Multiparametric Mapping via Cardiovascular Magnetic Resonance in the Risk Stratification of Ventricular Arrhythmias and Sudden Cardiac Death.

Risk stratification for malignant ventricular arrhythmias and sudden cardiac death is a daunting task for physicians in daily practice. Multiparametric mapping sequences obtained via cardiovascular magnetic resonance imaging can improve the risk stratification for malignant ventricular arrhythmias by unveiling the presence of pathophysiological pro-arrhythmogenic processes. However, their employment in clinical practice is still restricted. The present review explores the current evidence supporting the association between mapping abnormalities and the risk of ventricular arrhythmias in several cardiovascular diseases. The key message is that further clinical studies are needed to test the additional value of mapping techniques beyond conventional cardiovascular magnetic resonance imaging for selecting patients eligible for an implantable cardioverter defibrillator.

Cure indicators and prevalence by stage at diagnosis for breast and colorectal cancer patients: A population-based study in Italy.

People alive many years after breast (BC) or colorectal cancer (CRC) diagnoses are increasing. This paper aimed to estimate the indicators of cancer cure and complete prevalence for Italian patients with BC and CRC by stage and age. A total of 31 Italian Cancer Registries (47% of the population) data until 2017 were included. Mixture cure models allowed estimation of net survival (NS); cure fraction (CF); time to cure (TTC, 5-year conditional NS >95%); cure prevalence (who will not die of cancer); and already cured (prevalent patients living longer than TTC). 2.6% of all Italian women (806,410) were alive in 2018 after BC and 88% will not die of BC. For those diagnosed in 2010, CF was 73%, 99% when diagnosed at stage I, 81% at stage II, and 36% at stages III-IV. For all stages combined, TTC was >10 years under 45 and over 65 years and for women with advanced stages, but ≤1 year for all BC patients at stage I. The proportion of already cured prevalent BC women was 75% (94% at stage I). Prevalent CRC cases were 422,407 (0.7% of the Italian population), 90% will not die of CRC. For CRC patients, CF was 56%, 92% at stage I, 71% at stage II, and 35% at stages III-IV. TTC was ≤10 years for all age groups and stages. Already cured were 59% of all prevalent CRC patients (93% at stage I). Cancer cure indicators by stage may contribute to appropriate follow-up in the years after diagnosis, thus avoiding patients' discrimination.

Social cognition in Parkinson's disease and functional movement disorders.

INTRODUCTION: Functional movement disorders (FMD) can overlap with Parkinson's disease (PD), and distinguishing between the two clinical conditions can be complex. Framing social cognition (theory of mind) (TOM) disorder, attention deficit, and psychodynamic features of FMD and PD may improve diagnosis. METHODS: Subjects with FMD and PD and healthy controls (HC) were administered tasks assessing TOM abilities and attention. The psychodynamic hypothesis of conversion disorder was explored by a questionnaire assessing dissociative symptoms. A comprehensive battery of neuropsychological tasks was also administered to FMD and PD. RESULTS: Although both FMD and PD scored lower than HC on all TOM tests, significant correlations between TOM and neuropsychological tasks were found only in PD but not in FMD. Only PD showed a reduction in attentional control. Dissociative symptoms occurred only in FMD. DISCUSSION: Cognitive-affective disturbances are real in FMD, whereas they are largely dependent on cognitive impairment in PD. Attentional control is preserved in FMD compared to PD, consistent with the hypothesis that overload of voluntary attentional orientation may be at the basis of the onset of functional motor symptoms. On a psychodynamic level, the confirmation of dissociative symptoms in FMD supports the conversion disorder hypothesis. CONCLUSION: FMD and PD can be distinguished on an affective and cognitive level. At the same time, however, the objective difficulty often encountered in distinguishing between the two pathologies draws attention to how blurred the boundary between 'organic' and 'functional' can be.

Clinical and MRI characterization of apraxic syndrome in corticobasal degeneration: A single-case study.

Objective: To identify the cortical and subcortical distribution of atrophy and the disorganization of white matter bundles underlying the apraxic disorders in a patient with corticobasal degeneration (CBD). Method: Patient underwent appropriate neuropsychological tasks aimed at identifying the nature of the apraxic disorder and morphometric structural MRI with whole-brain voxel-wise analysis. Results: Progressive limbkinetic apraxia (LKA) with onset in the right upper limb with subsequent extension to the limbs, trunk, orofacial district, and eye movements was documented, associated with element of ideomotor apraxia (IMA). The MRI study showed grey matter atrophy extending to much of the frontal cortex bilaterally, including the precentral cortex, and into the inferior parietal regions. Caudate and putamen were involved on the left. Significant clusters of white matter atrophy were found in the bilateral superior longitudinal fasciculus (SLF), inferior longitudinal fasciculus (ILF) and corpus callosum (CC). Sensory evoked potentials (SEPs) and motor evoked potentials (MEPs) were normal. Conclusion: Previous observations in CBD indicate lack of inhibitory control from the sensory to the primary motor cortex with dysfunctional frontoparietal and cortico-motoneuron projections. Our neuroimaging data are partially consistent with these observations suggesting that the apraxic disorder in our patient might be produced by the disconnection of the primary motor cortex from the parietal areas that prevents selection and control of muscle movements, in the presence of preserved cortico-motoneuron as demonstrated by normal PEM. Apraxic disorders in CBD are high-level deficits of movement control that spare the motoneuron.

Multimodality imaging in cardio-oncology: the added value of CMR and CCTA.

During the last 30 years, we have assisted to a great implementation in anticancer treatment with a subsequent increase of cancer survivors and decreased mortality. This has led to an ongoing interest about the possible therapy-related side-effects and their management to better guide patients therapy and surveillance in the chronic and long-term setting. As a consequence cardio-oncology was born, involving several different specialties, among which radiology plays a relevant role. Till the end of August 2022, when European Society of Cardiology (ESC) developed the first guidelines on cardio-oncology, no general indications existed to guide diagnosis and treatment of cancer therapy-related cardiovascular toxicity (CTR-CVT). They defined multimodality imaging role in primary and secondary prevention strategies, cancer treatment surveillance and early CTR-CVT identification and management. Cardiac computed tomography angiography (CCTA) has acquired a central role in coronary assessment, as far as coronary artery disease (CAD) exclusion is concerned; but on the side of this well-known application, it also started to be considered in left ventricular function evaluation, interstitial fibrosis quantification and cardiac perfusion studies. Cardiac magnetic resonance (CMR), instead, has been acknowledged as the gold standard alternative to trans-thoracic echocardiography (TTE) poor acoustic window in quantification of heart function and strain modifications, as well as pre- and post-contrast tissue characterization by means of T1-T2 mapping, early Gadolinium enhancement (EGE), late Gadolinium enhancement (LGE) and extracellular volume (ECV) evaluation. Our review is intended to provide a focus on the actual role of CMR and CCTA in the setting of a better understanding of cardiotoxicity and to draw some possible future directions of cardiac imaging in this field, starting from the recently published ESC guidelines.

Functional Movement Disorders during COVID-19: Psychological Distress, Affective Temperament and Emotional Dysregulation.

Background and objective: Functional movement disorders (FMD) represent a spectrum of psychosomatic symptoms particularly sensitive to stress. The COVID-19 pandemic has increased psychological distress worldwide and may have worsened FMD. The study aimed to confirm this hypothesis and to test whether in FMD there is a relationship between affective temperament, emotional dysregulation and psychological distress due to the pandemic. Methods: We recruited individuals with FMD, diagnosed them according to validated criteria and matched them with healthy controls (HC). Psychological distress and temperament were obtained using the Kessler-10 and the Temperament Evaluation of Memphis, Pisa and San Diego Autoquestionnaire, respectively. We used bootstrapped mediation analysis to test the mediator role of emotional dysregulation on the effect of temperament on psychological distress. Results: The sample consisted of 96 individuals. During the pandemic, 31.3% of the patients reported the need for urgent neurological care, and 40.6% reported a subjective worsening neurological condition. Patients with FMD presented with more psychological distress during the COVID-19 pandemic (F = 30.15, df = 1, p ≤ 0.001) than HC. They also reported more emotional dysregulation (F = 15.80, df = 1, p ≤ 0.001) and more cyclothymic traits (F = 14.84, df = 1, p ≤ 0.001). Cyclothymic temperament showed an indirect effect on COVID-19-related psychological distress, mediated by deficits in emotion regulation mechanisms (Bootstrapped LLCI = 0.41, ULCI = 2.41). Conclusion: Our results suggest that emotional dysregulation may represent a dimension mediating cyclotimic temperament response to the stressful effect of the pandemic and provide insight for developing intervention policies.

Efficacy and safety of long-term botulinum toxin treatment for acquired cervical dystonia: a 25-year follow-up.

Botulinum toxin A (BoNT/A) is the first-line treatment for idiopathic cervical dystonia (ICD) and is widely used in the clinical setting. To date, scanty data are available on the effectiveness of BoNT in treating acquired cervical dystonia (ACD). Here we present a long-term follow-up of ACD patients treated with BoNT/A that focused on safety and efficacy. The study included subjects who had received at least six treatments of three commercially available BoNT/A drugs [abobotulinumtoxinA (A/Abo), incobotulinumtoxinA (A/Inco) and onabotulinumtoxinA (A/Ona)]. Safety and efficacy were assessed based on patients' self-reports regarding adverse effects (AE), duration of improvement of dystonia and/or pain relief. Global clinical improvement was measured on a six-point scale. 23 patients with ACD were administered 739 treatments (A/Abo in 235, A/Inco in 72, A/Ona in 432) with a mean number of treatments of 31 ± 20 (range 6-76) and duration of 10 ± 6 weeks (range 2-25). The mean dose was 737 ± 292 U for A/Abo, 138 ± 108 U for A/Inco and 158 ± 80 U for A/Ona. The average benefit duration was 89 ± 26 (A/Abo), 88 ± 30 days (A/Inco), and 99 ± 55 days (A/Ona) (p = 0.011); global clinical improvement for all sessions was 4 ± 1. ANOVA one-way analysis indicated that A/Ona had the best profile in terms of duration (p < 0.05), whereas A/Abo had the best pain relief effect (p = 0.002). Side effects were reported in 9% of treatments (67/739), with ten treatments (1%) complicated by two side effects. Most side effects were rated mild to moderate; severe side effects occurred following three treatments with the three different BoNT; two required medical intervention. No allergic reactions were reported. Even after 25 years of repeated treatments, all serotypes of BoNT demonstrate positive effects in treating ACD with long-lasting efficacy and safety.

Lipoprotein(a) and the risk of recurrent events in patients with acute myocardial infarction treated by percutaneous coronary intervention.

BACKGROUND: The role of lipoprotein(a) (Lp[a]) in risk stratification following an acute myocardial infarction (AMI) is still debated. We aimed to investigate whether elevated Lp(a) levels in patients with AMI treated by percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) are associated with worse outcomes. METHODS: We designed a retrospective registry including patients with AMI undergoing PCI. The occurrence of major adverse cardiac and cerebrovascular events (MACCE), defined as death from cardiovascular causes, recurrent myocardial infarction, unplanned coronary revascularization and stroke, was assessed at follow-up and compared between patients with high (≥30 mg/dL) and low (<30 mg/dL) Lp(a) levels. Cox proportional hazard analysis was performed in order to assess independent predictors of MACCE. RESULTS: During a 3-year period (2018-2020) we identified 634 patients with AMI treated by PCI and known Lp(a) blood levels; follow-up visits were performed in 414 patients (median length 29 months [19-38]). Median Lp(a) level was 18 mg/dL [8-42]. The incidence of MACCE was significantly higher in high as compared to low Lp(a) group (log-rank P=0.018). The following independent predictors were identified at multivariate Cox regression: Lp(a) ≥30 mg/dL (HR 1.82 [95% CI 1.04-3.19], peripheral artery disease (HR 4.62 [95% CI 2.50-8.54]), number of diseased coronary vessels (HR 1.51 [95% 1.03-2.24] and presence of a coronary chronic total occlusion at coronary angiography (HR 3.46 [95% CI 1.77-6.76]). CONCLUSIONS: in this study, Lp(a) values ≥30 mg/dL were associated to worse outcomes in patients with AMI receiving PCI. Lp(a) could represent a useful tool to identify patients at high risk of recurrent events.

Beyond the CAG triplet number: exploring potential predictors of delayed age of onset in Huntington's disease.

OBJECTIVE: Huntington's disease (HD) is a genetic neurodegenerative disease characterized by cognitive, motor, and psychiatric dysfunction. It is caused by an expansion of the trinucleotide repeat sequence cytosine-adenine-guanine (CAG) in the Huntingtin gene on chromosome 4. Onset typically occurs in the fourth or fifth decade, ranging from childhood to late adulthood. The CAG triplet number is generally inversely proportional to the age of onset (AOO), but the repeat number only accounts for ∼70% of the variability in AOO. Several studies demonstrated the impact of genetic modifiers on age of disease onset. In addition to genetics, we also explored the demographic, anamnestic, and socio-environmental factors that can affect AOO, to help us understand the non-genetic variability of age of onset in HD. METHODS: We analyzed the retrospective data of the ENROLL-HD global registry study, particularly focusing on the continuum of ages, to include sociodemographic, genetic, and anamnestic psychobehavioral variables in a multivariate regression model aimed at identifying the potential predictors of age of motor onset (n = 5053). We ran the same regression model in the sample of subjects who had the same number of triplets (41 CAG, n = 593) and in the sample whose family history was absent/unknown (n = 630). RESULTS: Patients with delayed onset more frequently have unknown/missing family history, are married or widowed, live in larger urbanized contexts and have a lower educational level. Individuals with earlier onset more frequently develop psychobehavioral symptoms. CONCLUSIONS: In the past, the HD gene was considered the epitome of genetic determinism. Our results are consistent with recent evidence that other factors might modulate its impact. These findings allow characterizing the determinants of AOO beyond the CAG expansions and provide valuable information for stratifying patients for future clinical trial designs.

Impaired processing of conspecifics in Parkinson's disease.

Experimental evidence indicates that the inferior frontal gyrus (IFG) processes emotional/affective features crucial to elaborate knowledge about social groups and that knowledge of social concepts is stored in the anterior temporal lobe (ATL).We investigated whether knowledge about social groups is impaired in Parkinson's disease (PD), in which dysfunctional connectivity between IFG and ATL has been demonstrated.PD patients (N = 20) and healthy controls (HC, N = 16) were given a lexical decision task in a semantic priming paradigm: the prime-targets included 144 words and 144 pseudowords, each preceded by three types of prime ("animals," "things," "persons"). Out of these 288 prime-targets, forty-eight were congruent (same category) and 96 incongruent (different category). Out of 48 congruent prime-targets, 24 denoted social items and 24 nonsocial items. Thus, four types of trials were obtained: congruent social; congruent nonsocial; incongruent social; incongruent nonsocial.Congruent target-words were recognized better than incongruent target-words by all groups. The semantic priming effect was preserved in PD; however, accuracy was significantly lower in PD than in HC in social items. No difference emerged between the two groups in nonsocial items.Impaired processing of words denoting social groups in PD may be due to impairment in accessing the affective/emotional features that characterize conceptual knowledge of social groups, for the functional disconnection between the IFG and the ATL.

STN-DBS does not increase the risk of sialorrhea in patients with advanced Parkinson's disease.

The aims of this study were to assess the incidence rate and risk factors for sialorrhea in the long-term follow-up in a cohort of 132 patients with advanced Parkinson's disease [88 with deep brain stimulation (DBS) and 44 on medical treatment]. The incidence rate of sialorrhea did not differ between the two groups; male sex, Hoehn and Yahr stage and dysphagia resulted risk factors for sialorrhea. These findings indicate that DBS does not increase the risk of developing sialorrhea.

Clinical and genetic characteristics of late-onset Huntington's disease in a large European cohort.

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE: Huntington's disease (HD) is an autosomal dominant condition caused by CAG-triplet repeat expansions. CAG-triplet repeat expansion is inversely correlated with age of onset in HD and largely determines the clinical features. The aim of this study was to examine the phenotypic and genotypic correlates of late-onset HD (LoHD) and to determine whether LoHD is a more benign expression of HD. METHODS: This was a retrospective observational study of 5053 White European HD patients from the ENROLL-HD database. Sociodemographic, genetic and phenotypic variables at baseline evaluation of subjects with LoHD, common-onset HD (CoHD) and young-onset HD (YoHD) were compared. LoHD subjects were compared with healthy subjects (HS) aged ≥60 years. Differences between the CoHD and LoHD groups were also explored in subjects with 41 CAG triplets, a repeat number in the lower pathological expansion range associated with wide variability in age at onset. RESULTS: Late-onset HD presented predominantly as motor-onset disease, with a lower prevalence of both psychiatric history and current symptomatology. Absent/unknown HD family history was significantly more common in the LoHD group (31.2%) than in the other groups. The LoHD group had more severe motor and cognitive deficits than the HS group. Subjects with LoHD and CoHD with 41 triplets in the larger allele were comparable with regard to cognitive impairment, but those with LoHD had more severe motor disorders, less problematic behaviors and more often an unknown HD family history. CONCLUSIONS: It is likely that cognitive disorders and motor symptoms of LoHD are at least partly age-related and not a direct expression of the disease. In addition to CAG-triplet repeat expansion, future studies should investigate the role of other genetic and environmental factors in determining age of onset.

Theory of mind: A clue for the interpretation of functional movement disorders.

OBJECTIVES: Functional movement disorders (FMD) refer to a heterogeneous group of manifestations incongruent with known neurological diseases. Functional neuroimaging studies in FMD indicate the overlap between cerebral regions in which abnormal activation occurs and those considered crucial for theory of mind (ToM), the ability to attribute mental states. The aim of this study was to explore whether FMD might be related to ToM disorders to the extent that they reduce the ability to make inferences about the mental states underlying motor behaviour during social interaction. MATERIALS & METHODS: Eighteen subjects with FMD and 28 matched healthy controls (HC) were given a ToM battery. The severity of FMD was rated by the Simplified-FMD Rating Scale (S-FMDRS). Dissociative symptoms were evaluated by the Dissociative Experiences Scale (DES-II). RESULTS: FMD scored worse than the HC in most ToM tasks: second-order False Beliefs (p = .005), Faux-Pas Recognition Test (p < .001) and Reading the Mind in the Eyes Test (p = .020); control questions elicited normal scores. The DES-II indicated dissociative-borderline psychopathology and negatively correlated with accuracy on the second-order False Belief (Spearman's rho = -.444; p = .032); the positive correlation between DES-II and severity of motor symptoms (S-FMDRS) approached significance (Spearman's rho test = .392; p = .054). ToM disorders were not correlated with S-FMDRS, due to the typical variability in FMD over time with regard to the severity of symptoms and the district of body involved. CONCLUSIONS: Our results are consistent with the hypothesis that FMD are related to ToM deficits, and future studies are needed to define the specific nature of this relationship.

Writing errors in primary progressive aphasia.

Peripheral errors in writing, that is errors produced download the spelling, have been occasionally described in primary progressive aphasia (PPA), but the possibility that these errors might be a marker of parkinsonism associated to some subtypes of PPA has not been explored. We investigated whether errors of peripheral nature characterize the writing disorder in PPA when associated with parkinsonian signs (PSs). Subgroups of PPA without PSs and with PSs were studied. The proportion of the central and peripheral errors in writing words and pseudowords was calculated in each group. In writing words, central errors significantly exceeded peripheral errors in subgroups without PSs. The higher the number of peripheral errors, the higher the probability of presenting PSs. No relation emerged between any error and the Unified Parkinson's Disease Rating Scale, but both types of errors correlated with measures of cognitive ability. Peripheral errors emerge when PSs are associated with PPA and may be linked to a decay of the cognitive control on movement, possibly involving the right hemisphere. Peripheral errors have clinical relevance in PPA, to the extent that they may assume the significance of a marker of specific subtypes and can help to outline the specific clinical picture of individual patients.

Association between frailty and ischemic heart disease: a systematic review and meta-analysis.

BACKGROUND: Frailty is increasingly reported among older adults with cardiovascular diseases and it has been demonstrated to increase negative health outcomes and mortality. To date, no systematic review of the evidence is available regarding the association between frailty and ischemic heart disease (IHD). We performed a systematic review of literature and a meta-analysis to assess the association between frailty and IHD. METHODS: We selected all the studies that provided information on the association between frailty and IHD, regardless of the study setting, study design, or definition of IHD and frailty. PubMed, Web of Science and Embase were searched for relevant papers. Studies that adopted the Fried definition for frailty were included in the meta-analyses. For each measure of interest (proportions and estimates of associations), a meta-analysis was performed if at least three studies used the same definition of frailty. Pooled estimates were obtained through random effect models and Mantel-Haenszel weighting. RESULTS: Thirty-seven studies were included. Of these, 22 adopted the Fried criteria to define frailty and provided estimates of prevalence and therefore they were included in meta-analyses. The pooled prevalence of IHD in frail individuals was 17% (95% Confidence Interval [95%CI] 11-23%) and the pooled prevalence of frailty in individuals with IHD was 19% (95% CI 15-24%). The prevalence of frailty among IHD patients ranged from 4 to 61%. Insufficient data were found to assess longitudinal association between frailty and IHD. CONCLUSIONS: Frailty is quite common in older persons with IHD. The identification of frailty among older adults with IHD should be considered relevant to provide individualized strategies of cardiovascular prevention and care. Further research should specifically explore the association between frailty and IHD and investigate the potential common biological ground.

Population-based incidence of gastrointestinal stromal tumors in Puglia.

INTRODUCTION: This study presents the incidence of gastrointestinal stromal tumors (GISTs) in an Italian region of over 4 million inhabitants monitored for 10 years and is the largest incidence study of this type of cancer conducted so far in Italy. METHODS: In order to ensure the registration of all GISTs, including those with nonmalignant behavior, a cancer list was integrated with the cases found through an ad hoc data mining process that covered all the pathologic reports of Puglia. Case distributions by sex, age groups, site, and prognostic groups according to Miettinem and Lasota classification and crude and age-standardized incidence rates were produced. RESULTS: In the 10-year period 2006 to 2015, 708 cases of GIST were recorded in Puglia. The average crude incidence rate was 1.7 per 100,000 person-years and the age-standardized incidence rate, using 2013 European standard population, was 1.8 per 100,000 person-years (95% confidence interval [CI], 1.6-1.9). Incidence was higher in men than in women: crude incidence rate was 2.0 per 100,000 person-years and age-standardized incidence rate 2.2 per 100,000 person-years (95% CI, 2.0-2.4) in men and 1.5 per 100,000 person-years and 1.4 per 100,000 person-years (95% CI, 1.2-1.6) in women. DISCUSSION: Our incidence rates are comparable with those of other international studies and they are located in the medium to high end of the range. The comparisons are affected by a different capacity of the cancer registries to intercept and record GISTs with nonmalignant behavior. Distribution of cases for sex, age groups, sites, and prognostic risk groups are consistent with previous results.

What about the caregiver? A journey into Parkinson's disease following the burden tracks.

OBJECTIVES: To investigate caregivers and patients characteristics related to different dimensions of burden in Parkinson's disease (PD). METHODS: 55 pairs of PD patients and caregivers were recruited. The burden was evaluated with the Caregiver Burden Inventory (CBI). Multivariate analysis was applied to evaluate the impact of caregivers' and patients' characteristics on the varying aspects of burden. RESULTS: ADL score was the dominant predictor for the total score and all dimensions of CBI, except for the social burden, which is strongly predicted by the motor severity of PD. As one can easily imagine, the Total CBI decreases as the ADL score increases. DISCUSSION: An increased appreciation for characteristics of caregiver burden is a fundamental aspect of the patient's global evaluation. Clinicians may need to directly probe for these factors in the caregiver as they may not be elicited routinely.

Should face masks be worn to contain the spread of COVID-19 in the postlockdown phase?

BACKGROUND: In East Asia, face masks are commonly worn to reduce viral spread. In Euope and North America, however, their use has been stigmatised for a long time, although this view has radically changed during the ongoing severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) pandemic. Notwithstanding this, it is still unclear whether face masks worn by COVID-19 carriers may indeed prevent viral transmission and environmental contamination. The objective of this study was to evaluate the effectiveness of surgical face masks in filtering SARS-CoV-2. METHODS: Four male patients with COVID-19 were recruited for the study. Two patients wore a surgical mask for 5 h, while two others did not. The spread of the virus in the environment was evaluated through the approved Allplex 2019-nCoV assay. RESULTS: In the room with the two patients without surgical masks, the swab performed on the headboard and sides of the beds was positive for SARS-CoV-2 contamination. In the other room, where two patients were wearing surgical masks, all of the swabs obtained after 5 h tested negative. CONCLUSIONS: The results of the current study add to the growing body of literature supporting the use of face masks as a measure to contain the spread of SARS-CoV-2 by retaining potentially contagious droplets that can infect other people and/or contaminate surfaces. Based on the current evidence, face masks should therefore be considered a useful and low-cost device in addition to social distancing and hand hygiene during the postlockdown phase.