Effectiveness of expressive writing protocol in palliative care healthworkers: A quantitative study

Background and aim of the work: Palliative Care professionals are exposed to intense emotional envi-ronment. This puts them at risk for Compassion Fatigue and Burnout. The protective factors that can counter their onset are Compassion Satisfaction, Organizational Commitment and Resilience. Expressive Writing is a valid tool for adapting to traumatic events and enhancing psychological well-being. Aim of this study is to evaluate the effect of the Expressive Writing in Palliative Care professionals on Compassion Satisfaction, Organizational Commitment, Resilience, Compassion Fatigue and perceived distress. Methods: Prospective experimental study with experimental/control groups and pre/post measurements. 50 Palliative Care professionals were recruited in Northern and Central Italy. Participants filled: Organizational Commitment Questionnaire; ProQol-revision III; Resilience Scale for Adults; Impact of Event-Scale Revised; Emotion Thermometer; ad hoc questionnaire for the evaluation of protocol usefulness. Results: Wilcoxon test demon-strated change in Continuative Commitment (Z =-3.357, p = .001), anger (Z =-2.214, p = .027), sleep (Z =-2.268, p = .023), help (Z =-2.184, p = .029), intrusiveness (Z =-2.469, p = .014), hyperarousal (Z =-2.717, p = .007), and total IES (Z =-2.456, p =, 014). Mann Whitney test showed a significantly lower score on post-test Intrusiveness in the experimental group (U = 202, p = .038). Conclusions: The Expressive Writing intervention was effective in improving organizational and emotional variables. Expressive Writing supports healthcare professionals in relieving the burden of traumatic episodes, ordering associated thoughts and emo-tions, and implementing a process of deep comprehension

Covid-19 vaccines in children with cow’s milk and food allergies

The COVID-19 pandemic is the most challenging global health crisis of our times. Vaccination against COVID-19 plays a key role to control the current pandemic situation. The risk of allergic reactions to new COVID-19 vaccines is low. However, there is a debate on the safety in allergic patients following post marketing findings by different agencies. Our aim is to understand from current experiences whether children with cow’s milk or food allergy are at higher risk than a general population for allergic reactions to COVID-19 vaccines. Current data indicate that patients with a history of allergy to cow’s milk or other foods, even if severe, should receive COVID-19 vaccine in a setting with availability of treatments for anaphylactic reactions and under medical supervision. Recipients should be discharged after a protracted observation period of 30 min if no reaction developed

Endophytic bacterium isolated of hosts present in contaminated areas by mercury in Pantanal mato-grossense.

The mercury is a contaminant in gold mining in the city of Poconé. This heavy metal is a toxic in different organisms and affect the human by bioaccumulation process causing a serie of cronic diseases. Mercury can be easily absorbed by plants and be accumulated in the human body through the food chain. The hypothesis is microorganism that is in association with plants, that survive in contaminated areas with mercury, provide greater resistance to contaminant and possibly an increased frequency of colonization. In this way, the aim of this study was to isolate endophytic bacterium that exhibit resistance to mercury

Alertness and visuospatial attention in clinical depression

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Cognitive deficits are a substantial burden in clinical depression. The present study considered dysfunction in the right-hemispheric attention network in depression, examining alertness and visuospatial attention.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>Three computerized visuospatial attention tests and an alertness test were administered to 16 depressive patients and 16 matched healthy controls.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Although no significant group effect was observed, alertness predicted reduced visuospatial performance in the left hemifield. Furthermore, sad mood showed a trend towards predicting left visual field omissions.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>Decreased alertness may lead to lower left hemifield visuospatial attention; this mechanism may be responsible for a spatial bias to the right side in depression, even though treatment of depression and anxiety may reduce this cognitive deficit.</p

Capacity resistance of endophytic fungi the mercury.

Contamination of biological systems by mercury represents a global concern, given the difficulty of degradation, persistence and potential toxicity of this metal in the environment. Remediation strategies of soils contaminated with mercury are required and the use of microorganisms as bioremediation agents is fully justified, in particular, the various mechanisms of tolerance to heavy metals allocated to them, particularly for fungi arising from various chemical processes, such as transformation valence, intra and extracellular precipitation and oxidation. Our hypothesis is that endophytic fungi isolated from areas contaminated by mercury present higher resistance to this metal

Isolation of endophytic fungi in environments with and without traces of mercury contamination, Pantanal of Mato Grosso.

The mining activity in Mato Grosso is an economic source for many cities, especially in Poconé, where this activity is responsible for significant change in the landscape and the contamination of the ecosystem by mercury. This results in serious damage to biota enhanced by bioaccumulation capacity. Mercury is toxic to all organisms, however, some microorganisms have innate or acquired tolerance to metal. Therefore, our hypothesis is based on the premise that plants in contaminated environments with mercury harbor a specific community of endophytic fungi, therefore, variations in the colonization frequency of the endophytes in these plants are expected, when compared to places without contamination

Prostate health index and multiparametric mri: Partners in crime fighting overdiagnosis and overtreatment in prostate cancer

Widespread use of PSA as the standard tool for prostate cancer (PCa) diagnosis led to a high rate of overdiagnosis and overtreatment. In this study, we evaluated the performance of the prostate health index (PHI) and multiparametric magnetic resonance imaging (mpMRI) for the prediction of positive biopsy and of high‐grade PCa at radical prostatectomy (RP). To this end, we prospectively enrolled 196 biopsy‐naïve patients who underwent mpMRI. A subgroup of 116 subjects with biopsy‐proven PCa underwent surgery. We found that PHI significantly outperformed both PI‐RADS score (difference in AUC: 0.14; p < 0.001) and PHI density (difference in AUC: 0.08; p = 0.002) in the ability to predict positive biopsy with a cut‐off value of 42.7 as the best threshold. Conversely, comparing the performance in the identification of clinically significant prostate cancer (csPCa) at RP, we found that PHI ≥61.68 and PI‐RADS score ≥4 were able to identify csPCa (Gleason score ≥7 (3 + 4)) both alone and added to a base model including age, PSA, fPSA‐to-tPSA ratio and prostate volume. In conclusion, PHI had a better ability than PI‐RADS score to predict positive biopsy, whereas it had a comparable performance in the identification of pathological csPCa

Liquid biopsy biomarkers in urine: A route towards molecular diagnosis and personalized medicine of bladder cancer

Bladder cancer (BC) is characterized by high incidence and recurrence rates together with genomic instability and elevated mutation degree. Currently, cystoscopy combined with cytology is routinely used for diagnosis, prognosis and disease surveillance. Such an approach is often associated with several side effects, discomfort for the patient and high economic burden. Thus, there is an essential demand of non-invasive, sensitive, fast and inexpensive biomarkers for clinical management of BC patients. In this context, liquid biopsy represents a very promising tool that has been widely investigated over the last decade. Liquid biopsy will likely be at the basis of patient selection for precision medicine, both in terms of treatment choice and real-time monitoring of therapeutic effects. Several different urinary biomarkers have been proposed for liquid biopsy in BC, including DNA methylation and mutations, protein-based assays, non-coding RNAs and mRNA signatures. In this review, we summarized the state of the art on different available tests concerning their potential clinical applications for BC detection, prognosis, surveillance and response to therapy