The Effectiveness of a Motivational Interviewing Intervention on Mutuality Between Patients With Heart Failure and Their Caregivers: A Secondary Outcome Analysis of the MOTIVATE-HF Randomized Controlled Trial.

BACKGROUND: Mutuality, defined as "the positive quality of the relationship between a caregiver and a care receiver", was found to be associated with self-care and caregiver contribution to self-care in heart failure (HF). However, no studies were conducted to evaluate whether motivational interviewing (MI) can improve mutuality in patients with HF and caregivers. OBJECTIVES: The aim of this study was to evaluate the effectiveness of MI on mutuality in HF patient-caregiver dyads. METHODS: This is a secondary outcome analysis of the MOTIVATE-HF randomized controlled trial, the primary aim of which was to evaluate the effect of MI on improving self-care in patients with HF. Participants were randomized into 3 arms: (1) MI for patients only, (2) MI for both patients and caregivers, and (3) standard care. To assess the HF patients' and caregivers' mutuality, the Mutuality Scale was used in its patient and caregiver versions. RESULTS: Patients with HF had a median age of 74 years, and there were more men (58%). Most patients were retired (76.2%). Caregivers had a median age of 55 years and were mostly women (75.5%). Most patients were in New York Heart Association class II (61.9%) and had an ischemic HF etiology (33.6%). The motivational interviews did not show any impact on changes in the patient and caregiver mutuality during the follow-up time (3, 6, 9, and 12 months from baseline). The condition of living together between the patient and the caregiver was significantly associated with better mutuality between the patient and the caregiver. CONCLUSIONS: Motivational interviewing performed by nurses was not effective in improving mutuality in patients with HF and caregivers, but the target variable of the intervention was patient self-care. Stronger effects of MI on mutuality were observed in patients with HF and caregivers who live together. Future studies should target mutuality to see whether MI is really effective.

The Impact of an Intervention to Improve Caregiver Contribution to Heart Failure Self-care on Caregiver Anxiety, Depression, Quality of Life, and Sleep.

BACKGROUND: Better caregiver contribution to self-care in heart failure is associated with better patient outcomes. However, caregiver contribution to self-care is also associated with high anxiety and depression, poor quality of life, and poor sleep in caregivers. It is still unclear whether interventions that encourage caregivers to contribute more to patient self-care might increase caregivers' anxiety and depression and decrease their quality of life and sleep. OBJECTIVE: The aim of this study was to assess the impact of a motivational interview intervention aimed at improving caregiver contribution to self-care in heart failure on caregivers' anxiety, depression, quality of life, and sleep. METHODS: This is a secondary outcome analysis of the MOTIVATE-HF trial. Patients with heart failure and their caregivers were randomized into arm 1 (motivational interview to patients), arm 2 (motivational interview to patients and caregivers), and arm 3 (standard care). Data were collected between June 2014 and October 2018. The article has been prepared following the Consolidated Standards of Reporting Trials checklist. RESULTS: A sample of 510 patient-caregiver dyads was enrolled. Over the year of the study, the levels of anxiety, depression, quality of life, and sleep in caregivers did not significantly change among the 3 arms. CONCLUSIONS: Motivational interview aimed at improving caregiver contribution to self-care does not seem to increase caregiver anxiety and depression, nor decrease their quality of life and sleep. Thus, such an intervention might be safely delivered to caregivers of patients with heart failure, although further studies are needed to confirm our findings.

Profiling Players Involved in Overkill: An Analysis of 71 Cases in Central Italy.

"Overkill" is characterized by the finding of excessive wounds on the victim's body. Despite the large use of this term, it does not have a definition in the literature yet. Our study aimed to analyze the information related to the dynamics of overkill cases, collecting objective variables, and producing a profile of the players involved in this type of homicides. Data on 71 overkill cases from reports of the autopsies performed in the Section of Legal Medicine of the University of Rome Tor Vergata from 1 January 2000 to 31 December 2020 were collected. The victims and the perpetrators of overkill shared similar characteristics: they were usually male aged between 20 and 50 years, more likely in the 20-35 years range; victims however also showed another age peak in the range 50-55 years. The type of damage can be linked to the sole action of a cold weapon or the simultaneous use of multiple harmful tools with no significant differences. The most common motive proved to be a dispute for futile reasons; however, in the case of a single perpetrator of the crime, the economic and passionate motives are as frequent as the previous one. Implications of the findings and avenues for future research are discussed.

Antigenicity Preservation Is Related to Tissue Characteristics and the Post-Mortem Interval: Immunohistochemical Study and Literature Review.

The main aim of this study was to investigate the post-mortem proteolytic degradation process of selected tissue antigens and correlate it to the post-mortem interval. During the autopsy of 12 cadavers (time interval ranging 1 day-2 years after death) samples of skin, liver, kidney, and spleen were collected. All samples were formalin-fixed and paraffin-embedded. Four µm paraffin sections were used for hematoxylin-eosin staining and immunohistochemical analysis (Ki67, Vimentin, Pan cytokeratin, and CD20). Data reported here show that immunohistochemical reactivity preservation was related to the characteristics of the tissues. In particular, the most resistant tissue was the skin, where the autolysis phenomena were not appreciable before 5 days. On the contrary, the liver and the spleen underwent early autolysis, while the kidney displayed an early autolysis of the tubules and a late one of the glomeruli. As concerns specific antigens, immunoreactivity was lost earliest for nuclear antigens as compared to cytoplasmic ones. In conclusion, our results demonstrate that immunohistochemical detection of specific antigens may be useful in estimating the post-mortem interval, especially when we need to know whether the post-mortem interval is a few days or more than 7-10 days.

Obesity as a social phenomenon: A narrative review.

BACKGROUND: obesity is one of the most prevalent diseases all over the world. Because of its high social impact, the broadest possible approach on several levels - and not limited only to clinical aspect - is needed to better understand and face the challenges obesity poses to public health. OBJECTIVES: to analyse, through the main evidence, the social impact of weight excess in the general population and the actions aimed at mitigating its negative effects. DESIGN: narrative review. SETTING: data obtained from the sources included in the study were gathered and analyzed in five macroareas: Health Inequality, Society, Work, Impact on Social Medicine (focused on the Italian model), and Social Costs. RESULTS: each category showed a bilateral relationship with obesity having a significant impact for the community. CONCLUSIONS: for each field, various actions should be taken at institutional level. Many recommendations and actions have already been taken worldwide, but they alone seem to be not enough. This work points out that, in order to combat obesity and bring about a slowdown of this pandemic, the entire scientific community and institutions must work together to identify and design programmes that are truly effective.

Late termination of pregnancy in case of congenital CMV infection: ethics, medicine and law.

This paper provides a recent legal case which calls into discussion the women's safe access to voluntary termination of pregnancy (VTP) after the first 90 days. On 15 January 2021, the Italian Supreme Court sentenced a physician to damage compensation because he did not correctly inform the patient, in her 22nd week of pregnancy, about the risks to the fetus relating to an infection from cytomegalovirus (CMV). The option for VTP was not offered since, at the time of the woman's request, medical investigations did not show the evidence of fetal malformations, neither there were concrete risks for the life of the mother, as Italian law requires. The baby was born with severe brain injuries. The case is noteworthy because it offers a new precedent to extend legal requirements for late VTP. The impact of this decision must be tested in the clinical practice. Further studies are necessary to evaluate possible law amendments extending access conditions for this practice and new policies promoting the strengthening of informative and assistance procedures, including psychological help, to the pregnant woman are needed, as well.

Health Management in Italian Prisons during COVID-19 Outbreak: A Focus on the Second and Third Wave.

The SARS-CoV-2 spread is a threatening and challenging issue for correctional systems worldwide because of many factors, particularly overcrowding and of the intrinsic characteristics of the population. The prevention measures adopted by the Italian Government were aimed to protect and preserve both inmates' and prison workers' health. The present study aimed to evaluate the efficacy of the adopted strategies. METHODS: Data regarding Italian prisons' occupation and prisoners' population from January 2019 to June 2021, as well as the cumulative weekly increase of confirmed cases and the number of doses of vaccine administered among the population of inmates, the prison workers, and Italian population from November 2020 to the end of June 2021, were collected. RESULTS: Prisons' occupation dropped from 120% to 106% after the beginning of the pandemics. The confirmed cases between inmates were consistently lower than among the Italian population and prison workers. A time-series chart showed a time lag of one week between the peaks of the different population. CONCLUSIONS: The containing strategies adopted by the Italian correctional system have proved their effectiveness in terms of the prevention and protection of both inmate and staff health.

A new perspective on mechanical characterisation of Arabidopsis stems through vibration tests.

The mechanical properties of plants are important for understanding plant biomechanics and for breeding new plants that can survive in challenging environments. Thus, accurate and reliable methods are required for the determination of mechanical properties such as stiffness and Young's modulus of elasticity. Much attention has been paid to the application of static methods to plants, while dynamic methods have received considerably less attention. In the present study, a dynamic forced vibration method for mechanical characterisation of Arabidopsis inflorescence stems was developed and validated against the conventional three-point bending test. Compared to dynamic tests based on free vibration, the current method allows to determine simultaneously more than one natural frequency, thus increasing the overall accuracy of the results. In addition, this method can be applied to the top parts of the stems that are more flexible, and where application of the three-point bending test is often limited. To demonstrate one of the potential applications of this method, it was applied to evaluate the influence of turgor pressure on the mechanical properties of Arabidopsis stems. Overall, the new dynamic testing approach has been shown to provide reliable data for the local mechanical properties along the Arabidopsis inflorescence stem.

Effects of postprandial hydroxytyrosol and derivates on oxidation of LDL, cardiometabolic state and gene expression: a nutrigenomic approach for cardiovascular prevention.

BACKGROUND AND AIM: Cardiovascular diseases (CVDs) are the most frequent causes of death in the world. Inflammation and oxidative damage contribute significantly to the development of atherosclerosis and CVDs. European Food Safety Authority scientific opinion has acknowledged that hydroxytyrosol (3,4-dihydroxyphenylethanol) and derivatives, contained in extra virgin olive oil (EVOO), typically used in Mediterranean diet may play a crucial role in the reduction of the inflammatory pathway and in the prevention of CVDs. The aim of the study was to determine the effect in healthy volunteers of 25 g of phenols-rich EVOO (p-EVOO). METHODS: The clinical study was a randomized, controlled trial to determine the acute effect in the postprandial time of 25 g of p-EVOO. We evaluated nutritional status using anthropometric parameters, body composition, serum metabolites, oxidative stress biomarkers and gene expression of eight genes related to oxidative stress and human inflammasome pathways, lasting 2 h after p-EVOO administration. Twenty-two participants resulted as eligible for the study. RESULTS: A significant reduction of oxidized LDL, malondialdehyde, triglycerides and visceral adiposity index was highlighted (P < 0.05). Significant upregulation of catalase, superoxide dismutase 1 and upstream transcription factor 1 were observed (P < 0.05). CONCLUSION: The current study shows that intake of 25 g of p-EVOO has been able to be modulated, in the postprandial time, the antioxidant profile and the expression of inflammation and oxidative stress-related genes, as superoxide dismutase 1, upstream transcription factor 1 and catalase. We also observed a significant reduction of oxidized LDL, malondialdehyde, triglycerides and visceral adiposity index. We have demonstrated that a daily intake of phenols and antioxidants can reduce the inflammatory pathway and oxidative stress and therefore the risk of atherosclerosis and CVDs. More studies on a larger population are necessary before definitive conclusions can be drawn.Trial registration ClinicalTrials.gov NCT01890070.

A Hazelnut-Enriched Diet Modulates Oxidative Stress and Inflammation Gene Expression without Weight Gain.

INTRODUCTION: Inflammation is associated with obesity condition and plays a pivotal role in the onset and progression of many chronic diseases. Among several nutraceutical foods, hazelnuts (Corylus avellana L.) are considered an excellent anti-inflammatory and hypolipidemic food being the second richest source of monounsaturated fatty acids among nuts and because they are rich in vitamins, minerals, and phenolic compounds. MATERIALS AND METHODS: A prospective pilot clinical trial on 24 healthy volunteers who consumed daily, as a snack, 40 g of hazelnuts (261.99 kcal/1096.17 kJ) for six weeks was conducted. Anthropometric measurements, body composition analysis, and nutrigenomic analysis on 12 anti-inflammatory and antioxidant genes were evaluated at baseline (T0) and after hazelnut intervention (T1). RESULTS: No significant changes were detected on body composition analysis after hazelnut consumption. Conversely, significant upregulation was detected for SOD1 (2-ΔΔCt = 2.42), CAT (2-ΔΔCt = 2.41), MIF (2-ΔΔCt = 4.12), PPARγ (2-ΔΔCt = 5.89), VDR (2-ΔΔCt = 3.61), MTHFR (2-ΔΔCt = 2.40), and ACE (2-ΔΔCt = 2.16) at the end of the study. CONCLUSIONS: According to emerging evidences, hazelnut consumption does not lead to weight gain probably due to the improvement of the body's antioxidant capacity by the upregulation of genes implied in oxidant reactions and inflammation.

Why primary obesity is a disease?

Obesity must be considered a real pathology. In the world wide, obesity represent one of the major public health issue associated with increased morbidity and mortality. Overweight or obesity, in fact, significantly increases the risk of contracting diseases, such as: arterial hypertension, dyslipidemia, type 2 diabetes mellitus, coronary heart disease, cerebral vasculopathy, gallbladder lithiasis, arthropathy, ovarian polycytosis, sleep apnea syndrome, and some neoplasms. Despite numerous informative campaigns, unfortunately, the fight against obesity does not seem to work: in the last years, the prevalence continued to increase. The progressive and rapid increase in the incidence of obesity, which has characterized most of the economically advanced countries in the last decade, has been the main stimulus for the research of the mechanisms underlying this pathology and the related disorders. The aims of this review is to provide a revision of the literature in order to define obesity as diseases, secondly to highlight the limits and the inaccuracy of common tools used for the diagnosis of obesity, and as a third thing to strengthen the concept of the complexity of obesity as a disease among political health care providers. Obesity may be viewed as a multifactorial pathology and chronic low-grade inflammatory disease. In fact, people affected by obesity have greater risk of developing comorbility and morbility, respect to healthy. Hence, the absolute therapeutic benefit is directly proportional to the basic risk. So, internationally interest on early diagnosis of obesity is growing to avoid under- and overdiagnosis consequences. Therefore, the consequences are an aggravation of the disease and an increase in obesity related pathology like diabetes, cardiovascular disease, and cancer. The most widely used parameter for diagnosis, body mass index (BMI) is not suitable for assessing the body fat. In fact, several studies demonstrate that BMI alone cannot define obesity, which consists not so much in weight gain as in excess fat mass. The use of suitable tools for the assessment of fat mass percentage combined with clinical and genetic analysis allowed to identify different phenotypes of obesity, which explain the various paradoxes of obesity. It is essential to adopt all possible strategies to be able to combat obesity, ameliorate the suffering of patients, and reduce the social and treatment costs of obesity.

Resveratrol prevents capacitation-like changes and improves in vitro fertilizing capability of buffalo frozen-thawed sperm.

The aim of this study was to evaluate the effect of resveratrol supplementation of semen extender on fertility parameters of frozen-thawed buffalo sperm. After the initial semen assessment, buffalo semen was cryopreserved in BioXcell containing 0 (control group), 0.5, 1, 10, and 50-µM resveratrol. After thawing, viability, motility, and capacitation status (assessed by localization of phosphotyrosine-containing proteins) were evaluated. Based on the results of the dose-response trial, the concentration of 50 µM was selected for further assessments, such as membrane integrity, total antioxidant capacity, reactive oxygen species, and lipid peroxidation (LPO) levels. Moreover, in vitro fertilizing ability by heterologous IVF and in vivo fertility were assessed. No differences among groups were recorded in sperm motility and viability (on average 52.3 ± 2.1% and 76.6 ± 1.3%, respectively). However, data showed a resveratrol dose-dependent effect on sperm capacitation status, with a significant reduction of the cryopreservation-induced capacitation with the higher concentrations tested. In particular, both 10- and 50-µM resveratrol increased (P < 0.01) the percentage of sperm displaying pattern A (low capacitation level), but treatment with 50-µM resveratrol also decreased (P < 0.01) the proportion of sperm exhibiting pattern EA (high-capacitation level) compared with the control. Interestingly, supplementation of semen extender with resveratrol increased membrane integrity, indicated by the higher percentage of hypo-osmotic swelling positive sperm (55.6 ± 0.6 vs. 48.4 ± 0.7; P < 0.01), and total antioxidant capacity (1.36 ± 0.01 vs. 1.32 ± 0.02 mM/L; P < 0.05) compared with the control. Intracellular reactive oxygen species decreased in resveratrol-treated sperm compared with the control, as indicated by dihydroethidium values (0.17 ± 0.01 and 0.22 ± 0.01 µM/µL dihydroethidium, respectively; P < 0.01). Moreover, when IVF was carried out by using semen treated with 50 µM resveratrol, the normal fertilization rate considerably improved (60.8%, P < 0.05) compared with the control (51.3%). However, no differences were recorded in pregnancy rates at 60 days post-AI with resveratrol-treated semen (50 µM) compared with the control (48.7 vs. 46.5%, respectively). In conclusion, the inclusion of 50-µM resveratrol in the extender decreases capacitation-like changes and oxidative stress, improving membrane stability and in vitro fertilizing ability of buffalo semen.

[Regulatory aspects and medicolegal considerations regarding clinical drug trials]. / Aspetti normativi e considerazioni medico-legali sulla sperimentazione farmacologica clinica.

This article aims to explore the regulatory and medicolegal aspects of experimental drug trials. Firstly, the authors provide definitions of drug according to WHO, the European Community and our official Pharmacopoeia, and that of experimental studies. They then explain the distinction between pure or basic research and drug trials and explain the various phases of the latter. Besides providing definitions, and exploring doctrinal, theoretical but also practical aspects of drug trials, the authors also discuss and analyze legislative aspects, with particular reference to the Italian legislative framework, and medicolegal issues, including informed consent, effects on humans, and professional responsibility.

The use of normal forms for analysing nonlinear mechanical vibrations.

A historical introduction is given of the theory of normal forms for simplifying nonlinear dynamical systems close to resonances or bifurcation points. The specific focus is on mechanical vibration problems, described by finite degree-of-freedom second-order-in-time differential equations. A recent variant of the normal form method, that respects the specific structure of such models, is recalled. It is shown how this method can be placed within the context of the general theory of normal forms provided the damping and forcing terms are treated as unfolding parameters. The approach is contrasted to the alternative theory of nonlinear normal modes (NNMs) which is argued to be problematic in the presence of damping. The efficacy of the normal form method is illustrated on a model of the vibration of a taut cable, which is geometrically nonlinear. It is shown how the method is able to accurately predict NNM shapes and their bifurcations.

[Health care quality as perceived by the users of an emergency unit in Rome]. / Qualità assistenziale attesa e percepita dagli utenti del dipartimento emergenza e accettazione di un ospedale romano.

This study is aimed at assessing health care quality within the St. Eugenio Emergency Unit in Rome. The survey covers the months of March, June and November 2000. Patients were given about 9 thousand forms to fill before and after their access. Only 4% of them got to the hospital by ambulance and as many as 85% were immediately discharged after the exam. Their expectations were centred primarily on the health staff's professional skills, whereas their retroactive judgment focused on the poor quality of support services (parking lots, directional signs, waiting time), thus neglecting the very professional skills they previously considered as a priority.