L\u2019assistenza psicologica nei trapianti d\u2019organo

The aim of this report is introducing with a series of psychological, psychiatric and psychosocial problems, that can arise, at every point, in the procedure of organ transplantations. Different areas of intervention are considered: the assistance to the patients and their families during the pre-and post-operative periods; the evaluation of transplant recipients' quality of life; ethical and psychological problems of living kidney donation; psychosocial support to donors' families; the training of the intensive therapy units to entertain relationships with donors' relatives; the delicate psychological aspects of transplantation during childhood. The sense of awareness about these matters is growing in Italy too, and many initiatives of psychological and psychiatric help are being developed in collaboration with several transplantation centres

Urinary p-cresol is elevated in small children with severe Autism Spectrum Disorder

Urinary p-cresol is elevated in small children with severe autism spectrum disorder. Altieri L, Neri C, Sacco R, Curatolo P, Benvenuto A, Muratori F, Santocchi E, Bravaccio C, Lenti C, Saccani M, Rigardetto R, Gandione M, Urbani A, Persico AM. Laboratory of Molecular Psychiatry and Neurogenetics, University Campus Bio-Medico, Via Alvaro del Portillo 21, Rome, Italy. Several studies have described in autistic patients an overgrowth of unusual gut bacterial strains, able to push the fermentation of tyrosine up to the formation of p-cresol. We compared levels of urinary p-cresol, measured by high-performance liquid chromatography-ultraviolet, in 59 matched case-control pairs. Urinary p-cresol was significantly elevated in autistic children smaller than 8 years of age (p < 0.01), typically females (p < 0.05), and more severely affected regardless of sex (p < 0.05). Urinary cotinine measurements excluded smoking-related hydrocarbon contaminations as contributors to these differences. Hence, elevated urinary p-cresol may serve as a biomarker of autism liability in small children, especially females and more severely affected males

Urinary p-cresol is elevated in small children with severe autism spectrum disorder.

Several studies have described in autistic patients an overgrowth of unusual gut bacterial strains, able to push the fermentation of tyrosine up to the formation of p-cresol. We compared levels of urinary p-cresol, measured by highperformance liquid chromatography\u2013ultraviolet, in 59 matched case-control pairs. Urinary p-cresol was significantly elevated in autistic children smaller than 8 years of age (p < 0.01), typically females (p < 0.05), and more severely affected regardless of sex (p < 0.05). Urinary cotinine measurements excluded smoking-related hydrocarbon contaminations as contributors to these differences. Hence, elevated urinary p-cresol may serve as a biomarker of autism liability in small children, especially females and more severely affected males

Urinary polyomavirus infections in neurodevelopmental disorders

We have recently reported enhanced frequencies of polyomavirus infection in post-mortem brain tissue of autistic patients compared to controls. To further ex- plore potential contributions to neurodevelopmental disorders by polyomaviruses, we have employed spe- cie-specific TaqMan assays to assess the prevalence and titres of BKV, JCV and SV40 in the urines of 87 patients with autism spectrum disorder, 84 controls matched by sex and age with the autistic sample, 15 subjects with Down syndrome and 13 fragile X indi- viduals. Prevalence rates of urinary BKV infection were significantly greater in Down syndrome and fra- gile X patients compared to autistic and control indi- viduals (P < 0.01). In a large majority of patients who showed the presence of urinary genomes, viral titres resulted significantly higher among Down syndrome patients (P < 0.01) compared to controls, autism spec- trum disorder and fragile X individuals, who did not significantly differ from each other. Our results are consistent with previous evidence supporting ham- pered immunological surveillance and/or immune de- ficits in fragile X and especially in Down syndrome patients