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Background: Acute coronary syndromes (ACS) are a major cause of morbidity and mortality. As cytomegalovirus (CMV) may contribute to Cardio-Vascular (CV) manifestations, we sought to provide a proof-of-concept for the involvement of coronary and/or systemic CMV-reactivation as a possible ACS trigger. Methods: We prospectively enrolled consecutive patients undergoing a coronary angiography for ACS (acute-cases, N=136), or non-ACS reasons (chronic-cases, N=57). Matched coronary and peripheral blood-samples were processed for quantification of CMV-DNAemia (RT-PCR), CMVIgG/ IgM, and CMV-IgG avidity (ELISA). Peripheral-blood samples from 17 healthy subjects were included as controls. Results: Out of the 193 cases included, 18.1% were aged ≤55 years, 92.5% were Central-European, and 100% immunocompetent. CMV-IgG seroprevalence was 91.7% (95%CI: 87.8-95.6), significantly higher than in healthy-controls (52.9% [95%CI: 29.2-76.5]; p<0.001), yet consistent across age-groups (p=0.602), male/females (p=0.765), and acute/chronic-cases (p=0.157). Median (IQR) IgG titers were 110 (84-163) AU/mL, with 0.62 (0.52-0.72) avidity, supporting a long-history of infection. No acute CMV infections were found. In 22.6% (n/N=40/177) of the IgG-positive cases low-level coronary and/or systemic CMV-DNAemia (always <40 copies/mL) was detected. While no differences in peripheral CMV-DNAemia prevalence were observed nor among cases nor controls, coronary CMV-DNAemia was more frequent in acutecases without modifiable CV risk-factors (n/N=4/10; 40.0%), than in chronic-cases (n/N=6/55, 10.9%; p=0.029), or acute-cases with risk-factors (n/N=16/112, 14.3%; p=0.058). Conclusions: CMV-IgG seroprevalence was high in patients with heart diseases. CMV-DNAemia can be found, although uncommonly, in coronary circulation during an ACS, with increased prevalence in older subjects and in absence of CV risk-factors, identifying possible areas for novel interventions.

Coronavirus disease (COVID-19) has been a source of fear around the world. We asked whether the measurement of this fear is trustworthy and comparable across countries. In particular, we explored the measurement invariance and cross-cultural replicability of the widely used Fear of COVID-19 scale (FCV-19S), testing community samples from 48 countries (N = 14,558). The findings indicate that the FCV-19S has a somewhat problematic structure, yet the one-factor solution is replicable across cultural contexts and could be used in studies that compare people who vary on gender and educational level. The validity of the scale is supported by a consistent pattern of positive correlations with perceived stress and general anxiety. However, given the unclear structure of the FCV-19S, we recommend using latent factor scores, instead of raw scores, especially in cross-cultural comparisons. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved).

Introduction: Endothelial dysfunction (ED) of peripheral arteries in chronic heart failure (CHF) subjects has been demonstrated. We assessed endothelial function in subjects undergoing unconventional treatments for CHF, namely heart transplantation (HTX), continuous-flow left ventricular assist device implantation (LVAD), and repeated levosimendan infusions (r-LEVO). Methods: Twenty HTX recipients (median time from HTX 21 months), 20 patients supported with LVAD (median time from implant 39 months), and 20 patients receiving monthly Levosimendan infusions (median time on treatment 28 months) were enrolled and compared to a group of 20 healthy subjects. ED was evaluated with ultrasound assessment of the diameter before and after ischemic stress at the brachial artery level. The difference between the two diameters normalized for the baseline value (flow mediated dilation–FMD) has been used for the analysis. All the patients were stable at the time of FMD assessment, with those on r-LEVO being evaluated prior to infusion. Results: FMD was significantly lower in HTX and LVAD groups with respect to controls (9.8 ± 7.4, 9.3 ± 5.7, and 15.6 ± 6.4% respectively, p = 0.01), but not in r-LEVO group (12.5 ± 6.9%). When patients were analysed according to time from the operation or on treatment, (< versus ≥ of the median value), no differences were seen in HTX and r-LEVO group, while in LVAD group FMD was borderline significantly higher in patients with longer follow-up (8.4 ± 6.4% versus 10.2 ± 5.2%, p = 0.05). Conclusions: Based on this preliminary data we can inference the following: 1- FMD is abnormal in HTX recipients, despite their good functional status, probably due to factors unrelated to CHF (e.g. hypertension, renal insufficiency, denervation, and drug effects); 2- LVAD patients also show ED, with possible better adaptation in very long-term survivors; 3- Near-normal FMD values in CHF patients who remain stable with r-LEVO suggest that pulsed treatment may obtain

Background: Thoracic endovascular aortic repair (TEVAR) currently represents the gold standard of treatment for thoracic aortic injury (TAI). Nevertheless, there is an ongoing debate surrounding its safety and subsequent cardiovascular effects. Our aim is to assess heart and vascular structure and function remodeling after TEVAR in TAI young patients. Methods: We evaluated 20 patients (18 men, age 41 ± 14 years, 11 treated with Gore CTAG, 9 with Medtronic Valiant) with office and 24-hr blood pressure (BP) with specific vascular stiffness analysis (Mobil-O-Graph), aortic diameters (computed tomography scan) and left ventricular mass index (LVMI echocardiogram). Evaluation was done after a median time of 5.0 ± 3.5 years from the trauma. Results: After TAI 12 patients (55%) developed hypertension. When patients were divided according to treating time, those treated for more than 3 years show higher LVMI, PWV, and ascending aorta dilatation. Conclusions: Our study shows that TEVAR for TAI is associated with heart and vascular remodeling. The presence of TEVAR modifies aortic functional properties and could induce an increase in BP that can promote aortic and cardiac damage, even in young patients.

Structural and functional arterial properties commonly impair with aging process. These effects on vasculature could act at many levels from microcirculation to large vessels. Above normal aging process classic cardio-vascular risk factors (hypertension, diabetes mellitus, dyslipidemia, etc.) accelerate the physiological process leading to premature structural and functional alterations that has also been termed early vascular aging. Target organ damage evaluation could be clinically important since these alterations precede by many years' cardiovascular events and so their assessment can predict the onset of more serious and costly events giving the opportunity to prevent CV events by earlier therapeutic intervention. This review will focus on large artery functional properties and particularly on the role of inflammation on the aortic stiffening process.

Purpose: Only few studies evaluated biomarkers useful for defining the cardiovascular risk of a subject in a pre-clinical condition (i.e. healthy subjects). In this context we sought to determine the relationships of Plasminogen activator inhibitor type 1 (PAI‐1), P-Selectin, Tissue Inhibitors Metalloproteinases type 1 (TIMP-1) and Cystatin-C with subclinical Target Organ Damage (TOD) in normotensive and normoglycemic subjects without known cardiovascular and kidney diseases. Materials and Methods: 480 blood donors participated at the present analysis. TOD was evaluated as Pulse Wave Velocity (PWV), Left Ventricular Hypertrophy (LVH) and Intima Media Thickness (IMT) and carotid plaque presence) grouped together under carotid TOD. Results: 3.1% of the subjects showed a PWV higher than 10 m/sec with those subjects exerting significantly lower values of P-Selectine (0.068 ± 0.015 vs 0.08 ± 0.036 mg/L, p =.014). 8.8% of the subjects showed carotid TOD that was associated with higher Cystatin-C values (0.67 ± 0.17 vs 0.63 ± 0.14 mg/L, p =.045). Finally 23.8% of the subjects showed LVH with no significant differences regarding biomarkers. Despite some significant correlations between biomarkers and TOD, at the multivariate analysis none came out to be as significant predictor of the assessed TOD. Conclusions: in normotensive and normoglycemic healthy subjects, the evaluated biomarkers of atherosclerotic process didn’t show any significant association with cardiac, carotid and vascular TOD while age and BP are its principal predictors.

This study investigates the effect of technologies for heavy metal stabilization on the concentration of PolyChlorinatedDibenzo-p-Dioxins (PCDD) and PolyChlorinatedDibenzoFurans (PCDF), abbreviated PCDD/F, in Municipal Solid Waste Incineration (MSWI) fly ash. We determined the variation of the Total Organic Carbon (TOC) and PCDD/F concentration between raw and stabilized material. The technologies, that already proved to be very promising for heavy metal entrapment, showed encouraging results also for PCDD/F detoxification. This result could be very impacting on the management of MSWI fly ash: at the best of our knowledge, there are no methods, in literature, that can provide good results in stabilization of heavy metals, and abatement of chlorinated organic pollutants contained in the same matrix.

The general aim of this study is the valorisation of Automotive Shredder Residue (ASR) via pyrolysis. Tar, the condensable gases obtained in the pyrolysis process, is an interesting alternative fuel. Thus, the pyrolysis process was investigated in order to maximize the tar yield. The design of experiment approach was used to plan a series of experiments and to identify which operating variables influence the yield of the process. Temperature and carrier gas flow proved to be significant factors affecting the yield, while the influence of ASR light fraction amount pyrolysed was negligible. In the experimental domain, the maximum response was obtained at 500 °C and 100 mL/min

A 13-years study shows that a careful design of the flue gas cleaning system of a full scale secondary aluminium refining plant results in a minimized and very stable emission of Polychlorinated Dibenzo–p–Dioxins (PCDD), Polychlorinated Dibenzo Furans (PCDF) and dioxin-like Polychlorinated Biphenyls (PCB). The value of equivalent toxicity of PCDD/F in the emission was definitely of an order of magnitude less than the regulation limit. In the initial flue gas cleaning system, the PCB mean fingerprint after the slow cooling of the flue gas was typical of de novo synthesis. Instead, in the presence of quenching, there was evidence that the fast cooling of flue gas prevented the PCB de novo synthesis. In fact, the PCB profile was similar to that in the air collected from the aspiration hoods for the quenching. The gas-phase and solid-phase partitioning of PCBs, before and after the fabric filters, highlights the predominant role of the vapor phase with respect to the total removal efficiency. The polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons breakdown could be an additional de novo formation pathway even in industrial plants.

The general aim of this study is the recovery of Automotive Shredder Residue (ASR). The ASR light fraction, or car fluff, that was collected at an Italian shredding plant was pyrolysed at various temperatures (500–800 °C) in a lab-scale reactor. The condensable gases (tar) and solid residue yields increased with decreasing temperature, and these products were characterized to suggest a potential use to reclaim them. The higher heating value (HHV) of tar was 34–37 MJ/kg, which is comparable with those of fossil fuels. Furthermore, the ash content was low (0.06–4.98%). Thus, tar can be used as an alternative fuel. With this prospect, the concentrations of polychlorinated dibenzodioxins (PCDDs) and polychlorinated dibenzofurans (PCDFs) in tar were determined. The toxicity of tar changes with temperature (1–5 ng I-TEQ/g), and the PCDFs significantly contribute to tar toxicity, which was 75–100% with a maximum of 99.6% at 700 °C. Regarding the characterization of the solid residue, the low HHV (2.4–3.3 MJ/kg) does not make it suitable for energy recovery. Regarding material recovery, we considered its use as a filler in construction materials or a secondary source for metals. It shows a high metal concentration (280,000–395,000 mg/kg), which is similar at different pyrolysis temperatures. At 500 °C, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) were not detected in the solid residue, whereas the maximum total PAH concentration (19.41 ng/g, 700 °C) was lower than that in fly ash from MSWI. In conclusion, 500 °C is a suitable pyrolysis temperature to obtain valuable tar and solid residue.

We developed a phenomenological approach to explain the kinetic experimental data of PCDD/F formation/destruction based on a reaction mechanism model at the congener group level. In the present work, we investigated the formation and destruction of PCDD/F on fly ash as a function of time at 280 °C, chlorine mass balance, evolution of the total equivalent toxicity and kinetic modelling. We determined that the volatilization process is negligible and that the reactive processes at short reaction times only become important above 300 °C. The results provide a substantial improvement on existing studies. We experimentally demonstrated, for the first time, that there is a correlation between the oxidative breakdown of native carbon and PCDD/F de novo synthesis. Data processing by our kinetic model showed that the formation of oxygen complexes C(O) was the determining step for de novo synthesis of PCDD/F. Indeed, the calculated reaction time at which the PCDD/F concentration was at a maximum (850 min) was greater than that calculated for the oxygen complexes C(O) (435 min). Moreover, the experimental carbon conversion efficiency for PCDD/F production (0.0032% at 600 min maximum) was in a very good agreement with the theoretical conversion (0.0041%).

The kinetics for the oxidative breakdown of native carbon in raw fly ash samples (RFA) and for the formation and destruction of polychlorinated dibenzo-p-dioxins (PCDD) and polychlorinated dibenzofurans (PCDF), abbreviated PCDD/F, were investigated using a flow-over solid system in which the RFA samples were thermally treated at 300 C under synthetic air. This study investigated the correlation between the disappearance of the reagent and the formation of the products to gain insight into the underlying mechanisms that govern these reactions at congener groups level.The detailed analyses of the experimental concentration-time data revealed significant differences in the behavior between the 2,3,7,8-substituted PCDD and the 2,3,7,8-substituted PCDF, non-2,3,7,8-substituted PCDD and PCDF. The chlorine balance for the former was always negative, that is, chlorine was released regardless of reaction time and primarily resulted from the dechlorination of the hepta- and octa-homologues. However, for the others, the balance was substantially positive up to approximately 240 min and became negative at longer intervals when the dechlorination reactions took over.The processes involving PCDD and PCDF in which the thermal destruction was only partial were found to increase the total equivalent toxicity (TEQ) levels rather than reduce them. © 2013 American Chemical Society.

The native carbon oxidation and PolyChloroDibenzo-p-Dioxins and PolyChloroDibenzoFurans, PCDD/F, formation were simultaneously studied at different temperatures (230-350 °C) and times (0-1440 min) in order to establish a direct correlation between the disappearance of the reagent and the formation of the products. The kinetic runs were conducted in an experimental set up where conditions were chosen to gain information on the role of fly ash deposits in cold zones of municipal solid waste incinerators in PCDD/F formation reaction. The carbon oxidation measured as the decrease of total organic carbon of fly ash was in agreement with the carbon evolved as sum of CO and CO2. The carbon mass balance indicated an increase in the efficiency of carbon conversion in CO and CO2 with temperature. The CO and CO2 formation was the result of two parallel pseudo first order reactions thus giving significant information about the reaction mechanism. PCDD/F formation as a function of temperature showed that the maximum formation was achieved in a narrow range around 280 °C; the time effect at 280 °C was a progressive formation increase at least up to 900 min. The PCDF:PCDD molar ratio increased with temperature and time, and the most abundant homologues were HxCDD, HpCDD, OCDD for PCDD, and HxCDF, HpCDF within PCDF. These experimental results supported the hypothesis that the formation mechanism was the de novo synthesis. © 2008 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.