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Background: The monitoring of appropriateness, costs, and clinical outcomes of biological therapy in inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) is a relevant need. We aimed to evaluate all these issues in Sicily through a web based network of all prescribing centers. Methods: From January 2013, all IBD patients starting a biological agent (incident cases) or already on treatment (prevalent cases) were entered in a web based software. Herein we report data of incident cases about the efficacy of biological therapy after twelve weeks and one year of treatment. Results: From January 2013 to October 2016, 1475 patients were included. Incident cases were 1090. Considering that 16% of patients experienced more than one line of therapy, a total of 1351 treatments were reported. Adalimumab was used in 622 Crohn’s disease (CD) patients and in 83 ulcerative colitis (UC)/unclassified colitis patients. Infliximab was prescribed in 275 CD patients (80 biosimilars) and in 279 UC patients (50 biosimilars). Golimumab was used in 32 UC patients, while vedolizumab in 40 CD patients and in 20 UC patients. In patients with CD, after twelve weeks and one year of therapy, the rates of remission with adalimumab were 43.9% and 60.2%, respectively, and the rates of response 40.9% and 25.8%, while the rates of remission with infliximab originator were 46.2% and 50.0%, and the rates of response 40.9% and 32.9% (biosimilars: remission 31.0% and response 51.7% after 12 weeks; remission 45.5% and response 36.4% after one year). In UC, after twelve weeks and one year of therapy, the rates of remission with adalimumab were 43.3% and 57.1%, respectively, and the rates of response 36.7% and 19.0%; the rates of remission with infliximab originator were 41.6% and 48.4%, and the rates of response 35.6% and 32.3% (biosimilars: remission 30.0% and response 63.3% after 12 weeks; remission 20.0% and response 40.0% after one year); the rate of remission after 12 weeks of therapy with Golimumab was 22.2%, and the rate of response was 33.3%. After twelve weeks of therapy with Vedolizumab, 28.6% of CD patients were in remission and 32.0% had a response, while the rates of remission and response in UC patients were 33.3% and 22.0%, respectively. Multivariable logistic regression analysis showed that age >50 years was independently linked to lower rates of remission/response at 12 weeks in CD patients (OR 0.613, p=0.046). Conclusions: In one of the largest series of IBD patients on biological therapy reported to date, CD patients older than 50 years showed a higher rate of non response at 12 weeks of treatment. Efficacy of biosimilars was overall comparable to that reported for infliximab originator.

Background and aim: The monitoring of appropriateness and costs of biological therapy in Inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) is a relevant need. We aimed to evaluate appropriateness, efficacy and safety of biological therapy in IBD in Sicily through a web based network of prescribing centers. Material and methods: The Sicilian network for the monitoring of biological therapy in IBD is composed by a super Hub coordinator center and five Hub plus ten Spoke centers. From January 2013 all IBD patients starting a biological agent (incident cases) or already on treatment (prevalent cases) were entered in a web based software. Herein we report data on remission and response after twelve weeks of biological therapy, and side effects until the end of follow-up of incident cases. Results: From January 2013 to June 2016, 1475 patients were included. Complete data were available in 1338 cases (983 with Crohn’s disease [CD], 345 with ulcerative colitis [UC], and 10 with unclassified colitis). Incident cases were 956 (673 CD, 274 UC, and 9 unclassified colitis). Considering that 12% of patients experienced more than one line of therapy, a total of 1098 treatments were reported. Adalimumab was used in 543 CD patients, in 69 UC patients, and in 4 with unclassified colitis. Infliximab was prescribed in 221 CD patients (64 biosimilars), in 226 UC patients (41 biosimilars), and in 5 patients with unclassified colitis. Golimumab was prebscribed in 29 UC patients, and in 1 patient with unclassified colitis. After twelve weeks, the rate of response with Adalimumab was 46% and the rate of remission was 38% in CD, while the rate of response with Infliximab originator was 48% and the rate of remission 42% (biosimilars: 37% and 50%, respectively). In UC the rate of response with Adalimumab was 46% and the rate of remission was 38%, the rate of response with Infliximab was 41% and the rate of remission 45% (biosimilars: 25% and 64%, respectively), while the rate of response with Golimumab was 47% and the rate of remission was 27%. Overall, the rate of side effects was 17% (9.2% with Adalimumab, 20% with Infliximab originator, 15% with biosimilars, and 17% with Golimumab). Conclusions: In one of the largest series of IBD patients on biological therapy reported to date, the rates of remission and response after twelve weeks were comparable to data from literature, and similar between the different biologics. Efficacy and safety of biosimilars were analogous to those reported for infliximab originator.

Introduction: The monitoring of appropriateness, costs, and clinical outcomes of biological therapy in inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) is a relevant need. Aims & Methods: We aimed to evaluate all these issues in Sicily through a webbased network of all prescribing centers. The Sicilian Network for Inflammatory Bowel Disease (SN-IBD) is composed by a super Hub coordinator centre and five Hub plus ten Spoke centres. From January 2013, all IBD patients starting a biological agent (incident cases) or already on treatment (prevalent cases) were entered in a web based software. Herein we report data of incident cases about the efficacy of biological therapy after twelve weeks and one year of treatment. As clinical end-point, we set remission (corresponding to a Mayo Partial Score 52 for UC, and to a Harvey-Bradshaw Index 55 for CD), and response (reduction of Harvey-Bradshaw Index

Recent social movement activities – in particular, transnationally-coordinated global justice mobilizations – require participants to work across substantial differences in languages, cultural backgrounds, political visions, and organizing traditions. Negotiating such differences is an active, adaptive, and learning-intensive process. In contrast to more institutionalized settings such as schools and workplaces, where tropes like “multiculturalism” figure prominently in treatments of “difference,” I argue that knowledge production in social movement settings cultivates a more intensely relational and dynamic disposition towards differences., Les activités récemment menées par les mouvements sociaux – plus spécifiquement, les mobilisations transnationales de justice globale – amènent les participants à collaborer au-delà de différences parfois substantielles de langues, origines culturelles, visions politiques et traditions d’organisation. La négociation de ces différences s’incarne dans un processus actif et nécessite un effort intense d’adaptation et d’apprentissage. Contrairement aux milieux institutionnels – écoles ou milieux de travail – où les rhétoriques telles que le multiculturalisme oriente de manière évidente la gestion des différences, je soutiens que la création de connaissances au sein des mouvements sociaux favorise une disposition dynamique et intensément relationnelle envers les différences.

In 1998 a network of 20 regional tuberculosis (TB) laboratories (the Italian Multicentre Study on Resistance to Antituberculosis drugs (SMIRA) network) was established in Italy to implement proficiency testing and to monitor the prevalence of drug resistance nationwide. The network managed 30% of all TB cases reported in Italy each year. The aim of the present report is to describe: 1) the accuracy of drug-susceptibility testing in the network; 2) the prevalence of drug resistance for the period 1998-2000. Data were collected from the network laboratories. Sensitivity to streptomycin and ethambutol increased from the first survey (1998-1999) to the second survey (2000) from 87.7 to 91.9%. Specificity, predictive values for resistance and susceptibility, efficiency and reproducibility were consistent in both surveys. In previously untreated cases, the prevalence of multidrug-resistance was the same in both surveys (1.2%), while a slight decrease from the first to the second survey was observed for monoresistance to rifampicin (from 0.8 to 0.4%) and isoniazid (from 2.9 to 2%). The significant association found between isoniazid resistance and immigration is a useful indicator for both clinicians managing individual tuberculosis cases and public health services planning control strategies.

Long head biceps (LHB) tendon pathologies are becoming increasingly recognized causes of shoulder pain in the published literature. Instability of LHB presenting as dislocation or subluxation has been recently recognized as a possible cause of disabling pain or discomfort of the shoulder. A clinical diagnosis of LHB instability is very difficult and often confounding because of association with other shoulder pathologies. However, an early diagnosis of LHB instability is important in order to prevent the evolution of lesions of the biceps pulley until an internal anterosuperior impingement of the shoulder (ASI) and subscapular tear occur. The advent of arthroscopy contributed to enhance understandings. The goal of this article is to describe an arthroscopic sign, the chondral print on the humeral head, associated with a LHB instability, that when present can be very useful to help the surgeon to make the diagnosis of unstable LHB tendon.

CHRNA7, encoding the neuronal alpha7 nicotinic acetylcholine receptor (a7nAChR), is highly expressed in the brain, particularly in the hippocampus. It is situated in the 15q13.3 chromosome region, frequently associated with a Copy Number Variation (CNV), which causes its duplication or deletion. The clinical significance of CHRNA7 duplications is unknown so far, but there are several research data suggesting that they may be pathogenic, with reduced penetrance. We have produced an iPS cell line from a single healthy donor's fibroblasts carrying a 15q13.3 CNV, including CHRNA7 in order to study the exact role of this CNV during the neurodevelopment.

Smith-Magenis syndrome (SMS) is a complex genetic disorder characterized by developmental delay, behavioural problems and circadian rhythm dysregulation. About 90% of SMS cases are due to a 17p11.2 deletion containing retinoic acid induced1 (RAI1) gene, 10% are due to heterozygous mutations affecting RAI1 coding region. Little is known about RAI1 role.