Thin walled pottery from Alife (Northern Campania, Italy)

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Epidemiology of Pulmonary Embolism in Apulia from analysis of current data

Background and aims. Pulmonary embolism (PE) is a relatively common cardiovascular emergency: present evidence suggests that PE is the third most acute cardiovascular disease after cardiac ischemic syndromes and stroke. The aim of this study is to evaluate hospital admissions for PE in the Apulia Region of Italy in the period 2001-2007 through an analysis of the Apulia Region hospital patient discharge database. Methods. Patients were selected on the basis of admissions between 01/01/2001 and 31/12/2007 with ICD-9-CM code of 415.11 (Iatrogenic pulmonary embolism and infarction) or 415.19 (Other pulmonary embolism and infarction) as principal or secondary diagnosis. Results. The number of patients selected from the database was 4,303. The raw annual admission data shows an increasing trend from 13.9x100,000 residents in 2001 to 18.9x100,000 residents in 2007. The average patient age was 68.7 years and 59% were females and 41%. There were 470 deaths in hospital (10.9% of patients). Conclusions. PE is associated with much health care and a substantial economic burden, yet many PE and general venous thromboembolism (VTE) events are preventable. It remains the responsibility of individual hospitals to identify specific areas in which they can improve their VTE prophylaxis rates to obtain positive results from the reporting initiatives and incentive programs

Epidemiology of pulmonary embolism in Apulia from analysis of current data.

Background and aims. Pulmonary embolism (PE) is a relatively common cardiovascular emergency: present evidence suggests that PE is the third most acute cardiovascular disease after cardiac ischemic syndromes and stroke. The aim of this study is to evaluate hospital admissions for PE in the Apulia Region of Italy in the period 2001-2007 through an analysis of the Apulia Region hospital patient discharge database. Methods. Patients were selected on the basis of admissions between 01/01/2001 and 31/12/2007 with ICD-9-CM code of 415.11 (Iatrogenic pulmonary embolism and infarction) or 415.19 (Other pulmonary embolism and infarction) as principal or secondary diagnosis. Results. The number of patients selected from the database was 4,303. The raw annual admission data shows an increasing trend from 13.9x100,000 residents in 2001 to 18.9x100,000 residents in 2007. The average patient age was 68.7 years and 59% were females and 41%. There were 470 deaths in hospital (10.9% of patients). Conclusions. PE is associated with much health care and a substantial economic burden, yet many PE and general venous thromboembolism (VTE) events are preventable. It remains the responsibility of individual hospitals to identify specific areas in which they can improve their VTE prophylaxis rates to obtain positive results from the reporting initiatives and incentive programs

Hospital discharges-based search of acute flaccid paralysis cases 2007-2016 in Italy and comparison with the National Surveillance System for monitoring the risk of polio reintroduction

Background: Acute flaccid paralysis (AFP) surveillance has been adopted globally as a key strategy for monitoring the progress of the polio eradication initiative. Hereby, to evaluate the completeness of the ascertainment of AFP cases in Italy, a hospital-discharges based search was carried out. Methods: AFP cases occurring between 2007 and 2016 among children under 15 years of age were searched in the Italian Hospital Discharge Records (HDR) database using specific ICD-9-CM diagnostic codes. AFP cases identified between 2015 and 2016 were then compared with those notified to the National Surveillance System (NSS). Results: Over a 10-year period, 4163 hospital discharges with diagnosis of AFP were reported in Italy. Among these, 956 (23.0%) were acute infective polyneuritis, 1803 (43.3%) myopathy, and 1408 (33.8%) encephalitis, myelitis and encephalomyelitis. During the study period, a decreasing trend was observed for all diagnoses and overall the annual incidence rate (IR) declined from 5.5 to 4.5 per 100,000 children. Comparing NSS with HDR data in 2015-2016, we found a remarkable underreporting, being AFP cases from NSS only 14% of those recorded in HDR. In particular, the acute infective polyneuritis cases reported to NSS accounted for 42.6% of those detected in HDR, while only 0.9% of myopathy cases and 13.1% of encephalitis/myelitis/encephalomyelitis cases have been notified to NSS. The highest AFP IRs per 100,000 children calculated on HDR data were identified in Liguria (17.4), Sicily (5.7), and Veneto (5.1) Regions; regarding the AFP notified to the NSS, 11 out of 21 Regions failed to reach the number of expected cases (based on 1/100,000 rate), and the highest discrepancies were observed in the Northern Regions. Overall, the national AFP rate was equal to 0.6, therefore did not reach the target value. Conclusions: AFP surveillance data are the final measure of a country's progress towards polio eradication. The historical data obtained by the HDR have been useful to assess the completeness of the notification data and to identify the Regions with a low AFP ascertainment rate in order to improve the national surveillance system

Adverse events following measles-mumps-rubella-varicella vaccination and the case of seizures: A post marketing active surveillance in Puglia Italian region, 2017-2018

Since 2012, the Italian Ministry of Health has recommended to improve the surveillance of adverse events following the measles-mumps-rubella-varicella (MMRV) tetravalent vaccine that was provided in the official immunization schedule of some Italian regions for children during the second year of life. This recommendation was based on data from some surveys that showed an additional risk of seizure following the administration of this vaccine. Responding to the Ministry commitment, the Puglia Region launched, from May 2017 to November 2018, a post-marketing active surveillance program of adverse events following MMRV immunization (AEFIs). Immunized children (second year of life) were enrolled on a voluntary basis, AEFIs diaries were used, and their parents were interviewed 25 days after the immunization. There were 2540 children enrolled; 2149/2540 (84.6%) completed the post-vaccination follow-up. Of these, 992 AEFIs were registered with a reporting rate of 46.2 × 100 doses: 883/992 (89.0%) AEFIs were not serious, while 109/992 (11.0%) were serious. For serious AEFIs, the evaluation of causality assessment was performed using the algorithm proposed by the World Health Organisation (WHO): 82/109 consistent causal associations to MMRV immunization were detected (reporting rate of consistent AEFIs: 3.8 × 100 follow-up). All serious AEFIs consistently associated with immunization resulted completely resolved at the follow-up. The reporting rate of seizure consistently associated with immunization was 0.05 × 100, lower than data previous published in the literature that did not report the causality assessment. Because no emerging signals were detected, our data from the active surveillance program confirmed the safety profile of the MMRV vaccine

Normothermic and hypothermic oxygenated perfusion for donation after circulatory death in kidney transplantation: Do we pay higher risk of severe infection after transplantation?: A case report

Background: Normothermic and hypothermic oxygenated perfusion for donation after circulatory death in kidney transplantation are becoming popular in Italy, with the purpose of reducing the risk of primary non function and delayed graft function due to the prolonged warm ischemia time. Potential complications related to these procedures are currently under investigation and are continuously emerging with the increasing experience. Post-operative infections - in particular graft arteritis - are a rare complication but determine high risk of mortality and of graft loss. The acute onset of the arterial complications makes it very difficult to find an effective treatment, and early diagnosis is crucial for saving both patient and graft. Prevention of such infections in this particular setting are advisable. Case presentation: We present a patient with an acute arterial rupture after transplantation of a DCD graft treated in-vivo hypothermic oxygenated perfusion. The cause was a severe arteritis of the renal artery caused by Candida krusei and Pseudomonas aeruginosa. We discussed our treatment and we compared it to the other reported series. Conclusion: Fungal infections in DCD transplant may be treacherous and strategies to prevent them should be advocated

Community-wide outbreak of haemolytic uraemic syndrome associated with Shiga toxin 2-producing Escherichia coli O26:H11 in southern Italy, summer 2013

In summer 2013, an excess of paediatric cases of haemolytic uraemic syndrome (HUS) in a southern region of Italy prompted the investigation of a community-wide outbreak of Shiga toxin 2-producing Escherichia coli (STEC) O26:H11 infections. Case finding was based on testing patients with HUS or bloody diarrhoea for STEC infection by microbiological and serological methods. A case-control study was conducted to identify the source of the outbreak. STEC O26 infection was identified in 20 children (median age 17 months) with HUS, two of whom reported severe neurological sequelae. No cases in adults were detected. Molecular typing showed that two distinct STEC O26:H11 strains were involved. The case-control study showed an association between STEC O26 infection and consumption of dairy products from two local plants, but not with specific ready-to-eat products. E.coli O26:H11 strains lacking the stx genes were isolated from bulk milk and curd samples, but their PFGE profiles did not match those of the outbreak isolates. This outbreak supports the view that infections with Stx2-producing E. coli O26 in children have a high probability of progressing to HUS and represent an emerging public health problem in Europe

Evolution of the nuclear modification factors with rapidity and centrality in d+Au collisions at $\sqrt{s_{NN}} = 200 GeV

We report on a study of the transverse momentum dependence of nuclear modification factors $R_{dAu}$ for charged hadrons produced in deuteron + gold collisions at $\sqrt{s_{NN}}= 200$GeV, as a function of collision centrality and of the pseudorapidity ($\eta = 0,1,2.2,3.2$) of the produced hadrons. We find significant and systematic decrease of $R_{dAu}$ with increasing rapidity. The midrapidity enhancement and the forward rapidity suppression are more pronounced in central collisions relative to peripheral collisions. These results are relevant to the study of the possible onset of gluon saturation at RHIC energies.Comment: Four pages, four figures. Published in PRL. Figures 1 and 2 have been updated, and several changes made to the tex