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Objectives: This study was designed to evaluate the effect of antenatal risk factors on the occurrence of germinal matrix hemorrhage or intraventricular hemorrhage in preterm infants., Study Design: Antenatal factors were evaluated in 302 infants delivered between 24 and 33 completed weeks gestation. Ultrasonographic screening of intracranial hemorrhage was carried out in all the infants. The association between risk factors and neonatal intracranial hemorrhage was evaluated with both univariate and multivariate models., Results: In stepwise logistic regression analysis, birthweight was a better predictor of neonatal germinal matrix hemorrhage than gestational age. Conversely, gestational age better predicted intraventricular hemorrhage than did birthweight. Risk factors for neonatal germinal matrix hemorrhage and intraventricular hemorrhage were dissimilar. A history of heavy (> 10 cigarettes/day) maternal smoking on admission increased the risk of germinal matrix hemorrhage three-fold (odds ratio = 3.35; 95% C.I. 1.24-9.07). Antenatal corticosteroid use reduced the risk of intraventricular hemorrhage by 76% (odds ratio = 0.24; 95% C.I. 0.09-0.61). Among patients with spontaneous preterm delivery or premature rupture of fetal membranes, the presence of labor was a significant effect modifier of the gestational-age associated risk of germinal matrix hemorrhage-intraventricular hemorrhage., Conclusions: Risk factors for neonatal germinal matrix hemorrhage are different from those for intraventricular hemorrhage. Most antenatal factors, especially those affecting fetal maturity, could influence the progression rather than the onset of intracranial hemorrhage.

Patients with Alzheimer's disease or other types of dementia become unable to make decisions regarding their care. Advance proxy planning provides a mechanism for protecting these patients' self-determination.

The limited availability of human pancreas represents a serious problem in islet transplantation. In the past few years many efforts have been made to isolate pancreatic islets from large mammals in order to achieve valid and reproducible isolation methods. For several reasons swine may be considered an ideal source of islet tissue because of the similarity between human and porcine insulin and because of the easy availability of pig pancreata. Some papers have been published recently on this topic with good results. However, some problems, such as islet dissociation into single cells after collagenase digestion, are not completely solved. In this article, an automated method involving a hydraulic shaking system is described for islet isolation from the pig pancreas, developed in our laboratory and derived from Ricordi's model.

HbsAg serum positivity in patients on the waiting list for kidney transplant and modifications of survival rate and transplanted kidney function deriving from this clinical situation are nowadays a matter of investigation and scientifical controversy. Authors analyse data deriving from their own series of renal transplant in HbsAg+ patients comparing them with literature.