disease.

Need for aligning the definition and reporting of cytokine release syndrome (CRS) in immuno-oncology clinical trials.

As cancer immunotherapies continue to expand across all areas of oncology, it is imperative to establish a standardized approach for defining and capturing clinically important toxicities, such as cytokine release syndrome (CRS). In this paper, we provide considerations for categorizing the variety of adverse events that may accompany CRS and for recognizing that presentations of CRS may differ among various immunotherapies (e.g.

Evaluation of sixty-eight cases of fracture stabilisation by external hybrid fixation and a proposal for hybrid construct classification.

Background: Hybrid external fixation (HEF) is an emerging technique for fracture stabilization in veterinary orthopedics, but its use has been reported in few papers in the veterinary literature. The linear and circular elements that form hybrid fixators can be connected in a very high number of combinations, and for this reason just referring to HEF without any classification is often misleading about the actual frame structure. The aim of this study was to retrospectively evaluate fracture stabilization by HEF in 58 client-owned dogs and 8 cats, and to extend the already existing classification for hybrid constructs to include all frame configurations used in this study and potentially applicable in clinical settings.

Postmarketing hepatic adverse event experience with PEGylated/non-PEGylated drugs: a disproportionality analysis.

Objective: To compare reporting frequencies of hepatic adverse events between PEGylated and non-PEGylated formulations of active medicinal compounds in spontaneous reporting systems using a data mining algorithm (DMA).

Methods: Statistical DMAs are being promoted as a means of identifying drug-event combinations that are disproportionately reported in large spontaneous reporting systems databases, a critical data source for pharmacovigilance. After a review of case reports of hepatotoxicity with PEGylated drugs possibly associated with the polyethylene glycol moiety, we carried out a retrospective disproportionality analysis of WHO's multinational drug safety database for events related to hepatic dysfunction comparing PEGylated versus non-PEGylated formulations of four active moieties.

Patterns of respiratory drug use in the Lombardy region of Italy, 1995-1997.

Objective: To examine the patterns of respiratory drugs use in the Lombardy region of Italy, and to quantify the period prevalence of different drug-dose combinations defined by reference to international guidelines for prescription in asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease.

Design: Analysis of records from an anonymised population-based database of dispensed prescriptions.

Setting: Lombardy, 1995-1997.

Identification of a universal Group B streptococcus vaccine by multiple genome screen.

Group B Streptococcus (GBS) is a multiserotype bacterial pathogen representing a major cause of life-threatening infections in newborns. To develop a broadly protective vaccine, we analyzed the genome sequences of eight GBS isolates and cloned and tested 312 surface proteins as vaccines. Four proteins elicited protection in mice, and their combination proved highly protective against a large panel of strains, including all circulating serotypes.

Air pollution and respiratory drug use in the city of Como, Italy.

Unlabelled: STUDY OBJECTIVE AND SETTING: Particulate air pollution has a known negative effect on human respiratory health, often studied with hospital admissions, emergency room access, or mortality as health indicators. We evaluate respiratory drug dispensing data as health indicators for the effects of total suspended particles (TSP) air pollution in the city of Como (84,713 inhabitants).

Design: Weekly count of individual patients with respiratory drug dispensed (Cases) and weekly dispensed daily defined doses (DDD) of drugs were modelled with weekly air mean concentrations of TSP using a Poisson regression model adjusted for long-term trends, seasonal variations, calendar variations due to holidays, and weather.

The role of drug use data in public health research.

The growing importance of drug consumption automated databases in public health research is summarised in this research. Dispensed drugs data, and drug consumption data more in general, are a relatively new source of information for health research. This analysis takes into consideration the known uses of drug consumption data in various fields of health related research.

Methodological issues in using drugs data in epidemiology.

Using drugs data in epidemiological studies is becoming fashionable with the large databases available today. We describe the philosophical basis and the main methodological issues. The process leading a patient affected by a disease to be treated with an appropriate drug appears to be complex, and influenced by external and internal many factors, described here.

Aetiology and prognosis of bacteraemia in Italy.

A prospective multi-centre study was conducted to assess the microbiological pattern and prognostic factors of bacteraemia and their impact on clinical outcome. All patients admitted to 41 Italian hospitals over 2 months, from whom one or more clinically significant organisms were isolated from blood culture, were studied according to a standardized protocol and case definition. A total of 156 episodes of bacteraemia were identified in 20,601 patients.

Hospital Accident and Emergency burden is unaffected by today's air pollution levels.

Objectives: Fifty years after the London smog incident, the Milan area (Italy) is still experiencing an air pollution emergency every winter, widely reported in the public media, complete with technical and political discussion, and well-studied short-term associations between air pollution and mortality and hospital admissions. The influence of air pollution on the daily activity of an Accident and Emergency Department have rarely been investigated, other than looking at hospital admissions.

Methods: To assess the possible effects of high air pollution levels we studied 9881 residents requiring care at the hospital Accident and Emergency triage of Vimercate, a city north of Milan with 25 600 inhabitants during one year.

Three scenarios of clinical claim reimbursement for nosocomial infection: the good, the bad, and the ugly.

We studied the extent to which hospitals can expect to receive reimbursement for costs relating to nosocomial infections (NI) under the diagnosis-related groups (DRG) system of clinical claims and calculated the loss of reimbursement due to missed or incorrect registration of infective complications on hospital discharge records (HDR). We calculated clinical claim reimbursement in three scenarios: the good, in which all NI are recorded on HDR; the bad, in which a proportion of NI recorded on HDR observed at the 41 participating hospitals; the ugly, in which none of the NI are recorded on HDR. We analysed in which patients the recording of infective complications changed the DRG clinical claim and the economic consequences on reimbursements.

Prevalence and patterns of antibiotic prescribing in Italian hospitals.

Use of antimicrobial drugs is associated with the emergence of resistant bacteria, increasing hospital expenditures and requires an assessment of appropriateness. The aim of this study was to investigate prevalence and patterns of antibiotic prescribing and expenditures in Italian hospitals. A prevalence survey was performed in 15 Italian hospitals.

[Antiasthmatic drug consumption as an indicator of the prevalence of respiratory pathology in a pediatric population].

The study of disease prevalence requires specific and sensitive indicators, which are hardly gathered at population level. The use of anti-asthma drugs, which are relatively specific for diseases characterised by bronchospasms, has been already experimented in the USA with algorithms describing patients affected by asthmatic disease by their use of drugs. We retrospectively analyse spatial variations of drug use as dispensed by the SSN (National Health Service) to Lombardy children less than 15 years old, between 1st January 1995 and 31st December 1997, estimating prevalence of use as a proxy of disease prevalence.

Age, a predictive factor for the reduction in the mean transmitral pressure gradient after percutaneous balloon mitral valvotomy.

Background: The aim of this study was to evaluate the changes in mitral valve area and mean transmitral pressure gradient before and after percutaneous balloon mitral valvotomy and at 2 years of follow-up. We hypothesized that the patient's age would be an important determinant for the success of balloon valvotomy.

Methods: We studied 24 patients with mitral stenosis (6 men and 18 women with an average age of 58 years, range 39 to 80 years), who underwent percutaneous balloon mitral valvotomy.