Quality indicators for appropriate antibiotic prescribing in urinary tract infections in children.

Background: The aim of this study was to define a set of urinary tract infections (UTIs)-specific quality indicators for appropriate prescribing in children and evaluate clinical practices in a district general hospital in Greece.

Methods: The UTIs-specific quality indicators were informed by a review of the existing literature. Quality indicators were selected to describe the overall antibiotics use, prescribing patterns and UTIs clinical management regarding treatment and prophylaxis in a cohort of children admitted with a UTI.

Novel and Founder Pathogenic Variants in X-Linked Alport Syndrome Families in Greece.

Alport syndrome (AS) is the most frequent monogenic inherited glomerulopathy and is also genetically and clinically heterogeneous. It is caused by semi-dominant pathogenic variants in the X-linked (NM_000495.5) gene or recessive variants in the / (NM_000091.

Effect of General Anesthesia Maintenance with Propofol or Sevoflurane on Fractional Exhaled Nitric Oxide and Eosinophil Blood Count: A Prospective, Single Blind, Randomized, Clinical Study on Patients Undergoing Thyroidectomy.

Nitric oxide (NO) is considered a means of detecting airway hyperresponsiveness, since even non-asthmatic patients experiencing bronchospasm intraoperatively or postoperatively display higher levels of exhaled NO. It can also be used as a non-invasive biomarker of lung inflammation and injury. This prospective, single-blind, randomized study aimed to evaluate the impact of two different anesthesia maintenance techniques on fractional exhaled nitric oxide (FeΝO) in patients without respiratory disease undergoing total thyroidectomy under general anesthesia.

Prevalence and control of hypertension among patients on haemodialysis.

Background: Earlier studies provided considerably variable estimates on the prevalence and control rates of hypertension in haemodialysis because of their heterogeneity in definitions and blood pressure (BP) measurement techniques applied to detect hypertension.

Materials And Methods: In this cross-sectional study, 116 clinically stable haemodialysis patients from 3 dialysis centres of Northern Greece underwent home BP monitoring for 1 week with the validated automatic device HEM-705 (Omron, Healthcare). Routine BP recordings taken before and after dialysis over 6 consecutive sessions were also prospectively collected and averaged.

Reversed connection of cuffed, tunneled, dual-lumen catheters with increased blood flow rate maintains the adequacy of delivered dialysis despite the higher access recirculation.

Purpose: Reversing the connection mode of permanent dual-lumen dialysis catheters results in higher access recirculation that may compromise the dialysis adequacy. The purpose of this study is to investigate the effect of reversed-connected dialysis with a higher versus a standard blood flow rate (Qb) on adequacy parameters and access recirculation.

Materials And Methods: In a cross-over design, 46 prevalent dialysis patients with a properly functioning cuffed, tunneled, dual-lumen catheter were evaluated in three consecutive mid-week dialysis sessions.

Antibiotic treatment and antimicrobial resistance in children with urinary tract infections.

Objectives: The aim of this study was to describe antibiotic prescribing patterns and antimicrobial resistance rates in hospitalised children with febrile and afebrile urinary tract infections (UTIs).

Methods: Antibiotic prescriptions and antibiograms for neonates, infants and older children with UTI admitted to a general district hospital in Central Greece were evaluated. Data covering a 5-year period were collected retrospectively from the Paediatric Department's Electronic Clinical Archive.

The role of exhaled nitric oxide in patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease undergoing laparotomy surgery - The noxious study.

Background: Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD) has been associated with major perioperative morbidities or mortalities, especially in surgical patients receiving general anesthesia. The severity of the COPD and the degree of bronchial hyperreactivity can determine the perioperative anesthetic risk; therefore they have to be assessed by a thorough preoperative evaluation in order to give the rationale on which to decide for optimum anesthetic management.

Objective: Aim of the study was to assess the predictive applicability of exhaled Nitric Oxide (NO) in smoking surgical population with COPD, on the basis of morbidity and mortality.

Computer-assisted evaluation of Mandibular Cortical Width (MCW) index as an indicator of osteoporosis.

Background: To assess the diagnostic accuracy of mandibular cortical width (MCW) as an indicator of the presence of osteoporosis.

Materials And Methods: The study included 343 women between 45-75 years of age. After informed consent, all subjects underwent dual energy X-ray absorptiometry (DXA) of the hip and the lumbar spine (L1 to L4) in order to establish a gold standard diagnosis of osteoporosis and an orthopantomogram (OPG).

Hemangiopericytoma of the neck.

Hemangiopericytoma (HPC) is an exceedingly rare tumor of uncertain malignant potential. Approximately 300 cases of HPC have been reported since Stout and Murray described HPCs as "vascular tumors arising from Zimmerman's pericytes" in 1942. After further characterization, the WHO reclassified HPC as a fibroblastic/myofibroblastic tumor.

Epidermoid cyst of the floor of the mouth: two case reports.

Introduction: Epidermoid cysts that appear in the midline floor of the mouth are, usually, a result of entrapped ectodermal tissue of the first and second branchial arches, which fuse during the third and fourth weeks in utero. The incidence in the floor of the mouth of the oral cavity is rare and development sites are the sublingual, submaxillary and submandibular spaces. It was present two cases of epidermoid cyst of the floor of the mouth and discussed the different surgical approaches for this lesion.