Diagnostic and prognostic role of renal histopathology in rheumatic diseases.

The objective was to evaluate renal involvement in several rheumatic diseases (i.e. rheumatoid arthritis, systemic lupus erythematosus, Sjögren syndrome, systemic sclerosis, systemic vasculitides). The method chosen was to define histopathological profiles reported in renal biopsies performed on patients with renal involvement due to different rheumatic diseases. Renal involvement observed in patients with rheumatic disease can be the direct result of the disease per se and/or a complication of drugs used in the disease treatment. The clinical-pathological correlations derived from the study of renal tissues can be useful for differential diagnosis, prognosis assessment and therapeutic decisions. Renal biopsy should be considered as an important tool for the management of nephropathies in patients with systemic rheumatic diseases.

[TNFalpha blockers and infectious risk in rheumatoid arthritis]. / I farmaci biologici anti-TNFalpha e il rischio infettivo nell'artrite reumatoide.

Patients suffering from rheumatoid arthritis have increased risk of infections when compared with general population. The risk depends directly from disease activity and severity. Furthermore, risk increases with aging, immunosuppressive agents and comorbidities such as diabetes, pulmonary and cardiac diseases. In particular corticosteroids, even at low doses, are a major risk factor. Due to disease related risk it is difficult to separate the risk deriving from the use of TNF alpha blockers. Data from clinical trials, meta-analysis and national registers are somewhat contradictory. In patients with rheumatoid arthritis on routine follow-up, treatment with TNF alpha blockers seems to carry an increased risk of infections compared to traditional DMARDs but not associated with increased risk of overall serious infection. Physicians should carefully monitor for signs of infection when using TNF alpha blockers, particularly shortly after treatment initiation.

Inclusion of Saccharina latissima in conventional anaerobic digestion systems.

Loading macroalgae into existing anaerobic digestion (AD) plants allows us to overcome challenges such as low digestion efficiencies, trace elements limitation, excessive salinity levels and accumulation of volatile fatty acids (VFAs), observed while digesting algae as a single substrate. In this work, the co-digestion of the brown macroalgae Saccharina latissima with mixed municipal wastewater sludge (WWS) was investigated in mesophilic and thermophilic conditions. The hydraulic retention time (HRT) and the organic loading rate (OLR) were fixed at 19 days and 2.1 g l-1 d-1 of volatile solids (VS), respectively. Initially, WWS was digested alone. Subsequently, a percentage of the total OLR (20%, 50% and finally 80%) was replaced by S. latissima biomass. Optimal digestion conditions were observed at medium-low algae loading (≤50% of total OLR) with an average methane yield close to [Formula: see text] and [Formula: see text] in mesophilic and thermophilic conditions, respectively. The conductivity values increased with the algae loading without inhibiting the digestion process. The viscosities of the reactor sludges revealed decreasing values with reduced WWS loading at both temperatures, enhancing mixing properties.