Risk factors and incidence of long-COVID syndrome in hospitalized patients: does remdesivir have a protective effect?

BACKGROUND: The definition of 'long-COVID syndrome' (LCS) is still debated and describes the persistence of symptoms after viral clearance in hospitalized or non-hospitalized patients affected by coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). AIM: In this study, we examined the prevalence and the risk factors of LCS in a cohort of patients with previous COVID-19 and followed for at least 6 months of follow-up. DESIGN: We conducted a prospective study including all hospitalized patients affected by COVID-19 at our center of Infectious Diseases (Vercelli, Italy) admitted between 10 March 2020 and 15 January 2021 for at least 6 months after discharge. Two follow-up visits were performed: after 1 and 6 months after hospital discharge. Clinical, laboratory and radiological data were recorded at each visit. RESULTS: A total of 449 patients were included in the analysis. The LCS was diagnosed in 322 subjects at Visit 1 (71.7%) and in 206 at Visit 2 (45.9); according to the post-COVID-19 functional status scale we observed 147 patients with values 2-3 and 175 with values >3 at Visit 1; at Visit 2, 133 subjects had the score between 2-3 and 73 > 3. In multivariate analysis, intensive care unit (ICU) admission (OR = 2.551; 95% CI = 1.998-6.819; P = 0.019), time of hospitalization (OR = 2.255; 95% CI = 1.018-6.992; P = 0.016) and treatment with remdesivir (OR = 0.641; 95% CI = 0.413-0.782; P < 0.001) were independent predictors of LCS. CONCLUSIONS: Treatment with remdesivir leads to a 35.9% reduction in LCS rate in follow-up. Severity of illness, need of ICU admission and length of hospital stay were factor associated with the persistence of PCS at 6 months of follow-up

The effects of antimicrobials and lipopolysaccharide on acute immune responsivity in pubertal male and female CD1 mice

Exposure to stress during critical periods of development—such as puberty—is associated with long-term disruptions in brain function and neuro-immune responsivity. However, the mechanisms underlying the effect of stress on the pubertal neuro-immune response has yet to be elucidated. Therefore, the objective of the current study was to investigate the effect antimicrobial and lipopolysaccharide (LPS) treatments on acute immune responsivity in pubertal male and female mice. Moreover, the potential for probiotic supplementation to mitigate these effects was also examined. 240 male and female CD1 mice were treated with one week of antimicrobial treatment (mixed antimicrobials or water) and probiotic treatment (L. rhamnosis R0011 and L. helveticus R0052 or L. helveticus R0052 and B. longum R0175) or placebo at five weeks of age. At six weeks of age (pubertal stress-sensitive period), the mice received a single injection of LPS or saline. Sickness behaviours were assessed, and mice were euthanized eight hours post-injection. Brain, blood, and intestinal samples were collected. The results indicated that the antimicrobial treatment reduced sickness behaviours, and potentiated LPS-induced plasma cytokine concentrations and pro-inflammatory markers in the pre-frontal cortex (PFC) and hippocampus, in a sex-dependent manner. However, probiotics reduced LPS-induced plasma cytokine concentrations along with hippocampal and PFC pro-inflammatory markers in a sex-dependent manner. L. rhamnosis R0011 and L. helveticus R0052 treatment also mitigated antimicrobial-induced plasma cytokine concentrations and sickness behaviours. These findings suggest that the microbiome is an important modulator of the pro-inflammatory immune response during puberty

Proposal for taking data with the KLOE-2 detector at the DAΦ\PhiNE collider upgraded in energy

This document reviews the physics program of the KLOE-2 detector at DA$\Phi$NE upgraded in energy and provides a simple solution to run the collider above the $\phi$-peak (up to 2, possibly 2.5 GeV). It is shown how a precise measurement of the multihadronic cross section in the energy region up to 2 (possibly 2.5) GeV would have a major impact on the tests of the Standard Model through a precise determination of the anomalous magnetic moment of the muon and the effective fine-structure constant at the $M_Z$ scale. With a luminosity of about $10^{32}$cm$^{-2}$s$^{-1}$, DA$\Phi$NE upgraded in energy can perform a scan in the region from 1 to 2.5 GeV in one year by collecting an integrated luminosity of 20 pb$^{-1}$ (corresponding to a few days of data taking) for single point, assuming an energy step of 25 MeV. A few years of data taking in this region would provide important tests of QCD and effective theories by $\gamma\gamma$ physics with open thresholds for pseudo-scalar (like the $\eta'$), scalar ($f_0,f'_0$, etc...) and axial-vector ($a_1$, etc...) mesons; vector-mesons spectroscopy and baryon form factors; tests of CVC and searches for exotics. In the final part of the document a technical solution for the energy upgrade of DA$\Phi$NE is proposed.Comment: 19 pages, 8 figure

DaΦ{\Phi}ne developments for the KLOE-2 experimental run

Recently the peak luminosity achieved on the DA{\Phi}NE collider has been improved by almost a factor three by implementing a novel collision scheme based on large Piwinski angle and Crab-Waist. This encouraging result opened new perspectives for physics research and a new run with the KLOE-2 detector has been scheduled to start by spring 2010. The KLOE-2 installation is a complex operation requiring a careful design effort and a several months long shutdown. The high luminosity interaction region has been deeply revised in order to take into account the effect on the beam caused by the solenoidal field of the experimental detector and to ensure background rejection. The shutdown has been also used to implement several other modifications aimed at improving beam dynamics: the wiggler poles have been displaced from the magnet axis in order to cancel high order terms in the field, the feedback systems have been equipped with stronger power supplies and more efficient kickers and electrodes have been inserted inside the wiggler and the dipole vacuum chambers, in the positron ring, to avoid the e-cloud formation. A low level RF feedback has been added to the cavity control in both rings.Comment: 3 pages, 3 figures, presented to the IPAC10 conferenc

Multiplicity dependence of jet-like two-particle correlations in p-Pb collisions at sNN\sqrt{s_{NN}} = 5.02 TeV

Two-particle angular correlations between unidentified charged trigger and associated particles are measured by the ALICE detector in p-Pb collisions at a nucleon-nucleon centre-of-mass energy of 5.02 TeV. The transverse-momentum range 0.7 $< p_{\rm{T}, assoc} < p_{\rm{T}, trig} <$ 5.0 GeV/$c$ is examined, to include correlations induced by jets originating from low momen\-tum-transfer scatterings (minijets). The correlations expressed as associated yield per trigger particle are obtained in the pseudorapidity range $|\eta|<0.9$. The near-side long-range pseudorapidity correlations observed in high-multiplicity p-Pb collisions are subtracted from both near-side short-range and away-side correlations in order to remove the non-jet-like components. The yields in the jet-like peaks are found to be invariant with event multiplicity with the exception of events with low multiplicity. This invariance is consistent with the particles being produced via the incoherent fragmentation of multiple parton--parton scatterings, while the yield related to the previously observed ridge structures is not jet-related. The number of uncorrelated sources of particle production is found to increase linearly with multiplicity, suggesting no saturation of the number of multi-parton interactions even in the highest multiplicity p-Pb collisions. Further, the number scales in the intermediate multiplicity region with the number of binary nucleon-nucleon collisions estimated with a Glauber Monte-Carlo simulation.Comment: 23 pages, 6 captioned figures, 1 table, authors from page 17, published version, figures at http://aliceinfo.cern.ch/ArtSubmission/node/161

Multi-particle azimuthal correlations in p-Pb and Pb-Pb collisions at the CERN Large Hadron Collider

Measurements of multi-particle azimuthal correlations (cumulants) for charged particles in p-Pb and Pb-Pb collisions are presented. They help address the question of whether there is evidence for global, flow-like, azimuthal correlations in the p-Pb system. Comparisons are made to measurements from the larger Pb-Pb system, where such evidence is established. In particular, the second harmonic two-particle cumulants are found to decrease with multiplicity, characteristic of a dominance of few-particle correlations in p-Pb collisions. However, when a $|\Delta \eta|$ gap is placed to suppress such correlations, the two-particle cumulants begin to rise at high-multiplicity, indicating the presence of global azimuthal correlations. The Pb-Pb values are higher than the p-Pb values at similar multiplicities. In both systems, the second harmonic four-particle cumulants exhibit a transition from positive to negative values when the multiplicity increases. The negative values allow for a measurement of $v_{2}\{4\}$ to be made, which is found to be higher in Pb-Pb collisions at similar multiplicities. The second harmonic six-particle cumulants are also found to be higher in Pb-Pb collisions. In Pb-Pb collisions, we generally find $v_{2}\{4\} \simeq v_{2}\{6\}\neq 0$ which is indicative of a Bessel-Gaussian function for the $v_{2}$ distribution. For very high-multiplicity Pb-Pb collisions, we observe that the four- and six-particle cumulants become consistent with 0. Finally, third harmonic two-particle cumulants in p-Pb and Pb-Pb are measured. These are found to be similar for overlapping multiplicities, when a $|\Delta\eta| > 1.4$ gap is placed.Comment: 25 pages, 11 captioned figures, 3 tables, authors from page 20, published version, figures at http://aliceinfo.cern.ch/ArtSubmission/node/87

Experience with DAΦNE Upgrade Including Crab Waist

International audienceIn 2007 DAΦNE was upgraded to operate in a regime of large Piwinski angle, with a novel IR optics, reduced vertical beta at the interaction point, and additional sextupoles providing for crab waist collisions. The specific luminosity was boosted by more than a factor of four, and the peak luminosity was more than doubled with respect to the maximum value obtained with the original collider configuration. The DAΦNE commissioning as well as the first experience with large Piwinski angle and crab waist collisions scheme will be reported

67P/C-G inner coma dust properties from 2.2 au inbound to 2.0 auoutbound to the Sun

GIADA (Grain Impact Analyzer and Dust Accumulator) on-board the Rosetta space probe is designed to measure the momentum, mass and speed of individual dust particles escaping the nucleus of comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko (hereafter 67P). From 2014 August to 2016 June, Rosetta escorted comet 67P during its journey around the Sun. Here, we focus on GIADA data taken between 2015 January and 2016 February which included 67P's perihelion passage. To better understand cometary activity and more specifically the presence of dust structures in cometary comae, we mapped the spatial distribution of dust density in 67P's coma. In this manner, we could track the evolution of high-density regions of coma dust and their connections with nucleus illumination conditions, namely tracking 67P's seasons. We also studied the link between dust particle speeds and their masses with respect to heliocentric distance, i.e. the level of cometary activity. This allowed us to derive a global and a local correlation of the dust particles' speed distribution with respect to the H2O production rate. © 2016 The Authors.Peer Reviewe

Blood ammonia levels in liver cirrhosis: a clue for the presence of portosystemic collateral veins

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Portal hypertension leads to the formation of portosystemic collateral veins in liver cirrhosis. The resulting shunting is responsible for the development of portosystemic encephalopathy. Although ammonia plays a certain role in determining portosystemic encephalopathy, the venous ammonia level has not been found to correlate with the presence or severity of this entity. So, it has become partially obsolete. Realizing the need for non-invasive markers mirroring the presence of esophageal varices in order to reduce the number of endoscopy screening, we came back to determine whether there was a correlation between blood ammonia concentrations and the detection of portosystemic collateral veins, also evaluating splenomegaly, hypersplenism (thrombocytopenia) and the severity of liver cirrhosis.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>One hundred and fifty three consecutive patients with hepatic cirrhosis of various etiologies were recruited to participate in endoscopic and ultrasonography screening for the presence of portosystemic collaterals mostly esophageal varices, but also portal hypertensive gastropathy and large spontaneous shunts.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Based on Child-Pugh classification, the median level of blood ammonia was 45 mcM/L in 64 patients belonging to class A, 66 mcM/L in 66 patients of class B and 108 mcM/L in 23 patients of class C respectively (p < 0.001).</p> <p>The grade of esophageal varices was concordant with venous ammonia levels (rho 0.43, p < 0.001). The best area under the curve was given by ammonia concentrations, i, e., 0.78, when comparing areas of ammonia levels, platelet count and spleen longitudinal diameter at ultrasonography. Ammonia levels predicted hepatic decompensation and ascites presence (Odds Ratio 1.018, p < 0.001).</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>Identifying cirrhotic patients with high blood ammonia concentrations could be clinically useful, as high levels would lead to suspicion of being in presence of collaterals, in clinical practice of esophageal varices, and pinpoint those patients requiring closer follow-up and endoscopic screening.</p

An Italian prospective multicenter study on colonoscopy practice and quality: What has changed in the last 10 years

Background: A relevant number of adenomas can be missed during colonoscopy. Aims: Assess the current status of colonoscopy procedures in Italian centers. Methods: A prospective observational study involving 17 hospitals (34 endoscopists) included consecutive patients undergoing standard colonoscopy. In the first phase, endoscopists performed consecutive colonoscopies. In the second phase, retraining via an online learning platform was planned, while in the third phase data were collected analogously to phase 1. Results: A total of 3,504 patients were enrolled. Overall, a BBPS score ≥6 was obtained in 95.6% of cases (94.8% and 96.9% in the pre- and post-training phases, respectively). 88.4% of colonoscopies had a withdrawal time ≥6 min (88.2% and 88.7% in the pre- and post-training phases). Median adenoma detection rate (ADR) was 39.1%, with no significant differences between the pre- and post-training phases (40.1% vs 36.9%; P = 0.83). In total, 81% of endoscopists had a ADR performance above the 25% threshold. Conclusion: High colonoscopy quality standards are achieved by the Italian hospitals involved. Quality improvement initiatives and repeated module-based colonoscopy-training have been promoted in Italy during the last decade, which appear to have had a significant impact on quality colonoscopy metrics together with the activation of colorectal cancer screening programs