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Background: This study evaluated the efficacy of pressurized intraperitoneal aerosol chemotherapy (PIPAC) with systemic chemotherapy as a bidirectional approach for gastric cancer (GC) patients with synchronous peritoneal metastases (SPM). Methods: A retrospective analysis of a prospective PIPAC database was queried for patients who underwent a bidirectional approach between October 2019 and April 2022 at two high-volume GC surgery units in Italy (Verona and Siena). Surgical and oncological outcomes were analyzed. Results: Between October 2019 and April 2022, 74 PIPAC procedures in 42 consecutive patients with Eastern Cooperative Oncology Group performance status ≤2 were performed—32 patients treated in Verona and 10 in Siena. Twenty-seven patients (64%) were female and median age at first PIPAC was 60.5 years (I–III quartiles: 49–68 years). Median Peritoneal Cancer Index (PCI) was 16 (I–III quartiles: 8–26) and 25 patients (59%) had at least two PIPAC procedures. Major complications according to the Common Terminology Criteria for Adverse Events (CTCAE; 3 and 4) occurred in three (4%) procedures, and, according to the Clavien–Dindo classification (>3a), one (1%) severe complication occurred. There were no reoperations or deaths within 30 days. Median overall survival (mOS) from diagnosis was 19.6 months (range 14–24), and mOS from first PIPAC was 10.5 months (range 7–13). Excluding cases with very heavy metastatic peritoneal burden, with PCI from 2 to 26, treated with more than one PIPAC, mOS from diagnosis was 22 months (range 14–39). Eleven patients (26%) underwent curative-intent surgery after a bidirectional approach. R0 was achieved in nine (82%) patients and complete pathological response was obtained in three (27%) cases. Conclusions: Patient selection is associated with bidirectional approach efficacy and feasibility for SPM GC treatment, which may allow potentially curative surgical radicalization in highly selected cases. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

While lung ultrasonography (LUS) proved to be a useful diagnostic and prognostic tool in acute phase of COVID 19 pneumonia, its role in detecting long-term pulmonary sequelae has yet to be explored. In our prospective observational study we assessed the potential of LUS in detecting the presence of computed tomography (CT) fibrotic-like changes after 6 months from COVID-19 pneumonia. Patients who were discharged with a diagnosis of severe COVID-19 pneumonia were enrolled. After 6 months from hospital discharge they underwent LUS, chest CT scan and pulmonary function tests. A logistic regression analysis was performed to assess the association between presence of symptoms, LUS score and diffusing capacity for carbon monoxide (DLCO) at 6-month after hospital discharge and CT scan fibrotic-like changes. A second logistic model was performed to assess the value of some predefined baseline factors (age, sex, worst PaO2/FiO2, ventilator support, worst CRP value, worst D-dimer value and worst LUS score during hospitalization) to predict fibrotic-like changes on 6-month CT scan. Seventy-four patients were enrolled in the study. Twenty-four (32%) showed lung abnormalities suitable for fibrotic-like changes. At multivariate logistic regression analysis LUS score after 6 months from acute disease was significantly associated with fibrotic-like pattern on CT scan. The second logistic model showed that D-dimer value was the only baseline predictive variable of fibrotic-like changes at multivariate analysis. LUS performed after 6 months from severe COVID-19 pneumonia may be a promising tool for detection and follow-up of pulmonary fibrotic sequelae. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Cardiac dysfunction, mainly assessed by biomarker alterations, has been described in COVID-19 infection. However, there are still areas of uncertainty regarding its effective role in disease evolution. Aim of this study was to evaluate early echocardiographic parameters in COVID pneumonia and their association with severity disease and prognosis. Methods: An echocardiographic examination was performed within 72 h from admission in 64 consecutive patients hospitalized for COVID-19 pneumonia in our medium-intensity care unit, from March 30th to May 15th 2020. Six patients were excluded for inadequate acoustic window. Results: Fifty-eight consecutive patients were finally enrolled, with a median age of 58 years. Twenty-two (38%) were classifiable as severe COVID-19 disease. Eight out of 58 patients experienced adverse evolution (six died, two were admitted to ICU and received mechanical ventilation), all of them in the severe pneumonia group. Severe pneumonia patients showed higher troponin, IL-6 and d-Dimer values. No significant new onset alterations of left and right ventricular systolic function parameters were observed. Patients with severe pneumonia showed higher mean estimated systolic pulmonary artery pressure (sPAP) (30.7 ± 5.2 mmHg vs 26.2 ± 4.3 mmHg, p = 0.006), even if in the normality range values. No differences in echocardiographic parameters were retrieved in patients with adverse events with respect to those with favorable clinical course. Conclusion: A mild sPAP increase in severe pneumonia patients with respect to those with milder disease was the only significant finding at early echocardiographic examination, without other signs of new onset major cardiac dysfunction. Future studies are needed to deepen the knowledge regarding minor cardiac functional perturbation in the evolution of a complex systemic disorder, in which the respiratory involvement appears as the main character, at least in non-ICU patients. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Although pathological complete response (pCR) after multimodal treatment for esophageal cancer is associated to the best prognosis, recurrence may occur in 20–40% of cases. The present study investigated the recurrence pattern and predictive factors of recurrence after pCR in patients with esophageal cancer. Methods: In this study, 427 patients received preoperative treatment for either esophageal squamous cell carcinoma (SCC) or adenocarcinoma at Verona University Hospital between 2000 and 2018. Of these, 145 patients (34%) achieved a pCR. Long-term prognosis, recurrence pattern, and risk factors for relapse in pCR patients were analysed. Results: During a median follow-up of 52 months, 37 relapses (25.5%) occurred, mostly at distant level (n = 28). Nearly all locoregional relapses (8/9) were detected in SCC cases. The 5-year overall survival and cancer-related survival were 71.7% (95% confidence interval [CI] 62.6–78.9%) and 77.5% (95% CI 68.5–84.2%) respectively. Male sex, higher body mass index, and cT4 were significant risk factors for recurrence at univariate analysis. The multivariate analysis confirmed the role of cT4 as predictor of recurrence only in SCCs. Conclusions: Esophageal cancer recurs in about one-fourth of pCR cases. A fair number of local recurrences occurs in SCCs, but the main problem is the systemic disease control. According to our analysis, SCCs patients with cT4 stage have an increased risk to recur, so they should be managed differently by a personalized approach in terms of adjuvant treatment and follow-up. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Pseudomyxoma peritonei (PMP) is a rare condition characterized by the intraperitoneal accumulation of mucus derived mostly by appendiceal mucinous neoplasm. Cytoreductive surgery (CRS) with hyperthermic intraperitoneal chemotherapy (HIPEC) can offer a favourable overall survival. In this study, we report a single-institute outcomes following CRS and HIPEC in patients with this condition. This is a review of prospectively collected data from 32 patients (11 men and 21 women) affected by PMP of appendiceal origin who underwent CRS and HIPEC from 2008 to 2016 in our Surgical Unit of General and Esophagogastric Surgery. The median age of the patients was 53 years (range 25—77 years). After CRS, all patients underwent HIPEC (mytomicin C 3.3 mg/m2/L and cisplatin 25 mg/m2/L at 41 °C for 60 min) with closed abdomen technique. The median (range) follow-up time for surviving patients was 43 (18–119) months. The median peritoneal cancer index (PCI) was 17. Complete cytoreductive surgery (CC0) was achieved in in 22 patients (69%). The majority of patients (88%) had grade I–II complications, 3 (9%) had grade III complications, and 1 (3%) patient had a grade IV complication. There were no perioperative mortalities. The median hospital stay was 9.5 (range 9–24) days. One year and 5-year overall survival (OS) were 90% and 58%, respectively. Regardless of histotype, disease-free survival was 95% at 1 year and 46% at 5 years. CRS in combination with HIPEC is a feasible treatment strategy and can achieve a satisfactory outcome in patients with PMP of appendiceal origin. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A variety of engineering applications are tackled as black-box optimization problems where a computationally expensive and possibly noisy function is optimized over a continuous domain. In this paper we present a derivative-free local method which is well-suited for such problems, and we describe its application to the optimization of the start-up phase of an innovative Concentrated Solar Power (CSP) plant. The method, referred to as rqlif, exploits a regularized quadratic model and a linear implicit filtering strategy so as to be parsimonious in terms of function evaluations. After assessing the performance of rqlif on a set of analytical test problems in comparison with three well-known local algorithms, we apply it in conjunction with a global algorithm based on RBFs interpolation to the start-up optimization of the CSP plant developed in the PreFlexMS H2020 project. For the test problems, rqlif provides good quality solutions in a limited number of function evaluations. For the application, the global–local strategy yields a substantial improvement with respect to the reference solution and significantly reduces the thermo-mechanical stress suffered by the plant components. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Pocket-size ultrasound devices (PSUD) are now widely available becoming a useful tool for diagnostic and therapeutic purposes. We aim to investigate the accuracy of PSUD in diagnosing cholelithiasis as compared to traditional ultrasonography. Moreover, we tested the reliability of PSUD when performed by inexperienced internal medicine residents after a short-term training. We consecutively enrolled inpatients and outpatients referred to undergo abdominal ultrasonography for signs or symptoms of gallbladder diseases in two different hospitals. Every patient underwent two independent examinations with PSUD by both expert (EXPPSUD) and nonexpert operators (N-EXPPSUD), and a conventional examination with traditional abdominal ultrasound (AUS). Every naive operator underwent a short-term training with a 2-h theoretical lesson, and a practical training focused on gallbladder under expert operator supervision. Overall, 146 patients were consecutively enrolled. Considering conventional AUS as the reference standard, sensitivity and specificity of EXPPSUD were, respectively, 93.75 and 100%. Sensitivity and specificity of N-EXPPSUD were, respectively, 75 and 91.25%. Nevertheless, when considering outpatients, PSUD has a high diagnostic accuracy even when performed by N-EXPPSUD with sensitivity of 93% and specificity of 88%. PSUD is a reliable tool for the diagnosis of cholelithiasis when used by expert operators potentially reducing the need for further diagnostic tests. It can even be successfully used by non-expert operators in outpatients setting after a short focussed training. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Siewert III cancers were classified as esophageal cancers by the TNM 7th edition (TNM7), while being defined as gastric cancers by the new TNM 8th edition (TNM8). Aim of this study was to compare previous and present TNM classifications of Siewert III. From 2000 to 2015, 309 patients with Siewert III adenocarcinoma were treated at ten high-volume centers, belonging to the GIRCG (Italian Research Group for Gastric Cancer). We retrospectively analyzed overall survival according to TNM classifications: gastric TNM8 was compared with either gastric TNM7 or esophageal TNM7. Median number of lymph nodes harvested was 31 (interquartile range 22-44). Agreement between gastric TNM7 and TNM8 was very good (weighted kappa 92.3%, IC 95% 90.3-94.1%). Accordingly, stage migration was observed in 54 of 309 patients (17.5%), with 12 patients upstaged (3.9%) and 42 downstaged (13.6%). Cox models including either gastric TNM7 or TNM8 achieved similar goodness-of-fit and c-index. Differences were much larger, when shifting from esophageal TNM7 to gastric TNM8: the agreement was much lower (weighted kappa 69.1%, 65.2-73.2%), with 196 of 309 patients (63.4%) downstaging. The corresponding Cox model presented the lowest goodness-of-fit and discrimination ability. Gastric TNM7 and TNM8 were largely superimposable, so that stage migration was minor and prognostic significance was similar. At variance, stage migration was substantial when shifting from esophageal TNM7 to TNM8. Moreover, survival models with esophageal TNM7 presented the worst goodness-of-fit and the lowest discrimination ability. This further supports placing Siewert III among gastric cancers, as done in TNM8. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Models describing energy consumption, heating, and cooling of buildings usually impose difficulties to the numerical integration algorithms used to simulate them. Stiffness and the presence of frequent discontinuities are among the main causes of those difficulties, that become critical when the models grow in size. Quantized State Systems (QSS) methods are a family of numerical integration algorithms that can efficiently handle discontinuities and stiffness in large models. For this reason, they are promising candidates for overcoming the mentioned problems. Based on this observation, this article studies the performance of QSS methods in some systems that are relevant to the field of building simulation. The study includes a performance comparison of different QSS algorithms against state-of-the-art classic numerical solvers, showing that the former can be more than one order of magnitude faster. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To valuate feasibility and results of radical surgery in octogenarian patients with gastric cancer. We collected data on 60 patients that underwent gastrectomy with an R0 resection at our Institution from 2010 to 2015. Patients were divided into two groups: octogenarian (OG) ( n = 26), consisting of patients aged 80-89 years, and younger (YG) ( n = 34), consisting of patients under 80 years of age. All patients were treated with total or subtotal gastrectomy with lymphadenectomy. A D2-lymphadenectomy was performed in 11 and 24 patients, a D1+ in 5 and 4, a D1 in 8 and 6, and a D0 in 2 and 0 cases in OG and YG respectively. The overall morbidity rate was 42.3% (11/26) in OG and 29.4% (10/34) in YG, while 90-days mortality was observed in four (15.4%) and one (2.9%) patients in OG and YG, respectively. The median hospital stay was 9 days (2-31) and 9.5 days (6-66) in OG and YG, respectively. Gastrectomy with radical resection and limited lymphadenectomy should be recommended for octogenarian patients with good performance status and low co-morbidity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: ypN0 following induction treatment for advanced esophageal cancer improves survival. Importance of how ypN0 is achieved is unknown. This study evaluates survival in 'natural' N0 (cN0/ypN0) and 'downstaged' N0 (cN+/ypN0) patients. Methods: Among patients treated with induction treatment and surgery, 83 CT scans were retrieved in digital format and re-evaluated by a radiologist, blinded to pathological nodal status: 28 natural N0, 37 downstaged N0, and 18 ypN+. Impact of N0 classification on survival and associations with survival were identified. Results: Survival varied with ypN: 3-year survival was 84 % for natural N0 patients, 59 % for downstaged N0, and 20 % for ypN+ ( p < .001). Compared with natural N0 patients, risk of cancer mortality was 3.8 for downstaged N0 and 7.6 for ypN+ ( p = .01). Survival was also stratified by ypT: compared with ypT0 natural N0, who had the best survival, intermediate survival was seen in ypT+ natural N0 [hazard ratio (HR), 1.3] and ypT0 downstaged N0 (HR, 1.8), and poor survival in ypT+ downstaged N0 (HR, 9.5) and ypN+ (HR, 12.0) ( p = .026). Conclusions: Natural N0 and downstaged N0 patients are different clinical entities: downstaging cN+ with induction treatment producing downstaged N0 improves survival only if there is concomitant primary cancer downstaging to ypT0. Intermediate survival is seen in downstaged N0 patients with complete tumor response. Natural N0 patients experience intermediate survival with incomplete response (ypT+). Complete response in natural N0 patients produces the best survival. Means of obtaining ypN0 status matters and requires a complete response for downstaged N0 patients to benefit from induction treatment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Dyspnea is a common presenting complaint in the emergency department (ED) and a leading cause of hospitalization in intensive care unit (ICU) and medical wards. Ultrasound (US) has traditionally been considered inadequate to explore the aerated lung. However, in the past 15 years LUS gained broader application, at least in part thanks to the interpretation of the artefacts generated by the interaction of US and lung structures/content. The total reflection of US beam occurring at the pleural level determines the artefactual image of the aerated lung: an homogenous 'foggy-like' picture under the pleural line. As the air content of the lungs decreases due to interstitial imbibition, deposition of collagen or presence of blood, vertical artefacts -arising from the pleural line and moving synchronously with the respiration- called B-lines appear. Multiple and bilateral B-lines identify the alveolar-interstitial syndrome (AIS). The most common cause of AIS is the wet lung: the more the congestion burden, the more the extent of the B-lines, which become confluent until the so-called white lung in case of pulmonary edema. Many studies showed a higher accuracy of LUS in diagnosing acute decompensated heart failure (ADHF) as compared to chest X-ray As recently shown, the integration of LUS to clinical assessment allow to differentiate cardiogenic dyspnea with sensitivity and specificity greater than 95 %. Moreover, LUS can easily detect pleural effusion -frequently present in ADHF-appearing as an anechoic area in the recumbent area of the thorax, delimited inferiorly by the diaphragmatic dome and superiorly by the aerated lung. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]