Practice patterns and 90-day treatment-related morbidity in early-stage cervical cancer

To evaluate the impact of the Laparoscopic Approach to Cervical Cancer (LACC) Trial on patterns of care and surgery-related morbidity in early-stage cervical cancer

A new measurement of the K-+/- -> pi(+/-)gamma gamma decay at the NA48/2 experiment

The NA48/2 experiment at CERN collected two data samples with minimum bias trigger conditions in 2003 and 2004. A measurement of the rate and dynamic properties of the rare decay K-+/- -> pi(+/-)gamma gamma from these data sets based on 149 decay candidates with an estimated background of 15.5 +/- 0.7 events is reported. The model-independent branching ratio in the kinematic range z = (m(gamma gamma)/m(K))(2) > 0.2 is measured to be B-MI(z > 0.2) = (0.877 +/- 0.089) x 10(-6), and the branching ratio in the full kinematic range assuming a particular Chiral Perturbation Theory description to be B(K-pi gamma gamma) = (0.910 +/- 0.075) x 10(-6). (C) 2014 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V. This is an open access article under the CC BY license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/)

Search for the dark photon in pi(0) decays

A sample of 1.69 x 10(7) fully reconstructed pi(0) -> gamma e(+)e(-) decay candidates collected by the NA48/2 experiment at CERN in 2003-2004 is analyzed to search for the dark photon (A') production in the pi(0) -> gamma A' decay followed by the prompt A' -> e(+)e(-) decay. No signal is observed, and an exclusion region in the plane of the dark photon mass m(A') and mixing parameter epsilon(2) is established. The obtained upper limits on epsilon(2) are more stringent than the previous limits in the mass range 9 MeV/c(2) pi(+/-)A' decay is also evaluated. (C) 2015 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V

Appropriateness of antiplatelet therapy for primary and secondary cardio- and cerebrovascular prevention in acutely hospitalized older people

Aims: Antiplatelet therapy is recommended for the secondary prevention of cardio- and cerebrovascular disease, but for primary prevention it is advised only in patients at very high risk. With this background, this study aims to assess the appropriateness of antiplatelet therapy in acutely hospitalized older people according to their risk profile. Methods: Data were obtained from the REPOSI register held in Italian and Spanish internal medicine and geriatric wards in 2012 and 2014. Hospitalized patients aged 6565 assessable at discharge were selected. Appropriateness of the antiplatelet therapy was evaluated according to their primary or secondary cardiovascular prevention profiles. Results: Of 2535 enrolled patients, 2199 were assessable at discharge. Overall 959 (43.6%, 95% CI 41.5\u201345.7) were prescribed an antiplatelet drug, aspirin being the most frequently chosen. Among patients prescribed for primary prevention, just over half were inappropriately prescribed (52.1%), being mainly overprescribed (155/209 patients, 74.2%). On the other hand, there was also a high rate of inappropriate underprescription in the context of secondary prevention (222/726 patients, 30.6%, 95% CI 27.3\u201334.0%). Conclusions: This study carried out in acutely hospitalized older people shows a high degree of inappropriate prescription among patients prescribed with antiplatelets for primary prevention, mainly due to overprescription. Further, a large proportion of patients who had had overt cardio- or cerebrovascular disease were underprescribed, in spite of the established benefits of antiplatelet drugs in the context of secondary prevention