Nutritional composition of gluten-free food versus regular food sold in the Italian market.

Background: Some concerns have been raised about the nutritional composition of gluten-free (GF) food.

Aim: To compare the nutritional composition of GF food with regular foods.

Methods: This study examined in total 235 GF products and 349 regular products purchased in Italy, from seven categories: biscuits, rusks, snacks, bread, pasta, bread substitutes and wheat flour.

Safety and Efficacy of Cabozantinib in Metastatic Renal-Cell Carcinoma: Real-World Data From an Italian Managed Access Program.

Background: The randomized phase 3 METEOR study confirmed a survival benefit of cabozantinib over everolimus in patients with metastatic renal-cell carcinoma (mRCC) with disease that progressed after treatment with at least one previous antiangiogenic inhibitor. The aim of this analysis was to evaluate the safety and activity of cabozantinib in an unselected population.

Methods: Data were collected across 24 Italian centers.

Apparent Treatment Resistant Hypertension, Blood Pressure Control and the Progression of Chronic Kidney Disease in Patients with Type 2 Diabetes.

Background/aims: Apparent treatment resistant hypertension (aTRH) is highly prevalent in patients with type 2 diabetes (T2D) and chronic kidney disease (CKD). The impact of aTRH and achievement of recommended blood pressure (BP) values on the rate of glomerular filtration rate (eGFR) loss in CKD patients is poorly known. To assess the role of aTRH and time-updated BP control (BPC) on the progression of CKD in patients with T2D and hypertension (HT) in real life clinical practice.

Changes in albuminuria and renal outcome in patients with type 2 diabetes and hypertension: a real-life observational study.

Objectives: To assess the predictive role of changes in albuminuria on the loss of renal function under antihypertensive treatment in patients with type 2 diabetes (T2D).

Methods: Clinical records from a total of 12 611 patients with hypertension and T2D, attending 100 antidiabetic centers in Italy, with normal estimated glomerular filtration rate (eGFR) at baseline and regular visits during a 4-year period were retrieved and analyzed. We assessed the association between changes in albuminuria status during a 1-year baseline period and time updated blood pressure (BP) and eGFR loss over the subsequent 4-year follow-up.

Maintenance in myeloma patients achieving complete response after upfront therapy: a pooled analysis.

Purpose: Maintenance demonstrated to improve survival in newly diagnosed multiple myeloma (NDMM) patients and the achievement of complete response (CR) is a strong predictor of survival. Nevertheless, the role of maintenance according to response after induction/consolidation has not been investigated so far. To evaluate the impact of maintenance according to response, we pooled together and retrospectively analyzed data from 955 NDMM patients enrolled in two trials (GIMEMA-MM-03-05 and RV-MM-PI-209).

Publisher Correction: Predictors of chronic kidney disease in type 1 diabetes: a longitudinal study from the AMD Annals initiative.

A correction to this article has been published and is linked from the HTML and PDF versions of this paper. The error has been fixed in the paper.

Evidence of Oxidative Phosphorylation in Zebrafish Photoreceptor Outer Segments at Different Larval Stages.

Previous studies on purified bovine rod outer segments (OS) disks pointed to Oxidative Phosphorylation (OXPHOS) as being the most likely mechanism involved in ATP production, as yet not fully understood, to support the first phototransduction steps. Bovine and murine rod OS disks, devoid of mitochondria, would house respiratory chain complexes I to IV and ATP synthase, similar to mitochondria. Zebrafish ( Danio rerio) is a well-suited animal model to study vertebrate embryogenesis as well as the retina, morphologically and functionally similar to its human counterpart.

Optimization of resources by drug management: A multicentred web-administered study on the use of ipilimumab in Italy.

Objective: In a scenario of new expensive cancer therapies entering the market, strategies of optimisation and cost containment are crucial in oncology care. Better management of drug waste and centralization of drug preparation can be effective strategies to achieve these goals. The aim of this work is to describe the economic management of a high cost anticancer drug (ipilimumab) in some Italian reference centres.

Soluble Toll-like Receptor 4: A New Player in Subclinical Inflammation and Malnutrition in Hemodialysis Patients.

Objective: Toll-like receptor 4 (TLR4) promotes inflammation in hemodialysis patients (HD). A soluble form of extracellular TLR4 (sTLR4) has been recently characterized, which showed the ability to attenuate TLR4 signalling. In this study, we describe the sTLR4 profile in regular HD patients.

Reference intervals for thyrotropin in an area of Northern Italy: the Pordenone thyroid study (TRIPP).

Purpose: Thyrotropin (TSH) is the most accurate marker of thyroid dysfunction in the absence of pituitary or hypothalamic disease. Studies on TSH reference intervals (RIs) showed wide inter-individual variability and prompted an intense debate about the best estimation of TSH RIs.

Design: We performed a population study on TSH RIs, using current data stored in the laboratory information system (LIS), at the Hospital Department of Laboratory Medicine, Pordenone (Italy), historically an area of mild-moderate iodine deficiency with a relatively high goiter prevalence.

Hypercomplex pedicle subtraction osteotomies: definition, early clinical and radiological results and complications.

Purpose: To describe hypercomplex pedicle subtraction osteotomies (HyC-PSO) for adult spine deformity with sagittal imbalance in terms of preoperative, intraoperative and postoperative outcomes and complications.

Methods: From a prospective single centre database, patients undergoing PSO between January 2016 and May 2017 were reviewed. HyC-PSO were defined as those in patients with one of the following conditions: sagittal correction > 45° needed at a single level or at 1-3 consecutive vertebrae, more than 60° of total sagittal correction needed and PSO on segments of the spine with congenital deformities.

Neoadjuvant treatment with trastuzumab and pertuzumab plus palbociclib and fulvestrant in HER2-positive, ER-positive breast cancer (NA-PHER2): an exploratory, open-label, phase 2 study.

Background: In the neoadjuvant setting, blockade of HER2 plus use of an aromatase inhibitor in patients with HER2-positive and oestrogen receptor (ER)-positive breast cancer leads to a pathological complete response in 21% of patients. Convergence of HER2 and ER signals on RB1 suggests that a combined pharmacological intervention directed to these targets could be synergistic. To test this approach, we combined palbociclib to block RB1, fulvestrant to block ER, and trastuzumab with pertuzumab to block HER2 in patients with HER2-positive, ER-positive breast cancer.

Proteome of Bovine Mitochondria and Rod Outer Segment Disks: Commonalities and Differences.

The retinal rod outer segment (OS) is a stack of disks surrounded by the plasma membrane, housing proteins related to phototransduction, as well as mitochondrial proteins involved in oxidative phosphorylation (OxPhos). This prompted us to compare the proteome of bovine OS disks and mitochondria to assess the significant top gene signatures of each sample. The two proteomes, obtained by LTQ-Orbitrap Velos mass spectrometry, were compared by statistical analyses.

A rare case of tibial hemimelia, surgical technique and clinical results.

We report a nine-year-old boy with a type IIIa tibial hemimelia, according to the new Paley classification. We describe the x-ray findings, the surgical treatment technique, and the prognostic course of the patient. Descriptions of such cases are very infrequent in the literature and type of treatment is still object of debate.

Interleukin-31 and thymic stromal lymphopoietin expression in plasma and lymph node from Hodgkin lymphoma patients.

Hodgkin Lymphoma (HL) is a tumor of B-cell origin characterized by Hodgkin and Reed-Stenberg (H/RS) cells embedded in an inflammatory tissue where numerous cytokines/chemokines contribute to shape the microenvironment, leading to the typical clinical symptoms. We investigated: i) the expression of Interleukin-IL-31 (IL-31) and Thymic Stromal Lymphopoietin (TSLP), two Th2-related cytokines with tumor-promoting and pruritogenic functions, and of the respective receptors in HL invaded lymph nodes by flow cytometry, and ii) the potential association of IL-31/TSLP plasma concentrations with clinical characteristics by ELISA. H/RS cells and the major immune cell types infiltrating HL lymph nodes expressed intracytoplasmic and surface IL-31/TSLP, and their receptors.

[Analysis of incidents of violence in a large Italian hospital].

Introduction: An increase in the rate of non-fatal violence events, from 20.65/10,000 in 2012 to 22.81/10,000 in 2014, was observed at the IRCCS Ospedale Policlinico San Martino in Genoa.

Antihyperglycemic treatment in patients with type 2 diabetes in Italy: the impact of age and kidney function.

We describe AHA utilization pattern according to age and renal function in type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM), in real-life conditions. The analysis was performed using the data set of electronic medical records collected between 1 January and 31 December, 2011 in 207 Italian diabetes centers. The study population consisted of 157,595 individuals with T2DM.

Blocking epithelial-to-mesenchymal transition in glioblastoma with a sextet of repurposed drugs: the EIS regimen.

This paper outlines a treatment protocol to run alongside of standard current treatment of glioblastoma- resection, temozolomide and radiation. The epithelial to mesenchymal transition (EMT) inhibiting sextet, EIS Regimen, uses the ancillary attributes of six older medicines to impede EMT during glioblastoma. EMT is an actively motile, therapy-resisting, low proliferation, transient state that is an integral feature of cancers' lethality generally and of glioblastoma specifically.

SIRT6 inhibitors with salicylate-like structure show immunosuppressive and chemosensitizing effects.

The NAD-dependent deacetylase SIRT6 is an emerging cancer drug target, whose inhibition sensitizes cancer cells to chemo-radiotherapy and has pro-differentiating effects. Here we report on the identification of novel SIRT6 inhibitors with a salicylate-based structure. The new SIRT6 inhibitors show improved potency and specificity compared to the hit inhibitor identified in an in silico compound screen.

Resistant Hypertension, Time-Updated Blood Pressure Values and Renal Outcome in Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus.

Background: Apparent treatment resistant hypertension (aTRH) is highly prevalent in patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2D) and entails worse cardiovascular prognosis. The impact of aTRH and long-term achievement of recommended blood pressure (BP) values on renal outcome remains largely unknown. We assessed the role of aTRH and BP on the development of chronic kidney disease in patients with T2D and hypertension in real-life clinical practice.

Novelties in Evaluation and Monitoring of Human Immunodeficiency Virus-1 Infection: Is Standard Virological Suppression Enough for Measuring Antiretroviral Treatment Success?

The high potency and tolerability of the currently available antiretroviral drugs has modified HIV-1 infection from a life-threatening disease to a chronic illness. Nevertheless, some issues still remain open to optimize the management of HIV-1 infected patients in term of maintenance of virological suppression over time, identifying patients that could benefit from simplification therapy, and reducing co-mordibities driven by chronic inflammation. The availability of robust and affordable virological and immunological markers can help in solving these issues by providing information on the burden of HIV-1 reservoir in all the anatomical compartments in which the virus replicates as well as on persistent inflammation, immune activation and senescence despite successful virological suppression.

Freehand 3T MR-guided vacuum-assisted breast biopsy (VAB): a five-year experience.

Background Magnetic resonance (MR) permits the detection of some malignant lesions that cannot be identified with mammography or ultrasonography. The characterization of these MR-only detectable lesions often requires a biopsy. Purpose To evaluate the technique, the feasibility and the accuracy of freehand 3T MR-guided VAB for the characterization of suspicious, MR-only detectable lesions and to compare VAB results with surgical pathology and follow-up imaging results.

Update upon efficacy and safety of etanercept for the treatment of spondyloarthritis and juvenile idiopathic arthritis.

TNF-α inhibitors have demonstrated efficacy both as monotherapy and in combination with disease-modifying anti-rheumatic drugs (DMARDs) in the treatment of chronic inflammatory immune-mediated diseases such as rheumatoid arthritis, Crohn's disease, ulcerative colitis, ankylosing spondylitis (AS), psoriasis (Ps) and/or psoriatic arthritis (PsA) and may be administered off-label to treat disseminated granuloma annulare, systemic lupus erythematosus and systemic sclerosis. There are several TNF-α inhibitors available for clinical use including infliximab, adalimumab, golimumab, certolizumab pegol and etanercept. In this article, we discuss the efficacy and safety of etanercept in the treatment of spondyloarthritis and juvenile idiopathic arthritis (JIA).