Burden of celiac disease in Europe: a review of its childhood and adulthood prevalence and incidence as of September 2014.

BACKGROUND: Recent epidemiological studies have demonstrated that coeliac disease (CD) prevalence is still underestimated both in Europe and in Mediterranean regions. Here we review the latest data on CD prevalence and incidence in the European Union (EU) as of September 2014. METHODS: The current epidemiological scenario of CD prevalence and incidence was investigated by searching PubMed for papers in English using the following key words: "celiac disease", "celiac disease plus prevalence" (limits: 1990-2014), "incidence" (limits: 1970-2014), and "frequency", plus "in Europe". Another search was performed with the same key words plus the name of each European country. Only prevalence data obtained by serology using anti-gliadin antibodies (AGA), EMA test, tTG test, and/or duodenal biopsy were included. The study designs considered were retrospective and prospective studies: population-based (PB), cross-sectional, case-control and cohort studies. RESULTS: Extensive research based on serological screening has demonstrated that 0.5-1% of the EU population suffers from undiagnosed CD, whereas the highest estimate reported in PB studies is approximately 1%. Considering data from different periods, incidence seems to range from 0.1 to 3.7/1000 live births in the child population and from 1.3 to 39/100,000/year in the adult population. CONCLUSIONS: The present data disclose marked geographical variation in CD incidence and prevalence in different European countries. Here we document rising CD occurrence in recent decades in European countries due partly to the advent of improved serological testing (tTG + EMA) and partly to increased awareness of its clinical presentation.

Current psoriasis treatments in an Italian population and their association with socio-demographical and clinical features.

BACKGROUND: Patient adherence is a key element for therapeutic success and represents a major concern for all healthcare professionals. OBJECTIVE: Aim of our study was to assess the frequency of use of treatments currently available for psoriasis and its association with specific socio-demographical and clinical variables. METHODS: The study population consisted of 1689 patients, aged 12-85 years. Information concerning socio-demographical variables, clinical features and the type of current treatment was collected. Items on patients' satisfaction of current treatments and of dermatologist-patient relationship were also included. The chi-squared test was used to estimate the association between the categorical variables, whereas Wilcoxon and Kruskal-Wallis tests were applied to the interval and ordinal variables. The Cochran-Mantel-Haenszel chi-squared trend test was used to evaluate the degree of satisfaction related to dermatologist-patient relationship. RESULTS: Of the 1689 psoriatic patients, 54.1% did not use any treatments and 45.9% used at least one treatment. The use of drugs was significantly associated exclusively to severity of disease and affected body surface area. Systemic therapies, both traditional treatments and biological agents, were mainly used in patients with disease duration >10 years and disease severity. Treatment adherence was significantly associated to the degree of patient's satisfaction of his/her relationship with the dermatologist. Alternative treatment such as over the counter medications and acupuncture were used by 33% of patients. CONCLUSION: The majority of psoriatic patients do not use any treatments. However, treatment adherence significantly increases when dermatologists clarify the treatment schedule, inform patients and meet the patients' needs.

HLA DR/DQ alleles and risk of type I diabetes in childhood: a population-based case-control study.

The objective was to evaluate HLA DR/DQ alleles and their risk factor for type 1 diabetes in the Abruzzo region (central Italy). Sixty incident cases from the Abruzzo region were studied together with 120 unrelated control subjects living in the same administrative areas. The relative risk of diabetes associated with the alleles under study was calculated by deriving the odds ratio (OR) maximum likelihood estimates and their 95% confidence intervals (CI) by the exponentiation of the logistic regression beta-parameter. The combination DRB1*03/DQA1*0501/DQB1*0201 was found in 20.0% of patients and 7.1% of the control subjects, conferring an OR of 4.04 and a CI of 1.97-8.49. The combination DRB1*04/DQA1*0301/DQB1*0302 was found in 23.3% of diabetic patients and 6.7% of controls, giving an OR of 5.69 and a CI of 2.77-12.05. DRB1*11/DQA1*0505/DQB1*0301 and DQA1*0505/DQB1*0301 were negatively associated with type 1 diabetes (OR=0.27, CI 0.11-0.57; OR=0.07, CI 0.02-0.19). The DQA1 genotype at risk was found to be DQA1*0301/DQA1*0501: OR=23.80, CI 2.97-190.89, as it occurred with the highest frequency in the patient group. The DQB1 genotype at risk was found to be DQB1*0201/DQB1*0302, which occurred in 13.3% of patients but in only 1.1% of the control group (OR=29.75, CI 5.36-549.25). Our results shed further light on the risk of development of this disease during a specific time period in an area where the overall incidence of type 1 diabetes is known.

[Association between drug, alcohol and tobacco use in adolescents and socio-familiar factors]. / Associazione tra l'uso di sostanze stupefacenti, alcool e tabacco negli adolescenti e contesto socio-familiare.

Substance abuse is the result of interaction between constitutional, environmental and socio-demographic factors. Several studies have been demonstrated that the adolescent substance abuse is a serious and growing problem. The aim of our study is to investigate the association between substance, alcohol and tobacco abuse and socio-familiar factors, to evaluate a substance abuse prevention program which decreases substance use in adolescents. A cross-sectional survey was developed and carried out by involving a group of adolescents, randomly selected from the secondary school of Teramo province. Data were collected by a self-administered questionnaire. The associations between substance use and the determinants taken into account was evaluated by the chi-square test of Fisher exact test or trend test when appropriated. Our data show that the alcohol abuse is more frequent in males (41.1%, p = 0.000), while the nicotine abuse is more frequent in females (46.1%, p = 0.005). However, our results show that the abuse of alcohol, nicotine, heroine, cocaine and ecstasy is associated to lack of stability in the family, respectively: 61.5% (p = 0.001); 61.5% (p = 0.022); 7.7% (p = 0.018); 7.7% (p = 0.010): 7.7% (p = 0.004). The nicotine abuse is higher in adolescents living with a smoker: 50.3% (p = 0.000). Finally, the substance abuse is higher in adolescents having friends that are drug-addicts, in particular: alcohol 49.6% (p = 0.000), nicotine 43.0% (p = 0.000), cannabis 27.9% (p = 0.000). This survey suggests that the knowledge of factors influencing the initiation, combination and cessation of the use of substance is crucial for the prevention of drug use among adolescents.

A high-speed network for cardiac image review.

A high-speed fiber-based network for the transmission and display of digitized full-motion cardiac images has been developed. Based on Asynchronous Transfer Mode (ATM), the network is scaleable, meaning that the same software and hardware is used for a small local area network or for a large multi-institutional network. The system can handle uncompressed digital angiographic images, considered to be at the "high-end" of the bandwidth requirements. Along with the networking, a general-purpose multi-modality review station has been implemented without specialized hardware. This station can store a full injection sequence in "loop RAM" in a 512 x 512 format, then interpolate to 1024 x 1024 while displaying at 30 frames per second. The network and review stations connect to a central file server that uses a virtual file system to make a large high-speed RAID storage disk and associated off-line storage tapes and cartridges all appear as a single large file system to the software. In addition to supporting archival storage and review, the system can also digitize live video using high-speed Direct Memory Access (DMA) from the frame grabber to present uncompressed data to the network. Fully functional prototypes have provided the proof of concept, with full deployment in the institution planned as the next stage.

Ultrasonic features and radionuclide correlation in liver cell adenoma and focal nodular hyperlasia.

Ultrasonic features of three cases of liver cell adenoma (LCA) and two cases of focal nodular hyperplasia (FNH) are presented. These tumors have similar sonographic appearances presenting either as solid masses or containing sonolucent areas due to hemorrhage or necrosis. Although these ultrasonic features in patients with an area of decreased activity on 99mTc-sulfur colloid (Tc-SC) liver scans are not specific for LCA or FNH, such findings in the appropriate clinical setting are suggestive of these lesions. The combination of a solid mass on ultrasonography and a normal Tc-SC radioisotope liver study may be relatively specific for uncomplicated FNH.

Radionuclide detection of a pheochromocytoma.

An area of increased radioactivity was visualized superior to the right kidney during the flow phase of a routine radionuclide renal angiography using 99mTc-Sn-DTPA. This same area failed to concentrate the radiopharmaceutical during delayed static images. This sequence suggested a highly vascular mass above the right kidney. The mass proved to be an adrenal pheochromocytoma as was suggested by the radionuclide study.