Postoperative upper airway problems

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Propagation and field of “BN4 Kr” – a promising sharka resistant rootstock.

Different ‘Mirobolan’ types are still largely used for Prunus sp. propagation. The rootstock resistance has great practical importance in order to limit the spread of Plum pox virus (PPV), given that root suckers represent gateways for the virus. Minoiu and Vlădianu (2001) had developed a mutant of ‘Mirobolan’, named ‘BN 4 Kr’ at the Bistriţa Fruit Research and Development Station, which has been proven resistant to PPV (Minoiu et al., 1997, 1998). Other experiments have confirmed that aphid vectors are not able to transmit PPV to ‘Mirobolan’ ‘BN 4 Kr’ plants (Polák and Kominek, 2014). In order to check the potential of large-scale propagation of ‘BN 4 Kr’, green cuttings and in vitro propagation were studied. Green cuttings propagation was assessed for three consecutive years using different rooting substrates: sand, perlite, and a 1:1 mix of sand and perlite. The results revealed an average rooting between 75.3 and 85.9%, with the highest rooting percentage on the perlite variant. In vitro propagation of ‘BN 4 Kr’ rootstock was tested at Vitroplant Italia. Best culture medium was Murashige and Skoog (1962) supplemented with 2.0 mg L-1 BA and with 0.01 mg L-1 IBA for stabilization, 1.0 mg L-1 BA and 0.01 mg L-1 IBA for multiplication, and 1.5 mg L-1 IBA for rooting. In central Italy (Valdaso, Ancona Province) Polytechnic University of Marche (Ancona, Italy) tested the ‘BN 4 Kr’ rootstocks in replanting conditions, using ‘Myrobalan 29C’ as a control. One-year-old trees of ‘BN 4 Kr’ were planted in November 2007 and grafted with ‘Fortune’ plum in February 2009. The production and fruit quality were recorded from 2011-2015. The ‘Fortune’ on ‘BN 4 Kr’ rootstock showed a production similar to ‘Myrobalan 29C’ but with lower vigour and slightly bigger fruit size. Likely ‘BN 4 Kr’ rootstock induced a lower incidence of phytoplasma symptoms (ESFY), which are a growing problem in plum production. The resistance to PPV correlated with the high potential of vegetative propagation, recommending ‘BN 4 Kr’ as a promising ‘Mirobolan’ rootstock for sharka containment. The exclusive license for propagation and commercialization of ‘BN 4 Kr’ was awarded to Vitroplant Italia, starting with 2016

Potentially preventable hospitalisation in an Italian district (2006-2011)

Introduction The potentially preventable hospitalisations (PPH) include hospitalisation that could be avoided through policies for primary prevention. Representing an earlier indicator than mortality, it allows to evaluate the outcome of health interventions in shorter times also taking into account the increasingly longer survival in presence of disease. The purpose of this study was to consider the use of data on PPH as an index of health inequalities in the population, susceptible to primary prevention, and estimate the costs relating to it. Methods We analyzed the flow of five years (2006-2011) of hospital discharge records regarding an Italian local health unit (province of Grosseto, 228384 inhabitants, Tuscany Region). We considered the potentially preventable causes of avoidable hospitalisation, suggested by the Epidemiology and Applied ResearchProgram (ERA), occurred in people under 75 years old, native and foreigners. We added the voluntary interruption of pregnancy (VIP) to the ERA’s causes of PPH. Results The PPH are about 9% of all hospitalisations. The relative risk for a male than a female is 1.5 (excluding VIP). Foreigners have a half relative risk of PPH compared to italians (7.4 vs13.3); including among the causes the VIP the risk becomes equal (14.6vs 14.8). The cost ofPPH represents 10.3% of total hospital expenditure, rising to 12.8% with VIP. The distribution of the specific causes of PPH is different between natives and foreigners:in the latter we noticed reduced percentages of cardiomyopathies (13% vs 29%) and cancer (4% vs 12%), whereas an increased percentage of trauma (74% vs 48%):relative risks respectively of 0.42, 0.31 and 1.57. VIP across the whole population are placed in third place as causes of PPH, while if we consider only the immigrants they are placed in first place (49% of PPH). Conclusions The comparable rate of PPH between immigrants and italians could mean that there is fairness in the accessibility to primary prevention policies. The data on different relative risks for specific causes albeit partly due to the different composition of the two populations should be considered in the bid of services. The VIP should be routinely considered among the PPH, in view of its avoidance with interventions in health education / contraception

Organizzazione della filiera vivaistica e certificazione delle piante.

Le tecniche di moltiplicazione, l'uso del portinnesto, la micropropagazione: molti gruppi di ricerca in Italia sono attivi nel miglioramento dei sistemi di propagazione del nocciolo. Avanzano anche i lavori per lo sviluppo del programma di certificazione genetico sanitaria, su base volontaria, del materiale vivaistico che, alla luce del mutato quadro normativo europeo, dovrebbe essere operativo entro la fine del 2017

Circulating tumor cells and microemboli can differentiate malignant and benign pulmonary lesions

The presence of circulating tumor cells (CTC) or microemboli (CTM) in the peripheral blood can theoretically anticipate malignancy of solid lesions in a variety of organs. We aimed to preliminarily assess this capability in patients with pulmonary lesions of suspected malignant nature. We used a cell-size filtration method (ScreenCell) and cytomorphometric criteria to detect CTC/CTM in a 3 mL sample of peripheral blood that was taken just before diagnostic percutaneous CT-guided fine needle aspiration (FNA) or core biopsy of the suspicious lung lesion. At least one CTC/CTM was found in 47 of 67 (70%) patients with final diagnoses of lung malignancy and in none of 8 patients with benign pulmonary nodules. In particular they were detected in 38 (69%) of 55 primary lung cancers and in 9 (75%) of 12 lung metastases from extra-pulmonary cancers. Sensitivity of CTC/CTM presence for malignancy was 70.1% (95%CI: 56.9-83.1%), specificity 100%, positive predictive value 100% and negative predictive value 28.6% (95%CI: 11.9-45.3%). Remarkably, the presence of CTC/CTM anticipated the diagnosis of primary lung cancer in 3 of 5 patients with non-diagnostic or inconclusive results of FNA or core biopsy, whereas CTC/CTM were not observed in 1 patient with sarcoidosis and 1 with amarthocondroma. These results suggest that presently, due to the low sensitivity, the search of CTC/CTM cannot replace CT guided percutaneous FNA or core biopsy in the diagnostic work-up of patients with suspicious malignant lung lesions. However, the high specificity may as yet indicate a role in cases with non-diagnostic or inconclusive FNA or core biopsy results that warrants to be further investigated