Audit system on Quality of breast cancer diagnosis and Treatment (QT): results of quality indicators on screen-detected lesions in Italy, 2011-2012.

This annual survey, conducted by the Italian group for mammography screening (GISMa), collects individual data on diagnosis and treatment of about 50% of screen-detected, operated lesions in Italy. The 2011-2012 results show good overall quality and an improving trend over time. A number of critical issues have been identified, including waiting times (which have had a worsening trend over the years) and compliance with the recommendation of not performing frozen section examination on small lesions. Pre-operative diagnosis improved constantly over time, but there is still a large variation between Regions and programmes. For almost 90% of screen-detected invasive cancers a sentinel lymph node (SLN) biopsy was performed on the axilla, avoiding a large number of potentially harmful dissections. On the other hand, potential overuse of SLN dissection for ductal carcinoma in situ, although apparently starting to decline, deserves further investigation. The detailed results have been distributed, among other ways by means of a web-based data-warehouse, to regional and local screening programmes, in order to allow multidisciplinary discussion and identification of the appropriate solutions to any issues documented by the data. The problem of waiting times should be assigned priority. Specialist Breast Units with adequate case volume and enough resources would provide the best setting for making monitoring effective in producing quality improvements with shorter waiting times.

Prevalence of acute respiratory symptoms in breath-hold divers.

INTRODUCTION: After repetitive deep dives, breath-hold divers are often affected by a syndrome characterized by typical symptoms such as cough, sensation of chest constriction, blood-striated expectorate (hemoptysis) and, rarely, an overt acute pulmonary edema syndrome, often together with various degrees of dyspnea. The aim of this work is an epidemiological investigation to evaluate the prevalence of acute respiratory symptoms (ARS) in breath-hold divers (BHDs) in practicing breath-hold diving. MATERIALS AND METHODS: A retrospective investigation has been performed using specific questionnaires completed by a selected sample of free-divers (212 breath-hold diving instructors--194 male, 18 female; mean age 34 +/- 6.91 years); affiliated with Apnea Academy, (International School for Education and Research of Free-Diving). We also investigated possible risk factors for post-dive acute respiratory symptoms. Furthermore, the authors report that a severe case of acute pulmonary edema occurred to a healthy and experienced breath-hold diving instructor. We reported detailed CT scan and follow-up CT scans three days later, with another scan reported 10 days later as well. RESULT: A total of 56 subjects (26.4%) reported previous events such as cough, thoracic constraint, hemoptysis, associated with various degrees of dyspnea as confirmation of pulmonary involvement. Forty-five of them (82%) reported signs of true hemoptysis and a high degrees of dyspnea. A CT scan revealed the presence of patchy bilateral lung opacities at the level of superior and parahilar zones; follow-up CT scans three days later and 10 days later are also reported. CONCLUSION: Our data show that this is a common condition among experienced BHDs. In our opinion, this is particularly interesting for the free-diving community.

[Audit system on quality of breast cancer diagnosis and treatment: results of quality indicators on screen-detected lesions in Italy, 2010]. / Il "progetto SQTM" sulla qualità di diagnosi e terapia entro i programmi di screening in Italia: risultati 2010.

This survey, conducted by the Italian breast screening network (GISMa), collects yearly individual data on diagnosis and treatment on about 50% of all screen-detected, operated lesions in Italy. The 2010 results show good overall quality and an improving trend over time. Critical issues were identified, including waiting times and compliance with the recommendations on not performing frozen section examination on small lesions. Preoperative diagnosis improved constantly over the years, but there is still a large variation between regions and programmes. For almost 90% of screen-detected invasive cancers the sentinel lymph node technique (SLN) was performed on the axilla, avoiding a large number of potentially harmful dissections. On the other hand, potential overuse of SLN for ductal carcinoma in situ deserves further investigation. The detailed results have been distributed, also by means of a web data warehouse, to regional and local screening programmes in order to allow multidisciplinary discussion and identification of the appropriate solutions to any issues documented by the data. It should be assigned priority to the problem of waiting times. Specialist Breast Units with adequate case volume and enough resources would provide the best setting for making monitoring effective in producing quality improvements with shorter waiting times.

Peripartum hysterectomy and cesarean delivery: a population-based study.

OBJECTIVE: To estimate the incidence of peripartum hysterectomy in an Italian Region (Emilia-Romagna) and investigate its association with cesarean delivery. DESIGN: Population-based retrospective study using hospital discharge records. SETTING: All public and private hospitals in Emilia-Romagna region, Italy. POPULATION: A total of 151,494 women delivering between 2003 and 2006, 131 of whom had a peripartum hysterectomy. METHODS: Peripartum hysterectomy was defined as a hysterectomy performed at the time of delivery or afterwards during the same hospitalization. Incidence rates were calculated by type of delivery. Odds ratios (ORs) with 95% confidence intervals (CIs) were estimated with logistic regression to evaluate the association between peripartum hysterectomy and delivery type. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Incidence rates of peripartum hysterectomy by type of delivery; odds of peripartum hysterectomy after primary or repeat cesarean compared with vaginal delivery without previous cesarean. RESULTS: A total of 131 peripartum hysterectomies were performed among 151,494 deliveries (0.86/1,000 deliveries; 95% CI 0.72-1.03) with 20.7% primary and 9.6% repeat cesarean deliveries. Women undergoing a primary caesarean delivery were more likely to have a peripartum hysterectomy than women having a vaginal delivery who had never had a cesarean delivery (OR 6.48; 95% CI 4.16-10.07). Women undergoing a repeat caesarean delivery were also at increased risk (OR 3.69; 95% CI 2.11-6.46). CONCLUSIONS: In this population, primary and repeat cesarean deliveries are associated with an increased risk of peripartum hysterectomy. These results are of particular concern given the steady increase in the cesarean delivery rate in many countries. The pathological mechanism of this association requires further investigation.

Risk adjustment for inter-hospital comparison of primary cesarean section rates: need, validity and parsimony.

BACKGROUND: Cesarean section rates is often used as an indicator of quality of care in maternity hospitals. The assumption is that lower rates reflect in developed countries more appropriate clinical practice and general better performances. Hospitals are thus often ranked on the basis of caesarean section rates. The aim of this study is to assess whether the adjustment for clinical and sociodemographic variables of the mother and the fetus is necessary for inter-hospital comparisons of cesarean section (c-section) rates and to assess whether a risk adjustment model based on a limited number of variables could be identified and used. METHODS: Discharge abstracts of labouring women without prior cesarean were linked with abstracts of newborns discharged from 29 hospitals of the Emilia-Romagna Region (Italy) from 2003 to 2004. Adjusted ORs of cesarean by hospital were estimated by using two logistic regression models: 1) a full model including the potential confounders selected by a backward procedure; 2) a parsimonious model including only actual confounders identified by the "change-in-estimate" procedure. Hospital rankings, based on ORs were examined. RESULTS: 24 risk factors for c-section were included in the full model and 7 (marital status, maternal age, infant weight, fetopelvic disproportion, eclampsia or pre-eclampsia, placenta previa/abruptio placentae, malposition/malpresentation) in the parsimonious model. Hospital ranking using the adjusted ORs from both models was different from that obtained using the crude ORs. The correlation between the rankings of the two models was 0.92. The crude ORs were smaller than ORs adjusted by both models, with the parsimonious ones producing more precise estimates. CONCLUSION: Risk adjustment is necessary to compare hospital c-section rates, it shows differences in rankings and highlights inappropriateness of some hospitals. By adjusting for only actual confounders valid and more precise estimates could be obtained.

Factors associated with self-reported mammography use for women with and women without a disability.

BACKGROUND: Although their risk of breast cancer is similar to that of women without a disability, women with a disability might be less likely to obtain a mammogram within the recommended time frame. The purpose of this study was to expand our knowledge of the association between mammography use and having a disability by controlling for sociodemographic and health variables. METHODS: Data from the 2008 Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System (BRFSS) were used to obtain prevalence of self-reported mammography use in the past 2 years among U.S. women ≥40 years of age (n=204,981) as well as women 50-74 years of age (n=122,374). Logistic regression was used to estimate associations between disability and obtaining a mammogram for each age cohort, controlling for sociodemographic factors. RESULTS: Prevalence of self-reported mammography use is lower for women with a disability (72.2% for women ≥40 years of age and 78.1% for women 50-74 years of age) than women without a disability (77.8% and 82.6%, respectively). Women with a disability had lower odds of mammography use than women without a disability for both age cohorts (≥40, adjusted odds ratio [aOR] 0.92, p=0.01; 50-74 years, aOR 0.92, p=0.03). CONCLUSIONS: Disparities in obtaining a mammogram at recommended screening intervals persist for women with disabilities. This demonstrates the need for continued health promotion and prevention activities directed toward women with a disability to improve their accessibility to obtaining a mammogram.