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OBJECTIVES: The study aimed to determine the prevalence of rheumatoid factor (RF) and anti-citrullinated peptides (ACPA), to estimate the association with hepatitis B (HBV) or C (HCV) virus infections and the 15-year risk of developing RA in a large cohort from a Northern Italian region. METHODS: In 1998, 15,907 subjects between the ages of 18 and 75 were randomly selected 1:4 for HBV and HCV testing; more recently, we tested a subgroup of sera for RF (n=2196) and ACPA (n=2525). Administrative databases were searched after 15 years for incident RA diagnoses occurring between 1998 and 2013. RESULTS: RF was positive in 8.1% of cases with 10% of RF-positive subjects having HBsAg (p=0.004) and 9% anti-HCV. ACPA were detected in 4.8% of subjects with 5% of the ACPA-positive subjects having HBsAg and 5.9% anti-HCV. Older subjects had higher positivity rates for both RF and ACPA. HBsAg and anti-HCV were detected in 5.5% and 4.3% of sera, respectively. Over 15 years, 10 RA cases were recorded (9 women, median age at diagnosis 52 years) with RF previously positive in 2/10 and ACPA in 5/10 cases. RF and ACPA were associated with relative risks for developing RA of 5.7 (adjusted for HBsAg status; 95% CI 1.2-26.3) and 13.2 (95% CI 3.8-46.3), respectively. CONCLUSIONS: Our data in a large cohort from an unselected general population confirm a higher risk of RA development associated with ACPA compared to RF. HBV exposure correlates with RF but not with ACPA positivity.
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Artritis Reumatoide , Hepatitis B , Adolescente , Adulto , Anciano , Anticuerpos Antiproteína Citrulinada , Artritis Reumatoide/diagnóstico , Artritis Reumatoide/epidemiología , Autoanticuerpos , Estudios de Cohortes , Femenino , Hepatitis B/diagnóstico , Hepatitis B/epidemiología , Humanos , Persona de Mediana Edad , Péptidos Cíclicos , Factor Reumatoide , Adulto JovenRESUMEN
INTRODUCTION: Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) has infected 189 000 people in Italy, with more than 25 000 deaths. Several predictive factors of mortality have been identified; however, none has been validated in patients presenting with mild disease. METHODS: Patients with a diagnosis of interstitial pneumonia caused by SARS-CoV-2, presenting with mild symptoms, and requiring hospitalization in a non-intensive care unit with known discharge status were prospectively collected and retrospectively analysed. Demographical, clinical and biochemical parameters were recorded, as need for non-invasive mechanical ventilation and admission in intensive care unit. Univariate and multivariate logistic regression analyses were used to identify independent predictors of death. RESULTS: Between 28 February and 10 April 2020, 229 consecutive patients were included in the study cohort; the majority were males with a mean age of 60 years. 54% of patients had at least one comorbidity, with hypertension being the most commonly represented, followed by diabetes mellitus. 196 patients were discharged after a mean of 9 days, while 14.4% died during hospitalization because of respiratory failure. Age higher than 75 years, low platelet count (<150 × 103 /mm3 ) and higher ferritin levels (>750 ng/mL) were independent predictors of death. Comorbidities were not independently associated with in-hospital mortality. CONCLUSIONS: In-hospital mortality of patients with COVID-19 presenting with mild symptoms is high and is associated with older age, platelet count and ferritin levels. Identifying early predictors of outcome can be useful in the clinical practice to better stratify and manage patients with COVID-19.
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Infecciones por Coronavirus/mortalidad , Progresión de la Enfermedad , Ferritinas/sangre , Mortalidad Hospitalaria , Enfermedades Pulmonares Intersticiales/diagnóstico , Neumonía Viral/mortalidad , Factores de Edad , Anciano , COVID-19 , Causas de Muerte , Estudios de Cohortes , Infecciones por Coronavirus/diagnóstico , Servicio de Urgencia en Hospital/estadística & datos numéricos , Femenino , Humanos , Italia/epidemiología , Modelos Logísticos , Enfermedades Pulmonares Intersticiales/epidemiología , Enfermedades Pulmonares Intersticiales/terapia , Masculino , Persona de Mediana Edad , Análisis Multivariante , Pandemias , Recuento de Plaquetas , Neumonía Viral/diagnóstico , Valor Predictivo de las Pruebas , Estudios Retrospectivos , Medición de Riesgo , Factores SexualesRESUMEN
OBJECTIVES: Systemic sclerosis (SSc) is a severe multiple-organ disease characterised by unpredictable clinical course, inadequate response to treatment, and poor prognosis. National SSc registries may provide large and representative patients cohorts required for descriptive and prognostic studies. Therefore, the Italian Society for Rheumatology promoted the registry SPRING (Systemic sclerosis Progression INvestiGation). METHODS: The SPRING is a multi-centre rheumatological cohort study encompassing the wide scleroderma spectrum, namely the primary Raynaud's phenomenon (pRP), suspected secondary RP, Very Early Diagnosis of Systemic Sclerosis (VEDOSS), and definite SSc. Here we describe the demographic and clinical characteristics of a population of 2,028 Italian patients at the initial phase of enrolment, mainly focusing on the cohort of 1,538 patients with definite SSc. RESULTS: Definite SSc showed a significantly higher prevalence of digital ulcers, capillaroscopic 'late' pattern, oesophageal and cardio-pulmonary involvement compared to VEDOSS, as expected on the basis of the followed classification criteria. The in-depth analysis of definite SSc revealed that male gender, diffuse cutaneous subset, and anti-Scl70 seropositivity were significantly associated with increased prevalence of the most harmful disease manifestations. Similarly, patients with very short RP duration (≤1 year) at SSc diagnosis showed a statistically increased prevalence of unfavourable clinico-serological features. CONCLUSIONS: Nationwide registries with suitable subsetting of patients and follow-up studies since the prodromal phase of the disease may give us valuable insights into the SSc natural history and main prognostic factors.
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Enfermedad de Raynaud , Esclerodermia Sistémica , Estudios de Cohortes , Humanos , Italia , Masculino , Angioscopía Microscópica , Sistema de RegistrosRESUMEN
To estimate biologic influence on heart failure (HF) risk in rheumatoid arthritis. Retrospective cohort (RECORD Study of Italian Society for Rheumatology) study on administrative healthcare databases. We identified 2527 patients treated with either etanercept (n = 1690) or abatacept (n = 837). HF incidence rate was higher in the abatacept cohort than in the etanercept cohort with a 2.38 (95% CI 1.08-5.27) crude competing risk HR (SHR) for abatacept of developing HF, not confirmed after adjustment for prespecified confounders (SHR 1.43; 95% CI 0.51-3.98). Abatacept, compared to etanercept, is prescribed to patients with a worse cardiovascular profile but does not increase the risk of developing HF, when confounding factors are accounted for.
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Abatacept/efectos adversos , Artritis Reumatoide/tratamiento farmacológico , Etanercept/efectos adversos , Insuficiencia Cardíaca/epidemiología , Adulto , Anciano , Artritis Reumatoide/complicaciones , Femenino , Hospitalización , Humanos , Masculino , Persona de Mediana Edad , Estudios Retrospectivos , Riesgo , Factor de Necrosis Tumoral alfa/antagonistas & inhibidoresRESUMEN
The current approach to treatment of rheumatoid arthritis (RA) includes early and aggressive intervention aiming to reach early and persistent low disease activity and remission. New drugs have improved the therapeutic armamentarium of rheumatologists, providing new options for patients. Beyond these innovations, new evidence has improved the safety of therapies and provided tools for the optimisation of long-term management of RA. This paper reviews the most relevant studies published over the last year in the field of treatment of RA.
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Antirreumáticos/uso terapéutico , Artritis Reumatoide/tratamiento farmacológico , Productos Biológicos/uso terapéutico , Glucocorticoides/uso terapéutico , Artritis Reumatoide/epidemiología , Enfermedades Cardiovasculares/epidemiología , Comorbilidad , Intervención Médica Temprana , Femenino , Humanos , Infecciones/epidemiología , Neoplasias/epidemiología , Embarazo , Complicaciones del Embarazo/tratamiento farmacológicoRESUMEN
OBJECTIVES: To verify if tocilizumab (TCZ) is associated with an increased risk of cardiovascular (CV) events compared with etanercept (ETN) in rheumatoid arthritis (RA). METHODS: This is a retrospective cohort study on administrative healthcare databases (AHD) in Italy. Patients were identified using a validated algorithm based on AHD. Exposure to specific drugs was estimated by the drug prescription recorded in the AHD. The occurrence of acute CV events (myocardial infarction, stroke, other CV events) was derived from the hospital discharge forms. The association between TCZ or ETN and CV events was estimated using competing risk models, adjusting for pre-specified confounders. RESULTS: We identified 1,752 subjects with RA, 1,086 treated with ETN and 666 with TCZ. TCZ did not increase the overall risk of acute CV events, even when adjusted for pre-specified confounders (hazard ratio HR 0.95, 95% confidence interval 95%CI 0.54-1.66), specifically of acute myocardial infarction (HR 0.39, 95%CI 0.15-1.06), stroke (HR 1.44, 95%CI 0.24-8.68) or other CV event (1.07, 95%CI 0.59-1.92). CONCLUSIONS: RA patients with TCZ do not have a medium-term excess of CV risk in patients compared with ETN.
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Anticuerpos Monoclonales Humanizados/efectos adversos , Artritis Reumatoide/tratamiento farmacológico , Enfermedades Cardiovasculares/etiología , Etanercept/efectos adversos , Hospitalización , Adulto , Anciano , Artritis Reumatoide/complicaciones , Femenino , Humanos , Masculino , Persona de Mediana Edad , Estudios Retrospectivos , RiesgoRESUMEN
Autoimmunity and chronic inflammation recognize numerous shared factors and, as a result, the resulting diseases frequently coexist in the same patients or respond to the same treatments. Among the convenient truths of autoimmune and chronic inflammatory diseases, there is now agreement that these are complex conditions in which the individual genetic predisposition provides a rate of heritability. The concordance rates in monozygotic and dizygotic twins allows to estimate the weight of the environment in determining disease susceptibility, despite recent data supporting that only a minority of immune markers depend on hereditary factors. Concordance rates in monozygotic and dizygotic twins should be evaluated over an observation period to minimize the risk of false negatives and this is well represented by type I diabetes mellitus. Further, concordance rates in monozygotic twins should be compared to those in dizygotic twins, which share 50% of their genes, as in regular siblings, but also young-age environmental factors. Twin studies have been extensively performed in several autoimmune conditions and cumulatively suggest that some diseases, i.e. celiac disease and psoriasis, are highly genetically determined, while rheumatoid arthritis or systemic sclerosis have a limited role for genetics. These observations are necessary to interpret data gathered by genome-wide association studies of polymorphisms and DNA methylation in MZ twins. New high-throughput technological platforms are awaited to provide new insights into the mechanisms of disease discordance in twins beyond strong associations such as those with HLA alleles.
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Enfermedades Autoinmunes/inmunología , Inflamación/inmunología , Gemelos Monocigóticos , Enfermedad Crónica , Epigenómica , Estudio de Asociación del Genoma Completo , Humanos , Estudios en Gemelos como AsuntoRESUMEN
OBJECTIVES: Inflammatory arthritis needs infectious disease screening before starting a biologic agent, however, few data are known about migrant patients, who represent a peculiar population which requires a multidisciplinary approach among international health specialists and should also be considered by health authorities. For this reason, the Italian and Spanish Societies of Rheumatology (SIR and SER) and Tropical Medicine (SIMET and SEMTSI) promoted a multidisciplinary task force in order to produce specific recommendations about screening and advices to be considered in migrant patients with inflammatory arthritis candidate to receive biological therapy, according to their geographical origin. METHODS: The experts provided a prioritised list of research questions and the eligible spectrum of inflammatory arthritis, biologic drugs and infectious disease were defined in order to perform a systematic literature review. A search was made in Medline, Embase and Cochrane library, updated to March 2015. Ubiquitous infections and HBV, HCV, HIV and tuberculosis that are already considered in national and international recommendations, were not included. The strength of each recommendation was determined. RESULTS: The task force members agreed on 7 overarching principles. The risk of reactivation of selected potentially latent infectious disease was addressed in migrants with inflammatory arthritis candidates for biologics was considered and 15 potentially relevant infections were identified. CONCLUSIONS: Fifteen disease-specific recommendations were formulated on the basis of high level of agreement among the experts panel.
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Comités Consultivos , Artritis Reumatoide/tratamiento farmacológico , Productos Biológicos/uso terapéutico , Enfermedades Transmisibles/diagnóstico , Emigrantes e Inmigrantes , Emigración e Inmigración , Infectología/normas , Tamizaje Masivo/normas , Reumatología/normas , Sociedades Médicas , Artritis Reumatoide/diagnóstico , Artritis Reumatoide/etnología , Productos Biológicos/efectos adversos , Enfermedades Transmisibles/etnología , Consenso , Medicina Basada en la Evidencia/normas , Humanos , Italia/epidemiología , Tamizaje Masivo/métodos , Valor Predictivo de las Pruebas , Medición de Riesgo , Factores de Riesgo , España/epidemiologíaRESUMEN
The heart involvement in systemic autoimmune diseases represents a growing burden for patients and health systems. Cardiac function can be impaired as a consequence of systemic conditions and manifests with threatening clinical pictures or chronic myocardial damage. Direct injuries are mediated by the presence of inflammatory infiltrate which, even though unusual, is one of the most danger manifestations requiring prompt recognition and treatment. On the other hand, a not well-managed inflammatory status leads to accelerated atherosclerosis that precipitates ischemic disease. All cardiac structures may be damaged with different grades of intensity; moreover, lesions can appear simultaneously or more frequently at a short distance from each other leading to the onset of varied clinical pictures. The pathogenesis of heart damages in systemic autoimmune conditions is not yet completely understood for the great part of situations, even if several mechanisms have been investigated. The principal biochemical circuits refer to the damaging role of autoantibodies on cardiac tissues and the precipitation of immune complexes on endocardium. These events are finally responsible of inflammatory infiltration which leads to subsequent worsening of the previous damage. For these reasons, it appears of paramount importance a regular and deepened cardiovascular assessment to prevent a progressive evolution toward heart failure in patient affected by autoimmune diseases.
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Enfermedades Autoinmunes/inmunología , Autoinmunidad , Cardiopatías/inmunología , Válvulas Cardíacas/inmunología , Miocardio/inmunología , Pericardio/inmunología , Animales , Enfermedades Autoinmunes/metabolismo , Enfermedades Autoinmunes/patología , Cardiopatías/metabolismo , Cardiopatías/patología , Válvulas Cardíacas/metabolismo , Válvulas Cardíacas/patología , Humanos , Miocardio/metabolismo , Miocardio/patología , Pericardio/metabolismo , Pericardio/patología , Transducción de SeñalRESUMEN
Psoriatic arthritis (PsA) is a chronic inflammatory condition associated with skin psoriasis and manifests a wide clinical phenotype, with proposed differences between sexes. Current treatments are based on traditional disease-modifying anti-rheumatic drugs (DMARD), and biologic agents and studies have reported different clinical response patterns depending on sex factors. We aimed to identify sex differences in drug retention rate in patients with PsA and performed a systematic research on MEDLINE, EMBASE and Cochrane databases (1979 to June 2015) for studies regarding effectiveness (measured as drug retention rate) in PsA in both traditional DMARDs and biologics. Demographic data as well as retention rates between sexes were extracted. From a total 709 retrieved references, we included 9 articles for the final analysis. Only one study reported data regarding DMARDs, while eight studies reported retention rate for anti-tumor necrosis factor (TNF) biologics, mainly infliximab, adalimumab and etanercept. No differences were reported in retention rates between sexes for methotrexate, while women manifested lower retention rates compared to men with regard to anti-TNF. We highlight the need to include sex differences in the management flow chart of patients with PsA.
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Antirreumáticos/uso terapéutico , Artritis Psoriásica/tratamiento farmacológico , Terapia Biológica/métodos , Factor de Necrosis Tumoral alfa/antagonistas & inhibidores , Resistencia a Medicamentos , Femenino , Humanos , Masculino , Administración del Tratamiento Farmacológico , Metotrexato/uso terapéutico , Factores SexualesRESUMEN
BACKGROUND: Traumatic brain injury (TBI) in the elderly is a noteworthy pathology due to the exponential increase in population age, and the effects of antiplatelet and anticoagulation on patients' outcomes are still a matter of dispute. The aim of the present study was to evaluate the impact of various antithrombotic agents on patients with mild TBI, focusing on the risk of intracranial bleeding (ICH) and length of hospitalization (LOS). METHODS: A retrospective analysis was conducted, including patients with a diagnosis of TBI admitted to the Emergency Department between 2021 and 2022. Patients were classified according to the concurrent antithrombotic therapy as aspirin (ASA), antiplatelets, direct oral anticoagulants (DOACs), and low-molecular-weight heparin (LMWH). The primary outcome was the ICH occurrence, while the secondary outcome was the LOS. The statistical analysis was performed via logistic regression models in R and STATA 13.1 software. Fisher's exact test was used for the statistical significance. RESULTS: 267 patients with mild TBI were included; 148 were not on antithrombotic agents, 43 were on aspirin, 33 on DOACs, 5 on LMWH, 22 on antiplatelets, and 16 on VKA. Out of the total, 9 patients experienced ICH, none of which were on DOACs, LMWH, or VKA, but 4-out of 65-were on antiplatelets, and 5-out of 148-were not on antithrombotic therapies. Patients not on antithrombotic therapy had the shortest LOS at 0.46 days, while those on VKA had the longest LOS at 1.19 days; similar trends were observed for patients on DOAC and LMWH. CONCLUSIONS: The results reveal that TBI patients on anticoagulants/antiplatelets had longer hospital stays compared with those on aspirin alone. Notably, VKA was the strongest predictor for an extended LOS. Regarding ICH, patients taking only aspirin were twice as likely to experience bleeding compared with those on anticoagulants/antiplatelets. However, to achieve statistically significant evidence, further research with a larger cohort of patients is needed.
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Background: Intravenous iloprost has been widely used for the treatment of systemic sclerosis peripheral vasculopathy. No agreement has been found on the regimen and the dosage of intravenous iloprost in different scleroderma subset conditions. This study aimed to evaluate the modalities of intravenous iloprost administration within a large cohort of systemic sclerosis patients from the SPRING Registry and to identify any associated clinical-demographic, instrumental or therapeutic data. Patients and Methods: Data of systemic sclerosis patients treated with intravenous iloprost for at least 1 year (case group) were retrospectively analyzed, including different timing and duration of intravenous iloprost session, and compared with those of untreated patients (control group). Results: Out of 1895 analyzed patients, 937 (49%) received intravenous iloprost treatment, while 958 (51%) were assigned to the control group. Among cases, about 70% were treated every 4 weeks, 24% with an interval of more than 4 weeks, and only 6% of less than 4 weeks. Most patients receiving the treatment every 4 weeks, or less, underwent infusion cycle for 1 day only, while if it was scheduled with an interval of more than 4 weeks, a total number of 5 consecutive days of infusions was the preferred regimen. The comparison between the two groups revealed that patients treated with intravenous iloprost had a higher frequency of DUs (p < 0.001), pitting scars (p < 0.001), diffuse cutaneous involvement (p < 0.001), interstitial lung disease (p < 0.002), as well as higher rates of anti-topoisomerase I, "late" scleroderma pattern at nailfold videocapillaroscopy. These findings were confirmed by multivariate analysis. Conclusion: Our data provide a picture on the Italian use of intravenous iloprost among systemic sclerosis patients and showed that it was usually employed in patients with a more aggressive spectrum of the disease. The disparity of intravenous iloprost treatment strategies in the different centers suggests the need of a rational therapeutical approach based on the clinical characteristics of different patients' subsets.
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BACKGROUND: The prognostic impact of electrolyte disorders in hospitalized COVID-19 patients is unclear. METHODS: The study included all adult patients hospitalized for COVID-19 in four hospitals in Northern Italy between January 2020 and May 2021 with at least one serum potassium and sodium measurement performed within 3 days since admission. Primary outcome was in-hospital death; secondary outcome was Intensive Care Unit (ICU) admission. A cause-specific Cox proportional-hazards regression model was used for investigating the association between potassium and sodium (as either categorical or continuous variables) and mortality or admission to ICU. RESULTS: Analyses included 3,418 adult hospitalized COVID-19 patients. At multivariable analysis, both hyperkalemia (Hazard Ratio, [HR] 1.833, 95% Confidence Interval [CI] 1.371-2.450) and sK above the median (K 5.1 vs 4.1 mmol/L: HR 1.523, 95% CI 1.295-1.798), and hypernatremia (HR 2.313, 95%CI 1.772-3.018) and sNa above the median (Na 149 vs 139 mmol/L: HR 1.442, 95% CI 1.234-1.686), were associated with in-hospital death, whereas hypokalemia and hyponatremia were not. Hyponatremia was associated with increased hazard of ICU admission (HR 1.884, 95%CI 1.389-2.556). CONCLUSIONS: Electrolyte disorders detected at hospital admission may allow early identification of COVID-19 patients at increased risk of adverse outcomes.
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COVID-19 , Hiponatremia , Adulto , Humanos , Pronóstico , Mortalidad Hospitalaria , COVID-19/complicaciones , Sodio , Potasio , ElectrólitosRESUMEN
OBJECTIVE: To describe demographic, clinical and laboratory features of systemic sclerosis sine scleroderma (ssSSc) in a large multicentre systemic sclerosis (SSc) cohort. METHODS: Data involving 1808 SSc patients from Italian Systemic sclerosis PRogression INvestiGation registry were collected. The ssSSc was defined by the absence of any cutaneous sclerosis and/or puffy fingers. Clinical and serological features of ssSSc were compared with limited cutaneous (lcSSc) and diffuse cutaneous (dcSSc) subsets. RESULTS: Among patients with SSc, only 61 (3.4%) were classified as having ssSSc (F/M=19/1). Time from Raynaud's phenomenon (RP) onset to diagnosis was longer in ssSSc (3 years, IQR 1-16.5) than lcSSc (2 years, IQR 0-7), and dcSSc (1 year, IQR 0-3) (p<0.001). Clinical ssSSc phenotype was comparable to lcSSc, except for digital pitting scars (DPS) (19.7% vs 42%, p=0.01), but significantly milder than dcSSc, particularly for digital ulcers (DU) (6.6% vs 35.7%, p<0.001), oesophagus (46.2% vs 63.5%, p=0.009), lung (mean diffusion capacity for carbon monoxide 72.2±19.6 vs 62.4±22.8, p=0.009; mean forced vital capacity 105.6±21.7 vs 89.2±20.9, p<0.001) and major videocapillaroscopic alterations (late pattern 8.6% vs 47.6%, p<0.001). Moreover, in ssSSc the percentages of anticentromere and antitopoisomerase were comparable to lcSSc (40% and 18.3% vs 36.7% and 26.6%), but divergent respect to dcSSc (8.6% and 67.4%, p<0.001). CONCLUSION: The ssSSc is a quite rare disease variant characterised by clinico-serological features comparable to lcSSc, but significantly different from dcSSc. Overall, longer RP duration, low percentages of DPS and peripheral microvascular abnormalities, and increased anti-centromere seropositivity distinguish ssSSc. Further investigations based on national registries might provide useful insights on the actual relevance of the ssSSc within the scleroderma spectrum.
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Enfermedades Autoinmunes , Reumatología , Esclerodermia Sistémica , Humanos , Estaciones del AñoRESUMEN
Anti-mitochondrial antibodies (AMA) are directed against the E2 subunits of the 2-oxo acid dehydrogenase complexes (PDC-E2) and are the typical biomarkers of primary biliary cholangitis (PBC), being present in 90-95% of patients, with increasing sensitivity at increasing titers. Albeit being highly specific for PBC diagnosis, AMA can be detected in less than 1% of healthy subjects, and thus the management subjects with no sign or symptom of liver disease is still a challenge and data concerning clinical risk of developing PBC in this subgroup of patients are controversial. Moreover, AMA can also be detected in patients affected by overlap syndrome, as well as hepatic diseases (i.e., NASH and viral hepatitis), while the association with autoimmune diseases, in particular Sjögren's syndrome, systemic sclerosis, and systemic lupus erythematosus, is well established. Furthermore, new associations are being identified with inflammatory myositis and heart disease. AMA are directed towards the pyruvate dehydrogenase multi enzyme complex (PDC-E2) subunit, which represents an epithelial specific autoantigen for PBC. This review focuses on the main characteristics of AMA, their association with autoimmune diseases and liver diseases.
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Enfermedades Autoinmunes , Cirrosis Hepática Biliar , Hepatopatías , Autoanticuerpos , Autoantígenos , Humanos , Cirrosis Hepática Biliar/diagnóstico , Hepatopatías/diagnóstico , Oxidorreductasas , Complejo Piruvato DeshidrogenasaRESUMEN
PURPOSE: The objective of this systematic review was to critically assess the available literature on deep learning (DL) and radiomics applied to the Liver Imaging Reporting and Data System (LI-RADS) in terms of 1) automatic LI-RADS classification of liver nodules; 2) the contribution of DL and radiomics to human evaluation in the classification of liver nodules following LI-RADS protocol. MATERIALS AND METHODS: A literature search was conducted to identify original research studies published up to April 2021. The inclusion criteria were: English language, focus on computed tomography (CT) and/or magnetic resonance (MR) with specified number of patients and lesions, adoption of LI-RADS classification for the detected hepatic lesions, and application of AI in the classification of liver nodules. Review articles, conference papers, editorials and commentaries, animal studies or studies with absence of AI and/or LI-RADS were excluded. After screening 221 articles, 11 studies were included in this review. RESULTS: All the included studies proved that DL and radiomics have high performances in liver nodules classification, sometimes similar or better than human evaluation. The best performances of DL was an AUC of 0.95 on MR and the best performance of radiomics was AUC of 0.98 either on CT and MR, while the lower ones were respectively AUC of 0.63 either on CT and MR for DL and AUC of 0.70 on CT for radiomics. CONCLUSION: DL and radiomics could be a useful tool in assisting radiologists in the diagnosis and classification of liver nodules according to LI-RADS.
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Carcinoma Hepatocelular , Neoplasias Hepáticas , Inteligencia Artificial , Carcinoma Hepatocelular/patología , Humanos , Neoplasias Hepáticas/patología , Imagen por Resonancia Magnética/métodos , Estudios Retrospectivos , Sensibilidad y EspecificidadRESUMEN
Introduction: Identifying SARS-CoV-2 patients at higher risk of mortality is crucial in the management of a pandemic. Artificial intelligence techniques allow one to analyze large amounts of data to find hidden patterns. We aimed to develop and validate a mortality score at admission for COVID-19 based on high-level machine learning. Material and methods: We conducted a retrospective cohort study on hospitalized adult COVID-19 patients between March and December 2020. The primary outcome was in-hospital mortality. A machine learning approach based on vital parameters, laboratory values and demographic features was applied to develop different models. Then, a feature importance analysis was performed to reduce the number of variables included in the model, to develop a risk score with good overall performance, that was finally evaluated in terms of discrimination and calibration capabilities. All results underwent cross-validation. Results: 1,135 consecutive patients (median age 70 years, 64% male) were enrolled, 48 patients were excluded, and the cohort was randomly divided into training (760) and test (327) groups. During hospitalization, 251 (22%) patients died. After feature selection, the best performing classifier was random forest (AUC 0.88 ±0.03). Based on the relative importance of each variable, a pragmatic score was developed, showing good performances (AUC 0.85 ±0.025), and three levels were defined that correlated well with in-hospital mortality. Conclusions: Machine learning techniques were applied in order to develop an accurate in-hospital mortality risk score for COVID-19 based on ten variables. The application of the proposed score has utility in clinical settings to guide the management and prognostication of COVID-19 patients.
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INTRODUCTION: Systemic sclerosis (SSc) is characterized by a complex etiopathogenesis encompassing both host genetic and environmental -infectious/toxic- factors responsible for altered fibrogenesis and diffuse microangiopathy. A wide spectrum of clinical phenotypes may be observed in patients' populations from different geographical areas. We investigated the prevalence of specific clinical and serological phenotypes in patients with definite SSc enrolled at tertiary referral centres in different Italian geographical macro-areas. The observed findings were compared with those reported in the world literature. MATERIALS AND METHODS: The clinical features of 1538 patients (161 M, 10.5%; mean age 59.8 ± 26.9 yrs.; mean disease duration 8.9 ± 7.7 yrs) with definite SSc recruited in 38 tertiary referral centres of the SPRING (Systemic sclerosis Progression INvestiGation Group) registry promoted by Italian Society of Rheumatology (SIR) were obtained and clustered according to Italian geographical macroareas. RESULTS: Patients living in Southern Italy were characterized by more severe clinical and/or serological SSc phenotypes compared to those in Northern and Central Italy; namely, they show increased percentages of diffuse cutaneous SSc, digital ulcers, sicca syndrome, muscle involvement, arthritis, cardiopulmonary symptoms, interstitial lung involvement at HRCT, as well increased prevalence of serum anti-Scl70 autoantibodies. In the same SSc population immunusppressive drugs were frequently employed. The review of the literature underlined the geographical heterogeneity of SSc phenotypes, even if the observed findings are scarcely comparable due to the variability of methodological approaches. CONCLUSION: The phenotypical differences among SSc patients' subgroups from Italian macro-areas might be correlated to genetic/environmental co-factors, and possibly to a not equally distributed national network of information and healthcare facilities.
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Reumatología , Esclerodermia Sistémica , Anticuerpos Antinucleares , Humanos , Italia/epidemiología , Fenotipo , Sistema de Registros , Esclerodermia Sistémica/diagnóstico , Centros de Atención TerciariaRESUMEN
OBJECTIVE: There is still a great deal to learn about the influence of sex in systemic sclerosis (SSc). In this respect, national registries provide large and homogeneous patient cohorts for analytical studies. We therefore investigated a wide-ranging and well-characterized SSc series with the aim of identifying sex differences in disease expression, with a special focus on demographic, clinical, and serological characteristics. METHODS: A multicenter SSc cohort of 2281 patients, including 247 men, was recruited in the Italian Systemic sclerosis PRogression INvestiGation (SPRING) registry. Demographic data, disease manifestations, serological profile, and internal organ involvement were compared. RESULTS: The overall female/male ratio was 8.2:1. Female/male ratios for limited cutaneous SSc, diffuse cutaneous SSc, and SSc sine scleroderma subsets were 8.7:1, 4.9:1, and 10.7:1, respectively. A shorter time from onset of Raynaud phenomenon to SSc diagnosis, an increased prevalence of the diffuse cutaneous subset, renal crisis, and digital ulcers were found in males, whereas a significantly higher percentage of sicca syndrome, serum antinuclear antibodies, antiextractable nuclear antigens, anti-La/SSB, and anticentromere protein B was detected in the female group. Males exhibited lower left ventricular ejection fraction, as well as higher prevalence of conduction blocks, arrhythmias, ground glass, and honeycombing. Moreover, forced vital capacity and total lung capacity were medially lower in men than in women. Finally, males were more frequently treated with immunosuppressive drugs. CONCLUSION: Our study further supports the presence of several sex-related differences in patients with SSc. These differences were pronounced in the severity of cutaneous, peripheral vascular, and cardiopulmonary involvement for male patients, whereas an increased prevalence of sicca syndrome and a specific autoantibody profile characterized the female sex.
Asunto(s)
Reumatología , Esclerodermia Sistémica , Síndrome de Sjögren , Estudios Transversales , Femenino , Humanos , Italia/epidemiología , Masculino , Sistema de Registros , Esclerodermia Sistémica/diagnóstico , Caracteres Sexuales , Volumen Sistólico , Función Ventricular IzquierdaRESUMEN
OBJECTIVE: Autoimmune systemic diseases (ASD) represent a predisposing condition to COVID-19. Our prospective, observational multicenter telephone survey study aimed to investigate the prevalence, prognostic factors, and outcomes of COVID-19 in Italian ASD patients. METHODS: The study included 3,918 ASD pts (815 M, 3103 F; mean age 59±12SD years) consecutively recruited between March 2020 and May 2021 at the 36 referral centers of COVID-19 and ASD Italian Study Group. The possible development of COVID-19 was recorded by means of a telephone survey using a standardized symptom assessment questionnaire. RESULTS: ASD patients showed a significantly higher prevalence of COVID-19 (8.37% vs. 6.49%; p<0.0001) but a death rate statistically comparable to the Italian general population (3.65% vs. 2.95%). Among the 328 ASD patients developing COVID-19, 17% needed hospitalization, while mild-moderate manifestations were observed in 83% of cases. Moreover, 12/57 hospitalized patients died due to severe interstitial pneumonia and/or cardiovascular events; systemic sclerosis (SSc) patients showed a significantly higher COVID-19-related death rate compared to the general population (6.29% vs. 2.95%; p=0.018). Major adverse prognostic factors to develop COVID-19 were: older age, male gender, SSc, pre-existing ASD-related interstitial lung involvement, and long-term steroid treatment. Of note, patients treated with conventional synthetic disease-modifying antirheumatic drugs (csDMARDs) showed a significantly lower prevalence of COVID-19 compared to those without (3.58% vs. 46.99%; p=0.000), as well as the SSc patients treated with low dose aspirin (with 5.57% vs. without 27.84%; p=0.000). CONCLUSION: During the first three pandemic waves, ASD patients showed a death rate comparable to the general population despite the significantly higher prevalence of COVID-19. A significantly increased COVID-19- related mortality was recorded in only SSc patients' subgroup, possibly favored by preexisting lung fibrosis. Moreover, ongoing long-term treatment with csDMARDs in ASD might usefully contribute to the generally positive outcomes of this frail patients' population.