The p-ERG spatial acuity in the biomedical pig under physiological conditions.

Pigs are becoming an important pre-clinical animal species for translational ophthalmology, due to similarities with humans in anatomical and physiological patterns. Different models of eye disorders have been proposed, and they are good candidates to assess biocompatibility/functionality of retinal prostheses. Electroretinography is a common tool allowing to gain information on retinal function, with several types of electroretinogram (ERG) been implemented including full field (ff-ERG), multifocal (mf-ERG) and pattern (p-ERG).

The diagnosis of human and companion animal Strongyloides stercoralis infection: Challenges and solutions. A scoping review.

Strongyloidiasis is the infection caused by soil-transmitted nematodes of Strongyloides species, infecting humans and some animals. Strongyloides stercoralis is the species with most clinical and epidemiological relevance in humans and dogs, due to its high prevalence and its capacity of inducing a life-threatening hyperinfection. Diagnosis of strongyloidiasis is challenging, due to the absence of a single reference standard test with high sensitivity and specificity, which also hampers the estimation of the accuracy of other diagnostic tests.

STArS (STrain-Amplicon-Seq), a targeted nanopore sequencing workflow for SARS-CoV-2 diagnostics and genotyping.

Diagnostic tests based on reverse transcription-quantitative polymerase chain reaction (RT-qPCR) are the gold standard approach to detect severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) infection from clinical specimens. However, unless specifically optimized, this method is usually unable to recognize the specific viral strain responsible of coronavirus disease 2019, a crucial information that is proving increasingly important in relation to virus spread and treatment effectiveness. Even if some RT-qPCR commercial assays are currently being developed for the detection of viral strains, they focus only on single/few genetic variants that may not be sufficient to uniquely identify a specific strain.

Cyclic vomiting syndrome in children: a nationwide survey of current practice on behalf of the Italian Society of Pediatric Gastroenterology, Hepatology and Nutrition (SIGENP) and Italian Society of Pediatric Neurology (SINP).

Background: Cyclic Vomiting Syndrome (CVS) is a rare functional gastrointestinal disorder, which has a considerable burden on quality of life of both children and their family. Aim of the study was to evaluate the diagnostic modalities and therapeutic approach to CVS among Italian tertiary care centers and the differences according to subspecialties, as well as to explore whether potential predictive factors associated with either a poor outcome or a response to a specific treatment.

Methods: Cross-sectional multicenter web-based survey involving members of the Italian Society of Pediatric Gastroenterology, Hepatology and Nutrition (SIGENP) and Italian Society of Pediatric Neurology (SINP).

Circulating microRNA signatures associated with disease severity and outcome in COVID-19 patients.

Background: SARS-CoV-2 induces a spectrum of clinical conditions ranging from asymptomatic infection to life threatening severe disease. Host microRNAs have been involved in the cytokine storm driven by SARS-CoV-2 infection and proposed as candidate biomarkers for COVID-19.

Methods: To discover signatures of circulating miRNAs associated with COVID-19, disease severity and mortality, small RNA-sequencing was performed on serum samples collected from 89 COVID-19 patients (34 severe, 29 moderate, 26 mild) at hospital admission and from 45 healthy controls (HC).

ELISA Test Based on the Phenolic Glycolipid-I (PGL-I) of : A Reality of a Laboratory from a Non-Endemic Country.

Background: Leprosy is a neglected tropical disease caused by , leading to disabilities if untreated. The ELISA based on phenolic glycolipid I (PGL-I), or its synthetic version ND-O-BSA, is almost universally positive in multibacillary leprosy and thus extensively used in endemic countries. Household contacts with a positive antibody titer have ~6-fold higher probability to develop the disease than those with a negative titer.

Serotypes in Italian and Foreign Populations: A Cross-Sectional Study Using a Homemade ELISA Test.

is a protozoan parasite responsible for human toxoplasmosis. The three major clonal lineages and different recombinant strains of have a varied global distribution. This study aimed at evaluating the epidemiological distribution of types II and I-III and recombinant or mixed in Italians and foreigners residing in Italy, establishing an association between serotypes and demographic characteristics.

Incident Atrial Fibrillation and In-Hospital Mortality in SARS-CoV-2 Patients.

(1) Background: Among the different cardiovascular (CV) manifestations of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), arrhythmia and atrial fibrillation (AF) in particular have recently received special attention. The aims of our study were to estimate the incidence of AF in patients hospitalized for COVID-19, and to evaluate its role as a possible predictor of in-hospital all-cause mortality. (2) Methods: We enrolled 3435 people with SARS-CoV2 infection admitted to three hospitals in Northern Italy from February 2020 to May 2021.

Negative prognostic impact of electrolyte disorders in patients hospitalized for Covid-19 in a large multicenter study.

Background: The prognostic impact of electrolyte disorders in hospitalized COVID-19 patients is unclear.

Methods: The study included all adult patients hospitalized for COVID-19 in four hospitals in Northern Italy between January 2020 and May 2021 with at least one serum potassium and sodium measurement performed within 3 days since admission. Primary outcome was in-hospital death; secondary outcome was Intensive Care Unit (ICU) admission.

Impact of High-Grade Patterns in Early-Stage Lung Adenocarcinoma: A Multicentric Analysis.

Objective: The presence of micropapillary and solid adenocarcinoma patterns leads to a worse survival and a significantly higher tendency to recur. This study aims to assess the impact of pT descriptor combined with the presence of high-grade components on long-term outcomes in early-stage lung adenocarcinomas.

Methods: We retrospectively collected data of consecutive resected pT1-T3N0 lung adenocarcinoma from nine European Thoracic Centers.

Spectral decomposition of cerebrovascular and cardiovascular interactions in patients prone to postural syncope and healthy controls.

We present a framework for the linear parametric analysis of pairwise interactions in bivariate time series in the time and frequency domains, which allows the evaluation of total, causal and instantaneous interactions and connects time- and frequency-domain measures. The framework is applied to physiological time series to investigate the cerebrovascular regulation from the variability of mean cerebral blood flow velocity (CBFV) and mean arterial pressure (MAP), and the cardiovascular regulation from the variability of heart period (HP) and systolic arterial pressure (SAP). We analyze time series acquired at rest and during the early and late phase of head-up tilt in subjects developing orthostatic syncope in response to prolonged postural stress, and in healthy controls.

Current pharmacotherapeutic strategies for Strongyloidiasis and the complications in its treatment.

Introduction: Strongyloidiasis, an infection caused by the soil-transmitted helminth , can lead immunocompromised people to a life-threatening syndrome. We highlight here current and emerging pharmacotherapeutic strategies for strongyloidiasis and discuss treatment protocols according to patient cohort. We searched PubMed and Embase for papers published on this topic between 1990 and May 2022.

Urinary extracellular vesicle mRNA analysis of sodium chloride cotransporter in hypertensive patients under different conditions.

Urinary extracellular vesicles (UEV) mainly derive from cells of the urogenital tract and their cargo (proteins, nucleic acids, lipids, etc.) reflects their cells of origin. Na chloride cotransporter (NCC) is expressed at the kidney level in the distal convoluted tubule, is involved in salt reabsorption, and is the target of the diuretic thiazides.

The immune response as a double-edged sword: The lesson learnt during the COVID-19 pandemic.

The COVID-19 pandemic has represented an unprecedented challenge for the humanity, and scientists around the world provided a huge effort to elucidate critical aspects in the fight against the pathogen, useful in designing public health strategies, vaccines and therapeutic approaches. One of the first pieces of evidence characterizing the SARS-CoV-2 infection has been its breadth of clinical presentation, ranging from asymptomatic to severe/deadly disease, and the indication of the key role played by the immune response in influencing disease severity. This review is aimed at summarizing what the SARS-CoV-2 infection taught us about the immune response, highlighting its features of a double-edged sword mediating both protective and pathogenic processes.

Comparison of three validated PD-L1 immunohistochemical assays in urothelial carcinoma of the bladder: interchangeability and issues related to patient selection.

Different programmed cell death-ligand 1 (PD-L1) assays and scoring algorithms are being used in the evaluation of PD-L1 expression for the selection of patients for immunotherapy in specific settings of advanced urothelial carcinoma (UC). In this paper, we sought to investigate three approved assays (Ventana SP142 and SP263, and Dako 22C3) in UC with emphasis on implications for patient selection for atezolizumab/pembrolizumab as the first line of treatment. Tumors from 124 patients with invasive UC of the bladder were analyzed using tissue microarrays (TMA).

Stereotactic radiosurgery for the treatment of brainstem metastases: a multicenter retrospective study.

Background: Brainstem metastases (BSM) are associated with a poor prognosis and their management represents a therapeutic challenge. BSM are often inoperable and, in absence of randomized trials, the optimal radiation treatment of BSM remains to be defined. We evaluated the efficacy and toxicity of linear accelerator (linac)-based stereotactic radiosurgery (SRS) and hypofractionated steretotactic radiotherapy (HSRT) in the treatment of BSM in a series of patients treated in different clinical centers.

Novel Harmonization Method for Multi-Centric Radiomic Studies in Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer.

The purpose of this multi-centric work was to investigate the relationship between radiomic features extracted from pre-treatment computed tomography (CT), positron emission tomography (PET) imaging, and clinical outcomes for stereotactic body radiation therapy (SBRT) in early-stage non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). One-hundred and seventeen patients who received SBRT for early-stage NSCLC were retrospectively identified from seven Italian centers. The tumor was identified on pre-treatment free-breathing CT and PET images, from which we extracted 3004 quantitative radiomic features.

Achieving Consensus for Management of Hormone-Sensitive, Low-Volume Metastatic Prostate Cancer in Italy.

Metastatic hormone-sensitive prostate cancer (mHSPC) is usually categorized as high- or low-volume disease. This is relevant because low- and high-volume metastatic disease are associated with different outcomes, and thus management of the two forms should differ. Although some definitions have been reported, the concept of oligometastatic disease is not so clearly defined, giving rise to further variability in the choice of treatment, mainly between systemic agents and radiotherapy, especially in the era of metastasis-directed therapy.

Exploring metrics for the characterization of the cerebral autoregulation during head-up tilt and propofol general anesthesia.

Techniques grounded on the simultaneous utilization of Tiecks' second order differential equations and spontaneous variability of mean arterial pressure (MAP) and mean cerebral blood flow velocity (MCBFV), recorded from middle cerebral arteries through a transcranial Doppler device, provide a characterization of cerebral autoregulation (CA) via the autoregulation index (ARI). These methods exploit two metrics for comparing the measured MCBFV series with the version predicted by Tiecks' model: normalized mean square prediction error (NMSPE) and normalized correlation ρ. The aim of this study is to assess the two metrics for ARI computation in 13 healthy subjects (age: 27 ± 8 yrs.

Critical analysis of Chagas disease treatment in different countries.

As a result of globalization and constant migratory flows, Chagas disease is now present in almost all continents. The management and treatment of the disease is often influenced by the economic and social context of the societies that host patients. In this manuscript, we aim to provide a comparative review of approaches to patients with Chagas disease in the Americas and Europe.

Apremilast retention rate in clinical practice: observations from an Italian multi-center study.

Objective: There are few real-world setting studies focused on apremilast effectiveness (i.e., retention rate) in psoriatic arthritis (PsA).