Marked QTc Prolongation and Torsades de pointes in Patients with Chronic Inflammatory Arthritis

Mounting evidence indicates that in chronic inflammatory arthritis (CIA), QTc prolongation is frequent and correlates with systemic inflammatory activation. Notably, basic studies demonstrated that inflammatory cytokines induce profound changes in potassium and calcium channels resulting in a prolonging effect on cardiomyocyte action potential duration, thus on the QT interval on the electrocardiogram. Moreover, it has been demonstrated that in rheumatoid arthritis (RA) patients, the risk of sudden cardiac death is significantly increased when compared to non-RA subjects. Conversely, to date no data are available about torsades de pointes (TdP) prevalence in CIA, and the few cases reported considered CIA only an incidental concomitant disease, not contributing factor to TdP development. We report three patients with active CIA developing marked QTc prolongation, in two cases complicated with TdP degenerating to cardiac arrest. In these patients, a blood sample was obtained within 24 h from TdP/marked QTc prolongation occurrence, and levels of IL-6, TNFα, and IL-1 were evaluated. In all three cases, IL-6 was markedly elevated, ~10 to 100 times more than reference values. Moreover, one patient also showed high circulating levels of TNFα and IL-1. In conclusion, active CIA may represent a currently overlooked QT-prolonging risk factor, potentially contributing in the presence of other "classical" risk factors to TdP occurrence. In particular, a relevant role may be played by elevated circulating IL-6 levels via direct electrophysiological effects on the heart. This fact should be carefully kept in mind, particularly when recognizable risk factors are already present and/or the addition of QT-prolonging drugs is required

Innovative methods for physicochemical and dynamic characterization of ambient aerosols and other environmental systems

The present Thesis reports the main scientific achievements in my PhD research activity based on the application of multivariate statistical methods for Environmental Chemistry (academic discipline: CHIM/12) and, in particular, in the treatment of atmospheric aerosols data. During the three-year PhD period, I have faced several topics which have led to the publication of eight scientific articles including three as the first author. My publications can be conceptually grouped into three distinct parts: 1) Design and optimization of innovative experimental methodologies for the analysis of Airborne Particulate Matter (PM) and data interpretation, as related to human health, air quality, and climate change. 2) Definition of practical guidelines and optimal use of PM low-cost sensors based on the Optical Particle Counting (OPC) developed on laser scattering devices. 3) Analysis of other environmental matrices (different from airborne particulate matter) and data interpretation. Furthermore, this Thesis describes the preliminary results of other research work presently in progress including: 1) Physico-chemical and meteorological characterization of atmospheric aerosols in southern Spain as part of the FRESA project. 2) Study and characterization of the processes and dynamics of atmospheric aerosol in the touristic Pertosa-Auletta cave (Italy, SA). 3) Characterization and quantification of radionuclides in innovative building materials defined as “Geopolymers”. The common thread of all my scientific investigation is multivariate statistics for environmental assessment purposes. Multivariate Statistics includes all the mathematical-statistical methods to study complex sets of data, a typical situation in environmental chemistry, in order to extract tangible and exhaustive quali-quantitative information. The term Chemometrics is going to often be used in this Thesis to indicate mathematical-statistical methods applied to Chemistry

Dripping and underground river waters shed light on the ecohydrology of a show cave

Water and air flows connect underground ecosystems to the surface, affecting the cave chemical and physical properties. Together with the visitor's fluxes in show caves and occasional presence of cavers in wild caves—excluding the large amounts of organic supply by bat or bird colonies or large sinking rivers bringing vegetal debris—fluid flows are the main means of transport of nutrients into the normally oligotrophic cave environment. The aim of this work was to investigate the chemical characteristics of waters in the Pertosa-Auletta Cave (Italy), focusing on drip water and on the underground Negro river, seasonally and in different areas of the cave. In particular, three trails with different environmental characteristics and tourism pressure were investigated in order to shed light on the processes affecting the ecological equilibrium of the hypogean ecosystem. Dripping and flowing river waters, both rich in Ca because of their interaction with carbonate rocks, show distinct chemical signatures regarding the other chemical elements (especially K and Mg) due to lithological and hydro-dynamical differences. Moreover, water chemistry is affected by the seasonality in the pluviometric regime owing to the subsequent variability in the dilution effect. Bat colonies, dwelling mainly along the fossil trail, enrich dripping waters with P and N. Their concentrations have also been found at fairly high values across the whole trail network, suggesting an additional potential role of leaching from agricultural and forested soils above the Pertosa-Auletta Cave in defining dripwater chemistry

Analisi di campioni di aerosol atmosferico in due siti spagnoli (Sierra Nevada e Granada) e loro comparazione nell’ambito del progetto FRESA

In questo contributo presenteremo i principali risultati ottenuti nell’ambito del progetto nazionale spagnolo FRESA (Impact of dust-laden AFRican air massEs and of Stratospheric air masses in the Iberian Peninsula. Role of the Atlas mountains, riferimento: CGL2015-70741-R) coordinato dal Prof. Josè Antonio Garcìa Orza dell’Università Miguel Hernández di Elche (Spagna). Tale progetto ha previsto il campionamento giornaliero di filtri di particolato atmosferico (PM10), per una durata di tre anni (2017 - 2019) in due siti della Spagna meridionale: Granada (37.178 N, 3.610 W, 738m s.l.m.) e Sierra Nevada (37.096 N, 3.387 W, 2550m s.l.m.). Queste due località sono relativamente vicine fra loro (circa 25 Km di distanza in linea d’aria) ma, a causa della elevata differenza di altitudine, definiscono rispettivamente un ambiente urbano (Granada) ed uno remoto (Sierra Nevada). La caratterizzazione chimica ha previsto l’utilizzo sinergico sia di metodi tradizionali per l’analisi dell’aerosol atmosferico (cromatografia ionica, Particle Induced X-ray Emission – PIXE) che più innovativi (Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy – FTIR, Ultraviolet-Visible diffuse reflectance spectroscopy – UV-Vis DRS). Ciò ha consentito l’apporzionamento delle sorgenti di emissione dell’aerosol atmosferico mediante modelli a recettore Positive Matrix Factorization (PMF), le cui conclusioni sono state avvalorate dai risultati di parametrizzazione e digitalizzazione dei colori dei filtri e dall’utilizzo untargeted di fingerprint dei gruppi funzionali IR-attivi. L’integrazione di queste informazioni con la caratterizzazione meteorologica e dinamica ha permesso di ben evidenziare le analogie e le differenze fra le due stazioni esaminate

ATR-FTIR Spectroscopy, a New Non-Destructive Approach for the Quantitative Determination of Biogenic Silica in Marine Sediments

Biogenic silica is the major component of the external skeleton of marine micro-organisms, such as diatoms, which, after the organisms death, settle down onto the seabed. These micro-organisms are involved in the CO2 cycle because they remove it from the atmosphere through photosynthesis. The biogenic silica content in marine sediments, therefore, is an indicator of primary productivity in present and past epochs, which is useful to study the CO2 trends. Quantification of biosilica in sediments is traditionally carried out by wet chemistry followed by spectrophotometry, a time-consuming analytical method that, besides being destructive, is affected by a strong risk of analytical biases owing to the dissolution of other silicatic components in the mineral matrix. In the present work, the biosilica content was directly evaluated in sediment samples, without chemically altering them, by attenuated total reflection Fourier transform infrared (ATR-FTIR) spectroscopy. Quantification was performed by combining the multivariate standard addition method (MSAM) with the net analyte signal (NAS) procedure to solve the strong matrix effect of sediment samples. Twenty-one sediment samples from a sediment core and one reference standard sample were analyzed, and the results (extrapolated concentrations) were found to be comparable to those obtained by the traditional wet method, thus demonstrating the feasibility of the ATR-FTIR-MSAM-NAS approach as an alternative method for the quantification of biosilica. Future developments will cover in depth investigation on biosilica from other biogenic sources, the extension of the method to sediments of other provenance, and the use higher resolution IR spectrometers

Particulate matter emission sources and meteorological parameters combine to shape the airborne bacteria communities in the Ligurian coast, Italy

Aim of the present study is to explore how the chemical composition of particulate matter (PM) and meteorological conditions combine in shaping the air microbiome in Savona (Italy), a medium-size, heavily inhabited urban settlement, hosting a wide range of industrial activities. In particular, the air microbiome and PM10 were monitored over six months in 2012. During that time, the air microbiome was highly dynamic, fluctuating between different compositional states, likely resulting from the aerosolization of different microbiomes emission sources. According to our findings, this dynamic process depends on the combination of local meteorological parameters and particle emission sources, which may affect the prevalent aerosolized microbiomes, thus representing further fundamental tools for source apportionment in a holistic approach encompassing chemical as well as microbiological pollution. In particular, we showed that, in the investigated area, industrial emissions and winds blowing from the inlands combine with an airborne microbiome which include faecal microbiomes components, suggesting multiple citizens\u2019 exposure to both chemicals and microorganisms of faecal origin, as related to landscape exploitation and population density. In conclusion, our findings support the need to include monitoring of the air microbiome compositional structure as a relevant factor for the final assessment of local air quality

Apheresis-inducible cytokine pattern change in severe, genetic dyslipidemias

Objective: The effects of direct adsorption of lipids LDL-apheresis (DALILDL-a) on plasma cytokines in two Homozygous and heterozygous familial hypercholesterolemic (HozFH, HtzFH) and in four HyperLp(a)lipoproteinemic [HyperLp(a)] patients, were evaluated. Methods: Plasma, macrophage inflammatory proteins 1α (MIP-1α), macrophage inflammatory proteins 1β (MIP-1β), monocyte chemoattractant protein-1 (MCP-1), RANTES (Regulated upon Activation, Normal T-cell Expressed, and Secreted), granulocyte-colony stimulating factor (GCSF), granulocyte macrophage-colony stimulating factor (GM-CSF), interleukin-1α (IL-1α), interleukin-1β (IL-1β), interleukin-2 (IL-2), interleukin-6 (IL-6), interferon-γ (IFN-γ), concentrations, were measured before and after LDL-a on three consecutive sessions for each patient. Results: MIP-1α was significantly reduced (P= 0.05), while MIP-1β was significantly increased (P= 0.05). Plasma MCP-1 was reduced, although not significantly, while RANTES was significantly increased (P= 0.05). GCSF and GM-CSF were both significantly reduced (GM-CSF: P= 0.05, GCSF: P= 0.05, respectively). IL-1α level was significantly reduced (P= 0.001). IL-1β, IL-6, and IFN-γ levels were significantly reduced in plasma after apheresis (IL-1β: P= 0.001, IL-6: T1 P= 0.001; T2 P= 0.05, respectively, IFN-γ: P= 0.001). IL-2 level in plasma was significantly reduced at T0, and T2, (P= 0.001). However, IL-2 level showed a statistically significant increase at T1 (P= 0.001). A significant correlation between IL-1α and IFN-γ was found: r= 0.882 (P= 0.001).Conclusions: In this study LDL-a induced profound changes in several circulating cytokines and promoted anti-inflammatory and anti-atherogenic cytokine profile in plasma of patients with severe dyslipidemia, with pre-existing angiographically demonstrated Coronary heart disease (CHD), and aortic valvular disease (# = 1) (AVD). © 2011 Elsevier Ltd

How to Get the Best from Low-Cost Particulate Matter Sensors: Guidelines and Practical Recommendations

Low-cost sensors based on the optical particle counter (OPC) are increasingly being used to collect particulate matter (PM) data at high space and time resolution. In spite of their huge explorative potential, practical guidelines and recommendations for their use are still limited. In this work, we outline a few best practices for the optimal use of PM low-cost sensors based on the results of an intensive field campaign performed in Bologna (44°30′ N, 11°21′ E; Italy) under different weather conditions. Briefly, the performances of a series of sensors were evaluated against a calibrated mainstream OPC with a heated inlet, using a robust approach based on a suite of statistical indexes capable of evaluating both correlations and biases in respect to the reference sensor. Our results show that the sensor performance is sensibly affected by both time resolution and weather with biases maximized at high time resolution and high relative humidity. Optimization of PM data obtained is therefore achievable by lowering time resolution and applying suitable correction factors for hygroscopic growth based on the inherent particle size distribution

Deposition processes over complex topographies: experimental data meets atmospheric modelling

The present paper describes the assessment of the atmospheric deposition processes in a basin valley through a multidisciplinary approach based on the data collected within an extensive chemical-physical characterization of the soils, combined with the local meteorology. Surface soil cores were collected on a NNW-SSE transect across the Terni basin (Central Italy), between the Monti Martani and the Monti Sabini chains (956 m a.s.l.), featuring the heavily polluted urban and industrial enclave of Terni on its bottom. Airborne radiotracers, namely 210Pb and 137Cs, have been used to highlight atmospheric deposition. We observed an increased deposition flux of 210Pb and 137Cs at sites located at the highest altitudes, and the associated concentration profiles in soil allowed to evaluate the role of atmospheric deposition. We also obtained a comprehensive dataset of stable anthropogenic pollutants of atmospheric origin that showed heterogeneity along the transect. The behavior has been explained by the local characteristic of the soil, by seeder-feeder processes promoted by the atmospheric circulation, and was reconciled with the concentration profile of radiotracers by factor analysis. Finally, the substantial impact of the local industrial activities on soil profiles and the role of the planetary boundary layer has been discussed and supported by simulations employing a Lagrangian dispersion model