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Competing Interests: Declaration of Competing Interest The authors have no competing interests to declare.

The aim of this paper is to analyse the effect of COVID-19 on multidimensional well-being in the European population aged 50 and over by measuring changes in individual well-being before and after the pandemic outbreak. To capture the multidimensional nature of well-being, we consider different dimensions: economic well-being, health status, social connections and work status. We introduce new indices of change in individual well-being that measure non-directional, downward and upward movements. Individual indices are then aggregated by country and subgroup for comparison. The properties satisfied by the indices are also discussed. The empirical application is based on micro-data from waves 8 and 9 of the Survey of Health, Ageing and Retirement in Europe (SHARE), carried out for 24 European countries before the pandemic outbreak (regular survey) and in the first two years of the COVID-19 pandemic (June-August 2020 and June-August 2021). The findings suggest that employed and richer individuals suffered greater losses in well-being, while differences based on gender and education diverge from country to country. It also emerges that while the main driver of well-being changes in the first year of the pandemic was economics, the health dimension also strongly contributed to upward and downward well-being changes in the second year., Competing Interests: Competing InterestsThe authors have no competing interests to declare that are relevant to the content of this article., (© The Author(s) 2023.)

Background: Percutaneous balloon aortic valvuloplasty (BAV) is actually recommended as a bridge to surgery or transcatheter aortic valve replacement in patients with severe aortic stenosis (AS) in particular clinical settings. In this pilot study, for the first time, we report our experience utilizing a nonocclusive balloon for BAV, which does not require rapid ventricular pacing (RVP), in high-risk symptomatic elderly patients with severe AS., Methods and Results: From 2018 to 2020, a total of 30 high-risk elderly patients with heart failure due to severe AS were treated with BAV and were all prospectively included in the study. We used a perfusion-balloon valvuloplasty without RVP (True Flow; BD/Bard). Hemodynamic parameters were invasively evaluated during catheterization, before and immediately after BAV. All patients were regularly followed to detect the rate of mortality. The patients were 87.56 ± 4.10 years old and 23% were males. In the catheterization laboratory, the peak left ventricular to aortic pressure gradient significantly decreased from 55 mm Hg (interquartile range [IQR], 48.75-66.25) to 26 mm Hg (IQR, 15.7-30) immediately after balloon inflation (P<.001). The median value of percentage decrease of transaortic gradient was 56% (IQR, 50-74). At a median of 12 months (IQR, 5-27) follow-up, 12 patients (40%) died. The median time between BAV and mortality was 10.5 months (IQR, 1.75-15.5). At multivariable analysis, the only predictor of mortality was the New York Heart Association class at admission (odds ratio, 3.29; 95% confidence interval, 2.4-298.4; P<.01)., Conclusion: This single-center pilot study represents the first evidence that perfusion-balloon valvuloplasty without RVP is a safe, valid, and durable option in high-risk, symptomatic, elderly patients with severe AS.

Background: Fine Needle Aspiration Cytology (FNAC) is a well established and widely used method for both a preliminary and sometime final non-invasive pathologic diagnosis. FNAC is a simple and inexpensive diagnostic tool and should represent the standard of care in developing and resource-poor countries while maintaining its diagnostic usefulness in developed and advanced ones., Methods: The concordance between preoperative FNAC and final histology was evaluated in 168 patients operated on at the Otorhinolaryngology Unit, "A. Murri" Hospital, Fermo (Italy), from January 2012 to October 2016, including thyroid cases, salivary glands and cervical masses., Results: The percentages of correct diagnosis provided by FNAC were good in all groups of pathologies and in accordance with the mean data of the literature. In particular the kappa statistic for the degree of agreement between FNAC and definitive histology (good > 0.6 and excellent > 0.8) was 0.74 for the thyroid, 0.83 for the parotid and 0.71 for both the submandibular and the cervical masses., Discussion: Thy 3 group is still the most challenging for a successful FNAC diagnostic prediction. Especially in the developed and advanced countries, both the immediate review of the smear with its repetition, if needed, and the aspiration performed under CT/MRI guidance, when necessary, seem to further empower FNAC diagnostic resolution and should be pursued. Being routinely used for more than 40 years, FNAC is still a valuable and cost-effective tool to distinguish between cases that don't need any treatment, cases to be treated medically and those that require surgical excision. In the Authors' opinion every institution should periodically review its data in order to monitor and assess the accuracy of its diagnostic activity.