34 research outputs found
La migrazione egiziana in Italia da una prospettiva transdisciplinare
La mobilità sistematica di alcuni gruppi di popolazione rappresenta una sfida per tutte le discipline del territorio: essa infatti mette in crisi l'idea della stanzialità su un territorio unico che è considerata la norma nelle scienze sociali, sin dall'idea di Durkheim che la popolazione sia un 'fatto territoriale fisso' (1895). In questo articolo, i tre autori analizzano la complessità delle trame socio-spaziali create dalle "non-comunità egiziane" (Ambrosini, 1994), nel costruire reti transnazionali che influiscono sulle dinamiche interne di un territorio periferico di una metropoli europea. A questo fine, si analizza la testimonianza di un giovane egiziano del paese di T., mettendo in luce le tattiche di insediamento nel territorio europeo, la porositˆ o ostilitˆ delle realtˆ urbane, la molteplicitˆ e fluiditˆ delle identitˆ etniche e religiose dei migranti, e i diversi significati delle loro pratiche spaziali. I tre autori (una urbanista che studia la costruzione di spazi transnazionali da parte dei migranti egiziani in Italia, una esperta di cultura arabo-islamica con un focus sull'organizzazione socio-spaziale dei quartieri informali al Cairo, un antropologo che ha lavorato e fatto ricerca in diverse strutture di accoglienza) illustrano l'utilità di questa 'propensity to trespass' (Hirschman, 1981) tra diversi ambiti scientifici, pi che mai indispensabile nello studio dell'attraversamento delle frontiere, in direzione di una mediazione "esperta" che sappia tener conto di come le nuove articolazioni dei movimenti migratori generino resistenze e risignificazioni degli spazi urbani
Levamisole adulterated cocaine and pulmonary vasculitis: Presentation of two lethal cases and brief literature review
"Pure" large cell neuroendocrine carcinoma of the gallbladder. Report of a case and review of the literature
Primary Neuroendocrine Tumours (NETs) of the gallbladder are rare. Among all NETs of the gallbladder, large cell neuroendocrine carcinoma (LCNEC) is exceedingly rare. In most of the cases LCNECs are combined with other histological components. We reviewed clinical presentation and management of all patients with "pure" LCNEC from published literature since the first case was published in 2000, as well as one patient from our experience. Only 7 cases of "pure" LCNEC has been described in the last 15 years, our case is the eighth. The diagnosis of gallbladder NETs is rarely made preoperatively since the presentation generally consists of non-specific symptoms including upper abdominal pain, discomfort, jaundice, weight loss. The majority of patients are identified incidentally at the time of cholecystectomy for cholelithiasis. It is not possible to differentiate preoperatively between gallbladder adenocarcinoma and gallbladder neuroendocrine carcinoma (NEC) with imaging techniques. The only curative therapeutic modality for LCNECs is a complete en bloc surgical resection, including regional lymph node clearances and hepatic lobectomy, but only in patients without multiple metastasis. LCNECs benefit from an aggressive surgical resection in combination with chemotherapy, if resectability is possible. If the tumour is non-resectable, the primary management is therefore medical and not surgical. All patients with LCNEC presented a poor prognosis with a median survival of 10 months after the initial diagnosis. Only in five patients (62.5%) a wide surgical excision was performed, while in the other cases the tumour was non-resectable or multiple liver metastases were present at diagnosis
Schwann cells expressing nociceptive channel TRPA1 orchestrate ethanol-evoked neuropathic pain in mice
Pediatric tuberculosis in Italian children: Epidemiological and clinical data from the Italian register of pediatric tuberculosis
Tuberculosis (TB) is one of the leading causes of death worldwide. Over the last decades, TB has also emerged in the pediatric population. Epidemiologic data of childhood TB are still limited and there is an urgent need of more data on very large cohorts. A multicenter study was conducted in 27 pediatric hospitals, pediatric wards, and public health centers in Italy using a standardized form, covering the period of time between 1 January 2010 and 31 December 2012. Children with active TB, latent TB, and those recently exposed to TB or recently adopted/immigrated from a high TB incidence country were enrolled. Overall, 4234 children were included; 554 (13.1%) children had active TB, 594 (14.0%) latent TB and 3086 (72.9%) were uninfected. Among children with active TB, 481 (86.8%) patients had pulmonary TB. The treatment of active TB cases was known for 96.4% (n = 534) of the cases. Overall, 210 (39.3%) out of these 534 children were treated with three and 216 (40.4%) with four first-line drugs. Second-line drugs where used in 87 (16.3%) children with active TB. Drug-resistant strains of Mycobacterium tuberculosis were reported in 39 (7%) children. Improving the surveillance of childhood TB is important for public health care workers and pediatricians. A non-negligible proportion of children had drug-resistant TB and was treated with second-line drugs, most of which are off-label in the pediatric age. Future efforts should concentrate on improving active surveillance, diagnostic tools, and the availability of antitubercular pediatric formulations, also in low-endemic countries
Sinonasal respiratory epithelial adenomatoid hamartoma: A report on three cases
Respiratory Epithelial Adenomatoid Hamartoma (REAH) is a rare benign lesion that may occur in the nasal cavity and paranasal sinuses. Histology is essential for the differential diagnosis with other lesions that could affect the sinonasal region. Our report focuses on three cases of male patients that were 46, 66 and 73 years old, diagnosed with REAH of the sinonasal region. All cases presented a nasal obstruction and hyposmia, and in one case cephalalgia. The definitive diagnosis of REAH was supported by the endoscopic, radiological and histological examinations. The patients underwent surgical excision with an endoscopic approach and did not experience a local recurrence at the time of writing this manuscript. REAH is a rare and often unrecognized clinical condition. The gold standard for treatment is complete surgical excision, which also allows for a correct histological diagnosis. Recurrence after surgery was not reported in our findings, as described in the literature
Digital Quantification of Intratumoral CD8+ T-Cells Predicts Relapse and Unfavorable Outcome in Uveal Melanoma
When a death apparently associated to sexual assault is instead a natural death due to idiopathic hypereosinophilic syndrome: The importance of gamma-hydroxybutyric acid analysis in vitreous humor
We here report a case involving a 21-year-old female, found dead in a central square of a city in the south of
Italy. Initial evidences and circumstances were suggestive of a death associated with a sexual assault. Two
peripheral blood and two vitreous humor samples were collected for the purpose of gamma-hydroxybutyric acid
(GHB) testing from the dead body at two different post-mortem intervals (PMIs): approximately 2 (t0) and 36 (t1)
hours. The obtained results showed that, between t0 and t1, there was an increase of GHB concentrations in
peripheral blood and vitreous humor of 66.3% and 8.1%, respectively.
This case was the first evidence of GHB post mortem production in a dead body and not in vitro, showing that
vitreous humor is less affected than peripheral blood in GHB post-mortem production.
The value detected at t1 in peripheral blood (53.4 µg/mL) exceeded the proposed cut-off and if interpreted
alone would have led to erroneous conclusions. This was not the case of vitreous humor GHB, whose postmortem increase was minimal and it allowed to exclude a GHB exposure.
Only after a broad forensic investigation including a complete autopsy, serological, histological, toxicological
and haematology analyses, a diagnosis of idiopathic hypereosinophilic syndrome, a myeloproliferative disorder
characterized by persistent eosinophilia associated with damage to multiple organs, was made and the cause of
death was due to a pulmonary eosinophilic vasculitis responsible for an acute respiratory failure
Levamisole adulterated cocaine and pulmonary vasculitis: presentation of two lethal cases and brief literature review
The first case reports of levamisole-related disease in cocaine users were published in 2010, although levamisole adulteration of cocaine was first recognized several years earlier. Currently, more than 70% of street cocaine seizures, in the US and the EU, contain levamisole, which could potentially be converted to aminorex, though the reasons for this practice still remain obscure. Here we report two fatal cases of isolated pulmonary vasculitis in abusers of levamisole-adulterated cocaine, where a complete autopsy, full toxicological analysis by gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS) using a previously published method of Karch et al. and histological examination were performed. A control group composed of 11 cases of cocaine related deaths, where the presence of levamisole was excluded in blood, urine and hair, was used. Recent literature on the human pharmacokinetics of levamisole and aminorex is also reviewed. The toxicological analysis revealed positive qualitative and quantitative results for cocaine, benzoylecgonine and levamisole in both cases. In case 1 levamisole was found at the concentration of 13.5 and 61.3mg/L in blood and urine respectively, whereas in case 2 at 17.9 and 70.2mg/L. The histological examination highlighted in case 1 in heart samples microscopic evidence of the typical remodeling changes associated with chronic stimulant abuse, whereas lungs showed numerous lymphocytes surrounding and infiltrating the wall of small pulmonary vessels and a perivascular fibrosis with transforming fibroblasts. In case 2, the myocardial samples showed wide fields of myocardial necrosis characterized by hypercontraction of the myocytes with thickened Z-lines and short sarcomeres, whereas lung samples showed a significant intimal thickening of arteriole walls and lymphocytic infiltration of the wall and edema. Moreover, there were also numerous perivascular lymphocytic infiltrates. Although the pathological cardiac findings have allowed us to establish the cause of death in both cases, the presence of pulmonary vasculitis in the lungs represent a further complication. If the disease had progressed to hemorrhage, it certainly would have been a contributory cause of death. The two cases here reported allow us to advance a hypothesis about the possible correlation between the consumption of levamisole adulterated cocaine and pulmonary vasculitis and the comparison of these findings with the control group support this hypothesis. However, this hypothesis is still weak, taking into consideration the fact that pulmonary vasculitis was detected in 2 cases only, making it impossible to exclude a different etiology of this finding. Only through careful histological lung examinations of further cases of fatalities, related to levamisole adulterated cocaine, can this hypothesis be confirmed or refuted