Faecal Cyathostomin Egg Count distribution and efficacy of anthelmintics against cyathostomins in Italy: a matter of geography?

Background: In the framework of a trial carried out in 2008 in Europe to evaluate the efficacy of major parasiticides against horse cyathostomins, pre- and/or post- treatment Faecal Egg Counts (FEC) were evaluated in a total of 84 yards and 2105 horses from nine different regions from the South, the Center, the North-Center and North-East of Italy. Specifically, on the basis of FECs of the horses present in each property, 60 out of the 84 yards were enrolled for a Faecal Egg Count Reduction Test (FECRT) using fenbendazole, pyrantel, ivermectin and moxidectin. Results: Of the 1646 horses bred in the 60 recruited yards, 416 animals had a FEC between 50 and 150 Eggs Per Gram (EPG) of faeces and 694 a FEC >150 EPG (i.e. with total of 1110 positive animals). Of the 1110 positive animals, those with the highest FECs (i.e. 988) were included in the FECRT.The FECRT for four anthelmintic compounds showed remarkable differences in terms of prevalence of reduced and equivocal efficacy against cyathostomins in the different areas of Italy. Administration of fenbendazole and pyrantel resulted in resistance present or suspected in about half of the yards examined while resistance to ivermectin was found in one yard from central Italy and suspected resistance was detected in three more yards, one in each the North, the Center and the South.Treatment with moxidectin was 100% effective in all yards examined. Conclusions: Cyathostomin populations in the South and the Center of Italy were more susceptible to fenbendazole and pyrantel than the populations present in the Center-North and North-Eastern areas of Italy. Fenbendazole and/or pyrantel were ineffective in almost all properties from the North of Italy. The reasons for such a difference among the Italian regions in terms of FECs and efficacy of antiparasitic drugs are discussed, together with the role that veterinarians, and horse owners and managers should have for effective worm control programs in this country

Spontaneous Disappearance of a Pericardial Cyst: Case Report and Literature Review

Pericardial cysts are rare benign anomalies generally discovered as incidental findings on radiographic images. Rarely, pericardial cysts cause symptoms and may lead to complications. A 56-year-old woman presented to the emergency department for mild chest pain. A cardiovascular and respiratory examination revealed no abnormalities, while a chest X-ray and subsequent thoracic computed tomography (CT) showed a pericardial cyst. The patient refused both percutaneous treatment and thoracic surgery. Three years later, a thoracic CT scan showed that the pericardial cyst had disappeared. Although the spontaneous resolution of these lesions is rare, this article highlights the possibility of conservative management in select cases

An unusual sigmoid phytobezoar in a patient with a transplanted kidney: A case report

Bezoars are masses formed by the concretion of stomach contents or debris within the gastrointestinal tract. Bezoars are rare and account for only 0.4–4% of all cases of gastrointestinal obstruction and mainly occur in the stomach or small intestine. Intestinal obstruction caused by colonic bezoars is extremely rare. A 39-year-old man with a transplanted kidney came to the hospital because of abdominal pain, constipation, and distension. We performed an abdominal computed tomography scan and found an ovoid intraluminal mass with a mottled gas pattern in the distal sigmoid colon. Subsequently, the patient underwent laparotomic surgery and removal of the bezoar. We report a rare case of large bowel obstruction due to colonic phytobezoar, which was confirmed intraoperatively

Synergistic use of Sentinel-1A/B, TanDEM-X and COSMO-SkyMed for Cryosphere science

We employ data from the second generation of SAR systems, e.g., the Italian COSMO-SkyMed (CSK) constellation, the German TanDEM-X formation and the European Sentinel-1A/B constellation to monitor the characteristics of grounding line migration using short repeat-time interferometry and accurate InSAR DEM in the Amundsen Sea Embayment (ASE), West Antarctica. The ASE is a marine-based ice sheet with a retrograde bed containing enough ice to raise global sea level by 120 cm. Several studies have inferred the mechanical properties of portions of ASE using observationally constrained numerical models, but these studies offer only temporal snapshots of basal mechanics owing to a dearth of observational time series. Prior attempts of grounding lines mapping have been limited because few space-borne SAR missions offer the short-term repeat pass capability required to map the differential vertical displacement of floating ice at tidal frequencies with sufficient detail to resolve grounding line boundaries in areas of fast ice deformation. Using 1-day CSK repeat pass data and TanDEM-X DEMs, we collected frequent, high-resolution grounding line measurements of Pine Island (PIG), Thwaites, Kohler and Smith glaciers spanning 2015-2016. We compare the results with ERS data spanning 1996-2011, and Sentinel-1A 2014-2015 data. We observe an ongoing, rapid 2 km/yr grounding line retreat on Smith, 0.5 km/yr retreat on Pope, ongoing 1 km/yr retreat on Thwaites and PIG and a slight re-advance on Kohler since 2011. On PIG, the data reveal rapid subsidence along the glacier flanks, significantly more than in 1996/2000. We do not observe similar patterns on the other glaciers

Mutual Calibration of TanDEM-X DEMs on Natural Targets Derived from Sentinel-1 Time Series

The TanDEM-X mission, has been very successful in generating a global digital elevation model (DEM) at 12m posting, that is widely used for a variety of scientific applications. High-quality DEMs are derived by exploiting the phase difference between two Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) images of TanDEM-X bistatic acquisitions. The two acquisitions are simultaneous and therefore unaffected by temporal changes. In this sense, newly acquired InSAR DEMs are often used to monitor topographic changes, by performing DEM differencing. Small residual phase and baseline uncertainties in the order of a few millimeters may cause residual offsets and tilts in the order of a few meters in single-scene DEMs from the TanDEM-X mission. As a consequence, the mutual calibration of two DEMs becomes crucial for monitoring changes in the same order of the residual offsets and tilts. Traditionally, single InSAR-derived DEM are calibrated considering a set of tie-points, which are a priory selected points with known location and height. They need to be timely consistent with the acquired DEM and are mainly GPS or LiDAR measurements. The selection of such measurements is therefore often performed manually, which is a very time-consuming practice. Moreover, the availability of such external measurement in the considered area endangers the success of monitoring topographic changes on most regions that are difficult to access. To overcome these limitations, we elaborate on the selection of natural tie-points derived from the pre-selection of persistent scatterer candidates from Sentinel-1 time-series. Since Sentinel-1 coverage is global, with a revisit time of 12 days, it is possible to have a time-consistent selection of natural tie-points. Natural targets from Sentinel-1 under certain conditions, such as a sufficient interferometric coherence and signal-to-noise ratio to assure a high quality of the selected tie-points, are assumed to be appropriate for mutual calibration of two single-pass TanDEM-X DEMs and therefore for the derivation of accurate DEM changes. This method is envisioned to be self-sufficient, without the need for GPS or LiDAR measurements, and to be fully automatic without any manual intervention. In this work, we will detail the proposed approach, together with practical examples of mutual TanDEM-X DEM calibration and validation