In situ atomic force microscopy in the study of electrogeneration of polybithiophene on Pt electrode

Electrochemical AFM technique has been used for the in situ study of the electrogeneration-deposition process of polybithiophene at varying the polymerisation conditions, such as supporting electrolyte, i.e., LiClO4 or tetrabutylammonium hexafluorophosphate, and polymerisation procedure, i.e., either potentiostatic or potentiodynamic method. In order to better follow the evolution of the morphology of the deposit, particularly during the early stages of the polymer film growth, a suitable home-made electrochemical cell has been used

Incidence and Predictors of Complications Following Percutaneous Liver Biopsy: A Large Italian Multicentre Study.

Background and Aims Management of ultrasound (US)-guided percutaneous liver biopsy (PLB) lacks standardisation. Despite the low risk of major complications (< 1%), repeated blood counts and up to 4 h of in-hospital observation are typically recommended. We aimed to assess complication rates and predictors in a large cohort of patients undergoing US-PLB across three Italian tertiary centres. We included all patients undergoing US-PLB from January 2018 to December 2023. We collected clinical, biochemical and procedural features (needle type, insertions number, observation time and antiplatelet/anticoagulant regimens). Safety was assessed by the incidence of pain and major complications, including vasovagal reaction, bleeding, pneumothorax, shock, hospitalisation and death. Approach and Results Among 1838 patients (mean age 55.1 years, 46.1% females, mean BMI 25.1 kg/m(2), 74% parenchymal PLB), few were on anticoagulant/antiplatelet therapy (4.2%/16.2%); mean platelet count and PT INR were 209.7 x 10(3)/mm(3 )and 1.04; 17 patients (0.9%) received prophylactic therapy (blood components, thrombopoietin receptor agonists or vitamin K). Needle aspiration was predominant (92%). During a mean time of observation of 5.4 +/- 2.0 h, 134/1838 patients reported pain (7.4%). Major complications were few (26, 1.4%), with 14 episodes of transient hypotension (0.8%); 10 bleeding events (0.5%); 1 pneumothorax; 1 abscess formation; 1 haemobilia; and 1 episode of chest pain. Hospitalisation was rare (12, 0.7%), primarily for bleeding management. No fatalities were recorded. Pain was the sole significant independent predictor of major complications (18/26, HR 30.6, p < 0.05), particularly when reported within the first hour post-procedure (15/18, 83.3%). Conclusions Major complications following US-PLB are few and strongly associated with early post-procedural pain. In the absence of pain within the first hour, extended monitoring may be unnecessary, allowing for earlier patient discharge

Comparison of diagnostic performances of HDV-RNA quantification assays used in clinical practice: Results from a national quality control multicenter study

Introduction: A reliable quantification of hepatitis D virus (HDV) RNA is of paramount importance for monitoring patients under antiviral therapy. This quality control study compares the diagnostic performances of quantitative HDV-RNA assays used in clinical practice. Methods: Two HDV-RNA sample panels were quantified in 30 centers by RoboGene (N = 9 laboratories), EurobioPlex (N = 7), RealStar (N = 4), AltoStar (N = 1), Bosphore (N = 3), Bosphore-on-InGenius (N = 1), Dia.Pro (N = 2), Nuclear-Laser-Medicine (N = 1) and 3 in-house assays. Panel A and B comprised 8 serial dilutions of WHO/HDV standard (range: 0.5–5.0 log10 IU/ml) and 20 clinical samples (range: 0.5–6.0 log10 IU/ml), respectively. The following parameters were determined: sensitivity by 95 % LOD (limit of detection), precision by intra- and inter-run CV (coefficient of variation), accuracy by the differences between expected-observed HDV-RNA, linearity by linear regression analysis. Results: 95 % LOD varied across assays and centers underlining heterogeneous sensitivities: AltoStar had the lowest 95 % LOD (3 IU/ml) followed by RealStar (10 [min–max: 3–316] IU/ml), Bosphore-on-InGenius (10 IU/ml), RoboGene (31 [3–316] IU/ml), Nuclear-Laser-Medicine (31 IU/ml) and EuroBioplex (100 [100–316] IU/ml). Moreover, 6 assays (RoboGene, EurobioPlex, RealStar, AltoStar, Nuclear-Laser-Medicine and In-house) showed <0.5 log10 IU/ml differences between expected and observed HDV-RNA for all dilutions while other assays had >1 log10 IU/ml underestimations. RealStar, Bosphore-on-InGenius and EurobioPlex had the highest precision (mean intra-run CV < 20 %). Inter-run CV was higher for all assays, with CVs < 25 % for RealStar, AltoStar, Nuclear-Laser-Medicine and EurobioPlex. Seven assays (RoboGene/AltoStar/RealStar/EurobioPlex/Nuclear-Laser-Medicine/In-house) showed a good linearity (R2 > 0.90), but for HDV-RNA < 1000 IU/ml only Bosphore-on-InGenius, AltoStar, RealStar and Robogene showed a R2 > 0.85. Conclusions: This study underlines heterogeneous sensitivities (inter- and intraassays), that could hamper proper HDV-RNA quantification, particularly at low viral loads. This raises the need to improve the diagnostic performance of most assays for properly identifying virological response to anti-HDV drugs

The Medical Impact of Hepatitis D Virus Infection in Natives and Immigrants: The Italian Paradigm

Background and Aim: Ongoing migratory flows are reconstituting the hepatitis D virus (HDV) reservoir in Italy. We aimed to characterise the current clinical and virologic features of HDV infection in both native Italians and migrants. Methods: We enrolled 515 hepatitis B surface antigen (HBsAg)-positive patients with detectable anti-HDV antibodies from 32 Italian centres between August 2022 and July 2024; all patients underwent centralised virologic assessment. Results: Overall, 432 out of 515 (83.9%) patients were HDV-RNA-positive (4.39, 1.30–5.82 Log IU/mL; 99.0% HDV genotype-1). HDV-RNA levels correlated with ALT (rs = 0575, 0.514–0.630) and hepatitis B core-related antigen (rs = 0.521, 0.455–0.581). Native Italians (n = 317; 61.6%) were older than migrants (n = 198; 38.4%) (median age: 60, 55–65 vs. 46, 39–54 years; p < 0.001) and were more frequently male (68.1% vs. 49.5%; p < 0.001), with a higher prevalence of liver cirrhosis (70.3% vs. 50.5%; p < 0.001) and hepatocellular carcinoma (14.8% vs. 0.5%; p < 0.001). Among Italians, 223 (70.3%) had liver cirrhosis, 46 (14.5%) had chronic hepatitis D (CHD) without cirrhosis and 48 (15.1%) exhibited inactive/minimal disease with low viremia (≤ 3 Log IU/mL). Among migrants, 100 (50.5%) had liver cirrhosis, 58 (29.3%) had CHD and 40 (20.2%) showed inactive/minimal disease with low viremia (≤ 3 Log IU/mL). Conclusions: The current clinical landscape of chronic HDV infections in Italy is heterogeneous, changing the perspective of CHD as uniformly severe; although cirrhosis remains common, a substantial proportion of both native Italians and migrants present with milder forms of disease

TKIs treatment for HCC before Liver transplantation: an ELITA/ELTR collaborative study

peer reviewedBackground and Aims Recent advances in systemic treatments for hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) have driven the discussion on their possible role for downstaging advanced HCC prior to liver transplantation (LT) or for bridging to LT to prevent tumor progression and reduce the dropout risk. The aim of this study was to evaluate the outcome of patients treated with TKIs before LT. Method an online survey was sent to all centers affiliated to the ELITA/ELTR network between June and December 2022. Demographic and clinical data were retrospectively collected. Results Fifty-two patients, median age 60.5 years, receiving a LT between December 2006 and September 2022 were enrolled. Thirty patients (57.6%) were treated with TKI with a downstaging purpose, while 22 (42.3%) received TKI as a bridging treatment to LT. 34 patients (65%) received sorafenib, 15 lenvatinib (28%) and 3 patients (3%) a sequential therapy with sorafenib-regorafenib. Forty-eight patients (92%) received at least one locoregional treatment before LT. Only 12 patients (23%) were in Milan criteria at treatment start time. Twenty-nine patients were Milan-in at listing (55.7%). Nine patients had neoplastic portal vein thrombosis (17.3%). The five-year survival was 70% (Figure 1). After a median time of 7.7 months (5-12.7), 7 patients (13%) experienced HCC recurrence. The only factor associated with HCC recurrence was AFP (p 0.02) at LT-We observed only a single recurrence in one of the patients with neoplastic thrombosis. Twelve patients (23%) experienced vascular or early bleeding complications after LT. The type of TKIs or the time from the last dose to LT didn't influence the risk of post-LT complications. Conclusions This is the largest collected series of patients receiving TKIs pre-LT as downstaging/bridging therapy, with a very favourable long-term outcome (70 % at 5 years) even in patients with neoplastic vein thrombosis

Isolation and screening of Bacillus subtilis MJ01 for MEOR application: biosurfactant characterization, production optimization and wetting effect on carbonate surfaces

Abstract The bacterial strain MJ01 was isolated from stock tank water of one of the Iranian south oil field production facilities. The 16S rRNA gene of isolate, MJ01, showed 99% similarity to Bacillus subtilis. The results revealed that biosurfactant produced by this strain was lipopeptide-like surfactin based on FTIR analysis. Critical micelle concentration of produced surfactin in distilled water was 0.06 g/l. Wettability study showed that at zero salinity surfactin can change original oil-wet state to water-wet state, but in seawater salinity it cannot modify the wettability significantly. To utilize this biosurfactant in ex situ MEOR process, economical and reservoir engineering technical parameters were considered to introduce a new optimization strategy using the response surface methodology. Comparing the result of this optimization strategy with the previous optimization research works was shown that significant save in use of nutrients is possible by using this medium. Furthermore, using this method leads to less formation damage due to the incompatibility of injecting fluid and formation brine, and less formation damage due to the bioplugging