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Arterial hypertension (AH) and periodontitis are among the most common non-communicable chronic diseases worldwide. Besides sharing common risk factors, an increasing body of evidence supports an independent association between the two conditions, with low-grade systemic inflammation acting as the plausible biological link with increased cardiovascular risk. In 2021, the Italian Society of Arterial Hypertension (SIIA) and the Italian Society of Periodontology and Implantology (SIdP) have joined forces and published a joint report on the relationships between AH and periodontitis, reviewing the existing scientific evidence and underlining the need to increase awareness of the strong connection between the two conditions and promote treatment strategies for the control of gums inflammation in patients with AH. The current document extends the previous joint report, providing clinical practical guidelines aimed to support clinicians in the management of patients who suffer from or are at risk of being affected by both conditions. These recommendations are based on careful consideration of the available evidence as well as of the current guidelines on the management of periodontitis and AH and are supported by SIIA and SIdP.

OBJECTIVES The COVID-19 pandemic had severe consequences on the health system, involving dental structures and professionals. In the first phase of the emergency, the delivery of dental care was limited to emergencies. During the following phases, the clinical activity will be extended to the treatments suspended due to the COVID-19 emergency and to therapies that cannot be postponed without risk for oral health of patients. DISCUSSION The work of dental professionals takes place close to the patient’s mouth, without protection, in a situation that involves aerosol generation. At present, there is no procedure able to eliminate the cross-infection risk, neither for patients nor for dental staff. Therefore the dentist can be claimed for negligence in the case of SARS-CoV-2 infection of the patient, if this one assumes to become infected during the dental care session. In this case, the clinical recommendations and good clinical practices issued by institutions or scientific societies, according to Law 24/2017 (so-called Gelli-Bianco law), are of great importance. There is a discussion about the possibility that COVID-19 emergency could lead, at least in certain circumstances, to the mitigation of liability of professionals and healthcare structures. This could be true both in the case of claims for compensation by a patient who complain cross-infection and by the worker who takes action against the employer. There are many interpretations based on the availability of valid and evidence-based preventive measures available at the moment in which COVID-19 pandemic occurred. On the other hand, the same interpretations take into ac-count the reason why such possible precautions have not been respected. The possible offense could only occur if valid measures were avail-able, and the healthcare professional did not respect them without a valid reason. Talking about the responsibility towards the patient, a central role is played by the possibility by the healthcare professional to demonstrate the validity of treatment indications (in that pandemic/ epidemic phase). A careful balancing of the risks provided by the different treatment options must also be performed. The information to the patient for COVID-19 has the dual purpose: to obtain the highest compliance with the preventive measures (triage, behavior in the studio etc.) and to make him aware of the risk of developing severe forms of COVID-19. SARS-CoV-2 cross-infection during work represents an increase in the biological risk typical of dental structures. For this reason, actions are required about the Risk Assessment Document (DVR) and in terms of health surveillance of workers by the occupational physician. Within dental structures, workers exposed to specific or general aggravated risk can be identified. From this situation can emerge the work accident with consequent compensation for the SARS-CoV-2 contagion by INAIL. The civil or criminal liability of the employer is based on different as-sumptions and requires proof of the tort or the crime. CONCLUSIONS Dental work is carried out close to the patient mouth without airway protection and a significant amount of aerosol can be produced. The pandemic created new profiles of professional responsibility both towards the patient and towards the worker. CLINICAL SIGNIFICANCE Knowledge of the procedures for the prevention of contagion as well as of the new profiles of responsibility towards workers and patients leads the professional to a more aware and careful professional practice. Government and scientific societies play a central role, providing indications aimed at risk prevention. These must be systematically calibrated and re-viewed as the pandemic scenario changes considering the medical/ legal value they have.

OBJECTIVES At the beginning of January 2020, a new coronavirus was isolated, a potentially lethal respiratory infectious agent called SARS-CoV-2. The disease it causes was called COVID-19 (COronaVIrusDisease 2019). From a microbiological point of view, coronaviruses (CoV) are a family of RNA microorganisms causing respiratory diseases with a wide spectrum of intensity, from the common cold to severe respiratory syndromes (SARS-Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome, MERS-Middle East Respiratory Syndrome). DISCUSSION As for other respiratory viruses, the transmission pathways is the airborne one (through the drop-lets by the infected patient) and direct contact. Experimental data demonstrate that SARS-CoV-2 re-mains active in aerosols for a long time, and droplets can settle contaminating the surfaces of the operating room. Dental professionals have consequently been classified as highrisk subjects. Among the guidelines for the control of cross-infection in dentistry, a common denominator appears to be the triage. The aim of this procedure is to avoid the treatment of asymptomatic or pre-symptomatic patients in unequipped health facilities. The triage applies a set of questions on the patient’s state of health in two specific moments, spaced over time, in order to per-form a double-check. A first triage is be carried out by telephone and a second during the arrival at the dental practice. From the disinfection point of view, ethanol at a concentration higher than 78% appears to be able to inactivate the virus in 60 seconds as well as 0.1% sodium hypochlorite and 1% povidone io-dine. Furthermore, the use of anti-microbial mouthwashes seems useful to reduce the contamination by aerosols produced by dental handpieces. From the mouthwashes point of view, 0.5% hydrogen peroxide is active in 60 seconds, 1% povidone iodine in 15-60 seconds, while benzalkoni-um chloride and chlorhexidine demonstrated a reduced efficacy against coronaviruses. CONCLUSIONS From the point of view of aerosol contamination, the risk for the Dentist appears real. CLINICAL SIGNIFICANCE The results of recent research demonstrate how the spray emit-ted by the turbine, multiplier contra-angle, and ultrasonic scaler is able to contaminate the whole operatory room, including the walls and the ceiling, up to a maximum distance of 360 cm. We do not have direct experimental evidence, but it seems useful to replace mains water of the hand-pieces spray with 0.5% hydrogen peroxide. This measure could significantly reduce SARS-CoV-2 spreading by the aerosol produced by the handpieces. In this way, the infectious agent would leave the oral cavity of the positive patient with the disinfectant agent. The risk of cross-infection should be significantly reduced.

AIM: To reach a consensus on a consistent strategy to adopt when screening patients for dental/periodontal infections, and on the feasibility of providing dental treatment before cardiothoracic surgery, cardiovascular surgery or other cardiovascular invasive procedures. METHODOLOGY: A panel of experts from six Italian scientific societies was created. The deliberations of the panel were based on the RAND method. From an initial systematic literature review, it became clear that a consensually validated protocol for the reproducible dental screening of patients awaiting cardiac interventions was considered mandatory by professionals with expertise in the dental, cardiologic and cardiac surgery areas. However, systematic review also concluded that the treatment options to be provided, their prognosis and timing in relation to the physical condition of patients had never been defined. Following the systematic review several fundamental questions were generated. The panel was divided into two working groups each of which produced documents that addressed the topic and which were subsequently used to generate a questionnaire. Each member of the panel completed the questionnaire independently and then a panel discussion was held to reach a consensus on how best to manage patients with dental/periodontal infections who were awaiting invasive cardiac procedures. RESULTS: A high level of agreement was reached regarding all the items on the questionnaire, and each of the clinical questions formulated were answered. Three tables were created which can be used to generate a useful tool to provide standardized dental/periodontal screening of patients undergoing elective cardiovascular interventions, and to summarize both the possible oral and cardiovascular conditions of the patient and the timing available for the procedures considered. CONCLUSIONS: Upon publication of this consensus document, the dissemination of the information to a wide dental and cardiac audience should commence. The authors hope that this consensus can become a model for the development of a dedicated protocol, ideally usable by heart and dental teams in the pre-interventional preparation phase.

In situ measurements of ice crystal size distributions in tropical upper troposphere/lower stratosphere (UT/LS) clouds were performed during the SCOUT-AMMA campaign over West Africa in August 2006. The cloud properties were measured with a Forward Scattering Spectrometer Probe (FSSP-100) and a Cloud Imaging Probe (CIP) operated aboard the Russian high altitude research aircraft M-55 Geophysica with the mission base in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso. A total of 117 ice particle size distributions were obtained from the measurements in the vicinity of Mesoscale Convective Systems (MCS). Two to four modal lognormal size distributions were fitted to the average size distributions for different potential temperature bins. The measurements showed proportionately more large ice particles compared to former measurements above maritime regions. With the help of trace gas measurements of NO, NOy, CO2, CO, and O3 and satellite images, clouds in young and aged MCS outflow were identified. These events were observed at altitudes of 11.0 km to 14.2 km corresponding to potential temperature levels of 346 K to 356 K. In a young outflow from a developing MCS ice crystal number concentrations of up to (8.3 ± 1.6) cm−3 and rimed ice particles with maximum dimensions exceeding 1.5 mm were found. A maximum ice water content of 0.05 g m−3 was observed and an effective radius of about 90 μm. In contrast the aged outflow events were more diluted and showed a maximum number concentration of 0.03 cm−3, an ice water content of 2.3 × 10−4 g m−3, an effective radius of about 18 μm, while the largest particles had a maximum dimension of 61 μm. Close to the tropopause subvisual cirrus were encountered four times at altitudes of 15 km to 16.4 km. The mean ice particle number concentration of these encounters was 0.01 cm−3 with maximum particle sizes of 130 μm, and the mean ice water content was about 1.4 × 10−4 g m−3. All known in situ measurements of subvisual tropopause cirrus are compared and an exponential fit on the size distributions is established for modelling purposes. A comparison of aerosol to ice crystal number concentrations, in order to obtain an estimate on how many ice particles may result from activation of the present aerosol, yielded low ratios for the subvisual cirrus cases of roughly one cloud particle per 30 000 aerosol particles, while for the MCS outflow cases this resulted in a high ratio of one cloud particle per 300 aerosol particles.

In January 2010 and December 2011, synoptic-scale polar stratospheric cloud (PSC) fields were probed during seven flights of the high-altitude research aircraft M-55 Geophysica within the RECONCILE (Reconciliation of essential process parameters for an enhanced predictability of Arctic stratospheric ozone loss and its climate interaction) and the ESSenCe (ESSenCe: ESA Sounder Campaign) projects. Particle size distributions in a diameter range between 0.46 and 40μm were recorded by four different optical in situ instruments. Three of these particle instruments are based on the detection of forward-scattered light by single particles. The fourth instrument is a grayscale optical array imaging probe. Optical particle diameters of up to 35μm were detected with particle number densities and total particle volumes exceeding previous Arctic measurements. Also, gas-phase and particle-bound NOy was measured, as well as water vapor concentrations. The optical characteristics of the clouds were measured by the remote sensing lidar MAL (Miniature Aerosol Lidar) and by the in situ backscatter sonde MAS (Multiwavelength Aerosol Scatterometer), showing the synoptic scale of the encountered PSCs. The particle mode below 2μm in size diameter has been identified as supercooled ternary solution (STS) droplets. The PSC particles in the size range above 2μm in diameter are considered to consist of nitric acid hydrates, and the particles' high HNO3 content was confirmed by the NOy instrument. Assuming a particle composition of nitric acid trihydrate (NAT), the optically measured size distributions result in particle-phase HNO3 mixing ratios exceeding available stratospheric values. Therefore the measurement uncertainties concerning probable overestimations of measured particle sizes and volumes are discussed in detail. We hypothesize that either a strong asphericity or an alternate particle composition (e.g., water ice coated with NAT) could explain our observations. In particular, with respect to the denitrification by sedimentation of large HNO3-containing particles, generally considered to be NAT, our new measurements raise questions concerning composition, shape and nucleation pathways. Answering these would improve the numerical simulation of PSC microphysical processes like cloud particle formation, growth and denitrification, which is necessary for better predictions of future polar ozone losses, especially under changing global climate conditions. Generally, it seems that the occurrence of large NAT particles – sometimes termed "NAT rocks" – are a regular feature of synoptic-scale PSCs in the Arctic.

An assessment of the aerosol abundance and distribution in planetary atmospheres is mandatory for an accurate retrieval of both atmosphere chemical compositions and surface characterization.The LIDAR (Light Detection And Ranging) technique allows for a determination and characterization of aerosol profiles. This technique allows for profiling a semi-transparent medium as long as its optical depth is of the order of some unity. In such cases, elastic multi-wavelength LIDARs are apted to describe suspended particles, permitting an estimation of the aerosol size, and to deliver information on particle shapesby means of the polarization diversity techniques. Airborne and spaceborne LIDARs, or automated ground-based instrument deployed in heavy duty conditions (deserts, poles), have been used since a long time for a description of the aerosol content of the terrestrial atmosphere and the technology is now mature enough for planning the deployment of such instruments in an extra-terrestrial mission. In fact, the current technology has allowed mission in the terrestrial stratosphere, with long duration balloons and stratospheric aircraft, as well as on spacecraft and satellites on polar orbit. So, such instruments would be in principle usable wherever environmental conditions, as pressure, temperature and adverse chemical conditions, would allow. As instance, a light-weight and low power instrument with dual wavelength and polarization diversity capability would be a perfect candidate for exploring the aerosol content of several planets and satellites atmospheres, namely the terrestrial planets as Mars and Venus, but also outer planets or moons like Jupiter, Saturn and Titan. Depending on the specific target, the instrument could be deployed on small orbiting platforms, on balloons drifting in the atmosphere, on parachute and even from grounds, allowing the remote sensing of aerosol for a range of several chilometers. A survey of current capabilities of LIDAR systems and an outlook toward their usage in sounding planetary atmosphere will be here presented, with special emphasis on possible advantages and drawbacks of specific planetary environments.