Sporadic hereditary neuropathies misdiagnosed as chronic inflammatory demyelinating polyradiculoneuropathy: Pitfalls and red flags.

Hereditary neuropathies may be misdiagnosed with chronic inflammatory demyelinating polyradiculoneuropathy (CIDP). A correct diagnosis is crucial for avoiding unnecessary therapies and access genetic counseling. We report on nine patients (seven men, mean age 49.

Anemia and Iron Deficiency in Cancer Patients: Role of Iron Replacement Therapy.

Anemia in cancer patients is quite common, with remarkable negative impacts on quality of life and overall prognosis. The pathogenesis is complex and typically multifactorial, with iron deficiency (ID) often being a major and potentially treatable contributor. In turn, ID in cancer patients can be due to multiple concurring mechanisms, including bleeding (e.

Pediatric extraspinal sacrococcygeal ependymoma (ESE): an Italian AIEOP experience of six cases and literature review.

Background: Primary pediatric extraspinal sacrococcygeal ependymoma (ESE) is a very rare disease, poorly described in literature, whose diagnostic, therapeutic, and follow-up approach is still controversial.

Methods: We describe six cases of pediatric ESE treated at Associazione Italiana Ematologia Oncologia Pediatrica (AIEOP) centers in Italy since 1983, with a review of the literature.

Results: All six patients had primary sacrococcygeal disease (two presacral and four subcutaneous) with median age of 10 years.

Protective environment for hematopoietic cell transplant (HSCT) recipients: The Infectious Diseases Working Party EBMT analysis of global recommendations on health-care facilities.

International guidelines on protective environment for HSCT recipients proposed a set of 10 global recommendations in 2009 on protective environment (GRPE) concerning hospital room design and ventilation. The EBMT Infectious Diseases Working Party undertook a survey on the status on protective environment for HSCT recipients with the aim of surveying current practices and their agreement with GRPE recommendations. The questionnaire consisted of 37 questions divided into 5 sections about filtration, air changes, maintenance, and the protective environment in rooms and the surrounding unit.

Resistance to EGFR inhibitors in non-small cell lung cancer: Clinical management and future perspectives.

In the last few years, the development of targeted therapies for non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) expressing oncogenic driver mutations (e.g. EGFR) has changed the clinical management and the survival outcomes of this specific minority of patients.

Identification and assessment of frailty in older patients with chronic myeloid leukemia and myelofibrosis, and indications for tyrosine kinase inhibitor treatment.

The incidence of cancer, including myeloproliferative neoplasms (MPNs), is projected to increase significantly due to the growing proportion of people aged > 65 years. These older individuals are a heterogeneous population in terms of fitness, comorbidity, and psychological reserve. Therefore, age per se does not always provide an accurate indication of condition in patients with cancer.

Activity and Safety of Cetuximab Plus Modified FOLFOXIRI Followed by Maintenance With Cetuximab or Bevacizumab for RAS and BRAF Wild-type Metastatic Colorectal Cancer: A Randomized Phase 2 Clinical Trial.

Importance: The combination of a triple-drug chemotherapy regimen with an anti-epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) agent as a first-line treatment of metastatic colorectal cancer (mCRC) showed promising activity along with safety concerns in single-arm phase 2 trials. The role of maintenance following chemotherapy and anti-EGFR and the optimal regimen to be adopted are not established.

Objectives: To evaluate the activity and safety of cetuximab plus modified FOLFOXIRI (mFOLFOXIRI) and explore the role of maintenance with cetuximab or bevacizumab in RAS and BRAF wild-type mCRC.

The most appropriate therapeutic strategy for acute lower respiratory tract infections: a Delphi-based approach.

Lower respiratory tract infections (LRTIs) cause high morbidity and mortality worldwide. Empiric therapy often base the choice of antibiotic treatment on antibacterial spectrum of the agent rather than on its pharmacological properties or the pathogen resistance profile. Inappropriate prescribing leads to therapeutic failure and antibiotic resistance, with increasing direct and indirect health costs.

Tp53 and its potential therapeutic role as a target in bladder cancer.

Despite more than 30 years of research on p53 resulting in >50,000 publications, we are now beginning to figure out the complexity of the p53 pathway, gene ontology and conformational structure of the molecule. Recent years brought great advances in p53 related drugs and the potencial ways in which p53 is inactivated in cancer. Areas covered: We searched for related publications on Pubmed and ClinicalTrial.

Progressive disability and prefrontal shrinkage in schizophrenia patients with poor outcome: A 3-year longitudinal study.

Introduction: Schizophrenia is a severe disabling disorder with heterogeneous illness courses. In this longitudinal study we characterized schizophrenia patients with poor and good outcome (POS, GOS), using functional and imaging metrics. Patients were defined in accordance to Keefe's criteria (i.

MEDical wards Invasive Candidiasis ALgorithms (MEDICAL):Consensus proposal for management.

Introduction: A majority of invasive Candida infections occur in medical wards; however, evidence for management in this setting is scarce and based primarily on the intensive care or surgical setting. On behalf of the Italian Society for Anti-Infective Therapy (SITA) and the Italian Federation of Associations of Hospital Doctors on Internal Medicine (FADOI), the MEDICAL group produced practical management algorithms for patients in internal medicine wards.

Methods: The MEDICAL group panel, composed of 30 members from internal medicine, infectious disease, clinical pharmacology, clinical microbiology and clinical epidemiology, provided expert opinion through the RAND/UCLA method.

Bilateral internal carotid artery dissection associated with prior syphilis: a case report and review of the literature.

Bilateral internal carotid artery dissection is a rare entity, and its presentation may include cerebral ischemia. We describe the case of a 69-year-old man with ischemic stroke and radiological evidence of intimal flap of both internal carotid arteries suggestive for dissection. During the hospitalization, our patient was found positive for a previous syphilis infection.

Current and future trends in antibiotic therapy of acute bacterial skin and skin-structure infections.

In 2013 the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) issued recommendations and guidance on developing drugs for treatment of skin infection using a new definition of acute bacterial skin and skin-structure infection (ABSSSI). The new classification includes cellulitis, erysipelas, major skin abscesses and wound infection with a considerable extension of skin involvement, clearly referring to a severe subset of skin infections. The main goal of the FDA was to better identify specific infections where the advantages of a new antibiotic could be precisely estimated through quantifiable parameters, such as improvement of the lesion size and of systemic signs of infection.

A comprehensive approach to the prevention of central venous catheter complications: results of 10-year prospective surveillance in pediatric hematology-oncology patients.

We report our decennial experience with 1161 newly-placed long-term central venous catheters inserted in 919 hematology-oncology patients for a total of 413,901 CVC-days of observation. Most of the CVCs were partially-implanted, open-ended, Broviac-Hickman type of CVC (95 %). One thousand and twenty-four complications were recorded equal to 2.

Classification of first-episode psychosis in a large cohort of patients using support vector machine and multiple kernel learning techniques.

First episode psychosis (FEP) patients are of particular interest for neuroimaging investigations because of the absence of confounding effects due to medications and chronicity. Nonetheless, imaging data are prone to heterogeneity because for example of age, gender or parameter setting differences. With this work, we wanted to take into account possible nuisance effects of age and gender differences across dataset, not correcting the data as a pre-processing step, but including the effect of nuisance covariates in the classification phase.

Vasculitis as an adverse event following immunization - Systematic literature review.

Background: Several types of vasculitis have been observed and reported in temporal association with the administration of various vaccines. A systematic review of current evidence is lacking.

Objective: This systematic literature review aimed to assess available evidence and current reporting practice of vasculitides as adverse events following immunization (AEFI).

Disseminated Mycobacterium avium complex disease in a patient with left ventricular assist device (Heart Mate II).

Although disseminated Mycobacterium avium complex disease occurs mainly in immunocompromised hosts, especially HIV-infected patients in the last stage of the disease (AIDS), this condition is still rare in immunocompetent subjects. We report the case of a Caucasian man who received a left ventricular assist device two years before as a bridge to heart transplantation, that began to present signs and symptoms of mycobacterial infection. The diagnostic work-up we performed showed the presence of Mycobacterium intracellulare in lungs and both peripherical and bone marrow blood.

Feasibility and Effectiveness of a Multi-Element Psychosocial Intervention for First-Episode Psychosis: Results From the Cluster-Randomized Controlled GET UP PIANO Trial in a Catchment Area of 10 Million Inhabitants.

Integrated multi-element psychosocial interventions have been suggested to improve the outcomes of first-episode psychosis (FEP) patients, but they have been studied primarily in experimental settings and in nonepidemiologically representative samples. Thus, we performed a cluster-randomized controlled trial, comparing an integrated multi-element psychosocial intervention, comprising cognitive behavioral therapy, family intervention, and case management, with treatment as usual (TAU) for FEP patients in 117 community mental health centers (CMHCs) in a large area of northern Italy (10 million inhabitants). The randomized units (clusters) were the CMHCs, and the units of observation the patients (and, when available, their family members).

[Thalamo-mesencephalic aspergillus abscess in a heart transplant subject: a case report and literature review].

Cerebral aspergillosis is a rare and highly fatal infection that mainly affects immunocompromised patients. We report on a case of a heart transplanted Caucasian man, who arrived at our hospital because of the onset of diplopy. We performed a broad diagnostic work-up: the brain MRI showed a single ring-enhancing thalamo-mesencephalic area suggestive of abscess lesion; cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) analysis disclosed galactomannan and beta-D-glucan antigens.

A test for Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease using nasal brushings.

Background: Definite diagnosis of sporadic Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease in living patients remains a challenge. A test that detects the specific marker for Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease, the prion protein (PrP(CJD)), by means of real-time quaking-induced conversion (RT-QuIC) testing of cerebrospinal fluid has a sensitivity of 80 to 90% for the diagnosis of sporadic Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease. We have assessed the accuracy of RT-QuIC analysis of nasal brushings from olfactory epithelium in diagnosing sporadic Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease in living patients.