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Purpose: To estimate cancer screening coverage among a large sample of Greek individuals. Methods: 7012 adults from 30 Hellenic areas were surveyed. Tests included: faecal occult blood test, sigmoidoscopy, chest X-ray, urine test, testicular examination, trans-rectal ultrasound, full blood count, skin examination, digital rectal examination, PSA, Pap test, mammography, clinical breast examination (CBE), self breast examination and breast ultrasound. Results: Eighty-eight percent of males and 93% of females declared being interested in cancer screening; 37.8% of men and 37.9% of women had had a medical consultation for screening purpose in the previous 2 years. Less than 2% reported having received screening for colorectal cancer or skin malignancies. Screening for cervical cancer, mammography and CBE was reported by 39.6%, 22.8% and 27.9% of females respectively. Twenty percent of males reported screening for prostate cancer. Conclusion: The actual opportunistic screening approach presents important deficiencies with displaced priorities in test performance and a low proportion of individuals undergoing recommended tests. © Feseo 2009. 11 4 228 236

The Italian distribution of birth weight has been computed using information routinely collected by the Italian Central Institute of Statistics on about 1,150,000 births in the period 1984-1985. Individual records include data on birth weight for single/multiple births for 28th-42nd gestational weeks and for delivery modalities for 23rd-27th gestational weeks, according to sex. This analysis shows, from a large national data-set, distribution of weight at birth from a Southern European population, providing to obstetrics and perinatologists curves of fetal growth more directly representative of the population under their care.

The Italian standards of birth weight have been computed using information routinely collected by the Italian Central Institute of Statistics on about 1,200,000 births in the period 1984-1985. Individual records include data on birth weight and main fetal and maternal characteristics and delivery modalities. The crude and smoothed 5th, 10th, 50th, 90th and 95th centiles of weight at birth as function of gestational age according to sex, type of birth, maternal age and parity are presented. Centiles of weight at birth were higher (about 5%) in males than in females in all gestational ages: for example the 50th centile of weight at 40 weeks gestation was 3479 g in males and 3332 g in females. Between the 28th and the 32nd week the 50th centile of birth weight for multiple births grew at a rate similar to that of singletons; but beyond 32 weeks the weight growth in multiple birth was markedly lower than in singleton ones, the median multiple birth weight reaching the 10th centile of singleton at 38 weeks. The values of centiles increased with parity in both sexes and all gestational ages. The difference was however limited: for example with reference to the 50th centile the value for births in women reporting three or more births was about 5% higher than in those reporting no previous birth. Likewise, centiles of weight were higher in older women, but the difference tended to disappear after 36 weeks gestation. This analysis shows from a large national data-set standards of weight at birth from a Southern European population, providing to obstetrics and perinatologists curves of fetal growth more directly representative of the population under their care.

Type 2 diabetes is increasingly recognized as a spectrum of metabolic disorders sharing chronic hyperglycaemia. In Europe, the continually growing number of migrants from developing countries could affect diabetes phenotypes. We evaluated a population of 426 Italians and 412 undocumented migrants. Using 17 variables (with the exclusion of ethnic origin) we performed a multiple component analysis to detect potential clusters, independently from ethnicity. We also compared the two groups to evaluate potential ethnicity associated differences. We found five clusters of patients with different disease phenotypes. Comparing Italians with undocumented migrants, we noted that the first had more often cardiovascular risk factors and neurologic involvement, while the latter had a higher frequency of diabetic ulcers and renal involvement. Metformin was used in a comparable percentage of patients in all clusters, but other antidiabetic treatments showed some differences. Italians were more often on insulin, due to a larger use of long acting insulin, and received a larger number of oral antidiabetics in combination. Pharmacological treatment of comorbidities showed some differences too. We suggest that type 2 diabetes should be considered as a spectrum of diseases with different phenotypes also in heterogeneous populations, and that this is not due only to ethnic differences.

Background: Bowel and/or mesentery injuries represent the third most common injury among patients with blunt abdominal trauma. Delayed diagnosis increases morbidity and mortality. The aim of our study was to evaluate the role of clinical signs along with CT findings as predictors of early surgical repair. Material and methods: Between March 2014 and February 2017, charts and CT scans of consecutive patients treated for blunt abdominal trauma in two different trauma centers were reread by two experienced radiologists. We included all adult patients who underwent contrast-enhanced CT of the abdomen and pelvis with CT findings of blunt bowel and/or mesenteric injury (BBMI). We divided CT findings into two groups: the first included three highly specific CT signs and the second included six less specific CT signs indicated as “minor CT findings.” The presence of abdominal guarding and/or abdominal pain was considered as “clinical signs.” Reference standards included surgically proven BBMI and clinical follow-up. Association was evaluated by the chi-square test. A logistic regression model was used to estimate odds ratio (OR) and confidence intervals (CI). Results: Thirty-four (4.1%) out of 831 patients who sustained blunt abdominal trauma had BBMI at CT. Twenty-one out of thirty-four patients (61.8%) underwent surgical repair; the remaining 13 were treated conservatively. Free fluid had a significant statistical association with surgery (p = 0.0044). The presence of three or more minor CT findings was statistically associated with surgery (OR = 8.1; 95% CI, 1.2–53.7). Abdominal guarding along with bowel wall discontinuity and extraluminal air had the highest positive predictive value (100 and 83.3%, respectively). Conclusion: In patients without solid organ injury (SOI), the presence of free fluid along with abdominal guarding and three or more “minor CT findings” is a significant predictor of early surgical repair. The association of bowel wall discontinuity with extraluminal air warrants exploratory laparotomy.

This study, performed on behalf of the Italian Registry of Thrombocythaemias (Registro Italiano Trombocitemie), aimed to test the inter-observer reproducibility of the histological parameters proposed by the WHO classification for the diagnosis of the Philadelphia chromosome-negative myeloproliferative neoplasms. A series of 103 bone marrow biopsy samples of Philadelphia chromosome-negative myeloproliferative neoplasms consecutively collected in 2004 were classified according to the WHO criteria as follows: essential thrombocythaemia (n=34), primary myelofibrosis (n=44) and polycythaemia vera (n=25). Two independent groups of pathologists reviewed the bone marrow biopsies. The first group was asked to reach a collegial 'consensus' diagnosis. The second group reviewed individually all the cases to recognize the main morphological parameters indicated by the WHO classification and report their results in a database. They were subsequently instructed to individually build a 'personal' diagnosis of myeloproliferative neoplasms subtype just assembling the parameters collected in the database. Our results indicate that high levels of agreement (≥70%) have been reached for about all of the morphological features. Moreover, among the 18 evaluated histological features, 11 resulted statistically more useful for the differential diagnosis among the different Philadelphia chromosome-negative myeloproliferative neoplasms. Finally, we found a high percentage of agreement (76%) between the 'personal' and 'consensus' diagnosis (Cohen's kappa statistic >0.40). In conclusion, our results support the use of the histological criteria proposed by the WHO classification for the Philadelphia chromosome-negative myeloproliferative neoplasms to ensure a more precise and early diagnosis for these patients.