Prevalence of peripheral arterial disease in subjects with moderate cardiovascular risk: Italian results from the PANDORA study Data from PANDORA (Prevalence of peripheral Arterial disease in subjects with moderate CVD risk, with No overt vascular Diseases nor Diabetes mellitus)

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>The PANDORA study has recently examined the prevalence of low ankle brachial index (ABI) in subjects with moderate risk of cardiovascular disease. This sub-analysis of the PANDORA study examines the prevalence of asymptomatic peripheral arterial disease (PAD), as determined by ABI, in Italian subjects presenting with moderate cardiovascular risk, in the absence of diabetes or overt vascular disease.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>PANDORA is a non-interventional, cross-sectional study that was performed in 6 European countries, involving subjects with at least one cardiovascular (CV) risk factor. The primary objective was to evaluate the prevalence of asymptomatic PAD using ABI. For this post-hoc sub-analysis, data were extracted for subjects enrolled in Italy, comprising 51.5% (n = 5298) of subjects from the original PANDORA study. Secondary objectives were to establish the prevalence and treatment of CV risk factors.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>The mean age was 63.9 years and 22.9% (95% CI 21.7-24.0) of subjects presented with asymptomatic PAD. A range of risk factors comprising smoking, hypertension, low HDL-cholesterol, family history of coronary heart disease and habit of moderate-high alcohol intake were significantly associated with asymptomatic PAD (p < 0.0001). Statin treatment had the lowest incidence in Italian subjects. Furthermore, patients treated with statins were significantly less likely to have asymptomatic PAD than those who were not (p = 0.0001).</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>Asymptomatic PAD was highly prevalent in Italian subjects, the majority of whom were not candidates for ABI assessment according to current guidelines. Findings from this study suggest that these patients should be carefully examined in clinical practice and ABI measured so that therapeutic interventions known to decrease their CV risk may be offered.</p> <p>Trial registration number</p> <p>ClinicalTrials.gov: <a href="http://www.clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT00689377">NCT00689377</a></p

Malcolm Baldrige national quality award

The Total Quality Management (TQM) models demonstrates the presence of tools and techniques that allow to manage the value creation and not only the quality. The most evolved models, as the Baldrige Performance Excellence Program, can indeed be used from large scale organizations as internal assessment tools to identify strengths, opportunities and improvement areas of the management and as well to support and validate “customer oriented” strategies. These tools can also be used to involve human resources (I would say personnel) in occasion ofimportant organizational changes or as tools to assess brand value. Further application possibilities is to use these models to manage the organizational learning process and improvement of process performance. In a nutshell, it is possible to see these models as real guides to implement and measure the value created by organizations. This article aims at presenting the logic ofthese model and illustrating the link between them and the value creation, in a moment where Companies are looking for tools that can effectively drive them out ofthe global crisi

The Analysis of Income Statement and Final Balance Sheet in Local Governments: A Case Study for Financial Sustainability

The global financial crisis represents one of the main reasons for the situation suffered by many European countries both at national and local level. Furthermore, the increased attention given to financial budgeting in the last years highlights the importance for public administrations to learn more about how to measure financial sustainability, how to implement strategies to avoid distress, and how to represent the expected results of these strategies. We propose an explanatory case study to analyze the first results obtained through a plan devised to restore a good financial condition through a process of spending review in the municipality of Rome, one of the most important local governments. More specifically, we have analyzed the income statements and the final balance sheets for the years 2013-2017

La contabilità. Logica economico-aziendale e scritture in partita doppia. Volume I. Seconda edizione.

L'intento che ha mosso la seconda edizione del presente libro è di aggiornare l'analisi delle operazioni di gestione alle novità introdotte a livello normativo e nella pratica profssionale