Allergy and autoimmunity in children: non-mutually exclusive diseases. A narrative review.

In last decades a simultaneous increase in the prevalence of atopic and autoimmune disorders in pediatric population has been observed. Despite the Th1-Th2 paradigm, supporting the polarization of the immune system with Th1 response involved in autoimmune diseases and Th2 response leading to hypersensitivity reactions, recent evidence suggests a possible coexistence of common pathogenic pathways as result of shared immune dysregulation. Similar genes and other mechanisms such as epithelial barrier damage, gut microbiota dysbiosis and reduced number of T regs and IL-10 contribute to the onset of allergy and autoimmunity. IgA deficiency is also hypothesized to be the crosslink between celiac disease and allergy by lowering gut mucous membrane protection from antigens and allergens. The present narrative review aims to give an overview of the co-occurrence of allergic and autoimmune disorders (celiac disease, inflammatory bowel diseases, type 1 diabetes mellitus, thyroid disease, juvenile idiopathic arthritis) in pediatric population, based on the available evidence. We also highlighted the common pathogenic pathways that may underpin both. Our findings confirm that allergic and autoimmune diseases are commonly associated, and clinicians should therefore be aware of the possible coexistence of these conditions in order to ameliorate disease management and patient care. Particular attention should be paid to the association between atopic dermatitis or asthma and celiac disease or type 1 diabetes and vice versa, for therapeutic interventions. Further studies are needed to better clarify mechanisms involved in the pathogenesis and eventually identify new therapeutic strategies.

Correlation of SpO2/FiO2 and PaO2/FiO2 in patients with symptomatic COVID-19: An observational, retrospective study.

Some patients affected by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) experience acute hypoxemic respiratory failure progressing toward atypical acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS). The aim of the study is to evaluate whether a correlation between ratio of peripheral saturation of oxygen (SpO2) and fraction of inspired oxygen (S/F) and ratio of arterial partial pressure of oxygen and fraction of inspired oxygen (P/F) exists in COVID-19-related ARDS as already known in classical ARDS. In this multicenter, retrospective, observational study, consecutive, adult (≥ 18 years) patients with symptomatic coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) admitted to different COVID-19 divisions in Italy between March and December 2020 were included. Patients with SpO2 > 97% or missing information were excluded. We included 1,028 patients (median age 72 years, prevalence of males [62.2%]). A positive correlation was found between P/F and S/F (r = 0.938, p < 0.0001). A receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve analysis showed that S/F accurately recognizes the presence of ARDS (P/F ≤ 300 mmHg) in COVID-19 patients, with a cut-off of ≤ 433% showing good sensitivity and specificity. S/F was also tested against P/F values ≤ 200 and ≤ 100 mmHg (suggestive for moderate and severe ARDS, respectively), the latter showing great accuracy for S/F ≤ 178%. S/F was accurate in predicting ARDS for SpO2 ≥ 92%. In conclusion, our findings support the routine use of S/F as a reliable surrogate of P/F in patients with COVID-19-related ARDS.

Dental Emergencies in an Italian Pediatric Hospital during the COVID-19 Pandemic.

Emergency rooms (ER) are largely used by patients with oral complaints, who choose the ER over private or public dental offices for oral prevention and treatment. During the COVID-19 pandemic, the activity of most dental facilities was limited, and most hospitals and ERs were dedicated to the treatment of COVID-19 patients. The present study analyzed the number of and reason for visits at the emergency room (ER) of Ospedale dei Bambini "Vittore Buzzi", the main pediatric hospital in Milano, Italy, between 2019 and 2020, with a particular focus on oral emergencies. In 2019, 25,435 children turned to the ER, compared to 16,750 in 2020. About 10% of the children were eventually admitted to the hospital in both years. The number of admissions for infectious diseases, other than COVID-19, signed an important decrease in 2020, while trauma/injuries decreased slightly in number but increased in proportion. The number and proportion of ER visits for oral complaints decreased in 2020 compared to 2019. Stomatitis was the most frequent condition, followed by traumatic injuries, which decreased in number and percentage between 2019 and 2020. Oral infections and painful caries accounted for about 15% of the cases in both 2019 and 2020. These data highlight the need to promote territorial services for the prevention and treatment of oral health complaints, including dental emergencies.

Upper extremity deep vein thrombosis in COVID-19: Incidence and correlated risk factors in a cohort of non-ICU patients.

BACKGROUND: Venous thromboembolism is a frequent complication of COVID-19 infection. Less than 50% of pulmonary embolism (PE) is associated with the evidence of deep venous thrombosis (DVT) of the lower extremities. DVT may also occur in the venous system of the upper limbs especially if provoking conditions are present such as continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP). The aim of this study was to evaluate the incidence of UEDVT in patients affected by moderate-severe COVID-19 infection and to identify potential associated risk factors for its occurrence. METHODS: We performed a retrospective analysis of all patients affected by moderate-severe COVID-19 infection admitted to our unit. In accordance with the local protocol, all patients had undergone a systematic screening for the diagnosis of UEDVT, by vein compression ultrasonography (CUS). All the patients were receiving pharmacological thromboprophylaxis according to international guidelines recommendations. Univariate and multivariate analyses were used to identify risk factors associated with UEDVT. RESULTS: 257 patients were included in the study, 28 patients were affected by UEDVT with an incidence of 10.9% (95% CI, 7.1-14.7). At univariate analysis UEDVT appeared to be significantly associated (p< 0.05) with pneumonia, ARDS, PaO2/FiO2, D-dimer value higher than the age adjusted cut off value and need for CPAP ventilation. Multivariate analysis showed a significant association between UEDVT and the need for CPAP ventilation (OR 5.95; 95% IC 1.33-26.58). Increased mortality was found in patients affected by UEDVT compared to those who were not (OR 3.71; 95% CI, 1.41-9.78). CONCLUSIONS: UEDVT can occur in COVID-19 patients despite adequate prophylaxis especially in patients undergoing helmet CPAP ventilation. Further studies are needed to identify the correct strategy to prevent DVT in these patients.

Detection and Classification of Bronchiectasis Through Convolutional Neural Networks.

PURPOSE: Bronchiectasis is a chronic disease characterized by an irreversible dilatation of bronchi leading to chronic infection, airway inflammation, and progressive lung damage. Three specific patterns of bronchiectasis are distinguished in clinical practice: cylindrical, varicose, and cystic. The predominance and the extension of the type of bronchiectasis provide important clinical information. However, characterization is often challenging and is subject to high interobserver variability. The aim of this study is to provide an automatic tool for the detection and classification of bronchiectasis through convolutional neural networks. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Two distinct approaches were adopted: (i) direct network performing a multilabel classification of 32×32 regions of interest (ROIs) into 4 classes: healthy, cylindrical, cystic, and varicose and (ii) a 2-network serial approach, where the first network performed a binary classification between normal tissue and bronchiectasis and the second one classified the ROIs containing abnormal bronchi into one of the 3 bronchiectasis typologies. Performances of the networks were compared with other architectures presented in the literature. RESULTS: Computed tomography from healthy individuals (n=9, age=47±6, FEV1%pred=109±17, FVC%pred=116±17) and bronchiectasis patients (n=21, age=59±15, FEV1%pred=74±25, FVC%pred=91±22) were collected. A total of 19,059 manually selected ROIs were used for training and testing. The serial approach provided the best results with an accuracy and F1 score average of 0.84, respectively. Slightly lower performances were observed for the direct network (accuracy=0.81 and F1 score average=0.82). On the test set, cylindrical bronchiectasis was the subtype classified with highest accuracy, while most of the misclassifications were related to the varicose pattern, mainly to the cylindrical class. CONCLUSION: The developed networks accurately detect and classify bronchiectasis disease, allowing to collect quantitative information regarding the radiologic severity and the topographical distribution of bronchiectasis subtype.

Superior vena cava syndrome after pacemaker implantation treated with direct oral anticoagulation.

BACKGROUND: Superior Vena Cava (SVC) syndrome, is a quite rare but serious complication after pacemaker lead implantation; most patients are asymptomatic due to the development of adequate venous collateral circulation. CASE PRESENTATION: We report a case of a 75-year-old woman who developed SVC syndrome after transvenous pacemaker implantation with complete resolution of the thrombosis after 3 months of oral anticoagulation. CONCLUSIONS: Generally other causes as malignancy are considered to be the most common etiology of SVC syndrome, but benign iatrogenic causes, mainly intravascular devices (central vein catheters, cardiac defibrillators and pacemaker wires), are becoming increasingly common. Procedures performed on venous vasculature, causing a possible intimal injury or vein stenosis, provoked by transvenous leads, seem to be the most reasonable explanation for the observed complication.

Lung Function and Symptoms in Post-COVID-19 Patients: A Single-Center Experience.

OBJECTIVE: To address the lack of information about clinical sequelae of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). PATIENTS AND METHODS: Previously hospitalized COVID-19 patients who were attending the outpatient clinic for post-COVID-19 patients (ASST Ovest Milanese, Magenta, Italy) were included in this retrospective study. They underwent blood draw for complete blood count, C-reactive protein, ferritin, D-dimer, and arterial blood gas analysis and chest high-resolution computed tomography (HRCT) scan. The primary endpoint was the assessment of blood gas exchanges after 3 months. Other endpoints included the assessment of symptoms and chest HRCT scan abnormalities and changes in inflammatory biomarkers after 3 months from hospital admission. RESULTS: Eighty-eight patients (n = 65 men; 73.9%) were included. Admission arterial blood gas analysis showed hypoxia and hypocapnia and an arterial partial pressure of oxygen/fractional inspired oxygen ratio of 271.4 (interquartile range [IQR]: 238-304.7) mm Hg that greatly improved after 3 months (426.19 [IQR: 395.2-461.9] mm Hg, P<.001). Forty percent of patients were still hypocapnic after 3 months. Inflammatory biomarkers dramatically improved after 3 months from hospitalization. Fever, resting dyspnea, and cough were common at hospital admission and improved after 3 months, when dyspnea on exertion and arthralgias arose. On chest HRCT scan, more than half of individuals still presented with interstitial involvement after 3 months. Positive correlations between the interstitial pattern at 3 months and dyspnea on admission were found. C-reactive protein at admission was positively associated with the presence of interstitial involvement at follow-up. The persistence of cough was associated with presence of bronchiectasis and consolidation on follow-up chest HRCT scan. CONCLUSION: Whereas inflammatory biomarker levels normalized after 3 months, signs of lung damage persisted for a longer period. These findings support the need for implementing post-COVID-19 outpatient clinics to closely follow-up COVID-19 patients after hospitalization.

Multicomponent intervention provided by GPs to reduce cardiovascular risk factors: evaluation in an Italian large sample.

BACKGROUND: The cardiovascular risk increases in a multiplicative way when patients present more risk factors simultaneously. Moreover, the General Practitioners (GPs) play a crucial role in risk factors prevention and reduction. This work aimed to evaluate a multicomponent intervention in the Primary Care Department in an Italian Local Health Unit. METHODS: A pre-post study was conducted in Northern Italy (2018). Patients were eligible if: aged between 30 and 60 years, not chronic patients, not affected by hypertension or hypercholesterolaemia. The GPs assessed body mass index, hypertension, abdominal obesity, low-density lipoprotein (LDL) values, glycaemic values, smoking and exercise habit (T0). A counselling by GPs to at-risk patients and a multicomponent health education intervention were performed. Reassessment occurred after at least 3 months (T1). Main analyses were chi-squared tests for gender differences, McNemar or marginal homogeneity tests for changes in paired data (P < 0.05 as significant). RESULTS: Participants were 5828 at T0 (54.0% females) and 4953 at T1 (53.4% females). At T0, 99.1% presented at least one risk factor. Significant changes in paired data were reported for each risk factor. The greatest improvement frequencies occurred in glycaemia values (51.0%) and hypertension (45.6%), the lowest in abdominal obesity (3.7%). Some differences were recorded between genders, e.g. females reported higher improvement frequencies in hypertension (P = 0.001) and abdominal obesity (P < 0.001), whereas males in physical activity (P = 0.011) and LDL values (P = 0.032). CONCLUSION: The results showed significant changes for each risk factor, both for men and women. GPs and multicomponent educational interventions could play a key role in reducing cardiovascular risk factors.

How Comparable are Microbial Electrochemical Systems around the Globe? An Electrochemical and Microbiological Cross-Laboratory Study.

Invited for this month's cover is the collaborative work among Univ. of Milano-Bicocca, Ricerca sul Sistema Energetico S.p.A., Univ. degli Studi di Milano, Univ. of California Irvine, Univ. of New Mexico, CNRS Toulouse. Technische Univ. Braunschweig, Aquacycl LLC, J. Craig Venter Institute, Helmholtz-Centre for Environmental Research. The image shows a sketch of a microbial fuel cell and a target indicating the need of developing common standards for the field of microbial electrochemical technologies. The Full Paper itself is available at 10.1002/cssc.202100294.

Suspected myocarditis in patients with COVID-19: A multicenter case series.

ABSTRACT: Although myocarditis can be a severe cardiac complication of COVID-19 patients, few data are available in the literature about the incidence and clinical significance in patients affected by SARS-CoV-2. This study aims to describe the prevalence and the clinical features of suspected myocarditis in 3 cohorts of patients hospitalized for COVID-19. We retrospectively evaluated all the consecutive patients admitted for COVID-19 without exclusion criteria. Suspect myocarditis was defined according to current guidelines. Age, sex, in-hospital death, length of stay, comorbidities, serum cardiac markers, interleukin-6, electrocardiogram, echocardiogram, and therapy were recorded. Between March 4 to May 20, 2020, 1169 patients with COVID-19 were admitted in 3 Italian Medicine wards. 12 patients (1%) had suspected acute myocarditis; 5 (41.7%) were men, mean age was 76 (SD 11.34; median 78.5 years); length of stay was 38 days on average (SD 8, median value 37.5); 3 (25%) patients died. 8 (66.7%) had a history of cardiac disease; 7 (58.33%) patients had other comorbidities like diabetes, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, or renal insufficiency. Myocarditis patients had no difference in sex prevalence, rate of death, comorbidities, elevations in serum cardiac markers as compared with patients without myocardial involvement. Otherwise, there was a significantly higher need for oxygen-support and a higher prevalence of cardiac disease in the myocarditis group. Patients with suspected myocarditis were older, had a higher frequency of previous cardiac disease, and significantly more prolonged hospitalization and a lower value of interleukin-6 than other COVID-19 patients. Further studies, specifically designed on this issue, are warranted.

How Comparable are Microbial Electrochemical Systems around the Globe? An Electrochemical and Microbiological Cross-Laboratory Study.

A cross-laboratory study on microbial fuel cells (MFC) which involved different institutions around the world is presented. The study aims to assess the development of autochthone microbial pools enriched from domestic wastewater, cultivated in identical single-chamber MFCs, operated in the same way, thereby approaching the idea of developing common standards for MFCs. The MFCs are inoculated with domestic wastewater in different geographic locations. The acclimation stage and, consequently, the startup time are longer or shorter depending on the inoculum, but all MFCs reach similar maximum power outputs (55±22 µW cm-2 ) and COD removal efficiencies (87±9 %), despite the diversity of the bacterial communities. It is inferred that the MFC performance starts when the syntrophic interaction of fermentative and electrogenic bacteria stabilizes under anaerobic conditions at the anode. The generated power is mostly limited by electrolytic conductivity, electrode overpotentials, and an unbalanced external resistance. The enriched microbial consortia, although composed of different bacterial groups, share similar functions both on the anode and the cathode of the different MFCs, resulting in similar electrochemical output.

Palliative care in a COVID-19 Internal Medicine ward: A preliminary report.

BACKGROUND: in the current pandemic emergency, increased attention has given to treating symptoms that cause suffering in patients with COVID-19. This study aims to describe the role of palliative care in the management of these patients. METHODS: palliative consultation was requested by the staff as per protocol. In brief, the criteria for referring patients to a palliative care physician or to undergo palliative care were left to the discretion of the physician in charge. We recorded data regarding age, gender, length of stay, type of discharge (dead or alive, and transfer to long-term or hospice facilities). RESULTS: Between March 18 to May 8, 2020, 412 patients with COVID-19 were admitted to the Internal Medicine wards of Magenta Hospital, Italy. The palliative care physician was directly involved in 105 cases (25.5%) and performed 236 consultations. Of the 105 patients who received palliative care counselling, 66 (63%) died. The average number of days in care was 2.26 days. The principal reason for counseling was controlling symptoms (54%) and 12% deal with the end of life management. The prevalent symptom, among those which led to the counseling, was restlessness/agitation (41%), followed by emotional issues (26%) such as anxiety, fear, and demoralization. In only 20% of cases, dyspnoea was the reason for symptomatic treatment. CONCLUSIONS: A large number of hospitalized Covid-19 patients are at high risk of clinical deterioration and death. This leads to the opportunity to integrate a palliative physician into the staff, who treat these patients. There is an urgent need for protocol standardization and formal trials to verify the effectiveness of this approach.

Prevention of chronic diseases in middle-age women: a cross-sectional study on an Italian large sample.

BACKGROUND: The age around 50 years represents a crucial point for women: menopause leads to biological changes and it begins breast and colon-rectal cancer screening. This study aimed at assessing frequencies of cardiovascular risk factors and analyzing participation in screening and vaccination. METHODS: In 2017, a cross-sectional study was performed in Northern Italy. Totally, 12 249 women, aged between 50 and 54 years, were enrolled by General Practitioners (GPs). It was used a 21-item form, with information about: socio-demographic, anamnestic and clinical data, execution of a booster shot of tetanus-diphtheria-acellular pertussis (Tdap) vaccine in the last decade and of PAP-test, mammography and faecal occult blood test in the last 2 years. Descriptive and crosstab χ2 analyses were performed with STATA MP13. The significance level was P ≤ 0.05. RESULTS: Our findings showed the presence of cardiovascular risk factors, such as obesity (10.95%), hypertension (13.76%), hyperlipidaemia (11.57%), glycaemia ≥ 100 mg dl-1 (16.97%), poor physical activity (73.49%), smoking (18.28%), cardiovascular family history (FH) (51.70%). There were a lower participation in colo-rectal cancer screening (45.09%) compared with breast (85.06%) and cervical (77.16%) cancer screening and an insufficient Tdap booster dose compliance (17.56%). Chi-square analyses showed correlations between cardiovascular FH and body mass index, hypertension, hyperlipidaemia, glycaemia and smoking, and between cancer FH and participation in breast and colo-rectal cancer screening (P < 0.05). CONCLUSIONS: Women with cardiovascular disease FH represent a priority target of educational interventions considering the prevalence of concomitant risk factors. Programmes aimed at increasing screening and vaccination participation should be implemented.

Microbial recycling cells (MRCs): A new platform of microbial electrochemical technologies based on biocompatible materials, aimed at cycling carbon and nutrients in agro-food systems.

This article reviews the mechanisms that drive nutrients and carbon sequestration from wastewaters by microbial electrochemical technologies (METs). In this framework, a new generation of METs is also presented (to be called microbial recycling cells, MRCs), based on 100%-recyclable materials (biomass-derived char coal, clay, terracotta, paper, ligno-cellulosic plant materials, etc.), which can act as bio-electrodes, separators and structural frames. In traditional METs architectures (based on technological materials such as carbon cloths, plastic panels, membranes, binders), inorganic salts precipitation and adsorption, as well as biofouling due to organic-matter deposition, are considered as main drawbacks that clog and hinder the systems over relatively short periods. In MRCs, these mechanisms should be maximized, instead of being avoided. In this perspective, both inorganic and organic forms of the main nutrients are sequestered from wastewater and deposited on METs modules. Once the systems become saturated, they can entirely be recycled as agricultural soil conditioners or as base for organic-mineral fertilizers.