Prevalence of interstitial pneumonia suggestive of COVID-19 at 18F-FDG PET/CT in oncological asymptomatic patients in a high prevalence country during pandemic period: a national multi-centric retrospective study

Purpose: To assess the presence and pattern of incidental interstitial lung alterations suspicious of COVID-19 on fluorine-18-fluorodeoxyglucose positron emission tomography (PET)/computed tomography (CT) ([18F]FDG PET/CT) in asymptomatic oncological patients during the period of active COVID-19 in a country with high prevalence of the virus. Methods: This is a multi-center retrospective observational study involving 59 Italian centers. We retrospectively reviewed the prevalence of interstitial pneumonia detected during the COVID period (between March 16 and 27, 2020) and compared to a pre-COVID period (January\u2013February 2020) and a control time (in 2019). The diagnosis of interstitial pneumonia was done considering lung alterations of CT of PET. Results: Overall, [18F]FDG PET/CT was performed on 4008 patients in the COVID period, 19,267 in the pre-COVID period, and 5513 in the control period. The rate of interstitial pneumonia suspicious for COVID-19 was significantly higher during the COVID period (7.1%) compared with that found in the pre-COVID (5.35%) and control periods (5.15%) (p < 0.001). Instead, no significant difference among pre-COVID and control periods was present. The prevalence of interstitial pneumonia detected at PET/CT was directly associated with geographic virus diffusion, with the higher rate in Northern Italy. Among 284 interstitial pneumonia detected during COVID period, 169 (59%) were FDG-avid (average SUVmax of 4.1). Conclusions: A significant increase of interstitial pneumonia incidentally detected with [18F]FDG PET/CT has been demonstrated during the COVID-19 pandemic. A majority of interstitial pneumonia were FDG-avid. Our results underlined the importance of paying attention to incidental CT findings of pneumonia detected at PET/CT, and these reports might help to recognize early COVID-19 cases guiding the subsequent management

Bordetella pertussis in infants hospitalized for acute respiratory symptoms remains a concern

Background: Preliminary results suggest that pertussis infection might be considered in infants during a seasonal respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) outbreak. Methods: In order to analyze clinical features and laboratory findings in infants with pertussis hospitalized for acute respiratory symptoms during a seasonal RSV outbreak, we conducted a retrospective single-center study on 19 infants with pertussis (6 boys; median age 72 days) and 19 matched controls (RSV-bronchiolitis), hospitalized from October 2008 to April 2010. B. pertussis and RSV were detected from nasopharyngeal washes with Real Time-PCR. Results: Infants with pertussis were less often breastfeed than infants with RSV bronchiolitis (63.2% vs 89.5%; p < 0.06). Clinically, significantly fewer infants with pertussis than controls had more episodes of whooping cough (63.2% vs 0.0%; p < 0.001) and also less frequently fever at admission (15.8% vs 68.4%; p < 0.01), apnea (52.6% vs 10.5%; p < 0.006), and cyanosis (52.6% vs 10.5%; p < 0.006). Infants with pertussis had more often no abnormal chest sounds on auscultation than infants with RSV bronchiolitis (0% vs 42,1%; p < 0.005). The absolute blood lymphocyte and eosinophil counts were higher in infants with B. pertussis than in controls with bronchiolitis (23886 +/- 16945 vs 10725 +/- 4126 cells/mm(3), p < 0.0001 and 13.653 +/- 10.430 vs 4.730 +/- 2.400 cells/mm(3), p < 0.001). The molecular analysis of 2 B. pertussis isolates for ptxA1, ptxP3, and prn2 genes showed the presence of gene variants. Conclusions: When infants are hospitalized for acute respiratory symptoms, physicians should suspect a pertussis infection, seek for specific clinical symptoms, investigate lymphocyte and eosinophil counts and thus diagnose infection early enough to allow treatment

Studi Bitontini

'Studi Bitontini', rivista scientifica semestrale del Centro Ricerche di Storia e Arte-Bitonto, fondata nel 1969 e pubblicata regolarmente – con cadenza quadrimestrale fino al 1989 –, si propone quale sede privilegiata per ricerche, approfondimenti, confronti su temi, documenti, eventi, nonché problemi di tutela e gestione relativi alla storia, al paesaggio, al patrimonio tradizionale e alla cultura materiale della Puglia, con particolare riferimento al contesto di Bitonto. Nel numero 113-114 del 2022 sono stati affrontati i temi proposti dai contributi di seguito elencati, cui si aggiungono le sezioni dedicate alle recensioni e alla rassegna bibliografica nonché alle attività condotte dal Centro Ricerche di Storia e Arte-Bitonto e alle notizie di eventi di particolare importanza per il comprensorio considerato: • La scultura a incrostazione di mastice di Santa Maria la Nova a Matera: i riscontri del restauro e i dati preliminari dell’analisi scientifica (Sabrina CENTONZE, Natalie IACOPINO, Sofia SCHIATTONE, Eleonora GIOVENTÙ) • La chiesa di San Giovanni gerosolimitano a Bitonto (secc. XV-XVIII) (Vito RICCI) • Le colonie estive tra tempo libero e profilassi. La proposta sociosanitaria di Bitonto (Carmela MINENNA) • Due libri per un territorio, una discussione per due contesti: archeologia dei paesaggi nella Murgia apulo-lucana (Maria Luigia DAMBROSIO, C. Silvio FIORIELLO, Anna MANGIATORDI, Giuseppe SCHIAVARIELLO) • L’urbanistica del Baliaggio di Santo Stefano a Fasano tra XV e XVIII secolo. Palazzi e case ‘alla fasanese’ (Angela DICEGLIE) • La paternità del carme Ambulatio Gregoriana (Michele RUGGIERO) • Il nome di Tommaso Tra(j)etta (Adriano MOREA) • Il ‘Mu.Ne. - Museo diffuso dei luoghi di Francesco Netti’. Dal ‘lockdown’ alla progettazione di percorsi di valorizzazione del patrimonio culturale (Marilena PORFIDO) • Il misticismo di Francesco Speranza (Rocco BERARDI).‘Studi Bitontini’, semi-annual journal of the ‘Research Center of History and Art-Bitonto’, founded in 1969 and published regularly – every four months until 1989 –, is proposed as forum for researches, analysis, comparisons on topics, documents, events, and problems of protection and management relating to the history, the landscape, the traditional heritage and the material culture of Apulia, with particular reference to the context of Bitonto. In number 111-112 of 2021, the Journal have covered the topics proposed by the contributions listed below, in addition to the sections dedicated both to the bibliographical reviews and the activities conducted by the ‘Research Center of History and Art-Bitonto’ and several information about important events for the Apulian countryside: • La scultura a incrostazione di mastice di Santa Maria la Nova a Matera: i riscontri del restauro e i dati preliminari dell’analisi scientifica (Sabrina CENTONZE, Natalie IACOPINO, Sofia SCHIATTONE, Eleonora GIOVENTÙ) • La chiesa di San Giovanni gerosolimitano a Bitonto (secc. XV-XVIII) (Vito RICCI) • Le colonie estive tra tempo libero e profilassi. La proposta sociosanitaria di Bitonto (Carmela MINENNA) • Due libri per un territorio, una discussione per due contesti: archeologia dei paesaggi nella Murgia apulo-lucana (Maria Luigia DAMBROSIO, C. Silvio FIORIELLO, Anna MANGIATORDI, Giuseppe SCHIAVARIELLO) • L’urbanistica del Baliaggio di Santo Stefano a Fasano tra XV e XVIII secolo. Palazzi e case ‘alla fasanese’ (Angela DICEGLIE) • La paternità del carme Ambulatio Gregoriana (Michele RUGGIERO) • Il nome di Tommaso Tra(j)etta (Adriano MOREA) • Il ‘Mu.Ne. - Museo diffuso dei luoghi di Francesco Netti’. Dal ‘lockdown’ alla progettazione di percorsi di valorizzazione del patrimonio culturale (Marilena PORFIDO) • Il misticismo di Francesco Speranza (Rocco BERARDI)

The Italian registry for patients with Prader–Willi syndrome

Background: Prader–Willi syndrome (PWS) is a rare and complex genetic disease, with numerous implications on metabolic, endocrine, neuropsychomotor systems, and with behavioural and intellectual disorders. Rare disease patient registries are important scientific tools (1) to collect clinical and epidemiologic data, (2) to assess the clinical management including the diagnostic delay, (3) to improve patients’ care and (4) to foster research to identify new therapeutic solutions. The European Union has recommended the implementation and use of registries and databases. The main aims of this paper are to describe the process of setting up the Italian PWS register, and to illustrate our preliminary results. Materials and methods: The Italian PWS registry was established in 2019 with the aims (1) to describe the natural history of the disease, (2) to determine clinical effectiveness of health care services, (3) to measure and monitor quality of care of patients. Information from six different variables are included and collected into this registry: demographics, diagnosis and genetics, patient status, therapy, quality of life and mortality. Results: A total of 165 patients (50.3% female vs 49.7% male) were included into Italian PWS registry in 2019–2020 period. Average age at genetic diagnosis was 4.6 years; 45.4% of patients was less than 17 years old aged, while the 54.6% was in adult age (> 18 years old). Sixty-one percent of subjects had interstitial deletion of the proximal long arm of paternal chromosome 15, while 36.4% had uniparental maternal disomy for chromosome 15. Three patients presented an imprinting centre defect and one had a de novo translocation involving chromosome 15. A positive methylation test was demonstrated in the remaining 11 individuals but the underlying genetic defect was not identified. Compulsive food-seeking and hyperphagia was present in 63.6% of patients (prevalently in adults); 54.5% of patients developed morbid obesity. Altered glucose metabolism was present in 33.3% of patients. Central hypothyroidism was reported in 20% of patients; 94.7% of children and adolescents and 13.3% of adult patients is undergoing GH treatment. Conclusions: The analyses of these six variables allowed to highlight important clinical aspects and natural history of PWS useful to inform future actions to be taken by national health care services and health professionals

Endocrine features of Prader-Willi syndrome: a narrative review focusing on genotype-phenotype correlation

Prader-Willi syndrome (PWS) is a complex genetic disorder caused by three different types of molecular genetic abnormalities. The most common defect is a deletion on the paternal 15q11-q13 chromosome, which is seen in about 60% of individuals. The next most common abnormality is maternal disomy 15, found in around 35% of cases, and a defect in the imprinting center that controls the activity of certain genes on chromosome 15, seen in 1-3% of cases. Individuals with PWS typically experience issues with the hypothalamic-pituitary axis, leading to excessive hunger (hyperphagia), severe obesity, various endocrine disorders, and intellectual disability. Differences in physical and behavioral characteristics between patients with PWS due to deletion versus those with maternal disomy are discussed in literature. Patients with maternal disomy tend to have more frequent neurodevelopmental problems, such as autistic traits and behavioral issues, and generally have higher IQ levels compared to those with deletion of the critical PWS region. This has led us to review the pertinent literature to investigate the possibility of establishing connections between the genetic abnormalities and the endocrine disorders experienced by PWS patients, in order to develop more targeted diagnostic and treatment protocols. In this review, we will review the current state of clinical studies focusing on endocrine disorders in individuals with PWS patients, with a specific focus on the various genetic causes. We will look at topics such as neonatal anthropometry, thyroid issues, adrenal problems, hypogonadism, bone metabolism abnormalities, metabolic syndrome resulting from severe obesity caused by hyperphagia, deficiencies in the GH/IGF-1 axis, and the corresponding responses to treatment