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Background: Adults with CHD are known to greatly benefit from a prompt access to continuous expert care. On the other hand, coronavirus disease 2019 pandemic has determined a dramatic worldwide reconfiguration of the healthcare systems, with rapid redeployment of resources towards this emergency. Italy was the first Western country affected by a large-scale spread of coronavirus disease 2019. The aim of our study is to analyse the impact of the coronavirus disease 2019 outbreak on in-hospital care of patients with CHD in an Italian tertiary centre., Methods and Results: We retrospectively reviewed data on CHD hospital admissions in our centre since 1 March, 2020, when the adoption of a strict infection containment policy throughout the country resulted in limited access of patients to routine hospital care and resources reallocation to the care of infected patients. Comparison with data from the previous year was performed in order to identify any relevant differences attributable to the outbreak. Despite cancellation of all elective procedures, the overall number of urgent hospital admission remained stable throughout the period of study. Patients admitted during the pandemic had greater disease complexity (p = 0.001) with longer length of in-hospital stay (p = 0.01). No adverse events or positive swabs were reported among CHD patients who were admitted to hospital or medical personnel caring for these patients., Conclusion: Data from our early experience suggest that coronavirus disease 2019 pandemic did not impact significantly on the provision of urgent care to adult patients with CHD.

Thanks to several European directives and conventions there is a general increase of awareness regarding the key ecological role of coralligenous habitats in the Mediterranean Sea, addressing several research projects to standardize protocols for the description of its integrity. Here we surveyed 13 stations along the Italian coasts of the Western Mediterranean Sea, using video-transects technique, comparing the biological structure of coralligenous assemblages and testing the importance of their three-dimensional complexity as a proxy to define their health conditions. We considered the diversity of taxa, fishing impacts and the entity of damage on gorgonian's choenenchyme due to thermal stress, to evidence a gradient in the coralligenous health conditions. Here we developed a method to evaluate coralligenous complexity, selecting categories of taxa particularly sensitive to multiple stressors, named Structural Descriptors to describe the three-dimensional structure of the bioconcretions and to assess a unique Index of 3D - Structural Complexity., (Copyright © 2019 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)

Purpose:: The neonatologists of Sant'Anna and San Sebastiano Hospital of Caserta have carried out a pilot study investigating the safety, feasibility, and accuracy of intracavitary electrocardiography for neonatal epicutaneous cava catheter tip positioning., Patients and Methods:: We enrolled 39 neonates (1-28 days of postnatal age or correct age lower than 41 weeks) requiring epicutaneous cava catheter in the district of superior vena cava (head-neck or upper limbs). Intracavitary electrocardiography was applicable in 38 neonates., Results:: No significant complications related to intracavitary electrocardiography occurred in the studied neonates. The increase in P wave on intracavitary electrocardiography was detected in 30 cases. Of the remaining eight cases, six malpositioned catheters tipped out of cavoatrial junction-target zone (chest x-ray and echocardiographical control) and two were false negative (tip located in target zone). The match between intracavitary electrocardiography and x-ray was observed in 29/38 cases, and the same ratio between intracavitary electrocardiography and echocardiography was detected., Conclusion:: We conclude that the intracavitary electrocardiography method is safe and accurate in neonates as demonstrated in pediatric and adult patients. The applicability of the method is 97% and its feasibility is 79%. The overall accuracy is 76% but it rises to 97% if "peak" P wave is detected.

Background: Aflatoxins (AFs) are one of the main groups of mycotoxins produced by molds. Nuts, although recognized as a food with health benefits, are frequently contaminated by AFs., Study Design: In this preliminary study we evaluated the contamination by total AFs and AFB1 in different types of nuts from different countries marketed in Apulia., Methods: Overall, 124 samples (almonds, apricot kernels, chestnuts, hazelnuts, peanuts, pistachios, walnuts and Brazil nut) were analyzed using an High-Performance Liquid Chromatography system., Results: Twenty samples (16.1%) were contaminated with AFs of which 55% were non-compliant, according to Reg. 165/2010. The median values (µg/kg) of total AFs and AFB1 were 16.6 and 15.1, respectively. Pistachios appeared more susceptible to AF contamination than the other nuts, with levels of total AFs ranging from 8.8 to 387.3 µg/kg and of AFB1 from 8.2 to 354.5 µg/kg. The majority of contaminated samples came from Asia and AF contamination was different in the various Asiatic sub-regions: regardless of the type of nuts, samples from Western Asia were the least contaminated., Conclusions: As geographical origin may influence the risk of contamination, in order to protect human health, customer countries should increase AF monitoring in nuts coming from those countries with favorable environments for the growth of aflatoxigenic molds or with less strict regulations.