Functional fat injection in the treatment of dysphagia following surgery.

Functional fat injection under local anesthesia could be useful in the treatment of chronic dysphagia in selected patients with tissue loss secondary to laryngeal surgery.

Torsion of wandering spleen involving the pancreatic tail.

Background: Wandering spleen (WS) is a rare clinical entity resulting from the absence or maldevelopment of the ligaments normally involved in the attachment of the spleen in its normal position. WS can be a cause of acute abdomen leading to different complications ranging from torsion of the vascular pedicle to spleen infarction. Often, in absence of symptoms, it is an occasional finding during radiological exams and surgery represents the gold standard in the management of this unusual condition.

Correlation between Very Short and Short-Term Blood Pressure Variability in Diabetic-Hypertensive and Healthy Subjects.

Background: Blood pressure (BP) variability can be evaluated by 24-hour ambulatory BP monitoring (24h-ABPM), but its concordance with results from finger BP measurement (FBPM) has not been established yet.

Objective: The aim of this study was to compare parameters of short-term (24h-ABPM) with very short-term BP variability (FBPM) in healthy (C) and diabetic-hypertensive (DH) subjects.

Methods: Cross-sectional study with 51 DH subjects and 12 C subjects who underwent 24h-ABPM [extracting time-rate, standard deviation (SD), coefficient of variation (CV)] and short-term beat-to-beat recording at rest and after standing-up maneuvers [FBPM, extracting BP and heart rate (HR) variability parameters in the frequency domain, autoregressive spectral analysis].

Dysphagia screening in subacute care settings using the Italian version of the Royal Brisbane and Women's Hospital (I-RBWH) dysphagia screening tool.

The large majority of the available dysphagia screening tools has been developed for the stroke population. Only few screening tools are suitable for heterogeneous groups of patients admitted to a subacute care unit. The Royal Brisbane and Women's Hospital (RBWH) dysphagia screening tool is a nurse-administered, evidence-based swallow screening tool for generic acute hospital use that demonstrates excellent sensitivity and specificity.

Lung ultrasound and short-term prognosis in heart failure patients.

Background: Heart failure (HF) is the leading cause of hospitalization for patients older than 65years, with a 30-day readmission rate of 20-25%. Although several markers have been evaluated to stratify timing of follow-up after an acute decompensation is mostly based on clinical judgment. Lung ultrasound (LUS) has been demonstrated to be a valid tool for the assessment and monitoring of pulmonary congestion.

Relationship between energy expenditure, physical activity and weight loss during CPAP treatment in obese OSA subjects.

Background: Increased energy expenditure (EE) has been reported in patients with obstructive sleep apnea (OSA). It has been postulated that CPAP treatment may induce weight reduction in obese patients, even if it has not been confirmed by recent studies. In the present study we investigated the effect of OSA on EE and the effect of CPAP on body weight and physical activity.

Vertical banded gastroplasty modifies plasma ghrelin secretion in obese patients.

Background: Restrictive bariatric surgery causes weight loss through substantial decline of appetite with satiety after meals. Reduction of plasma ghrelin levels after Roux-en-Y gastric bypass and laparoscopic adjustable gastric banding could contribute to these effects, although contradictory results have been reported. The only restrictive operation still not yet investigated is vertical banded gastroplasty (VBG).

Levosulpiride in somatoform disorders: A double-blind, placebo-controlled cross-over study.

Reliable data on the psychopharmacotherapy of somatoform disorders (SDs) are scanty because of patients' poor psychopathological awareness and compliance, the need for combination treatment, and the lack of suitable instruments for clinical diagnosis and assessment. The aim of the present study was to investigate the efficacy and tolerability of low doses of levosulpiride in the treatment of SDs. Seventy-four patients with SDs diagnosed according to ICD-10 and DSM-IIIR criteria by means of the Comprehensive International Schedule for Somatoform Disorders-Somatoform Disorders Schedule (CISSD-SDS) were treated for 4 weeks either with levosulpiride (50 mg b.