Benign Prostatic Hyperplasia - An economic assessment of fixed combination therapy based on a literature review.

FederAnziani Senior Italia and SIU - Italian Society of Urology - have decided to work together to draft a document focussing on Benign Prostatic Hyperplasia (BPH), and to stress the importance of adherence with pharmacological treatment in this setting, from both a scientific and a patient standpoint. Starting from a literature search, the two associations analysed to what extent an increase in treatment adherence amongst these patients influences hospital savings and to what extent therapy persistence levels are affected by monotherapy rather than free drug combinations. These estimates were performed only on patients taking medicinal products belonging to the 5 α-reductase inhibitors (5ARI) class that, although not indispensable, are the compounds that bring the greatest benefits, especially in the elderly and for which we know that every additional 30 days of therapy reduced the likelihood of acute urinary retention (AUR) and surgery by 14% and 11% respectively *. The results show that the use of fixed combination therapy would involve an increase in persistence due to the lower rate of patients abandoning treatment over time. Each 30 day-increment of 5ARI therapy, i.e. for an expenditure of 10.6 million euros extra per year for 5ARI medication, savings of approximately 24.3 million euros in hospital costs could be achieved.

Cellular and molecular features of COVID-19 associated ARDS: therapeutic relevance.

The severe acute respiratory syndrome-coronavirus-2 (SARS-CoV-2) infection can be asymptomatic or cause a disease (COVID-19) characterized by different levels of severity. The main cause of severe COVID-19 and death is represented by acute (or acute on chronic) respiratory failure and acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS), often requiring hospital admission and ventilator support.The molecular pathogenesis of COVID-19-related ARDS (by now termed c-ARDS) is still poorly understood. In this review we will discuss the genetic susceptibility to COVID-19, the pathogenesis and the local and systemic biomarkers correlated with c-ARDS and the therapeutic options that target the cell signalling pathways of c-ARDS.

Ultrasound-guided placement of long peripheral cannula in children with cystic fibrosis.

BACKGROUND: The natural history of cystic fibrosis (CF) lung disease is a chronic deterioration of lung function with intermittent episodes of pulmonary infectious exacerbations (PExs). Reliable venous access is a milestone of effective management of such exacerbations, managed both in hospital and outpatient chronic therapy. The aim of our study was to analyze the feasibility of ultrasound-guided positioning of long peripheral catheters (LPC) as reliable midterm venous access in children affected by CF. METHODS: In this single-center prospective study, over a 60-month period, we included paediatric CF subjects admitted with PExs and undergoing intravenous antibiotic treatment. LPCs were inserted in all participants by paediatric anaesthesiologists with ultrasound guide technique. Prospective data were collected assessing catheter positioning procedure and complications. RESULTS: A total of 122 LPC insertions were performed in 55 CF children. Participants had a median age of 6.75 years (interquatile range: 3.7-13.5) at the time of catheter insertion. Implantation was successful on the first attempt in 86% of cases; 2 (1%) major insertion-related complications were reported. Eighty-eight percent of catheters were electively removed at the end of antibiotic therapy without any complication. Seven percent of the catheters were removed electively for occlusion and 2% for local dislodgment. CONCLUSIONS: The results of the present study suggest that ultrasound-guided positioning of LPCs are safe alternative means of peripheral venous access in children with chronic diseases such as CF.

High mobility group box-1 expression correlates with poor outcome in lung injury patients.

Chest trauma is frequently followed by pulmonary contusion and sepsis. High mobility group box-1 (HMGB-1) is a late mediator of severe sepsis that has been associated with mortality under experimental conditions. We studied HMGB-1 mRNA expression in patients with lung injury and its relationship with the severity of trauma and survival. A total of 24 consecutive patients with chest trauma referring to the Intensive Care Unit of Messina University Hospital, were enrolled. Lung trauma was established on the basis of chest X-ray and computed tomography. Injury Severity Score (ISS), Revised Trauma Score (RTS) and Glasgow Coma Scale (GCS) were also assessed. Accordingly to these results 6 patients were considered as controls because of no penetrating trauma and low ISS. Blood and broncho-alveolar lavage fluid (BALF) from chest trauma patients were withdrawn at admission and 24h after the beginning of the standard therapeutic protocol. HMGB-1 mRNA increased significantly in blood (r=0.84) and BALF (r=0.87) from patients with trauma and pulmonary contusion and positively correlated with the severity of trauma (based on ISS and RTS) and the final outcome. HMGB-1 protein levels were also elevated in BALF macrophages from severe trauma patients compared to control subjects, furthermore TNF-alpha and its receptor TNFR-1 mRNA levels were also markedly increased in patients with a poor outcome respect to other subjects. Our study suggests that HMGB-1 may be an early indicator of poor clinical outcome in patients with chest trauma.

COPD management as a model for all chronic respiratory conditions: report of the 4th Consensus Conference in Respiratory Medicine.

BACKGROUND: Non-communicable diseases (NCDs) kill 40 million people each year. The management of chronic respiratory NCDs such as chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) is particularly critical in Italy, where they are widespread and represent a heavy burden on healthcare resources. It is thus important to redefine the role and responsibility of respiratory specialists and their scientific societies, together with that of the whole healthcare system, in order to create a sustainable management of COPD, which could become a model for other chronic respiratory conditions. METHODS: These issues were divided into four main topics (Training, Organization, Responsibilities, and Sustainability) and discussed at a Consensus Conference promoted by the Research Center of the Italian Respiratory Society held in Rome, Italy, 3-4 November 2016. RESULTS AND CONCLUSIONS: Regarding training, important inadequacies emerged regarding specialist training - both the duration of practical training courses and teaching about chronic diseases like COPD. A better integration between university and teaching hospitals would improve the quality of specialization. A better organizational integration between hospital and specialists/general practitioners (GPs) in the local community is essential to improve the diagnostic and therapeutic pathways for chronic respiratory patients. Improving the care pathways is the joint responsibility of respiratory specialists, GPs, patients and their caregivers, and the healthcare system. The sustainability of the entire system depends on a better organization of the diagnostic-therapeutic pathways, in which also other stakeholders such as pharmacists and pharmaceutical companies can play an important role.

Most Italians attending a congress on health of elderly people do not know and do not recognize respiratory diseases.

BACKGROUND: The present study reports the results of a survey jointly carried out by three Italian respiratory scientific associations (AIMAR, AIPO, SIMeR) together with an important Federation of elderly patients (FederAnziani) during the National Conference of Italian Court for Health Right held in Rimini from November 29(th) to December 1(st), 2013. The survey, based on a spirometric examination preceded by a questionnaire on respiratory health, was conducted on elderly people coming from all Italian regions to attend the Conference. METHODS: Nine hundred forty-nine subjects (574 females and 375 males), mean age 66.2 ± 10.1 years, were interviewed and performed spirometric examination. There were 137 smokers (14.4 %). Mean value of Body Mass Index (BMI) was significantly higher in males (27.6 ± 6.6) than in females (26.3 ± 4.3). RESULTS: 17.1 % (N = 143) of the studied subjects reported to be suffering from respiratory disease and the prevalent illnesses were asthma (31.5 %) and COPD/emphysema (24.5 %), but only 3.3 % of the whole surveyed group was able to identify COPD as a pulmonary disease, however without knowing its characteristics, while these were known by 0.5 % of the interviewed subjects only. A high number of subjects, 22 % of whom were smokers, declared chronic sputum production. 10.2 % of the study group showed an obstructive defect at spirometry when the criterium of lower limit of the normal (LLN) was considered, whereas it was 12.4 % if the fixed limit of 0.70 was chosen. 64 % of the obstructed people thought they did not have any respiratory disease. CONCLUSIONS: The results of this survey, able to spread the knowledge of respiratory diseases and spirometry in a wide sample of subjects for the most part scarcely aware of them, emphasize the need for a greater divulgation of respiratory issues among the general population.

The social burden of hypoglycemia in the elderly.

AIMS: The study aimed to evaluate the frequency of episodes of symptomatic hypoglycemia (SH) in elderly patients with type 2 diabetes and their impact on quality of life. METHODS: The study was conducted in 12 Italian regions. Participants filled in a questionnaire collecting data on socio-demographic and clinical characteristics and episodes of SH occurred in the last 4 weeks. The questionnaire included validated scales measuring fear of hypoglycemia (FHQ), psychological well-being (WHO-5), and diabetes-related distress (PAID-5). RESULTS: Overall, 1,323 participants were involved (mean age 70.0 ± 8.7, 47.6 % male, disease duration 15.6 ± 11.7, 63.2 % treated with oral agents, 16.9 % with insulin alone, 14.4 % with insulin plus oral agents), of whom 44.6 % reported 1-3 episodes of SH and 23.8 % reported more than 3 episodes. Patients who reported SH had significantly higher levels of fear of hypoglycemia, lower psychological well-being, and higher diabetes-related distress (p < 0.0001 for all the scales). At multivariate analysis, the experience of more than 3 episodes of hypoglycemia was associated with a 13-fold higher risk of high fear of hypoglycemia (aOR = 13.3; CI 95 % 8.4-21.0), an almost 60-fold higher risk of high diabetes-related distress (PAID-5 score ≥40) (aOR = 59.1; CI 95 % 29.2-119.8), and a higher risk of low psychological well-being (WHO-5 <50) (aOR = 1.5; CI 95 % 0.9-2.4). CONCLUSIONS: The occurrence of symptoms of hypoglycemia is very common among older adults with diabetes and their presence is associated with an extremely negative impact on quality of life. Minimizing the risk of hypoglycemia represents a high priority in the diabetes treatment of elderly people.

Neutrophil gelatinase-associated lipocalin (NGAL) and endothelial progenitor cells (EPCs) evaluation in aortic aneurysm repair.

BACKGROUND: Acute kidney injury (AKI) develops in 10% of patients after surgical abdominal aortic aneurysm (AAA) repair. Neutrophil gelatinase-associated lipocalin (NGAL) is a predictor of AKI and Endothelial Progenitor Cells (EPCs) represent a potential repair mechanism for vascular lesions. We evaluated the diagnostic power of serum (s) and urine (u) NGAL in detecting a possible event of AKI in patients undergoing surgical treatment for AAA repair. We also investigated the influence of vascular injury on EPCs. METHODS: We examined 50 patients who underwent open AAA repair. Blood and urine was collected preoperatively and every hour after surgery until 8 h to quantify sNGAL, uNGAL and circulating EPCs. AKI, was defined as a ≥25% decrease in eGFR compared with baseline values. RESULTS: There was an inverse correlation between eGFR, sNGAL and uNGAL, while a direct correlation between sNGAL APACHE II Score and EPCs was found. At receiver operating characteristic (ROC) analysis, sNGAL and uNGAL showed a very good diagnostic profile. Kaplan Meier curves showed that NGAL is a highly sensitive predictor of incidence of AKI. Univariate followed by multivariate Cox proportional hazard regression analysis showed that uNGAL and sNGAL predicted AKI independently of other potential confounders, including eGFR and APACHE II Score. Patients had at baseline and after surgical stress a significantly higher number of EPCs than control group. CONCLUSIONS: NGAL represents an independent renal predictor of incidence of AKI. EPCs reflect the degree of vascular damage and could be considered as an indicator of disease with a reparative-regenerative vascular-endothelial function.

A retrospective analysis of terlipressin in bolus for the management of refractory vasoplegic hypotension after cardiac surgery.

Cardiac surgery performed with cardiopulmonary bypass (CPB) may be complicated by hypotension due to low systemic vascular resistance (SVR). Often in those cases, hypotension is resistant to pressor catecholamines. We report six cases of norepinephrine-resistant postcardiotomy hypotension, treated by terlipressin (TP), a potent vasopressor agent. Between May 2007 and May 2008, we treated six patients with TP administration (1 mg bolus) for post CPB refractory vasodilatory hypotension. Analyzed parameters were: mean arterial pressure (m-AP), SVR, cardiac output index (CI), mean pulmonary pressure (m-PP), and lactate, at baseline (before TP bolus) and 3 h after injection. Before TP bolus, the average m-AP was 53.32+/-8.86 mmHg, the CI was 3.45+/-0.24 l/min/m(2), the SVR was 650+/-62.03 dyne*s/cm(5) and the arterial lactate level was 4.6+/-0.95 mmol/l. Three hours after the TP bolus, the m-AP increased to 81.83+/-9.71 mmHg (P=0.002), the CI decreased to 2.88+/-0.14 l/min/m(2) (P=0.002), the SVR increased to 1154+/-116 dyne*s/cm(5) (P=0.002), and arterial lactates decreased to 3.13+/-0.78 mmol/l (P=0.015), without significant modification of m-PP and CVP. We treated postoperative refractory low SVR hypotension by TP administration in bolus. Exogenous administration of TP normalized SVR and increased the systemic arterial pressure with a minimum effect on pulmonary pressure. Subsequently, the effect on systemic blood pressure enhanced urine output. No major collateral effects were observed. The administration of TP in bolus may result as a useful alternative for treating refractory low SVR hypotension post CPB.