In-hospital brain natriuretic peptide and N-terminal prohormone brain natriuretic peptide variations are predictors of short-term and long-term outcome in acute decompensated heart failure

Acute decompensated heart failure is one of the most important causes of hospitalisation worldwide. Natriuretic peptides have shown their usefulness in the diagnosis and management of heart failure. Their variations during hospitalisation also appear useful to predict outcomes. In particular, data from the literature demonstrate that reduction from admission to discharge of brain natriuretic peptide and N-terminal prohormone brain natriuretic peptide in these patients is a predictor of future cardiovascular events

Sustainability disclosure and IPO performance: exploring the impact of ESG reporting

Investors are increasingly concerned with the sustainability of firms and their impact on global development, resulting in a rise in Socially Responsible Investing (SRI) that considers environmental, social, and governance (ESG) factors. Integrating sustainability into company strategies can affect various aspects of an organization, including IPOs (initial public offerings). Given the growing importance of ESG information disclosure, this study wants to examine the potential effect of an ESG report disclosure on IPO performance, since there are not studies focused on analyzing how ESG factors and IPO performance are correlated. The purpose of this study is to examine how ESG disclosure affects IPO underpricing and increases transparency for stakeholders to reduce information asymmetry. This study explores the impact of disclosing ESG information on IPO underpricing using a sample of 100 European IPOs from 2017 to 2021, with 50 firms disclosing an ESG report prior to the IPO and 50 that did not. The results showed that the publication of a sustainable report before an IPO has a positive effect on underpricing by reducing it. This finding suggests that companies that publish sustainability reports are perceived to be less risky, and investors value ESG disclosure as a tool to reduce the risks associated with ESG issues. The work contributes to the research on firms’ incentives to disclose ESG information. Our study is limited by the size of the sample, which is limited and only focused on European companies; therefore, future studies should consider companies from other parts of the world, and with more data related to IPO performance

The relation between cash flows and economic performance in the digital age: An empirical analysis

Cash flows analysis plays an increasingly important role in the study of business dynamics since cash flows play a key role in the company's economic performance, not only from a standpoint but also in predictive terms. The literature on the subject is poor in number and depth of research, the samples analyzed so far are limited and the statistical tools are weak. Retracing the steps of past research, we studied the relationships between cash flows of several management areas and economic performance, using a complete sample of Italian listed companies in the 2008-2017 period with more solid statistical tools compared to previous studies. The database used to collect all the balance sheet data necessary to conduct our research is Amadeus of the Bureau Van Dijk platform, which already shows reclassified and easily comparable financial statements. Correlation and multiple regression analysis were used to assess if our cash flow proxies could be strong predictors of future cash flow and, consequently, of business performance. The flows for investments and the ability to generate cash, where the latter is positively correlated with future profitability, manage to explain, together with the net cash generation of the company, a large part of the variability of the operating income produced in subsequent periods. The flows from investments seem to be the most suitable for correctly classifying the most profitable companies in the medium-long term, while cash generation, deriving from the characteristic activity, contributes to providing answers, about corporate profitability, on shorter time horizons

How public ambulance arrivals impact on Emergency Department workload and resource use

Objectives: To examine patient's characteristics associated with ED arrival mode, and to determine EMS impact on ED clinical resource use, workload and crowding. Methods: This is a retrospective study of patients seen at Sant'Andrea Hospital ED. Comparison focused on visit characteristics, and on resource use. Results: The use of EMS ambulance confirms association to older age, higher rate of hospital admission, longer length of stay, and severity of injury. Moreover our data show that ambulance referred patients are triaged into a higher acuity category and have a greater intensive care unit admission. Conclusion: Ambulance arrivals have a significant impact on ED resource use, workload and crowding

Endovascular aortic graft infection resulting in retroperitoneal abscess: report of a case

Infection is a rare complication of aortoiliac endovascular procedures, with an incidence inferior to 0.5%, and it may result in a retroperitoneal abscess potentially evolving to sepsis and gastrointestinal bleeding. In more than 50% of cases endovascular aortoiliac prosthetic grafts infection occur months or years after the procedure. The growing number of endovascular procedures, and as the actually midterm follow up in most cases, septic sequelae will no doubt continue to occur with increased frequency and may represent an emerging problem in the ED for the emergency physician. Endovascular graft infection begins with unspecific clinical manifestations. An high index of suspicion in any patient with an aortic stent graft presenting prolonged or recurrent fever and or abdominal or back pain and a low threshold for obtaining CT scan should increase the clinician's ability to make a timely diagnosis in the ED setting

The use of a new automatic device for patients' assessment at Triage in Emergency Department

Objectives: To assess time saving in an Emergency Department arising out of the introduction of automatic devices (Carescape™ V100) to measure vital signs compared to the manual devices. Methods: We performed a prospective, observational study of eligible patients referring to Sant'Andrea Hospital Emergency Department during the entire month of October 2009, randomly assigned into two groups. In the first group of 476 patients vital signs measurements were detected with manual devices, while in the second group of 477 patients with automatic device Carescape™ V100. Results: Data indicated that the comparison of the total time between the two groups gave a significant difference (1993 vs 1518 min, p < 0.001). No differences were found with respect to age, sex and priority codes. Significant differences were also found when comparing the subgroups of the same acuity categories: white codes 4.33 vs 2.27 (min), p < 0.05; green codes 4.28 vs 3.37 (min), p < 0.001; yellow codes 3.92 vs 2.72 (min), p < 0.001. Conclusions: Our data demonstrated a statistical significance between the two groups with a difference of 475 minutes spent in Triage procedures including vital signs measurements. In conclusion time saved by vital signs automatic device could allow ED physicians to make a qualified approach with an earlier diagnosis and a more rapid and effective therapy, possibly improving patients' outcomes. ABSTRACT of data concerning vital signs quality assessment, because we did not compare the two methods in the same patient and we did not correlate Triage priority evaluation with patients' outcomes. In the future further studies should be specifically aimed to address this issue. In conclusion time saved by vital signs automatic device could allow ED physicians to make a qualified approach to patient with an earlier diagnosis and a more rapid and effective therapy, possibly improving patients' outcomes

Effect of image registration on 3D absorbed dose calculations in 177 Lu-DOTATOC Peptide Receptor Radionuclide Therapy

Peptide receptor radionuclide therapy (PRRT) is an effective MRT (molecular radiotherapy) treatment, which consists of multiple administrations of a radiopharmaceutical labelled with 177Lu or 90Y. Through sequential functional imaging a patient specific 3D dosimetry can be derived. Multiple scans should be previously co-registered to allow accurate absorbed dose calculations. The purpose of this study is to evaluate the impact of image registration algorithms on 3D absorbed dose calculation. A cohort of patients was extracted from the database of a clinical trial in PRRT. They were administered with a single administration of 177Lu-DOTATOC. All patients underwent 5 SPECT/CT sequential scans at 1 h, 4 h, 24 h, 40 h, 70 h post-injection that were subsequently registered using rigid and deformable algorithms. A similarity index was calculated to compare rigid and deformable registration algorithms. 3D absorbed dose calculation was carried out with the Raydose Monte Carlo code. The similarity analysis demonstrated the superiority of the deformable registrations (p < .001). Average absorbed dose to the kidneys calculated using rigid image registration was consistently lower than the average absorbed dose calculated using the deformable algorithm (90% of cases), with percentage differences in the range [−19; +4]%. Absorbed dose to lesions were also consistently lower (90% of cases) when calculated with rigid image registration with absorbed dose differences in the range [−67.2; 100.7]%. Deformable image registration had a significant role in calculating 3D absorbed dose to organs or lesions with volumes smaller than 100 mL. Image based 3D dosimetry for 177Lu-DOTATOC PRRT is significantly affected by the type of algorithm used to register sequential SPECT/CT scans

Early death in Munchausen Syndrome: a case report

This case contributes to raising awareness and understanding of the complex clinical presentations of Munchausen syndrome (MS). Education of staff to the seriousness and genuineness of this disorder should be implemented, especially in hospital units, in order to detect such complex clinical situations quickly and accurately, preventing iatrogenic risks

Bringing social interaction at the core of organizational neuroscience

Organizations are composed of individuals working together for achieving specific goals, and interpersonal dynamics do exert a strong influence on workplace behaviour. Nevertheless, the dual and multiple perspective of interactions has been scarcely considered by Organizational Neuroscience (ON), the emerging field of study that aims at incorporating findings from cognitive and brain sciences into the investigation of organizational behaviour. This perspective article aims to highlight the potential benefits of adopting experimental settings involving two or more participants (the so-called "second person" approach) for studying the neural bases of organizational behaviour. Specifically, we stress the idea that moving beyond the individual perspective and capturing the dynamical relationships occurring within dyads or groups (e.g., leaders and followers, salespersons and clients, teams) might bring novel insights into the rising field of ON. In addition, designing research paradigms that reliably recreate real work and life situations might increase the generalizability and ecological validity of its results. We start with a brief overview of the current state of ON research and we continue by describing the second-person approach to social neuroscience. In the last paragraph, we try and outline how this approach could be extended to ON. To this end, we focus on leadership, group processes and emotional contagion as potential targets of interpersonal ON research