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Purpose [18F]Fluoromethylcholine ([18F]FMCH) is a radiopharmaceutical used in positron emission tomography (PET) imaging for the study of prostate, breast, and brain tumors. It is usually synthesized in cyclotron facilities where 18F is produced by proton irradiation of [18O]H2O through 18O(p,n)18F reaction. Due to the activation of target materials, the bombardment causes unwanted radionuclidic impurities in [18O]H2O, that need to be removed during the radiopharmaceutical synthesis. Thus, the aim of this study is to quantify the radionuclide impurities in the 18F production process and in the synthesized [18F]FMCH, demonstrating the radionuclidic purity of this radiopharmaceutical. Methods Long-lived radionuclide impurities were experimentally assessed using high-resolution gamma and liquid scintillation spectrometries, while short-lived impurities were monitored analyzing the decay curve of the irradiated [18O]H2O with an activity calibrator. As spectrometric radionuclide library, a Geant4 Monte Carlo simulation of the 18F-target assembly was previously performed. Results 3H, 52,54Mn, 56,57,58Co, 95m,96Tc, 109Cd, and 184Re were found in the irradiated [18O]H2O, but no radionuclide was found in the non-irradiated [18O]H2O neither in the final [18F]FMCH solution with an activity concentration greater than the minimum detectable activity concentration. A total impurity activity 99.9999998% was estimated. Finally, the decay curve of the irradiated [18O]H2O revealed a very low maximum of 13N activity ( Conclusions This study demonstrated the radionuclidic purity of [18F]FMCH according to the EU Pharmacopeia.

The aim of the present study was to assess the prevalence and incidence of pressure ulcers (PUs) in patients hospitalized in a University Hospital in central Italy.We carried out a prevalence and incidence study on PUs and an additional prevalence estimate of PUs was also produced ten days after the first assessment. All data were explored by descriptive statistics, the Chi-square test and a multivariate analysis.The prevalence of pressure ulcers was of 6,5%, while it increased to 9,9% at the second assessment ten days after the first measurement. Prevalence was statistically significant and increased with the age of inpatients (p=0,004) and was correlated to the origin of the patients (p=0,002). The incidence of PUs ten days after hospital admittance was of 3,6%. Ulcers are more frequently observed in the general medicine rather than in the surgery and intensive care units. Results showed that there exists a meaningful relationship between increased risk (Braden 16) and the presence of PUs, with an OR of 1,40 (95% CI 1,03-1,62) in high risk patients (Braden -12) and with an OR of 1,61 (95% CI 1,06-2,42) in very high or prohibitive risk patients (Braden 13-16). The most affected areas are the sacrum, the heels and the ankles. Mobilization plans were scarcely available, or do not described.The obtained data confirmed the difficulty to measure whether PU prevention practices are being carried out in compliance with the set guidelines presently in use in all the University Hospital Units. There is still a very limited use of available risk assessment tools for predicting PU risk and mobilization plans are still poorly documented. A monitoring and follow-up strategy should be implemented to better understand prevalence and incidence rates.Il presente studio ha l’obiettivo di determinare la prevalenza e l’incidenza delle ulcere da pressione (PUs) in una struttura ospedaliera universitaria del centro Italia. Metodi: E’stato effettuato uno studio di prevalenza e di incidenza sulle ulcere da pressione al momento del ricovero e dopo 10 giorni. I dati sono stati elaborati per statistica descrittiva, attraverso il test del Chi quadrato e un’ analisi multivariata. RISULTATI. I due dati di prevalenza ottenuti delle PUs erano rispettivamente del 6,5% e di 9,9% dieci giorni dopo (follow-up). La prevalenza delle PUs differisce all’aumentare dell’età (p=0,004) e rispetto all’area di degenza di ricovero dei pazienti (p= 0,002). L’incidenza delle PUs dopo dieci giorni dal ricovero è stata del 3,6%. L’area medica si caratterizza per un numero maggiore di lesioni rispetto all’area chirurgica e intensiva. Dai risultati, è stato evidenziato un rapporto significativo tra aumentato rischio (Braden 16) e la presenza di PUs con un OR di 1,40 (95% CI 1,03-1,62) in soggetti ad alto rischio (Braden -12) e un OR di 1,61 (95% CI 1,06-2,42) in soggetti ad altissimo rischio (Braden 13-16). Le sedi maggiormente rappresentate sono sacro, tallone e malleoli. Limitata la documentazione dei piani di prevenzione, in particolare per quanto concerne la mobilizzazione. CONCLUSIONI. Tali dati non permettono di comprendere l’utilizzo e l’aderenza ai piani di prevenzione già da tempo diffusi in tutte le UU.OO. Risulta ancora carente l’atteggiamento a utilizzare strumenti utili sia a identificare il rischio di ulcera, sia a documentare i piani di mobilizzazione. Sarebbe auspicabile un monitoraggio in tempi successivi per comprendere eventuali tassi di prevalenza e incidenza.

[Long-lived radionuclide impurities were experimentally assessed using high-resolution gamma and liquid scintillation spectrometries, while short-lived impurities were monitored analyzing the decay curve of the irradiated [This study demonstrated the radionuclidic purity of [

To assess the influence of degenerate initiation triplets on mRNA recruitment by ribosomes, five mRNAs identical but for their start codon (AUG, GUG, UUG, AUU and AUA) were offered to a limiting amount of ribosomes, alone or in competition with an identical AUGmRNA bearing a mutation conferring different electrophoretic mobility to the product. Translational efficiency and competitiveness of test mRNAs toward this AUGmRNA were determined quantifying the relative amounts of the electrophoretically separated wt and mutated products synthesized in vitro and found to be influenced to different extents by the nature of their initiation triplet and by parameters such as temperature and nutrient availability in the medium. The behaviors of AUAmRNA, UUGmRNA and AUGmRNA were the same between 20 and 40°C whereas the GUG and AUUmRNAs were less active and competed poorly with the AUGmRNA, especially at low temperature. Nutrient limitation and preferential inhibition by ppGpp severely affected activity and competitiveness of all mRNAs bearing non-AUG starts, the UUGmRNA being the least affected. Overall, our data indicate that beyond these effects exclusively due to the degenerate start codons within an optimized translational initiation region, an important role is played by the context in which the rare start codons are present.

Antiphospholipid syndrome (APS) is a rheumatic inflammatory chronic autoimmune disease inducing hypercoagulable state associated with vascular thrombosis and pregnancy loss in women. Cardiac, cerebral and vascular strokes in these patients are responsible for reduction in life expectancy. Timely diagnosis and accurate monitoring of disease are decisive to improve the accuracy of therapy. In the present work, we present a NMR-based metabolomic study of blood sera of APS patients. Our data show that individuals suffering APS have a characteristic metabolomic profile with abnormalities associated to the metabolism of methyl group donors, ketone bodies and amino acids. We have identified for the first time the metabolomic fingerprint characterizing APS disease having potential application to improve APS timely diagnosis and appropriate therapeutic approaches.

Objective: To determine the prevalence of metabolic syndrome (MS) in a primary care pediatric setting and to collect clinical and biochemical data, allowing for a prediction of its presence in a supposedly healthy population. Methods: Belonging to a pediatric population followed by pediatricians of the Italian National Health Service, 415 subjects with obesity as a unique selection criterion were enrolled. The entire cohort was screened for MS, which was defined as the presence of at least 2 other findings out of obesity: fasting hyperglycemia, low levels of high-density lipoproteins cholesterol, hypertriglyceridemia, and hypertension. Results: The overall prevalence of MS was 30.8%. Major findings (out of obesity) were low high-density lipoproteins cholesterol levels (46.2%), hypertension (23.6%), hypertriglyceridemia (22.2%), and fasting hyperglycemia (16.6%). Waist-to-height ratio was the only clinical parameter directly related to MS, with the same predictive power of insulin resistance. Conclusions: Metabolic syndrome can be present in a significant percentage of “healthy” obese children, and a simple clinical parameter could identify at-risk subjects. This observation justifies the development and implementation of pediatric networks for obesity screening programs.

Background: Obesity is the main risk factor for essential hypertension (EH) in childhood. The O.Si.Me. study (Obesity and Metabolic Syndrome in children and adolescents) evaluated the prevalence of metabolic syndrome (MetS) and its constitutive traits in a sample of obese children and adolescents living in Campania, southern Italy. Patients and methods: Four hundred and fifteen children and adolescents consecutively referred to the National Health Service participating Outpatient Clinics for minor health problems and found to have a Body Mass Index (BMI) Z-score > 2.0 were enrolled in the study. The entire sample was screened for MetS, which was defined as the presence of at least 2 of the following alterations in addition to obesity: fasting hyperglycemia, low levels of high-density lipoproteins cholesterol, hypertriglyceridemia, and EH. The present analysis evaluated the clinical characteristics of the O.Si.Me subgroup of EH participants (systolic and/or diastolic BP ≥ 95 th percentile for age, gender and height) as compared with normotensive participants. Results: The prevalence of EH in the O.Si.Me population was 23.6 % (98/415, 48M and 50F.) and two-thirds of the EH participants met the MetS diagnostic criteria. The EH participants featured serum insulin and HOMA-IR levels significantly higher compared with normotensive ones (11.6±0.6 vs. 9.5±0.4 μIU/ml, p = 0.014; 2.6±0.1 vs. 2.2±0.1, p = 0.028 for insulin and HOMA-IR, respectively). These differences were common to boys and girls and remained significant after correction for age, pubertal stage, body weight, length, BMI, gestational age at birth, duration of breastfeeding and anthropometric parental parameters. Accordingly, children and adolescents with EH had a a relative risk of being insulin resistant (defined as a HOMA-IR ≥2.5) significantly greater compared to those without. Moreover, they exhibited higher serum creatinine levels (53.8±7.1 vs. 35.4±6.8 μmol/l, p=0.025) accounting for gender and body weight. Conclusions: More than a quarter of obese children and adolescents meet the diagnostic criteria for EH in the Campania region in southern Italy. These obese boys and girls have an increased prevalence of insulin resistance and apparently an initial reduction in renal function compared with obese children and adolescents with normal BP.

Introduction The diagnostic, predictive and prognostic role of anti-cyclic citrullinated peptide (CCP) antibodies in rheumatoid arthritis (RA) patients is widely accepted. Moreover, detection of these antibodies in subjects presenting with undifferentiated arthritis (UA) is associated with a significant risk to develop the disease. On the other hand, clinical and prognostic significance of evaluating anti-CCP levels in subjects with inflammatory arthritis at disease onset has not been fully clarified. The goal of this prospective study is to analyze the value and prognostic significance of anti-CCP titer quantification in UA subjects. Methods Serial anti-CCP assays were measured in 192 consecutive patients presenting with UA lasting less than 12 weeks. Clinical and serological data and arthritis outcome were evaluated every 6 months until two years of follow-up. Results Anti-CCP positivity, at both low and high titer, and arthritis of hand joints significantly predicted RA at two years, risk increasing in subjects with high anti-CCP titers at baseline. Moreover, time to RA diagnosis was shorter in patients with high anti-CCP2 titers at enrollment with respect to those with low antibody concentration. Conclusions Presence of anti-CCP antibodies, at both low and high concentration, is significantly associated with RA development in subjects with recent onset UA. However, time interval from the onset of the first symptoms to the fulfilment of the classification criteria appears to be directly related to the initial anti-CCP level.

Questo lavoro trae origine dall’osservazione che anche a distanza di più di trenta anni dall’incidente di Chernobyl si rilevano in prodotti a base di mirtilli neri (Vaccinium myrtillus) immessi in commercio nell’Unione Europea concentrazioni di 137Cs non trascurabili [M. Calabrese, Applied Physics Res. Vol. 10 n. 5, 2018], [J. Lehto, J. of Env. Rad. 116 (2013) 124-132]. Inoltre, recentemente i mass-media hanno riportato notizie di prodotti a base di mirtillo nero provenienti dall’UE e respinti da mercati asiatici perché la concentrazione di 137Cs superava i 100 Bq kg-1. E’ noto che l’Ucraina è uno dei maggiori esportatori di mirtilli neri ed esiste il forte sospetto che vengano raccolti anche nelle zone più contaminate del paese e che siano immessi nei mercati dell’UE [https://aeon.co/essays/ukraine-s-berry-pickers-are-reaping-a-radioactivebounty]. Per questo motivo sono stati analizzati mediante spettrometria gamma circa 40 campioni di marmellate, composte, confetture ed altre preparazioni alimentari a base di mirtillo nero reperibili nella grande distribuzione nel nord-est Italia. Le misure sono state condotte con rivelatori al germanio iperpuro e sono state determinate le concentrazioni di attività di 137Cs e 134Cs. Il 134Cs, come atteso, è risultato inferiore alla M.A.R. in tutti i campioni. La concentrazione di 137Cs nelle marmellate presenta ampia variabilità, con valori compresi tra 1 e 162 Bq kg-1 (valore medio 54 Bq kg-1). Le concentrazioni di attività nei frutti sono state normalizzate per il decadimento radioattivo e ricalcolate sulla base del contenuto di frutta dichiarato in etichetta. Per le marmellate e composte, sono state determinate concentrazioni di 137Cs nei frutti fino a ~230 Bq kg-1. In un campione di mirtilli sciroppati è stata rilevata una concentrazione di ~450 Bq kg-1. I risultati ottenuti su marmellate biologiche e non biologiche sono stati confrontati tramite i principali test statistici per individuare eventuali differenze tra le due sottopopolazioni.