The health determinants in young children: Testing a new surveillance system in Italy

In recent years, the scientific community has stressed the need to invest in the first 1,000 days of life - the time spanning between conception and the 2nd birthday - because it is during this period that the foundations of health are laid and whose effects will be present throughout the life and may influence the next generation. Taking this into account, in 2013 the National Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (CCM) of the Italian Ministry of Health promoted and financed a project to test a surveillance system of the main determinants of health concerning the child between the conception period and the 2nd years of life which are included in the National Programme “GenitoriPiù”: folic acid before and during pregnancy, abstention from tobacco and alcohol during pregnancy and lactation, breastfeeding, infant sleep position, vaccination attitude, and early reading. The Project, started in January 2014 and ended in August 2016, has piloted the design, testing, and evaluation of the surveillance system with the view to national extension and the repeatability over time. The surveillance system has been designed to collect data through a questionnaire compiled by mothers in vaccination centres, in order to produce indicators which will enable territorial and intertempo-ral comparisons to be made. The project has shown the feasibility of this system, identifying favourable conditions and possible difficulties, and its ability to collect important information on children's health

Inadvertent left ventricular placement of ICD lead through the left subclavian artery right positioned in a patient with situs viscerum inversus and Kartagener syndrome

Inadvertent placement of pacemaker and implantable cardioverter-defibrillator (ICD) leads in the left ventricle is a rare but well-recognized complication of device implantation. We report a case of an unicameral ICD lead inadvertently placed through the left subclavian artery right positioned, across the aortic valve into the left ventricle, in a patient with situs viscerum inversus. A transthoracic echocardiogram about a month after the procedure showed an unusual course of the lead. The lead was successfully removed without complications or sequelae