The link between obesity and migraine in childhood: a systematic review.

Obesity and headache are two highly prevalent diseases both in adults and children and they are associated with a strong personal and social impact. Many studies suggest that obesity is comorbid with headache in general, and migraine in particular and obesity seems to be a risk factor for migraine progression and for migraine frequency both in adults and in children. Research shows that there are multiple areas of overlap between migraine pathophysiology and the central and peripheral pathways regulating feeding: inflammatory mediators such as the calcitonin gene-related protein (CGRP), neurotransmitters such as serotonin, peptides such as orexin and adipocytokines such as adiponectin (ADP) and leptin could explain the common pathogenesis.

Classification of nodal stations in gastric cancer.

The lymphatic drainage from the stomach is anatomically elaborate and it is very hard to predict the pattern of lymph node (LN) metastases from gastric cancer (GC). However, there are LN stations metastases that are more frequently observed depending on the tumor location. Furthermore, the incidence of metastasis to various regional LN stations depends on the depth of gastric-wall invasion.

Myelomeningocele Repair: Surgical Management Based on a 30-Year Experience.

Background: Myelomeningocele (MMC) is a rare but severe spinal defect resulting from a failed neurulation process. Surgical repair is a delicate procedure that needs accurate neuroanatomical knowledge and adequate surgical planning.

Materials And Methods: The authors report on the main problems of the surgical management of this type of dysraphism.

European consensus conference on faecal microbiota transplantation in clinical practice.

Faecal microbiota transplantation (FMT) is an important therapeutic option for infection. Promising findings suggest that FMT may play a role also in the management of other disorders associated with the alteration of gut microbiota. Although the health community is assessing FMT with renewed interest and patients are becoming more aware, there are technical and logistical issues in establishing such a non-standardised treatment into the clinical practice with safety and proper governance.

Dedicated mass-casualty incident hospitals: An overview.

Introduction: Hospitals worldwide are preparing for mass casualty incidents (MCIs). The Major Incident Hospital in the Netherlands was constructed 25 years ago as a dedicated hospital for situations wherein a sudden increase in medical surge capacity is mandated to handle an MCI. Over the years, more initiatives of dedicated MCIs have arisen.

Hyperechogenic Bowel: Etiologies, Management, and Outcome according to Gestational Age at Diagnosis in 279 Consecutive Cases in a Single Center.

 The aim of the study was to investigate perinatal outcome of fetuses with hyperechogenic bowel (HB) in relation to gestational age at diagnosis.  This is a retrospective observational study of fetal HB cases from 2002 to 2012. Patients were divided into three groups according to trimester at diagnosis.

Isolated Fetal Ascites, Neonatal Outcome in 51 Cases Observed in a Tertiary Referral Center.

 Prenatal detection of isolated ascites is a rare finding on ultrasound, usually suggestive of an underlying pathology that may negatively impact on the pregnancy and neonatal outcome. The purpose of the present study was to evaluate the outcome of primary isolated ascites in relation to gestational age (GA) at diagnosis.  Data were prospectively collected for fetuses with ascites that have been followed in our center of prenatal diagnosis and therapy from 2004 to 2014.

Endometrial Tuberculosis Simulating an Ovarian Cancer: a case report.

Female genital tuberculosis remains a major health problem in developing countries and is an important cause of infertility. As symptoms, laboratory data and physical findings are non-specific, its diagnosis can be difficult. We describe a case of a 39-year-old woman suffering from peri-umbilical pain and increased abdominal size for one year, anorexia, asthenia, weight loss, occasionally dysuria and dyspareunia, and four months amenorrhea.

Audiological Monitoring in Children Treated with Platinum Chemotherapy.

Platinum compounds constitute the standard treatment for solid tumors in pediatric oncology. The purpose of this study is to assess the impact of platinum compounds in the development of ototoxicity in children following chemotherapy. This study included 160 patients treated with cisplatin and carboplatin for malignant solid diseases from 2007 to 2014.

Association of Lymph Node Status With Survival in Patients After Liver Resection for Hilar Cholangiocarcinoma in an Italian Multicenter Analysis.

Importance: The prognostic value of lymph node (LN) assessment after liver resection for hilar cholangiocarcinoma (HC) is still controversial, and the number of LNs required to be removed to obtain adequate staging is not well defined.

Objectives: To evaluate the LN status in patients after liver resection for HC and to clarify which prognostic factor (the number of positive LNs or the LN ratio [LNR]) was most accurate for staging and what minimum number of retrieved LNs was required for adequate staging.

Design, Setting, And Participants: Retrospective multicenter study of patients who underwent resection for HC between January 1, 1992, and December 31, 2007, at 8 hepatobiliary Italian centers.

European shortage of purified protein derivative and its impact on tuberculosis screening practices.

Setting: In June 2014, we became aware that shortages of purified protein derivative (PPD), the test substance used for the tuberculin skin test (TST), had occurred in several European health care institutions providing care for children with tuberculosis (TB).

Objective: To establish the extent of the shortage, a survey was performed.

Design: Survey conducted over a 1-month period (June-July 2014) among members of the Paediatric Tuberculosis Network European Trials Group (ptbnet).

Calcified cephalohematoma as an unusual cause of EEG anomalies: case report.

Cephalohematoma, one of the most common neonatal head injuries, generally undergoes spontaneous resorption. When calcified, it may cause cranial vault distortion and depression of the inner skull layer, although it remains asymptomatic. Surgery, indeed, is usually performed for cosmetic purposes.

Left ventricular assist device as destination therapy in cardiac end-stage dystrophinopathies: Midterm results.

Objective: We report our experience with the use of a left ventricular assist device (LVAD) as destination therapy (DT) for the management of patients with cardiac end-stage dystrophinopathies.

Methods: From February 2011 to February 2016, 7 patients with dystrophinopathies and dilated cardiomyopathy (DCM) were treated with LVADs at our institution. Median age at surgery was 16.

Preoperative embolization of meningiomas with polyvinyl alcohol particles: The benefits are not outweighed by risks.

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to define the feasibility, the efficacy and the safety of preoperative embolization (POE) of meningiomas using polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) particles.

Materials And Methods: Between January 2006 and June 2014, 191 consecutive patients were referred to our institution for the treatment of meningiomas; of these 57 patients were excluded from the study. A total of 64 patients (22 men and 42 women) with a mean age of 58.

The Child Health Care System in Italy.

Pediatric care in Italy has been based during the last 40 years on the increased awareness of the importance of meeting the psychosocial and developmental needs of children and of the role of families in promoting the health and well-being of their children. The pediatric health care system in Italy is part of the national health system. It is made up of 3 main levels of intervention: first access/primary care, secondary care/hospital care, and tertiary care based on specialty hospital care.

A Novel Nomogram to Predict the Prognosis of Patients Undergoing Liver Resection for Neuroendocrine Liver Metastasis: an Analysis of the Italian Neuroendocrine Liver Metastasis Database.

Even though surgery remains the only potentially curative option for patients with neuroendocrine liver metastases, the factors determining a patient's prognosis following hepatectomy are poorly understood. Using a multicentric database including patients who underwent hepatectomy for NELMs at seven tertiary referral hepato-biliary-pancreatic centers between January 1990 and December 2014, we sought to identify the predictors of survival and develop a clinical tool to predict patient's prognosis after liver resection for NELMs. The median age of the 238 patients included in the study was 61.

Predictors of choice of initial antifungal treatment in intraabdominal candidiasis.

Intraabdominal candidiasis (IAC) is the second most frequent form of invasive candidiasis, and is associated with high mortality rates. This study aims to identify current practices in initial antifungal treatment (IAT) in a real-world scenario and to define the predictors of the choice of echinocandins or azoles in IAC episodes. Secondary analysis was performed of a multinational retrospective cohort at 13 teaching hospitals in four countries (Italy, Greece, Spain and Brazil), over a 3-year period (2011-2013).

Transarterial chemoembolization with degradable starch microspheres (DSM-TACE): an alternative option for advanced HCC patients? Preliminary results.

Objective: To assess safety, feasibility and effectiveness of transarterial chemoembolization with degradable-starch-microspheres (DSM-TACE) in the treatment of patients with advanced hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) dismissing or ineligible for multikinase-inhibitor chemotherapy administration (Sorafenib) due to unbearable side effects or clinical contraindications.

Patients And Methods: Six consecutive advanced HCC patients dismissing Sorafenib because of unbearable side effects or worsened clinical conditions were enrolled in our prospective single-center pilot study. DSM-TACE was performed via a lobar approach, based on extent and distribution of the disease (1 treatment session for every lobe involved, with a 2-week interval in case of bilobar disease).

Arachnoid cyst: a further anomaly associated with Kallmann syndrome?

Background: Kallmann syndrome (KS) is defined by the association of hypogonadotropic hypogonadism and anosmia. It is characterized by a significant clinical and genetic heterogeneity; actually, it may present several non-reproductive non-olfactory anomalies, and all the ways of genetic transmission can be involved in the inheritance of the disease. Although six pathogenesis-related genes have been identified so far, KS remains sporadic in 70 % of the cases, and the genetic diagnosis is not available for all of them.

Postoperative hyperglycemia in nondiabetic patients after gastric surgery for cancer: perioperative outcomes.

Background: Hyperglycemia (HG) is widely known to be associated with increased postoperative complications after colorectal surgery. Very few data on the effects of HG on patients after gastric surgery for cancer are reported in literature. The aim of this study was to evaluate the effects of postoperative HG in non-diabetic patients undergoing gastrectomy for cancer.

Pulmonary fibrolysis in a patient with idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis: improvement of clinical and radiological pattern after treatment with pirfenidone.

Idiopathic Pulmonary Fibrosis (IPF) is a chronic, progressive, fibrosing interstitial pneumonia associated with the histologic and/or radiologic pattern of usual interstitial pneumonia (UIP). Nowadays, the high-resolution computed tomography pattern of "definite UIP" is enough to define a diagnosis of UIP without histological proof. This is pivotal especially in elderly patients with comorbidities.

Curcumin and Fennel Essential Oil Improve Symptoms and Quality of Life in Patients with Irritable Bowel Syndrome.

Background And Aims: Irritable Bowel Syndrome (IBS) patients still require effective treatment. The anti-inflammatory property of curcumin and the antispasmodic and carminative effect of fennel suggests that combination of these nutraceutical compounds would be useful in functional bowel disorders including IBS. We assessed the efficacy and tolerability of a combination of curcumin and fennel essential oil (CU-FEO) in IBS symptoms relief.

Bacillus clausii and gut homeostasis: state of the art and future perspectives.

Introduction: The intestinal barrier is a complex system responsible for the host health. Many gastrointestinal and extra-intestinal diseases are associated to gut barrier disruption. An increasing interest on nutritional supplements and functional foods focused on the hypothesis that specific prebiotics and probiotics may modulate and interact with gut barrier, re-establishing gut homeostasis.

Gastric GISTs: Analysis of c-Kit, PDGFRA and BRAF mutations in relation to prognosis and clinical pathological characteristics of patients - A GIRCG study.

Background: Gastric gastrointestinal stromal tumors (GISTs) represent a subgroup of GISTs with a better prognosis than those located in other areas. In this retrospective study we performed a molecular characterization of a large series of patients with gastric GISTs in relation to clinical-pathological characteristics and prognosis.

Methods: DNA was extracted from paraffin-embedded sections from 221 gastric GIST patients submitted to surgery.