Search

Aims: Patients with heart failure (HF) remain often undertreated for multiple reasons, including treatment inertia, contraindications, and intolerance. The OPTIimal PHARMacological therapy for patients with Heart Failure (OPTIPHARM-HF) registry is designed to evaluate the prevalence of evidence-based medical treatment prescription and titration, as well as the causes of its underuse, in a broad real-world population of consecutive patients with HF across the whole ejection fraction spectrum and among different clinical phenotypes., Methods: The OPTIPHARM-HF registry (NCT06192524) is a prospective, multicenter, observational, national study of adult patients with symptomatic HF, as defined by current international guidelines, regardless of ejection fraction. Both outpatients and inpatients with chronic and acute decompensated HF will be recruited. The study will enroll up to 2500 patients with chronic HF at approximately 35 Italian HF centres. Patients will be followed for a maximum duration of 24 months. The primary objective of the OPTIPHARM-HF registry is to assess prescription and adherence to evidence-based guideline-directed medical therapy (GDMT) in patients with HF. The primary outcome is to describe the prevalence of GDMT use according to target guideline recommendation. Secondary objectives include implementation of comorbidity treatment, evaluation of sequence of treatment introduction and up-titration, description of GDMT implementation in the specific HF population, main causes of GDMT underuse, and assessment of cumulative rate of cardiovascular events., Conclusion: The OPTIPHARM-HF registry will provide important implications for improving patient care and adoption of recommended medical therapy into clinical practice among HF patients., (© 2024 The Authors. European Journal of Heart Failure published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd on behalf of European Society of Cardiology.)

Geodetic-grade Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) receivers designed to implement permanent stations represent the most complex and costly technology in the field of GNSS instrumentation. On the other hand, a large number of innovative applications, highly demanding in terms of positioning precision and accuracy, is pushing the implementation of networks of permanent stations with a higher and higher spatial density. In this scenario, the development of brand new GNSS reference stations, which combine the most advanced technologies in the field of data availability and integrity together with reduced costs (of instrumentation, installation and management) is becoming of paramount importance. For this reason, in 2019 the EU Agency for the Space Programme (EUSPA) has financed a research project, called "next Generation gnss REference stATion-GREAT", aimed at developing and demonstrating the potentiality of a brand new GNSS receiver suitable to implement permanent stations. This paper describes the solution developed by the project consortium, composed of four Small or Medium Enterprises (SMEs) based in Italy, France and Belgium, and the preliminary results achieved in the field tests.

Background: In Italy, the under-30 age category was the one that joined the anti-COVID-19 vaccination campaign in an important way. This study investigates the emotional states and motivations underlying joining the anti-COVID-19 vaccination campaign., Methods: A questionnaire consisting of SF-12, STAI Y, and open questions was administered to investigate the state of health, the state of anxiety, and motivational states of the participants., Results: Of the sample, 80.7% were vaccinated at the first call, deeming the action important to combat the infection. However, 48.2% stated that they were quite worried about the problems related to the pandemic, 37.3% feared being directly infected, and 43.4% were worried about the health of relatives and friends., Conclusions: The positive impact that the vaccination campaign has had on the under-30 category is very significant for the immunization process, which is of fundamental importance for fighting the pandemic, so the "benefits" outweigh the "risks" related to the COVID-19 vaccine.

Objective: The aim of this study was to determine the prevalence of self-assessed bruxism, the level of Health Related Quality of Life (HRQoL) and their relationship in a group of male inmates. BASIC RESEARCH DESIGN, SETTING: The present study was cross-sectional, its setting was two penal institutions in Italy., Participants: A sample of 280 male prisoners (mean age 39.7 years). Due to the very small number of female prisoners, it was not possible to study both genders., Interventions and Main Outcome Measures: Subjects were administered a questionnaire with items investigating demographic data, self-assessed bruxism and HRQoL using EuroQoL EQ-5D instrument., Results: Bruxism was present in 29.7% of inmates. Results for EQ-5D (in brackets are data for the general population age and gender matched) were: EQ-index 1.3 (0.8), EQ-VAS 62 (80). Percentage reporting a problem for each dimension: Mobility (MO): 7.5 (9.6), Self Care (SC): 6.1 (4.3), Usual Activities (UA): 17.9 (10.1), Pain/discomfort (PD): 43.9 (40.8), Anxiety/depression (AD): 54.6 (31.9). There was a strong correlation between bruxism and EQ-index, showing concordance and dependence and, as expected, discordance and dependence between bruxism and EQ-VAS., Conclusion: Bruxism prevalence is higher and HRQoL is worse in the prison population than in the general population; the presence of bruxism is correlated with lower HRQoL levels, and correlation is stronger for subjects at first prison experience and for higher education levels, thus suggesting higher effect of stress on these subjects.