Halo Vest Immobilization: Is It Still a Valid Treatment for Atlantoaxial Fractures?

Background: Atlantoaxial injuries pose a significant threat to morbidity and mortality. This retrospective study aims to analyze clinical and radiologic results, failure rates, and complications in a series of patients treated with a halo vest, validating the effectiveness of this device through long-term follow-up.

Methods: This study reviewed adult patients with acute upper cervical spine injuries treated with halo vest immobilization from 1994 to 2022.

An Italian Disease-Based Registry of Axial and Peripheral Spondyloarthritis: The SIRENA Study.

Data about the clinical presentation and management of early and mild spondyloarthritis (SpA) are limited. The objective of this study was to describe the baseline characteristics of disease-modifying antirheumatic drug (DMARD)-naïve patients with axial or peripheral SpA. The Spondyloarthritis Italian Registry: Evidence from a National Pathway (SIRENA) study is an ongoing, Italian, multicenter, prospective registry of patients with a first or newly confirmed diagnosis of SpA according to the Assessment of SpondyloArthritis International Society (ASAS) criteria.

Intensive care unit discharge: mind the gap!

Mortality after intensive care discharge is a hot topic in critical care medicine. Many factors probably play a role: patient's comorbidities and severity of the disease may have great impact on mortality. However it should be taken into account also the level of care that characterizes the ward in which the patient is discharged to.

Salivary Gland Ultrasonography in Sjögren's Syndrome: A European Multicenter Reliability Exercise for the HarmonicSS Project.

Salivary gland ultrasonography (SGUS) is increasingly applied for the management of primary Sjögren's syndrome (pSS). This study aims to: (i) compare the reliability between two SGUS scores; (ii) test the reliability among sonographers with different levels of experience. In the reliability exercise, two four-grade semi-quantitative SGUS scoring systems, namely De Vita et al.

SUGAMMADEX versus neostigmine after ROCURONIUM continuous infusion in patients undergoing liver transplantation.

Background: Rapid neuromuscular block reversal at the end of major abdominal surgery is recommended to avoid any postoperative residual block. To date, no study has evaluated sugammadex performance after rocuronium administration in patients undergoing liver transplantation. This is a randomized controlled trial with the primary objective of assessing the neuromuscular transmission recovery time obtained with sugammadex versus neostigmine after rocuronium induced neuromuscular blockade in patients undergoing orthotopic liver transplantation.

Effectiveness of Adalimumab for the Treatment of Psoriatic Arthritis: An Italian Real-Life Retrospective Study.

Few studies have evaluated the effectiveness of adalimumab in the real-life setting in psoriatic arthritis (PsA). To evaluate the 2-year retention rate of adalimumab in PsA patients. Potential baseline parameters influencing persistence on treatment were also evaluated.

Optimizing the Safety Profile of Everolimus by Delayed Initiation in De Novo Heart Transplant Recipients: Results of the Prospective Randomized Study EVERHEART.

Background: Although everolimus potentially improves long-term heart transplantation (HTx) outcomes, its early postoperative safety profile had raised concerns and needs optimization.

Methods: This 6-month, open-label, multicenter randomized trial was designed to compare the cumulative incidence of a primary composite safety endpoint comprising wound healing delays, pericardial effusion, pleural effusion needing drainage, and renal insufficiency events (estimated glomerular filtration rate ≤30/mL/min per 1.73 m) in de novo HTx recipients receiving immediate everolimus (EVR-I) (≤144 hours post-HTx) or delayed everolimus (EVR-D) (4-6 weeks post-HTx with mycophenolate mofetil as a bridge) with reduced-dose cyclosporine A.

RESULTS FROM A NEW METHOD TO ASSESS THE OCCUPATIONAL LENS DOSE IN INTERVENTIONAL RADIOLOGY.

Interventional radiology procedures have always been of particular concern because of the potential high dose to the workers. Special attention has recently been given to the lens dose: in 2011 the ICRP issued the recommendation 'Statement on Tissue Reactions' where a new limit of 20 mSv in a year, averaged over defined periods of 5 years, is given. Due to the impossibility of measuring the dose directly on the eye, there is not still a general consensus on a standardized methodology to assess the lens dose, which should be at the same time reliable, robust and simple to implement in practice.

Measurement of the weighted peak level for occupational exposure to gradient magnetic fields for 1.5 and 3 Tesla MRI body scanners.

The purpose of this work is to give a contribution to the construction of a comprehensive knowledge of the exposure levels to gradient magnetic fields (GMF) in terms of the weighed peak (WP), especially for 3 Tesla scanners for which there are still few works available in the literature. A new generation probe for the measurement of electromagnetic fields in the range of 1 Hz-400 kHz was used to assess the occupational exposure levels to the GMF for 1.5 and 3.