Association between long-term exposure to air pollution and incidence of peripheral artery disease: Evidence from a longitudinal study.

Introduction: The association between air pollution and cardiovascular diseases is well established. However, fewer studies focused on the relationship between air pollution and peripheral artery disease (PAD), notwithstanding that not only it is a predictor of CVD mortality but also that incidence is globally rising, particularly in low-middle income countries.

Objectives: The aim of this study is to estimate the association between long-term exposure to air pollutants and the incidence of PAD in the Rome Longitudinal Study (RLS) during 2011-2019.

Integrated care: easy in theory, harder in practice?

Integrated care (IC) is a term now commonly adopted across the world, which implies a positive attitude towards addressing fragmentation of service provision inside health systems. While the principles of IC are simple, their implementation is more controversial. The ever growing number of IC definitions is related to the increasing domains of applications, which reflect the increasing demand induced by ageing multi-morbid patients.

Nilotinib-induced bone marrow CD34+/lin-Ph+ cells early clearance in newly diagnosed CP-Chronic Myeloid Leukemia: Final report of the PhilosoPhi34 study.

Chronic Myeloid Leukemia is a clonal disorder characterized by the presence of the Ph-chromosome and the BCR-ABL tyrosine-kinase (TK). Target-therapy with Imatinib has greatly improved its outcome. Deeper and faster responses are reported with the second-generation TKI Nilotinib.

Targeting Chronic Myeloid Leukemia Stem/Progenitor Cells Using Venetoclax-Loaded Immunoliposome.

CML is a hematopoietic stem-cell disorder emanating from breakpoint cluster region/Abelson murine leukemia 1 (BCR/ABL) translocation. Introduction of different TKIs revolutionized treatment outcome in CML patients, but CML LSCs seem insensitive to TKIs and are detectable in newly diagnosed and resistant CML patients and in patients who discontinued therapy. It has been reported that CML LSCs aberrantly express some CD markers such as CD26 that can be used for the diagnosis and for targeting.

Guidance from the Scientific and Standardization Committee for lupus anticoagulant/antiphospholipid antibodies of the International Society on Thrombosis and Haemostasis: Update of the guidelines for lupus anticoagulant detection and interpretation.

This guidance focuses on methodological aspects of lupus anticoagulant (LA) testing, as well as interpretation of results for clinicians. The main changes in how to test for LA compared with the International Society on Thrombosis and Haemostasis Scientific and Standardization Committee 2009 guidelines, in the preanalytical phase are more detailed recommendations on how to handle testing in anticoagulated patients, and the timing of testing. Also, routine coagulation tests are advised to obtain more information on the coagulation background of the patient, and when necessary, anti-Xa activity measurement for heparins or specific assays for direct oral anticoagulants should be performed.

Improving primary care in Europe beyond COVID-19: from telemedicine to organizational reforms.

The COVID-19 pandemic has put under pressure all the health national systems in Europe and telemedicine (TM) has been an almost unavoidable answer for primary care (PC) services to constrain the contagion. PC includes all the healthcare services that are the first level of contact for individuals. General practitioners (GPs) are the pivotal providers of PC throughout Europe.

Community and hospital pharmacists in Europe: encroaching on medicine?

Pharmacy has been historically regarded as a discipline between health and chemistry devoted to drug development, production, and compounding. These tasks have been almost lost with the industrial manufacturing, and dispensing remains the main activity of pharmacists. Hospital pharmacists are usually employees in their workplace, while the professional framework of community pharmacists is very different, being pharmacies predominantly private shops in almost all European countries.

Fibrotic interstitial lung diseases and air pollution: a systematic literature review.

Background: Air pollution is hypothesised to be a risk factor for interstitial lung diseases (ILD). This study systematically reviewed the literature regarding the impact of air pollution on idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF) and fibrotic interstitial lung diseases (ILD).

Methods: A computer-assisted literature search of electronic databases was performed to identify studies focused on the association between ILDs and air pollution.

Biological Difference Between Epstein-Barr Virus Positive and Negative Post-transplant Lymphoproliferative Disorders and Their Clinical Impact.

Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) infection is correlated with several lymphoproliferative disorders, including Hodgkin disease, Burkitt lymphoma, diffuse large B-cell lymphoma (DLBCL), and post-transplant lymphoproliferative disorder (PTLD). The oncogenic EBV is present in 80% of PTLD. EBV infection influences immune response and has a causative role in the oncogenic transformation of lymphocytes.

Thrombo-Inflammation in Cardiovascular Disease: An Expert Consensus Document from the Third Maastricht Consensus Conference on Thrombosis.

Thrombo-inflammation describes the complex interplay between blood coagulation and inflammation that plays a critical role in cardiovascular diseases. The third Maastricht Consensus Conference on Thrombosis assembled basic, translational, and clinical scientists to discuss the origin and potential consequences of thrombo-inflammation in the etiology, diagnostics, and management of patients with cardiovascular disease, including myocardial infarction, stroke, and peripheral artery disease. This article presents a state-of-the-art reflection of expert opinions and consensus recommendations regarding the following topics: (1) challenges of the endothelial cell barrier; (2) circulating cells and thrombo-inflammation, focused on platelets, neutrophils, and neutrophil extracellular traps; (3) procoagulant mechanisms; (4) arterial vascular changes in atherogenesis; attenuating atherosclerosis and ischemia/reperfusion injury; (5) management of patients with arterial vascular disease; and (6) pathogenesis of venous thrombosis and late consequences of venous thromboembolism.

Conflicts of interest in medicine: a never-ending story.

Individuals may have conflicts of interest (CoI) when they choose between the duties of their jobs and their own private interests. In medicine, CoI are potentially ubiquitous and their disclosure has now become the most frequent strategy to address them in professional lives. In the medical literature, CoI are classified into two different types-financial and non-financial.

Reticulohistiocytoses: a revision of the full spectrum.

Reticulohistiocytoses (RH) are rare and clinically heterogeneous histiocytic disorders of dermatological interest. Three clinical entities with superimposable histopathological features are currently considered, namely solitary reticulohistiocytoma, diffuse/generalized reticulohistiocytosis and multicentric reticulohistiocytosis. Although in the last decade, RH studies have only minimally progressed, histiocytosis research has advanced considerably: the prognostic and therapeutic importance of the clinical subclassification of histiocytosis patients as well as of the detection of genetic alterations in the genes of the ERK pathway has been highlighted.

New therapies for von Willebrand disease.

The management of von Willebrand disease (VWD) is based upon the dual correction of the primary hemostasis defect, due to the inherited deficiency of von Willebrand factor (VWF), and of the secondary defect of factor VIII coagulant activity (FVIII:C), due to the loss of binding and stabilization by VWF of this intrinsic coagulation factor in flowing blood. The traditional therapeutic weapons (the synthetic derivative of the antidiuretic hormone desmopressin and plasma-derived VWF/FVIII concentrates) are able to transiently correct both the defects. With the goal of tackling the primary deficiency in the disease, that is, VWF, but at the same time exploiting the normal capacity of patients to produce FVIII, the novel approach of replacing only VWF was implemented in the last 10 years.

Novel evidence for a greater burden of ambient air pollution on cardiovascular disease.

Ambient and household air pollution is a major health problem worldwide, contributing annually to approximately seven million of all-cause avoidable deaths, shorter life expectancy, and significant direct and indirect costs for the community. Air pollution is a complex mixture of gaseous and particulate materials that vary depending on their source and physicochemical features. Each material has detrimental effects on human health, but a number of experimental and clinical studies have shown a strong impact for fine particulate matter (PM).

Aging with Hemophilia: The Challenge of Appropriate Drug Prescription.

In high-income countries persons with severe hemophilia (PWH) A and B are aging, like their age-matched peers without hemophilia from the general population. Aging is associated not only with the comorbidities stemming from their inherited bleeding disorder (arthropathy, chronic viral infections such as hepatitis and AIDS) but also with the multiple chronic ailments associated with aging (cancer, cardiovascular disease, COPD). Multimorbidity is inevitably associated with polypharmacy, i.

Outcome of very elderly chronic myeloid leukaemia patients treated with imatinib frontline.

Very elderly (> 75 years) chronic myeloid leukaemia (CML) patients at diagnosis are sometimes treated with different doses of imatinib (IM) based on concomitant diseases and physicians' judgement. However, data on long-term follow-up of these patients are still lacking. To investigate treatment response and outcome, we retrospectively revised an Italian database of 263 very elderly CML patients receiving IM from the time of diagnosis.