Candidurie nosocomiali: analisi dei fattori di rischio, terapia ed evoluzione micologica. Risultati di una indagine nazionale

n/

Candidurie nosocomiali: analisi dei fattori di rischio, terapia ed evoluzione micologica. Risultati di una indagine nazionale

The multiple problems associated with the recovery of yeasts from urine specimens induced the Medical Mycology Committee (CoSM) of AMCLI to run a nationwide epidemiologic survey on candiduria in order to evaluate risk factors, involved species, treatment and outcome. Ten hospitals (Bergamo, Como, Crema, Novara,Varese,Ancona, Florence, Pescara, Palermo and Taranto) participated to this study, which was run on a 15-month period (October 1, 2001-December 31, 2002). Overall, 83 Data Forms were collected, regarding patients admitted to Intensive Care Units (45), Surgical (9) and Medical (29) wards. The most common risk factors were: bladder catheter, antibiotic therapy, parenteral nutrition, kidney failure, surgery. Candiduria, mostly asymptomatic, were often associated with fever and bacterial infections. Concurrent candidaemia was detected in 13 patients. Candida albicans was the most frequently recovered species, from both urine and blood, followed by C. glabrata. Other Candida species were occasionally isolated from urine specimens. Specific antifungal treatment was administered to 58% of the patients, mostly using fluconazole. The remaining subjects did not receive antimycotic therapy. Eradication of Candida from urine specimens was observed even without a specific therapy

Notulae to the Italian alien vascular flora: 1

In this contribution, new data concerning the Italian distribution of alien vascular flora are presented. It includes new records, exclusions, and confirmations for Italy or for Italian administrative regions for taxa in the genera Agave, Arctotheca, Berberis, Bidens, Cardamine, Catalpa, Cordyline, Cotoneaster, Dichondra, Elaeagnus, Eragrostis, Impatiens, Iris, Koelreuteria, Lamiastrum, Lantana, Ligustrum, Limnophila, Lonicera, Lycianthes, Maclura, Mazus, Paspalum, Pelargonium, Phyllanthus, Pyracantha, Ruellia, Sorghum, Symphyotrichum, Triticum, Tulbaghia and Youngia

La cooperazione allo sviluppo all\u2019Universita'\ua0 di Padova

Viene presentata la cooperazione allo sviluppo dell'Universit\ue0 di Padov

An ocular myopathy with glycogen storage and abnormal mitochondria in muscle fibres. Histochemical and ultrastructural findings.

The case of a 66-year-old woman with progressive external ophthalmoplegia and involvement of the proximal muscles of the upper and lower limbs is described. EMG examinations show signs of myopathic involvement. Histochemical and biochemical studies exclude a primary defect in glycogenolysis. The authors stress the peculiarity of the histochemical findings, characterized by the rare associated appearance of both mitochondrial changes and glycogen accumulation in muscle fibres. The most prominent ultrastructural findings are evidence of increased glycogen, usually present in vesicles or in mitochondria, and changes in number, size and structure of mitochondria. Quantitative biochemical examination of muscle homogenates confirmed the increased content of glycogen in muscle fibres

Tissue microarray design and construction for scientific, industrial and diagnostic use

Context: In 2013 the high throughput technology known as Tissue Micro Array (TMA) will be fifteen years old. Its elements (design, construction and analysis) are intuitive and the core histopathology technique is unsophisticated, which may be a reason why has eluded a rigorous scientific scrutiny. The source of errors, particularly in specimen identification and how to control for it is unreported. Formal validation of the accuracy of segmenting (also known as de-arraying) hundreds of samples, pairing with the sample data is lacking. Aims: We wanted to address these issues in order to bring the technique to recognized standards of quality in TMA use for research, diagnostics and industrial purposes. Results: We systematically addressed the sources of error and used barcode-driven data input throughout the whole process including matching the design with a TMA virtual image and segmenting that image back to individual cases, together with the associated data. In addition we demonstrate on mathematical grounds that a TMA design, when superimposed onto the corresponding whole slide image, validates on each and every sample the correspondence between the image and patient′s data. Conclusions: High throughput use of the TMA technology is a safe and efficient method for research, diagnosis and industrial use if all sources of errors are identified and addressed

Caveolin-1, Caveolin-2 and Cavin-1 are strong predictors of adipogenic differentiation in human tumors and cell lines of liposarcoma

Caveolins (Cav-1, -2 and -3) and Cavins (Cavin-1, -2, -3 and -4) are two protein families controlling the biogenesis and function of caveolae, plasma membrane omega-like invaginations representing the primary site of important cellular processes like endocytosis, cholesterol homeostasis and signal transduction. Caveolae are especially abundant in fat tissue, playing a consistent role in a number of processes, such as the insulin-dependent glucose uptake and transmembrane transport of lipids underlying differentiation, maintenance and adaptive hypertrophy of adipocytes. Based on this premise, in this work we have investigated the expression of caveolar protein components in liposarcoma (LPS), an adipocytic soft tissue sarcoma affecting adults categorized in well-differentiated, dedifferentiated, myxoid and pleomorphic histotypes. By performing an extensive microarray data analysis followed by immunohistochemistry on human LPS tumors, we demonstrated that Cav-1, Cav-2 and Cavin-1 always cluster in all the histotypes, reaching the highest expression in well-differentiated LPS, the least aggressive of the malignant forms composed by tumor cells with a morphology resembling mature adipocytes. In vitro experiments carried out using two human LPS cell lines confirmed that the expression levels of Cav-1, Cav-2 and Cavin-1 proteins were faintly detectable during cell growth, but became consistently increased during the accumulation of intracellular lipid droplets characterizing the adipogenic differentiation. Moreover, in differentiated LPS cells the three proteins were also found to co-localize and form molecular aggregates at the plasma membrane, as shown via immunofluorescence and immunoprecipitation analysis. Overall, these data indicate that Cav-1, Cav-2 and Cavin-1 may be considered as reliable markers for identification of those LPS tumors characterized by consistent adipogenic differentiation