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Objectives: To determine if circulating mitochondrial deoxyribonucleic acid levels increase after sport activity involving blows to the head, such as boxing, and if it could play a role in inflammatory cascade regulation in response to trauma., Design: Observational, longitudinal., Methods: We measured mitochondrial deoxyribonucleic acid levels and integrity in ten non-professional male boxers before and after three weekly sparring matches. We set up a protocol to separate three different plasma fractions enriched in mitochondria-containing vesicles, mitochondrial deoxyribonucleic acid bound to proteins and naked mitochondrial deoxyribonucleic acid. We quantified the levels of the main cytokines involved in inflammatory response and the levels of neurofilament light, a well-known marker of brain damage., Results: Circulating mitochondrial deoxyribonucleic acid levels increased after each match. In the second fraction, we also observed an increase over the weeks. Mitochondrial deoxyribonucleic acid is less intact after each match if compared with pre-match integrity, especially the naked form which is not protected within vesicles or mitochondria. Circulating levels of interleukin-6, interleukin-1beta and interleukin-10 increased after each match linking traumatic brain injuries to inflammatory state. Neurofilament light chain showed a similar trend to mitochondrial deoxyribonucleic acid., Conclusions: As mitochondrial deoxyribonucleic acid displays an inflammatory effect and neurofilament light chain is more specific for brain injury, we concluded that the simultaneous analysis of these two parameters could be helpful to monitor the effects of traumatic brain injury in contact sports, and that mitochondrial deoxyribonucleic acid is a promising candidate biomarker to study the inflammatory state of patients who suffered repeated traumatic brain injuries., Competing Interests: Declaration of interest statement The authors declare that there are no conflicts of interest., (Copyright © 2025 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd.. All rights reserved.)

Background and Aim: Physical activity is recognized as a major health determinant. However, the prevalence of inactivity can be as high as 80% in some adult subpopulations. From the urgent need to implement strategies to fight sedentary behaviour, considering that physical activity is defined as any bodily movement produced by skeletal muscles that require energy expenditure, the pilot study "Activate your Wait" was born. The project aim is to transform waiting pauses during everyday life into opportunities to perform simple stretching and active mobilization exercises., Methods: The pilot study was carried out in 2019 at Terme S. Egidio (Italy). It was divided in three phases: in the pre-intervention a questionnaire was used to evaluate the interest in the project (96 responders); during the intervention, examples of simple exercises that people can do by themselves were illustrated and undertaken by about 120 participants; in the post-intervention an evaluation questionnaire was administered (71 responders)., Results: The intervention aroused enthusiastic participation and high approval and resulted in an increase both in willingness to perform exercises during daily waiting pauses (68% vs 94%) and belief in positive results of physical activity on health (74% vs 96%)., Conclusions: In a context where the opportunities for physical activity are decreasing and a sedentary lifestyle has reached a high level, this project represents a contribution to the increase in the awareness of the importance of physical activity and the promotion of the culture of movement in the entire population, with an opportunity of easy accessibility in different contexts of life, at all ages.

Aim of the study was to investigate the differences in Ct values in nasopharingeal swabs collected in three SARS-CoV-2 epidemic periods: first one from February 23 to March 25 (14 days from lockdown started on March 11); the second one from  March  26 to May 18 (14 days  from the end of strict lockdown on May 4) and the third one from May 19 until June 15. Viral RNA was detected in nasopharyngeal swabs obtained both from inpatients and outpatients. COVID-19 infection was confirmed according to the Ct values for N1 and N2 genes ascertained by Real-Time RT-PCR assay as described by the CDC. We calculated the prevalence of nasopharyngeal swabs tested positive for SARS-CoV-2, the mean and median of the Cts and the percentage of samples equal or below the Ct value of 25 in the 3 periods considered. The average value of Ct increased, going from 24.80 in the first epidemic period to 26.64 in the second period to 28.50 in the third period (p <0.001). The percentage of samples with Ct lower than or equal to 25 also decreased sharply from 54.7% to 20.0%. These findings need to be integrated with epidemiological and clinical data.

The Electronic Medical Diary (EMD) is a tool for supporting the daily registration and storage of clinical events related to a specific patient. The collection of all patient-specific clinical data forms the patient database (PDB) which can be defined as a computer-based record able to replace the traditional paper record. The PDB is organized according to the clinical database (CDB), which is a structured terminology of most important clinical data, and may be connected with the many online tools (OLT) which can improve the flow of information within the hospital information system (HIS). In this paper we present the preliminary results of a project aimed at creating an EMD designed in accordance with the methodological model based on the problem-oriented approach. This EMD is patient-centered and each action it enables is related to at least one of the identified problems and one of the current diagnostic hypotheses. The permanent link of the EMD with the CDB is one of the most important features of the prototype here described. It allows the standardization of patients' data, their sharing among all operators involved, and a better organization of the patient management process.

The paper provides the description of a data-base developed to include in a quite structured format most clinical data used for patient management in a hospital setting. The system was aimed at achieving a reasonable compromise between the significant but complex solutions the research offers and the real needs of medical practice. First of all, the paper defines the requirements for designing a computerized clinical database according to a patient-centered clinical approach. Then, it describes the structure of a prototype aimed at classifying clinical data as a hierachy and describing them according to a structural approach. Next, problems related to the management and upgrading of the system are identified and possible solutions described, with a particular emphasis or knowledge acquisition, refinement and specialization, and on problems related to the functional aspects required for clinical applications. Finally, some meaningful clinical applications are outlined, which use the computerized clinical database as the standard for knowledge organization and data sharing.