Is physician assessment of alcohol consumption useful in predicting risk of severe liver disease among people with HIV and HIV/HCV co-infection?

Background: Alcohol consumption is a known risk factor for liver disease in HIV-infected populations. Therefore, knowledge of alcohol consumption behaviour and risk of disease progression associated with hazardous drinking are important in the overall management of HIV disease. We aimed at assessing the usefulness of routine data collected on alcohol consumption in predicting risk of severe liver disease (SLD) among people living with HIV (PLWHIV) with or without hepatitis C infection seen for routine clinical care in Italy. Methods: We included PLWHIV from two observational cohorts in Italy (ICONA and HepaICONA). Alcohol consumption was assessed by physician interview and categorized according to the National Institute for Food and Nutrition Italian guidelines into four categories: abstainer; moderate; hazardous and unknown. SLD was defined as presence of FIB4 > 3.25 or a clinical diagnosis of liver disease or liver-related death. Cox regression analysis was used to evaluate the association between level of alcohol consumption at baseline and risk of SLD. Results: Among 9542 included PLWHIV the distribution of alcohol consumption categories was: abstainers 3422 (36%), moderate drinkers 2279 (23%), hazardous drinkers 637 (7%) and unknown 3204 (34%). Compared to moderate drinkers, hazardous drinking was associated with higher risk of SLD (adjusted hazard ratio, aHR = 1.45; 95% CI: 1.03-2.03). After additionally controlling for mode of HIV transmission, HCV infection and smoking, the association was attenuated (aHR = 1.32; 95% CI: 0.94-1.85). There was no evidence that the association was stronger when restricting to the HIV/HCV co-infected population. Conclusions: Using a brief physician interview, we found evidence for an association between hazardous alcohol consumption and subsequent risk of SLD among PLWHIV, but this was not independent of HIV mode of transmission, HCV-infection and smoking. More efforts should be made to improve quality and validity of data on alcohol consumption in cohorts of HIV/HCV-infected individuals

Star clusters near and far; tracing star formation across cosmic time

© 2020 Springer-Verlag. The final publication is available at Springer via https://doi.org/10.1007/s11214-020-00690-x.Star clusters are fundamental units of stellar feedback and unique tracers of their host galactic properties. In this review, we will first focus on their constituents, i.e.\ detailed insight into their stellar populations and their surrounding ionised, warm, neutral, and molecular gas. We, then, move beyond the Local Group to review star cluster populations at various evolutionary stages, and in diverse galactic environmental conditions accessible in the local Universe. At high redshift, where conditions for cluster formation and evolution are more extreme, we are only able to observe the integrated light of a handful of objects that we believe will become globular clusters. We therefore discuss how numerical and analytical methods, informed by the observed properties of cluster populations in the local Universe, are used to develop sophisticated simulations potentially capable of disentangling the genetic map of galaxy formation and assembly that is carried by globular cluster populations.Peer reviewedFinal Accepted Versio

Determinazione di cortisolo e cortisone in saliva mediante HPLC-UV-SPE

Il cortisolo ((11β)-11,17,21-triidrossipregn-4-ene-3,20-dione), noto anche come idrocortisone, \ue8 il pi\uf9 importante glucocorticoide nell\u2019uomo ed \ue8 sintetizzato sotto l\u2019influenza diretta dell\u2019ormone adrenocorticotropo (ACTH). Nell\u2019uomo, in assenza di stress, vengono secreti secondo un ritmo circadiano dagli 8 ai 25 \ub5g di cortisolo nell\u2019arco delle 24 ore e si ha la massima produzione tra le 8:00 e le 10:00 del mattino, quando l\u2019asse ipotalamo-ipofisi-surrene \ue8 in piena attivit\ue0. Il cortisone (17,21-diidrossipregn-4-en-3,11,20-trione) \ue8 la forma inattiva del cortisolo e si differenzia da esso per la presenza in posizione 11 di un gruppo chetonico al posto dell\u2019ossidrile. La trasformazione bidirezionale del cortisolo a cortisone avviene per azione dell\u2019enzima 11β-idrossisterido-deidrogenasi (11β-HSD) che ne modula anche la bioattivit\ue0 regolandone l\u2019azione nei tessuti bersaglio (tra cui le ghiandole salivari) con un meccanismo prerecettoriale. Recentemente, la saliva \ue8 sempre pi\uf9 considerata una matrice che pu\uf2 fornire utili informazioni sul funzionamento di vari organi all'interno del corpo; in particolare, il cortisolo salivare ha ricevuto molta attenzione come biomarker di stress psicologico e i suoi livelli possono essere correlati a malattie mentali e/o fisiche. Pertanto l\u2019analisi dei campioni di saliva \ue8 utile per confermare i ritmi diurni di cortisolo e cortisone nelle condizioni basali. Lo scopo di questo studio \ue8 lo sviluppo di un metodo cromatgrafico a fase inversa per l\u2019analisi dei due steroidi in saliva. A tal fine \ue8 stato utilizzato un sistema HPLC a fase inversa accoppiato ad un detector UV. Inoltre, \ue8 stata sviluppata una procedura di estrazione in fase solida (SPE) per la purificazione dei campioni salivari. Sono stati ottenuti buoni risultati in termini di resa di estrazione, linearit\ue0 e precisione. I risultati preliminari su campioni di volontari sani sembrano promettenti

. Analisi simultanea di olanzapina e aripiprazolo in dried blood spots e in plasma mediante HPLC-ED-MEPS.

Messa a punto di una metodologia analitica HPLC accoppiata ad un detector elettrochimio di tipo coulombometrico settato in ossidazione per la determinazione simultanea di due farmaci (olanzapina e aripiprazolo) utilizzati nella terapia psichiatrica della schizofrenia e del disturbo bipolare