Long-standing type 1 diabetes: patients with adult-onset develop celiac-specific immunoreactivity more frequently than patients with childhood-onset diabetes,in a disease duration-dependent manner

To assess the frequency of celiac-associated humoral autoimmunity in patients with long-standing childhood- and adult-onset type 1 diabetes (LDM1) and whether it occurs more frequently as the disease progresses. IgA-/IgG-anti-tissue transglutaminase (IgA-tTG and IgG-tTG) and IgA-/IgG-deamidated gliadin (DGP) antibodies were analyzed in 277 LDM1 sera (120 females; disease duration 19.3 ± 12.3 years, range 5.0–54.0 years). Of the 277 patients, 147 were childhood-onset LDM1 (^CHLDM1) and 130 adult-onset LDM1 (^ADLDM1); 6.1 % LDM1 sera were tTG- and/or DGP-antibody-positive, with a lower frequency among ^CHLDM1 as compared with ^ADLDM1 patients (3.4 vs 9.2 %, p = 0.048). Celiac-associated immunoreactivity was significantly more frequent in LDM1 with >15 years of disease duration (9.4 vs 2.9 % in those with ≤15 years, p = 0.042) and among them in ^ADLDM1 (14.7 vs 4.2 % ^CHLDM1, p = 0.043). Celiac disease humoral immunoreactivity should be screened not only at diabetes onset, but also in long-standing patients, especially adults with disease duration >15 years.     

Patient-based low dose cone beam CT acquisition settings for prostate image-guided radiotherapy treatments on a Varian TrueBeam linear accelerator

Objective:To evaluate the performance of low dose cone beam CT (CBCT) acquisition protocols for image-guided radiotherapy of prostate cancer.Methods:CBCT images of patients undergoing prostate cancer radiotherapy were acquired with the settings currently used in our department and two low dose settings at 50% and 63% lower exposure. Four experienced radiation oncologists and two radiation therapy technologists graded the images on five image quality characteristics. The scores were analysed through Visual Grading Regression, using the acquisition settings and the patient size as covariates.Results:The low dose acquisition settings have no impact on the image quality for patients with body profile length at hip level below 100 cm.Conclusions:A reduction of about 60% of the dose is feasible for patients with size below 100 cm. The visibility of low contrast features can be compromised if using the low dose acquisition settings for patients with hip size above 100 cm.Advances in knowledge:Low dose CBCT acquisition protocols for the pelvis, based on subjective evaluation of patient images.     

ITP-QoL Questionnaire for Children with Immune Thrombocytopenia: Italian Version validation's

Background: The ITP-QoL is a disease-specific questionnaire for the assessment of health-related quality of life (HRQoL) in children with immune thrombocytopenia (ITP) and their parents. The aim of this study was to test the psychometric characteristics of the ITP-QoL in the Italian pediatric population in terms of validity and reliability. Procedure: Children aged 8–16 years with acute or chronic ITP and their parents were recruited in Italy. Participants completed the ITP-QoL together with other patient-reported outcomes (PROs). Reliability was calculated using Cronbach's alpha. Convergent validity was determined by means of the Pearson correlation coefficients. Results: A total of 91 ITP patients, mean age of 12.11 ± 2.47 years, and their parents participated; 61.5% of the patients were female. Two patients had acute ITP and 30.2% had a moderate to severe status of ITP. Cutaneous symptoms were more frequent than mucosal symptoms. Due to item and scale analyses 20 items were deleted from the original ITP-QoL. Internal consistency of the ITP-QoL was found to be good with Cronbach's alpha exceeding α = 0.70 for all but one subscale. Concerning convergent validity “moderate” to “high” negative correlations were found between ITP-QoL and KINDL subscales. The ITP-QoL was able to discriminate between clinical subgroups such as number of days lost at school due to ITP and hospitalization. Conclusions: Our study was able to demonstrate that the Italian version of ITP-QoL (for children aged 8–16 years) is a valid and reliable instrument for the assessment of HRQoL in children with ITP.     

Vitamin D, invariant natural killer T-cells and experimental autoimmune disease

Vitamin D is an important regulator of the immune system in general and multiple sclerosis in particular. Experimentally (i), invariant natural killer T (iNKT) cells have been shown to be important suppressors of autoimmune diseases such as experimental autoimmune encephalomyelitis (EAE; an animal model of multiple sclerosis). Conversely, in experimental allergic asthma iNKT cells are required for disease induction and are therefore pathogenic. The active form of vitamin D (calcitriol) suppresses EAE. The development of EAE symptoms is accelerated in vitamin D deficiency. Interestingly experimental asthma is less severe in vitamin D deficiency although there is no effect of calcitriol on disease severity. The data suggest that an important target of vitamin D in EAE and asthma are the iNKT cells. Vitamin D and/or vitamin D receptor deficiency results in the impaired development of iNKT cells. Vitamin D is critical very early during development of the immune system. Low levels of vitamin D in utero resulted in significantly reduced numbers of iNKT cells that failed to recover when calcitriol was used to supplement neonatal or adult mice. The data suggest that one of the consequences of early vitamin D deficiency is a reduction in the numbers of iNKT cells that develop. The iNKT cells are required for the beneficial effects of calcitriol in EAE. The important role of vitamin D on iNKT cells could impact the development of human immune-mediated diseases including multiple sclerosis and asthma.     

Heavy Metals Concentrations in Fish from Sicily (Mediterranean Sea) and Evaluation of Possible Health Risks to Consumers

Cadmium, lead, mercury and chromium concentrations in fish muscle tissue taken from various Sicilian areas were detected. Fish caught in Siracusa, nearby a petrochemical industrial area, were more contaminated by cadmium, lead and chromium (respectively 0.366, 0.32, 0.72 μg/g) than those from the other sites. In the Sicily Channel, we found the highest bioaccumulation of mercury (0.31 μg/g). Although some metals concentrations exceed the limits set by the European regulation, the estimated weekly intake was below the Provisional Tolerable Weekly Intake established by the European Food and Safety Authority, and the Target Hazard Quotient values indicate that there is no carcinogenic risk for humans.     

Ultrasound in newborns and children suffering from non-traumatic acute abdominal pain: imaging with clinical and surgical correlation

The purpose of this article is to review ultrasonographic appearance of the most common causes of non-traumatic acute abdominal pain in pediatric patients and to understand the applications and limitations of this technique giving a practical approach showing different clinical cases. A pictorial review of cases was made presenting the most common causes of neonatal and pediatric non-traumatic acute abdominal pain; sonographic features are discussed. Ultrasound in conjunction with Color Doppler imaging is a valuable tool in the evaluation of neonatal and pediatric non-traumatic acute abdominal pain; causes of acute abdomen in children could vary depending on the ages of the children.

Electronic supplementary material

The online version of this article (doi:10.1007/s40477-014-0087-4) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.     

Usefulness of coronary flow reserve over regional wall motion when added to dual-imaging dipyridamole echocardiography

Vasodilator stress echocardiography allows semi-simultaneous imaging of left anterior descending (LAD) coronary flow and regional wall function. To assess the relative (and additive?) value of regional flow and function for noninvasive identification of angiographically assessed LAD disease in patients with chest pain syndrome, we studied 230 consecutive in-hospital patients (134 men, aged 63.5 +/- 11 years) with chest pain syndrome and normal regional and global left ventricular function. All patients underwent stress echocardiography with dipyridamole (up to 0.84 mg/kg over 10 minutes), including wall motion analysis by 2-dimensional echocardiography and coronary flow reserve (CFR) evaluation of the LAD artery by Doppler, with or without contrast injection. A new regional wall motion abnormality in >or=2 contiguous segments was required for 2-dimensional echocardiographic positivity. CFR was evaluated as the ratio of dipyridamole to peak diastolic coronary blood flow velocity at rest. All patients underwent coronary angiography within 60 days; a quantitatively assessed diameter reduction >50% of the LAD artery was considered significant. Of the 230 patients, 70 had LAD disease. A regional wall motion abnormality in LAD territory was present in 52 patients, and reduced CFR (<1.9) in 62 patients. Sensitivity for detecting LAD disease was 74% for 2-dimensional echocardiography (95% confidence interval [CI] 64% to 84%) and 81% for CFR <1.9 (95% CI 72% to 90%); specificity was 91% (95% CI 87% to 96%) for 2-dimensional echocardiography and 84% for CFR (95% CI 79% to 90%). Accuracy was 86% for 2-dimensional echocardiography (95% CI 82% to 91%) and 83.5% for CFR (95% CI 79% to 88%). When 2-dimensional echocardiography and CFR criteria were considered, sensitivity increased to 93% (95% CI 87% to 99%), with 80.6% specificity (95% CI 74.5% to 86.7%). CFR was assessed during vasodilator stress echocardiography. Its diagnostic accuracy for detecting LAD disease was comparable to regional wall motion abnormalities. However, the data for flow and function can be complementary in terms of predicting underlying angiographic anatomy, because abnormal wall motion can include coronary artery disease, and negative CFR can exclude it.