Thyroid function, autoimmunity and nodules in hematological malignancies

Objective Hematological malignancies encompass a large spectrum of disease entities whose treatment by chemo/radiotherapy could lead to thyroid complications. To the best of our knowledge, no study has simultaneously addressed thyroid function, autoimmunity and nodularity. Therefore, we decided to conduct one.Materials and methods We evaluated 82 Caucasian patients (36 women and 46 men), who were treated at our Oncology division for hematological malignancies (multiple myeloma, chronic myeloid leukemia, chronic lymphatic leukemia, non-Hodgkin lymphoma and polycythemia vera) and compared them with a control group of 104 patients. Patients who had received or were receiving external head/neck radiotherapy were excluded. All oncological patients and control individuals underwent thyroid ultrasonography and thyroid function and autoimmunity tests.Results A lower prevalence of enlarged thyroid and nodules were found in patients with respect to controls. The rate of thyroid nodules was the highest in multiple myeloma and polycythemia vera, and the lowest in chronic lymphatic leukemia. Non-Hodgkin lymphoma patients had the smallest thyroid nodules while men with multiple myeloma the biggest ones. No patient had hypothyroidism, while 5.6% of patients had subclinical hyperthyroidism. In contrast, within the control group the rates of hypothyroidism and hyperthyroidism, overt and subclinical, were 3.8%, 20.2%, 0% and 0% respectively. Moreover, the overall rate of thyroid autoantibody positiveness in patients was significantly lower than controls.Conclusion In our experience, we found a significantly lower prevalence of thyroid abnormalities in hematologic patients who underwent chemotherapy, but not radiotherapy, with respect to controls. Arch Endocrinol Metab. 2015;59(3):236-4

Anchoring the Yield Curve Using Survey Expectations

The dynamic behavior of the term structure of interest rates is difficult to replicate with models, and even models with a proven track record of empirical performance have underperformed since the early 2000s. On the other hand, survey expectations are accurate predictors of yields, but only for very short maturities. We argue that this is partly due to the ability of survey participants to incorporate information about the current state of the economy as well as forward-looking information such as that contained in monetary policy announcements. We show how the informational advantage of survey expectations about short yields can be exploited to improve the accuracy of yield curve forecasts given by a base model. We do so by employing a flexible projection method that anchors the model forecasts to the survey expectations in segments of the yield curve where the informational advantage exists and transmits the superior forecasting ability to all remaining yields. The method implicitly incorporates into yield curve forecasts any information that survey participants have access to, without the need to explicitly model it. We document that anchoring delivers large and significant gains in forecast accuracy for the whole yield curve, with improvements of up to 52% over the years 2000-2012 relative to the class of models that are widely adopted by financial and policy institutions for forecasting the term structure of interest rates

Efficacy of treatment with glycosaminoglycans on experimental collagen-induced arthritis in rats

To evaluate the antioxidant activity of the glycosaminoglycans hyaluronic acid (HYA) and chondroitin-4-sulphate (C4S), we used a rat model of collagen-induced arthritis (CIA). Arthritis was induced in Lewis rats by multiple intradermal injections of 250 μl of emulsion containing bovine type II collagen in complete Freund's adjuvant at the base of the tail and into three to five other sites on the back. Rats were challenged again with the same antigen preparation 7 days later. Disease developed about 11 days after the second immunization. The effects of treatment in the rats were monitored by biochemical parameters and by macroscopic and histological evaluations in blood, synovial tissue and articular cartilage. Arthritis produced the following symptoms: severe periarticular erythema, edema and inflammation in the hindpaws; membrane peroxidation in the cartilage of the joints; endogenous antioxidant wasting; high tumour necrosis factor-α (TNF-α) plasma levels; and synovial neutrophil accumulation. Treatment with HYA and C4S, starting at the onset of arthritis for 10 days, limited the erosive action of the disease in the articular joints of knee and paw, reduced lipid peroxidation, restored the endogenous antioxidants reduced glutathione (GSH) and superoxide dismutase, decreased plasma TNF-α levels, and limited synovial neutrophil infiltration. These data confirm that erosive destruction of the joint cartilage in CIA is due at least in part to free radicals released by activated neutrophils and produced by other biochemical pathways. The beneficial effects obtained with the treatment suggest that HYA and C4S could be considered natural endogenous macromolecules to limit erosive damage in CIA or as a useful tool with which to study the involvement of free radicals in rheumatoid arthritis

Optical tracking of deep-space spacecraft in Halo L2 orbits and beyond: the Gaia mission as a pilot case

We tackle the problem of accurate optical tracking of distant man-made probes, on Halo orbit around the Earth-Sun libration point L2 and beyond, along interplanetary transfers. The improved performance of on-target tracking, especially when observing with small-class telescopes is assessed providing a general estimate of the expected S/N ratio in spacecraft detection. The on-going Gaia mission is taken as a pilot case for our analysis, reporting on fresh literature and original optical photometry and astrometric results. The probe has been located, along its projected nominal path, within 0.13 +/- 0.09 arcsec, or 0.9 +/- 0.6 km. Spacecraft color appears to be red, with (V-R_c) = 1.1 +/- 0.2 and a bolometric correction to the R_c band of (Bol-R_c) = -1.1 +/- 0.2. The apparent magnitude, R_c = 20.8 +/- 0.2, is much fainter than originally expected. These features lead to suggest a lower limit for the Bond albedo a = 0.11 +/- 0.05 and confirm that incident Sun light is strongly reddened by Gaia through its on-board MLI blankets covering the solar shield. Relying on the Gaia figures, we found that VLT-class telescopes could yet be able to probe distant spacecraft heading Mars, up to 30 million km away, while a broader optical coverage of the forthcoming missions to Venus and Mars could be envisaged, providing to deal with space vehicles of minimum effective area Aeff >= 10^6 cm^2. In addition to L2 surveys, 2m-class telescopes could also effectively flank standard radar-ranging techniques in deep-space probe tracking along Earth's gravity-assist maneuvers for interplanetary missions.Comment: In press for Advances in Space Research (w/ 15 colour figures and 1 table

Geo Satellites’ Manufacturing Markers From Photometric Colors

We present the photometric analysis of 23 GEO satellites, by using more than 1,200 multi-band images acquired in the Johnson-Cousin photometric system (BVRI). The dataset was acquired by three optical telescopes geographically located in different observational sites (in Italy and Mexico). By using an observational strategy based on alternating the V-R-I filter-sequence, we obtained consecutive multi-band images we used to reconstruct satellites’ color-lightcurves. We calculated the color-indexes of GEO satellites by taking into account the average value of color-lightcurves. We investigated the color-indexes in the color-color planes. Moreover, we studied a possible correlation among colors and satellite manufacturing and peculiar features. We obtained that some of the considered parameters seem to significantly affect the color indexes

Neural correlates of outcome of cognitive therapy compared to psychodynamic therapy in affective disorders. a meta-analysis

Anxiety and depression disorders are commonly associated with structural and functional changes in the fronto-limbic brain areas. However, it is still unexplored how different psychotherapeutic approaches affect the functional brain. The present meta-analysis aims to compare the neurobiological outcome of the cognitive therapies compared to the psychodynamic therapies in anxiety and depression disorders

Anti-obesity drug therapy in clinical practice: Evidence of a poor prescriptive attitude

Obesity is a worldwide growing problem for the health care systems and its treatment is strongly recommended. Orlistat, naltrexone/bupropion, and liraglutide are approved for weight loss in Italy in patients with a Body Mass Index (BMI) ≥ 30 kg/m2 or ≥ 27 kg/m2 with concomitant diseases. However, the prescription of these drugs is significantly low worldwide. General practitioners (GPs) play a key role in the early diagnosis and appropriate management of obesity. The aim of the study was to investigate the management of obesity and the prescriptive attitude of anti-obesity drugs in a general practice setting.All patients registered in lists of 8 GPs with a recorded diagnosis of obesity or BMI values ≥ 30 kg/m2 in the period 2017–2018, were recruited. A descriptive analysis of demographic and clinical characteristic was carried out. The Spearman's correlation rank test was applied to identify correlations between BMI and all the variables of interest.Among 1301 obese patients, only 66.1 % had been diagnosed and 29.4 % had no registered BMI value. Patients with recorded BMI, were overweight (7.8 %) or in the obesity class I (38.8 %), class II (14.1 %), and class III (7.1 %), respectively.The obese patients (class 1–3) were older [66 (55–76) vs 49 (32–59); p < 0.01], and had more concurrent diseases [5 (3−8) vs 4 (2–6); p < 0.01] than patients who reached a BMI < 30 Kg/m2. Moreover, most of obese were high cardiovascular risk (HCVr) patients (67.0 % vs 31.9 %; p < 0.01). The BMI was directly related to age (rs 0.14; p < 0.01), diabetes (rs 0.19; p < 0.01), hypertension (rs 0.14; p < 0.01), heart failure (rs 0.09; p < 0.01), HCVr (rs 0. 12; p < 0.01) and number of comorbidities (rs 0.08; p = 0.01). No prescriptions of orlistat or naltrexone/bupropion were found. Liraglutide was prescribed only in 7 patients because of the concomitant presence of diabetes.Our results suggest a low adherence to guide line recommendations for obesity management and confirm an under-prescription of anti-obesity drugs in Italy

High-molecular weight hyaluronan reduced renal PKC activation in genetically diabetic mice

AbstractThe cluster determinant (CD44) seems to play a key role in tissues injured by diabetes type 2. CD44 stimulation activates the protein kinase C (PKC) family which in turn activates the transcriptional nuclear factor kappa B (NF-κB) responsible for the expression of the inflammation mediators such as tumor necrosis factor alpha (TNF-α), interleukin-6 (IL-6), interleukin-18 (IL-18), inducible nitric oxide synthase (iNOS), and matrix metalloproteinases (MMPs). Regulation of CD44 interaction with its ligands depends greatly upon PKC. We investigated the effect of the treatment with high-molecular weight hyaluronan (HA) on diabetic nephropathy in genetically diabetic mice.BKS.Cg-m+/+Leprdb mice had elevated plasma insulin from 15days of age and high blood sugar levels at 4weeks. The severe nephropathy that developed was characterized by a marked increased in CD44 receptors, protein kinase C betaI, betaII, and epsilon (PKCβI, PKCβII, and PKCε) mRNA expression and the related protein products in kidney tissue. High levels of mRNA and related protein levels were also detected in the damaged kidney for NF-κB, TNF-α, IL-6, IL-18, MMP-7, and iNOS.Chronic daily administration of high-molecular mass HA for 2weeks significantly reduced CD44, PKCβI, PKCβII, and PKCα gene expression and the related protein production in kidney tissue and TNF-α, IL-6, IL-18, MMP-7, and iNOS expression and levels also decreased. Histological analysis confirmed the biochemical data. However, blood parameters of diabetes were unchanged.These results suggest that the CD44 and PKC play an important role in diabetes and interaction of high-molecular weight HA with these proteins may reduce inflammation and secondary pathologies due to this disease

Prevalence of Use and Cost of Biological Drugs for Cancer Treatment: A 5-Year Picture from Southern Italy

Background and Objectives: Considering the clinical and economic burden of biological drugs in cancer treatment, it is necessary to explore how these drugs are used in routine care in Italy and how they affect the sustainability of the National Health Services. This study aimed to investigate the prevalence of use and costs of biological drugs for cancer treatment in a general population of Southern Italy in the years 2010–2014. Methods: This was a retrospective, observational study using data from the healthcare administrative databases of Messina Province for the years 2010–2014. In this study, users of biological drugs for cancer treatment were characterized and the prevalence of use and costs were calculated over time. The potential impact of biosimilars on the expenditure was also estimated. Results: Of a population of 653,810 residents in the Messina area during the study years, 2491 (0.4%) patients received at least one study drug. The most frequently used were monoclonal antibodies (mAbs) (n = 1607; 64.5%) and tyrosine kinase inhibitors (TKIs) (n = 609; 24.4%). mAbs were mainly used by females (60.3%) for metastasis due to an unspecified primary tumor, lymphomas, or breast cancer (24.2, 16.7, and 13.7%, respectively). Most users of small molecules were males (56.3%) being treated for multiple myeloma, metastasis due to unspecified primary tumor, leukemia, and lung cancer (13.1, 12.6, 9.5, and 8.9%, respectively). During the study years, the prevalence of use doubled from 0.9 to 1.8 per 1000 inhabitants; likewise, the related expenditure grew from €6.6 to €13.6 million. Based on our forecasts, this expenditure will grow to €25 million in 2020. Assuming a 50% biosimilar uptake (trastuzumab and rituximab), a potential yearly saving of almost €1 million may be achieved. Conclusions: In recent years, the use and costs of biological drugs in cancer patients have increased dramatically in a large population from Southern Italy. This trend may be counterbalanced by adopting biosimilars once they are available. Claims databases represent a valid tool to monitor the uptake of newly marketed biological drugs and biosimilars

Author Correction to: Prevalence of Use and Cost of Biological Drugs for Cancer Treatment: A 5-Year Picture from Southern Italy

Unfortunately, many errors were identified in the published article. The original article was corrected