Would You Prescribe Mobile Health Apps for Heart Failure Self-care? An Integrated Review of Commercially Available Mobile Technology for Heart Failure Patients

Treatment of chronic diseases, such as heart failure, requires complex protocols based on early diagnosis; self-monitoring of symptoms, vital signs and physical activity; regular medication intake; and education of patients and caregivers about relevant aspects of the disease. Smartphones and mobile health applications could be very helpful in improving the efficacy of such protocols, but several barriers make it difficult to fully exploit their technological potential and produce clear clinical evidence of their effectiveness. App suppliers do not help users distinguish between useless/dangerous apps and valid solutions. The latter are few and often characterised by rapid obsolescence, lack of interactivity and lack of authoritative information. Systematic reviews can help physicians and researchers find and assess the 'best candidate solutions' in a repeatable manner and pave the way for well-grounded and fruitful discussion on their clinical effectiveness. To this purpose, the authors assess 10 apps for heart failure self-care using the Intercontinental Marketing Statistics score and other criteria, discuss the clinical effectiveness of existing solutions and identify barriers to their use in practice and drivers for change

Global impact of Torque teno virus infection in wild and domesticated animals

Infection with Torque teno viruses (TTVs) is not restricted to humans. Different domestic and wild animal species are naturally infected with species-specific TTVs worldwide. Due to the global spread of the infection, it is likely that essentially all animals are naturally infected with species-specific TTVs, and that co-evolution of TTVs with their hosts probably occurred. Although TTVs are potentially related to many diseases, the evidence of the widespread infection in healthy human and nonhuman hosts raised doubts about their pathogenic potential. Nonetheless, their role as superimposed agents of other diseases or as triggers for impairment of immune surveillance is currently under debate. The possible contribution of animal TT viruses to interspecies transmission and their role as zoonotic agents are currently topics of discussion

Recent hot spot volcanism in the European and Mediterranean area

From late Cretaceous to present time, an extensive magmatic activity developed both in Europe and northern Africa, showing a progressive transition with time from calc-alkaline to Na-rich alkaline features in areas tightly connected with subduction systems (Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, Spain, western Italy), while Na-rich basalts and basanites, with minor tholeiitic volcanics, occur at extensional tectonic settings, both associated or not to orogenic dynamics (Valencia trough, Pannonian, Alboran, Tyrrhenian, and Aegean basins, Pantelleria-Etna-Iblean area, Veneto Province, Cenozoic Rift System). The widespread alkaline magmatism in the European and circum Mediterranean area shows a uniform OIB-HIMU-type signature which has been previously ascribed to a plume-related european astenospheric reservoir (EAR) standing at less than 400 km depth in the upper mantle (Wilson and Downes, 1991). In the same area a large low seismic velocity zone below 900 km depth is evident by tomographic images from whole mantle models. The mantle transition zone under central-western Europe and Mediterranean is instead characterized by a high velocity anomaly, while the top most mantle is again dominated by a low-velocity zone on a large scale (Goes et al., 1999; Piromallo and Morelli, 2003). The origin of this mantle geochemical/geophysical anomaly has been related to the Mesozoic super-plume activity centered at Madeira-Canary-Cape Verde (MCCV), where the HIMU component appears to have its purest fingerprint (Hoernle et al., 1995; Wilson, 1997; Oyarzun et al., 1997; Gasperini et al., 2003).Achievable interpretations of any relationship between present seismic anomalies and alkaline magmatism in this wide area are restricted to recent time (Hoernle et al., 1995; Goes et al., 1999), since older geochemical and geophysical features depend on the paleo-position of each magmatic center toward the south-west. Assuming that a common and primary mantle plume has been upwelling beneath the present MCCV since at least 65-70 Ma, using a hot spot reference frame, we projected that in the early Cenozoic the theoretical positions of the European magmatic centers might outline the old plume head size. The shallower large-scale swell of this plume had been subsequently dragged by motion of Eurasia towards the northeast and trapped above the transition zone, favoring plume related volcanism if and where local extensional tectonics and slab rupture occur (Macera et al., 2003)

High prevalence of co-infection with multiple Torque teno sus virus species in Italian pig herds.

Torque teno viruses (TTVs) are a large group of vertebrate-infecting small viruses with circular single-stranded DNA, classified in the Anelloviridae family. In swine, two genetically distinct species, Torque teno sus virus 1a (TTSuV1a) and 1b (TTSuV1b) are currently grouped into the genus Iotatorquevirus. More recently, a novel Torque teno sus virus species, named Torque teno sus virus k2b (TTSuVk2b), has been included with Torque teno sus virus k2a (TTSuVk2a) into the genus Kappatorquevirus. In the present study, TTSuV1 (TTSuV1a and TTSuV1b), TTSuVk2a and TTSuVk2b prevalence was evaluated in 721 serum samples of healthy pigs from Sardinian farms, insular Italy. This is the largest study to date on the presence of TTSuV in healthy pigs in Italy. The global prevalence of infection was 83.2% (600/721), being 62.3% (449/721), 60.6% (437/721), and 11.5% (83/721) the prevalence of TTSuV1, TTSuVk2a and TTSuVk2b, respectively. The rate of co-infection with two and/or three species was also calculated, and data show that co-infections were significantly more frequent than infections with single species, and that TTSuV1+TTSuVk2a double infection was the prevalent combination (35.4%). Quantitative results obtained using species-specific real time-qPCR evidenced the highest mean levels of viremia in the TTSuV1 subgroup, and the lowest in the TTSuVk2b subgroup. Interestingly, multiple infections with distinct TTSuV species seemed to significantly affect the DNA load and specifically, data highlighted that double infection with TTSuVk2a increased the viral titers of TTSuV1, likewise the co-infection with TTSuVk2b increased the titers of TTSuVk2a

EFFECT OF 3/7 STRENGTH TRAINING METHOD IN CARDIAC REHABILITATION: A RANDOMIZED CONTROL TRIAL

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The Role of Bacterial Colonization of the Suture Thread in Early Identification and Targeted Antibiotic Treatment of Surgical Site Infections: A Prospective Cohort Study

Background: The aim of the present study is to investigate the role of the colonization of suture thread to identify patients at risk of developing a surgical site infection (SSI) after clean surgical procedures. Methods: Patients who underwent elective clean surgery procedures at the Surgery Unit of the AOU-University of Campania Luigi Vanvitelli in a 21-month period were prospectively enrolled. For each patient, a synthetic absorbable thread in Lactomer 9-1 was inserted into the surgical site at the end of surgery and microbiologically evaluated after 48 h. Antibiotic prophylaxis was chosen according to international guidelines. Results: A total of 238 patients were enrolled; 208 (87.4%) of them were subjected to clean procedures without the placement of prosthesis, and 30 (12.6%) with prosthesis. Of the 238 patients, 117 (49.2%) underwent an antimicrobial prophylaxis. Overall, 79 (33.2%) patients showed a bacterial colonization of the thread: among the 208 without the implantation of prosthesis, 19 (21.8%) of the 87 with antibiotic prophylaxis and in 58 (47.9%) of the 121 without it; among the 30 patients with the implantation of prosthesis, only two patients showed a colonized thread. The patients with antibiotic prophylaxis developed a colonization of the thread less frequently than those without it (17.9% vs. 47.9%, p < 0.001). SSI was observed in six (2.5%) patients, all of them showing a colonized thread (7.6% vs. 0%, p < 0.001). The bacteria identified in colonized threads were the same as those found in SSIs. Conclusions: Our study presents a new method that is able to precociously assess patients who have undergone clean procedures who may develop SSI, and identify the microorganism involved

Effect of new resistance training program on metaboreflex response in cardiac rehabilitation: preliminary results.

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Étude du stress métabolique au cours d’une séance de HIIT avec un renforcement musculaire type 3/7 en réadaptation cardiaque: étude randomisée et croisée

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