PMID: 32538068 DOI: 10.23812/19-429-L-49 No abstract available Keywords: IgE; biologic treatment; blood eosinophils; prescription; season; severe asthma. full article

Background: The avascular region of the fibrous body between the mitral and aortic valves, named mitral-aortic intervalvular fibrosa (MAIVF), is often involved in the periaortic diffusion of infective endocarditis (IE), resulting in abscess or pseudoaneurysm formation. The early recognition of these life-threatening complications is of crucial impo....

Background: In this project the authors use a narrative medicine (NM) approach to assess the promotion of trust in the relationship between physicians and their asthma patients. Methods: Following a NM educational course for physicians, a research was carried out in which at least 5 written narratives (parallel charts) for each participating physic....

Collaborators, Affiliations  PMID: 30898690 DOI: 10.1016/j.jaip.2019.03.006 No abstract available full article

Background: Lung cancer is the leading cause of death worldwide. The treatment choice for advanced stage of lung cancer may depend on histotype, performance status (PS), age, and comorbidities. In the present study, we focused on the effect of metronomic vinorelbine treatment in elderly patients with advanced unresectable non-small cell lung cancer....

A large number of patients suffering from asthma or chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) can show overlapping features of both diseases. Several subjects affected by asthma-COPD overlap (ACO) may be at a severe stage, poorly responsive to triple therapy including inhaled corticosteroids, long-acting β2 agonists and muscarinic antagonists. T....

Background: Despite adding Omalizumab to conventional therapy, several severe asthmatics still show poor disease control. We investigated the factors that may affect a reduced Omalizumab response in a large population of severe asthmatics. Methods: 340 patients were retrospectively evaluated. FEV1%, FVC%, Asthma Control Test (ACT), fractional exhal....

PMID: 29812991 DOI: 10.1089/jamp.2018.1470 No abstract available full article

The high spatial resolution of cardiac computed tomography (CT) and cardiac magnetic resonance (CMR) permit the diagnosis of congenital ventricular outpouchings (CVOs), including congenital ventricular diverticula (CVD), congenital ventricular aneurysms (CVA), clefts, and crypts. A unique classification has not been established, and these terms are....

A large amount of data show that AR and asthma are associated both epidemiologically and clinically, introducing the definition of “united airway disease”. The mechanisms underlying such association were initially suggested to start from the nose, including the loss of the protective and homeostatic effects of nasal function, the activation of a na....

Background: The query "are there animals at home?" is usually administered for collecting information on anamnesis. This modality to consider exposure to pet allergens constitutes a potential bias in epidemiological studies and in clinical practice. The aim of our study was to evaluate/quantify different modalities of exposure to cat/dog in inducin....

 Background: chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) and chronic heart failure (CHF) frequently coexist in older people, reducing patients' quality of life (QoL) and increasing morbidity and mortality. Objective: we studied the feasibility and efficacy of an integrated telerehabilitation home-based programme (Telereab-HBP), 4 months long,....

Objectives: We already know that asthma is associated to osteoporosis/osteopenia and characterized by an accelerated lung function decline. Our study aimed at assessing whether lung function decline and bone mineral density (BMD) deterioration in time were associated in a group of female long-standing asthmatics. We also tried to understand whether....

PMID: 29199967 DOI: 10.18176/jiaci.0196 No abstract available Keywords: Effectiveness; Omalizumab; Pollen sensitized; Real-life; Severe asthma. full article

Objective: It is unknown whether Omalizumab effectiveness changes over the course of time. Our retrospective real-life study tried to analyze whether Omalizumab response may be influenced by treatment duration. Methods: 340 severe asthmatics treated with Omalizumab for different periods of time were recruited. They were subdivided into 4 groups acc....

Background: Asthma may show an accelerated lung function decline. Asthmatics, although having FEV1 and FEV1/VC (and z-scores) higher than the lower limit of normality, may show a significant FEV1 decline when compared to previous measurements. We assessed how many asymptomatic long-standing asthmatics (LSA) with normal lung function showed a signif....

Background: This retrospective study aimed at evaluating long-term effects of Omalizumab in elderly asthmatics in a real-life setting. Methods: 105 consecutive severe asthmatics (GINA step 4-5; mean FEV1% predicted:66 ± 15.7) treated with Omalizumab for at least 1 year (treatment mean duration 35.1 ± 21.7 months) were divided into 3 groups accordin....

Objective: of our study was assessing whether smoking and obesity might affect airways hyperresponsiveness (AHR) differently in younger and older subjects and whether this influence might be due to their different impacts on baseline lung function values at different ages. Methods: 3,903 consecutive adult subjects with normal lung function (1,920 m....

Background: Data about allergic rhinitis in elderly patients with asthma are lacking. Objective: To investigate the presence of rhinitis and the role of sensitization of airborne allergens in elderly patients with asthma. Methods: This was a multicenter cross-sectional study involving subjects at least 65 years old with asthma. Demographic features....

The most important consequences of smoking are chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) and lung cancer (LC). Although the use of shocking images and warning messages on cigarette packaging is a valid tool of smoke dishabituation, unfortunately, millions of people go on smoking. Our hypotheses is that cigarette packet covers could also be used ....