Estimating diagnostic accuracy of tests for latent tuberculosis infection without a gold standard among healthcare workers

Binary file ES_Abstracts_Final_ECDC.txt matche

Surgical site infection after caesarean section. Space for post-discharge surveillance improvements and reliable comparisons

Surgical site infections (SSI) after caesarean section (CS) represent a substantial health system concern. Surveying SSI has been associated with a reduction in SSI incidence. We report the findings of three (2008, 2011 and 2013) regional active SSI surveillances after CS in community hospital of the Latium region determining the incidence of SSI. Each CS was surveyed for SSI occurrence by trained staff up to 30 post-operative days, and association of SSI with relevant characteristics was assessed using binomial logistic regression. A total of 3,685 CS were included in the study. A complete 30 day post-operation follow-up was achieved in over 94% of procedures. Overall 145 SSI were observed (3.9% cumulative incidence) of which 131 (90.3%) were superficial and 14 (9.7%) complex (deep or organ/space) SSI; overall 129 SSI (of which 89.9% superficial) were diagnosed post-discharge. Only higher NNIS score was significantly associated with SSI occurrence in the regression analysis. Our work provides the first regional data on CS-associated SSI incidence, highlighting the need for a post-discharge surveillance which should assure 30 days post-operation to not miss data on complex SSI, as well as being less labour intensive

The Brief Negative Symptom Scale (BNSS): Independent validation in a large sample of Italian patients with schizophrenia

BACKGROUND: The Brief Negative Symptom Scale (BNSS) was developed to address the main limitations of the existing scales for the assessment of negative symptoms of schizophrenia. The initial validation of the scale by the group involved in its development demonstrated good convergent and discriminant validity, and a factor structure confirming the two domains of negative symptoms (reduced emotional/verbal expression and anhedonia/asociality/avolition). However, only relatively small samples of patients with schizophrenia were investigated. Further independent validation in large clinical samples might be instrumental to the broad diffusion of the scale in clinical research. METHODS: The present study aimed to examine the BNSS inter-rater reliability, convergent/discriminant validity and factor structure in a large Italian sample of outpatients with schizophrenia. RESULTS: Our results confirmed the excellent inter-rater reliability of the BNSS (the intraclass correlation coefficient ranged from 0.81 to 0.98 for individual items and was 0.98 for the total score). The convergent validity measures had r values from 0.62 to 0.77, while the divergent validity measures had r values from 0.20 to 0.28 in the main sample (n=912) and in a subsample without clinically significant levels of depression and extrapyramidal symptoms (n=496). The BNSS factor structure was supported in both groups. CONCLUSIONS: The study confirms that the BNSS is a promising measure for quantifying negative symptoms of schizophrenia in large multicenter clinical studies

National surveillance system and Hib mineingitis incidence in Italy

In 1994, the Italian Ministry of Health implemented a National Surveillance System to obtain data on the incidence of bacterial meningitis and its causative agents, including Haemophilus influenzae type b (Hib). As a consequence, case reporting of Hib meningitis is increasing year by year; in 1996, there were 126 notifications, of which 73% were in children under 2 years of age. Although underreporting still exists, parallel prospective or retrospective epidemiological surveys conducted in some Italian Regions allowed for partial correction of the incidence of Hib meningitis (up to 18.5/100,000 population in 1994)