The impact of preservation fluid culture on graft site arteritis: a systematic review and metanalysis

The role of culturing the graft preservation fluid (PF) is controversial and its impact on graft arteritis development remains unclear

Impact of the Type of Dialysis on Time to Transplantation: Is It Just a Matter of Immunity?

Background: Renal transplantation represents the therapeutic gold standard in patients with end stage renal disease (ESRD). Still the role of pre-transplant dialysis in affecting time to transplantation has yet to be determined. We wanted to verify whether the type of renal replacement therapy (hemodialysis vs. peritoneal dialysis) affects time to transplantation and to identify clinical features related to the longer time to transplantation. Methods: We performed a retrospective single-center observational study on patients who had received a transplant in the Bologna Transplant Unit from 1991 to 2019, described through the analysis of digital transplant list documents for sex, age, body mass index (BMI), blood group, comorbidities, underlying disease, serology, type of dialysis, time to transplantation, Panel Reactive Antibodies (PRA) max, number of preformed anti Human Leukocyte Antigens (HLA) antibodies. A p-value < 0.05 was considered statistically significant. Results: In the 1619 patients analyzed, we observed a significant difference in time to transplant, PRA max and Preformed Antibodies Number between patients who received Hemodialysis (HD) and Peritoneal dialysis (PD). Then we performed a multiple regression analysis with all the considered factors in order to identify features that support these differences. The clinical variables that independently and directly correlate with longer time to transplantation are PRA max (p < 0.0001), Antibodies number (p < 0.0001) and HD (p < 0.0001); though AB blood group (p < 0.0001), age (p < 0.003) and PD (p < 0.0001) inversely correlate with time to transplantation. Conclusions: In our work, PD population received renal transplants in a shorter period of time compared to HD and turned out to be less immunized. Considering immunization, the type of dialysis impacts both on PRA max and on anti HLA antibodies

Histological findings of diabetic kidneys transplanted in non-diabetic recipients: a case series

Background Diabetic donors are recognized as a reliable source of organs, although the discard rate of kidneys is still high. Few data are available on the histological evolution of these organs especially on kidneys transplanted into non-diabetic patients who remain euglycemic. Methods We describe the histological evolution of ten kidney biopsies performed on non-diabetic recipients of diabetic donors. Results Mean donor age was 69 +/- 7 years, 60% were males. Two donors were treated with insulin, eight with oral antidiabetic drugs. Mean recipient age was 59.9 +/- 7 years, 70% were males. The pre-existing diabetic lesions identified in the pre-implantation biopsies, encompassed all histological classes, and were associated with mild IF/TA and vascular damages. The median follow-up was 59.5 [IQR 32.5-99.0] months; at follow-up, 40% of cases did not change histologic classification, two patients with class IIb downgraded to IIa or I and one with class III downgraded to IIb. Conversely, three cases showed a worsening, from class 0 to I, I to IIb or from IIa to IIb. We also observed a moderate evolution of IF/TA and vascular damages. At follow-up visit, estimated GFR was stable (50.7 mL/min vs. 54.8 at baseline) and proteinuria was mild (51.1 +/- 78.6 mg/day). Conclusions Kidneys from diabetic donors show variable evolution of the histologic features of diabetic nephropathy after transplant. This variability may be associated to recipients characteristics such as euglycemic milieu, in case of improvement, or obesity and hypertension, in case of worsening of histologic lesions

Immune inflammation indicators and ALBI score to predict liver cancer in HCV-patients treated with direct-acting antivirals

Background: Unexpectedly high occurrence or recurrence rate of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) has been observed in patients with chronic hepatitis C receiving direct-acting antivirals (DAAs) therapy. Aims: We evaluated the predictive value of albumin-bilirubin (ALBI) score and immune-inflammation indicators to identify the risk of occurrence or recurrence of HCC in patients treated with DAAs in a real life setting. Methods: In this retrospective cohort study, we analysed data from 514 patients with cirrhosis who were prospectively enrolled for treatment with DAAs. We assessed baseline neutrophil to lymphocyte ratio (NLR), systemic immune-inflammation index (SII), platelet to lymphocyte ratio (PLR), aspartate aminotransferase-lymphocyte ratio (ALRI) index and ALBI score. Results: In patients with no history of HCC (N = 416), increased AST, bilirubin, ALRI, and ALBI score, and decreased albumin and platelets were significantly associated with an increased risk of HCC development, at univariate analysis. At multivariate analysis, increase in ALBI grade (p = 0.038, HR: 2.35, 95% CI: 1.05\u20135.25) and decrease in platelets (p = 0.048, HR: 0.92, 95% CI: 0.85\u20131.0) were independently associated with HCC development. In patients with previous HCC (N = 98), adjusting for the time from HCC treatment, increased ALRI (p = 0.008, HR: 1.05, 95% CI: 1.01\u20131.09) was significantly associated with a risk of recurrence. Conclusion: ALBI score, platelet count and ALRI are promising, easy to perform and inexpensive tools for identifying patients with higher risk of HCC after treatment with DAAs

In hepatocellular carcinoma miR-221 modulates sorafenib resistance through inhibition of caspase-3\u2013mediated apoptosis

Purpose: The aberrant expression of miR-221 is a hallmark of human cancers, including hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC), and its involvement in drug resistance, together with a proved in vivo efficacy of anti-miR-221 molecules, strengthen its role as an attractive target candidate in the oncologic field. The discovery of biomarkers predicting the response to treatments represents a clinical challenge in the personalized treatment era. This study aimed to investigate the possible role of miR-221 as a circulating biomarker in HCC patients undergoing sorafenib treatment as well as to evaluate its contribution to sorafenib resistance in advanced HCC. Experimental Design: A chemically induced HCC rat model and a xenograft mouse model, together with HCC-derived cell lines were employed to analyze miR-221 modulation by Sorafenib treatment. Data from the functional analysis were validated in tissue samples from surgically resected HCCs. The variation of circulating miR-221 levels in relation to Sorafenib treatment were assayed in the animal models and in two independent cohorts of patients with advanced HCC. Results: MiR-221 over-expression was associated with Sorafenib resistance in two HCC animal models and caspase-3 was identified as its target gene, driving miR-221 anti-apoptotic activity following Sorafenib administration. Lower pre-treatment miR-221 serum levels were found in patients subsequently experiencing response to Sorafenib and an increase of circulating miR-221 at the two months assessment was observed in responder patients. Conclusions: MiR-221 might represent a candidate biomarker of likelihood of response to Sorafenib in HCC patients to be tested in future studies. Caspase-3 modulation by miR-221 participates to Sorafenib resistance

Un’ antologia-archeologia di arte e femminismo nell’Italia degli anni Settanta. “Il Soggetto Imprevisto” in mostra a FM Centro per l’Arte Contemporanea

none1noTestimonianza della ricerca tenace e costante di un nuovo linguaggio femminile le opere delle oltre cento artiste esposte a Milano in “The Unexpected Subject / Il Soggetto Imprevisto. 1978 Arte e Femminismo in Italia”. Organizzata da FM Centro per l’Arte Contemporanea, con il supporto della prima donna alla guida della Maison Dior, Maria Grazia Chiuri, la mostra propone una prima, necessaria ricognizione complessiva della relazione tra arti visive e femminismo (o sarebbe più corretto dire femminismi) in Italia.openGiorgia RavaioliGiorgia Ravaiol

La fotografia tra machine vision e keywording: le origini pre-digitali della nuova archival art

Se la tendenza nota come archival art di fine secolo riguardava anzitutto una “performance trasgressiva” delle logiche tassonomiche tradizionali, negli ultimi anni, in parallelo alla revisione della nozione stessa di archivio nell'ambiente digitale, sono emerse nuove declinazioni della pratica artistica, sintomatiche della diffusione di paradigmi di classificazione diversi, anti-bibliografici e specifici della contemporaneità più ristretta. L’articolo esplora queste transizioni attraverso tre esempi di dataset art, di cui propone una lettura in continuità genealogica con i motivi teorici e con le preoccupazioni alla base di due diversi approcci alla gestione di gradi collezioni fotografiche del XX secolo

Facing Power. Fotografia, partecipazione e tattiche di resistenza artistica nella sorveglianza contemporanea

Cruciale storicamente tanto nei processi identitari e sociali quanto in forme sempre più aggiornate di sorveglianza dell’individuo, l’immagine fotografica del volto rappresenta oggi un territorio quanto mai controverso. La trasformazione del concetto di identità operata dai nuovi metodi di profilazione digitale – dei quali il riconoscimento facciale costituisce il punto di arrivo – nasconde infatti meccanismi di “cattura” del soggetto che si fondano su un’asimmetria senza precedenti tra la massima esposizione dell’individuo e l’opposta imperscrutabilità dell’apparato. A fronte di questa transizione della visibilità da strumento di autodeterminazione a fattore di vulnerabilità, l’articolo propone una valutazione critica del ruolo che la fotografia può svolgere entro un orizzonte di tattiche di resistenza alla disgregazione sociale e ai meccanismi coercitivi prodotti dalle nuove forme di monitoraggio. Progetti artistici recenti quali Capture (2020) di Paolo Cirio, Facial Weaponization Suite (2012) di Zach Blas e Lend Me Your Face! (2020) di Tamiko Thiel e /p sono assunti come esempi di una tendenza verso una radicale riconfigurazione del paradigma espositivo del soggetto, operata a partire da un’introduzione di istanze partecipative all’interno del medium fotografico. L’ambizione di queste opere a un ribilanciamento dei rapporti tra le funzioni repressive e civiche della fotografia apre così alla possibilità di creare piattaforme alternative di discussione, scambio e appartenenza sociale al riparo dalle predazioni del potere.Throughout its history, photographic portraiture has been crucially involved in both the social configuration of identity and evermore sophisticated forms of surveillance, becoming one of today’s most controversial topics of public concern. The transformation of the notion of identity operated by new techniques of digital profiling – facial recognition being the culminating point – hides in fact mechanisms of “capture” based on an asymmetrical relation between the subject’s maximum exposure and the apparatus’s inscrutability. Facing this inversion in the political agency of visibility, the article presents a critical evaluation of photography’s potential implication in tactics of resistance against social disintegration and the coercive mechanisms proVisual Cultural Studies 5 – 2022116 duced by new monitoring methods and tools. Recent artistic projects such as Capture (2020) by Paolo Cirio, Facial Weaponization Suite (2012) by Zach Blas, and Lend Me Your Face! (2020) by Tamiko Thiel and /p are discussed as examples of a tendency towards a radical rethinking of the subject’s space of appearance and exposure. By leveraging participation and photography, these projects attempt to re-adjust the balance between the medium’s repressive function and its civic function, thus creating alternative spheres of discussion, exchange, and social belonging, safe from the dominant power

Tracce dal futuro. Leggibilità e virtualità in The Anthropocene Project

Facing the epistemic and ethical challenge presented by the difficult legibility of the processes constituting the Anthropocene, artistic operations can offer a privileged tool for understanding the human impact on the planet. Nevertheless, the "hyper-object" nature of the environmental crisis – which, according to the philosopher Timothy Morton, takes place on spatial and temporal scales impossible for humans to perceive directly and does not allow for a distance – prevents artists from providing a transparent, unmediated and hyper-readable image. This paper therefore discusses the interrelated concepts of readability, mediation and virtuality in the specific case of The Anthropocene Project, a multidisciplinary work by Edward Burtynsky, Jennifer Baichwal and Nicholas De Pencier in which AR installations, 360° VR films and gigapixel photo essays with video extensions are combined to deliver interactive and immersive experiences in environments deeply marked by human activity. In particular, an evaluation of the ability of the media used in the project to make the Anthropocene readable is proposed precisely on the basis of renouncing a claim to immediacy: in reference above all to the AR installations and the 360° VR films, we affirm that the very lack of perfect overlapping between reality and virtuality, according to what Engberg and Bolter (2020) have defined as the "La Ciotat effect", can produce in the audience a sense of awe and responsibility.Di fronte alla sfida epistemica ed etica rappresentata dalla difficile leggibilità dei processi che costituiscono l’Antropocene, le operazioni artistiche possono offrire uno strumento privilegiato per la comprensione dell’impatto umano sul pianeta. Tuttavia, il carattere di “iperoggetto” della crisi ambientale – la quale, nelle parole del filosofo Timothy Morton, si svolge su scale spazio-temporali impossibili per l’uomo da percepire direttamente e non permette una presa di distanza – impedisce agli artisti di fornirne un’immagine trasparente, immediata e iper-leggibile. Nel presente articolo, dunque, si discutono i concetti interrelati di leggibilità, mediatezza e virtualità nel caso specifico di The Anthropocene Project, lavoro multidisciplinare di Edward Burtynsky, Jennifer Baichwal e Nicholas De Pencier in cui installazioni in AR, film VR a 360° e essay fotografici in gigapixel con estensioni video sono combinati al fine di restituire esperienze interattive e immersive in ambienti profondamente segnati dall’attività umana. In particolare, è proposta una valutazione della capacità dei supporti impiegati all’interno del progetto di rendere possibile una leggibilità dell’Antropocene esattamente a partire dalla rinuncia ad una pretesa di immediatezza: in riferimento soprattutto alle installazioni in AR e ai film VR a 360°, si conclude infatti che proprio la mancanza di una perfetta sovrapponibilità tra realtà e virtualità, secondo quello che Engberg e Bolter (2020) hanno definito “effetto La Ciotat”, può produrre nello spettatore un senso di stupore e responsabilità

[Kidney Transplant from donors after cardiac death (DCD): monocentric experience and literature review]

Il trapianto di rene da donatore dopo morte cardiaca (DCD) rappresenta una valida opzione per incrementare il numero di organi disponibili, mantenendo standard di sopravvivenza e di funzionalit\ue0 del graft sovrapponibili ai trapianti da donatore per morte cerebrale (DBD). Il Centro di Riferimento Trapianti dell\u2019Emilia Romagna ha attivato un programma di donazione da DCD a partire da Gennaio 2016. Il presente studio \ue8 stato condotto con lo scopo di analizzare la casistica dei trapianti di rene eseguiti nei primi 30 mesi di attivit\ue0 del programma, confrontando gli outcome dei DCD con quelli dei trapianti da donatore DBD eseguiti nello stesso periodo. Sono stati inoltre indagati eventuali fattori prognostici predittivi di funzionalit\ue0 renale. Nel periodo esaminato sono stati eseguiti 16 trapianti di rene da 10 donatori DCD (5 SCD-DCD e 5 ECD-DCD). Non sono state osservate Primary Non Function(PNF). Sono state osservate 2 graft loss entro 12 mesi, entrambe conseguenti a transplantectomia per rottura dell\u2019arteria renale in corso di complicanza infettiva. Due pazienti sono deceduti in seguito a tali complicanze infettive. La DGF ha avuto un\u2019incidenza del 44%. In termini di funzionalit\ue0 del trapianto non sono state osservate differenze nei valori di creatininemia ed eGFR alla dimissione, a 12 ed a 24 mesi rispetto ai DBD. Le caratteristiche di marginalit\ue0 del donatore (ECD-DCD o KDPI >65%) correlavano con una pi\uf9 elevata incidenza di DGF e valori di funzione renale peggiori alla dimissione. Nessuno dei fattori analizzati, tra cui lo Score di Karpinsky, ha mostrato correlazione con i valori di creatiniemia e filtrato glomerulare a 12 e 24 mesi.Kidney transplant from donor after circulatory death (DCD) represents a valid choice to increase the incidence of renal transplantation, presenting recipients' and grafts' survival rates comparable to those from brain dead donors (DBD). In January 2016, the Transplant Referral Center in the Emilia Romagna region has started a DCD program. In the present study we report on the first 30 months of the program as far as our own Center in Bologna is concerned, and we provide a comparison with DBD transplants performed over the same period. From January 2016 to September 2018, 16 kidney transplants from 10 DCD donors (5 SCD-DCD and 5 ECD-DCD) have been performed, with two graft-loss at 12 months of follow-up, both due to renal artery rupture caused by infectious arteritis with consequent transplantectomy. Two patients died due to sepsis. Seven (44%) delay graft function (DGF) have been reported. No differences have been found between DCD and DBD in terms of kidney function (serum creatinine and eGFR evaluated at discharge, 12 and 24 months of follow-up). Kidney from marginal donors (ECD-DCD or KDPI >65%) were associated with a higher rate of DGF and worst graft function at discharge. All the predicting factors that have been analysed, including Karpinsky Score, failed to show an association with serum creatinine and eGFR at 12 and 24 months of follow up