In respiratory infections, anemia is both a consequence of acute inflammation and a predictor of poor clinical outcomes. There are few studies investigating the role of anemia in COVID-19, suggesting ...a potential role in predicting disease severity. In this study, we aimed to assess the association between the presence of anemia at admission and incidence of severe disease and death in patients hospitalized for COVID-19. Data from all adult patients admitted for COVID-19 in University Hospital "P. Giaccone" Palermo, and University Hospital of Bari, Italy, were retrospectively collected from 1st of September 2020 to 31 August 2022. The association between anemia (defined as Hb < 13 g/dl and < 12 g/dl in males and females, respectively), in-hospital mortality and severe COVID-19 was tested using a Cox's regression analysis. Severe COVID-19 forms were defined as admission to intensive or sub-intensive care unit or a qSOFAscore ≥ 2 or CURB65scores ≥ 3. p values were calculated using the Student's t test for continuous variables and the Mantel-Haenszel Chi-square test for categorical ones. The association between anemia and the mortality was made using a Cox's regression analysis, adjusted, in two models, for the potential confounders and using a propensity score. Among the 1562 patients included in the analysis, prevalence of anemia was 45.1% (95% CI 43-48%). Patients with anemia were significantly older (p < 0.0001), reported more co-morbidities, and presented higher baseline levels of procalcitonin, CRP, ferritin and IL-6. Overall, the crude incidence of mortality was about four times higher in patients with anemia compared to those without. After adjusting for 17 potential confounders, the presence of anemia significantly increased the risk of death (HR = 2.68; 95% CI: 1.59-4.52) and of risk of severe COVID-19 (OR = 2.31; 95% CI: 1.65-3.24). The propensity score analysis substantially confirmed these analyses. Our study provides evidence that, in patients hospitalized for COVID-19, anemia is both associated with a more pronounced baseline pro-inflammatory profile and higher incidence of in-hospital mortality and severe disease.
Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) can lead to persistent and debilitating symptoms referred to as Post-Acute sequelae of SARS-CoV-2 infection (PASC) This broad symptomatology lasts for months after ...the acute infection and impacts physical and mental health and everyday functioning. In the present study, we aimed to evaluate the prevalence and predictors of long-term impairment of working ability in non-elderly people hospitalised for COVID-19.
This cross-sectional study involved 322 subjects hospitalised for COVID-19 from 1 March 2020 to 31 December 2022 in the University Hospital of Bari, Apulia, Italy, enrolled at the time of their hospital discharge and followed-up at a median of 731 days since hospitalization (IQR 466-884). Subjects reporting comparable working ability and those reporting impaired working ability were compared using the Mann-Whitney test (continuous data) and Fisher's test or Chi-Square test (categorical data). Multivariable analysis of impaired working ability was performed using a logistic regression model.
Among the 322 subjects who were interviewed, 184 reported comparable working ability (57.1%) and 134 reported impaired working ability (41.6%) compared to the pre-COVID-19 period. Multivariable analysis identified age at hospital admission (OR 1.02, 95% CI 0.99 to 1.04), female sex (OR 1.90, 95% CI 1.18 to 3.08), diabetes (OR 3.73, 95% CI 1.57 to 9.65), receiving oxygen during hospital stay (OR 1.76, 95% CI 1.01 to 3.06), and severe disease (OR 0.51, 95% CI 0.26 to 1.01) as independent predictors of long-term impaired working ability after being hospitalised for COVID-19.
Our findings suggest that PASC promotes conditions that could result in decreased working ability and unemployment. These results highlight the significant impact of this syndrome on public health and the global economy, and the need to develop clinical pathways and guidelines for long-term care with specific focus on working impairment.
We present the results of a multi-disciplinary investigation on a deciduous human tooth (Pradis 1), recently recovered from the Epigravettian layers of the Grotte di Pradis archaeological site ...(Northeastern Italian Prealps). Pradis 1 is an exfoliated deciduous molar (Rdm
), lost during life by an 11-12-year-old child. A direct radiocarbon date provided an age of 13,088-12,897 cal BP (95% probability, IntCal20). Amelogenin peptides extracted from tooth enamel and analysed through LC-MS/MS indicate that Pradis 1 likely belonged to a male. Time-resolved
Sr/
Sr analyses by laser ablation mass spectrometry (LA-MC-ICPMS), combined with dental histology, were able to resolve his movements during the first year of life (i.e. the enamel mineralization interval). Specifically, the Sr isotope ratio of the tooth enamel differs from the local baseline value, suggesting that the child likely spent his first year of life far from Grotte di Pradis. Sr isotopes are also suggestive of a cyclical/seasonal mobility pattern exploited by the Epigravettian human group. The exploitation of Grotte di Pradis on a seasonal, i.e. summer, basis is also indicated by the faunal spectra. Indeed, the nearly 100% occurrence of marmot remains in the entire archaeozoological collection indicates the use of Pradis as a specialized marmot hunting or butchering site. This work represents the first direct assessment of sub-annual movements observed in an Epigravettian hunter-gatherer group from Northern Italy.
Studying infants in the past is crucial for understanding the evolution of human life history and the evolution of cooperation, cognition, and communication. An infant’s growth, health, and mortality ...can provide information about the dynamics and structure of a population, their cultural practices, and the adaptive capacity of a community. Skeletal remains provide one way of accessing this information for humans recovered prior to the historical periods. Teeth in particular, are retrospective archives of information that can be accessed through morphological, micromorphological, and biogeochemical methods. This review discusses how the microanatomy and formation of teeth, and particularly enamel, serve as archives of somatic growth, stress, and the environment. Examining their role in the broader context of human evolution, we discuss dental biogeochemistry and emphasize how the incremental growth of tooth microstructure facilitates the reconstruction of temporal data related to health, diet, mobility, and stress in past societies. The review concludes by considering tooth microstructure as a biomarker and the potential clinical applications.
•Teeth are archives of an individual’s biological life history.•Understanding pre- and postnatal lives in the past sheds light on human evolution.•Dental histomorphometry provides information on paces of growth and health status.•Biogeochemical analysis provides information on diet, mobility and environment•Interdisciplinary connections enrich evolutionary and modern medical approaches.
Early life of Neanderthals Nava, Alessia; Lugli, Federico; Romandini, Matteo ...
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences - PNAS,
11/2020, Letnik:
117, Številka:
46
Journal Article
Recenzirano
Odprti dostop
The early onset of weaning in modern humans has been linked to the high nutritional demand of brain development that is intimately connected with infant physiology and growth rate. In Neanderthals, ...ontogenetic patterns in early life are still debated, with some studies suggesting an accelerated development and others indicating only subtle differences vs. modern humans. Here we report the onset of weaning and rates of enamel growth using an unprecedented sample set of three late (∼70 to 50 ka) Neanderthals and one Upper Paleolithic modern human from northeastern Italy via spatially resolved chemical/isotopic analyses and histomorphometry of deciduous teeth. Our results reveal that the modern human nursing strategy, with onset of weaning at 5 to 6 mo, was present among these Neanderthals. This evidence, combined with dental development akin to modern humans, highlights their similar metabolic constraints during early life and excludes late weaning as a factor contributing to Neanderthals’ demise.
The evolution and development of human mortuary behaviors is of enormous cultural significance. Here we report a richly-decorated young infant burial (AVH-1) from Arma Veirana (Liguria, northwestern ...Italy) that is directly dated to 10,211-9910 cal BP (95.4% probability), placing it within the early Holocene and therefore attributable to the early Mesolithic, a cultural period from which well-documented burials are exceedingly rare. Virtual dental histology, proteomics, and aDNA indicate that the infant was a 40-50 days old female. Associated artifacts indicate significant material and emotional investment in the child's interment. The detailed biological profile of AVH-1 establishes the child as the earliest European near-neonate documented to be female. The Arma Veirana burial thus provides insight into sex/gender-based social status, funerary treatment, and the attribution of personhood to the youngest individuals among prehistoric hunter-gatherer groups and adds substantially to the scant data on mortuary practices from an important period in prehistory shortly following the end of the last Ice Age.
•This paper is a consensus statement on neonatal EEG and aEEG written by an Italian interdisciplinary working group.•A systematic review of literature and discussions among experts took place to ...elaborate shared recommendations.•We provide a flexible frame of recommendations applicable by neonatal units according to local resources and patient features.
The aim of this work is to establish inclusive guidelines on electroencephalography (EEG) applicable to all neonatal intensive care units (NICUs). Guidelines on ideal EEG monitoring for neonates are available, but there are significant barriers to their implementation in many centres around the world. These include barriers due to limited resources regarding the availability of equipment and technical and interpretive round-the-clock personnel. On the other hand, despite its limitations, amplitude-integrated EEG (aEEG) (previously called Cerebral Function Monitor CFM) is a common alternative used in NICUs.
The Italian Neonatal Seizure Collaborative Network (INNESCO), working with all national scientific societies interested in the field of neonatal clinical neurophysiology, performed a systematic literature review and promoted interdisciplinary discussions among experts (neonatologists, paediatric neurologists, neurophysiologists, technicians) between 2017 and 2020 with the aim of elaborating shared recommendations.
A consensus statement on videoEEG (vEEG) and aEEG for the principal neonatal indications was established. The authors propose a flexible frame of recommendations based on the complementary use of vEEG and aEEG applicable to the various neonatal units with different levels of complexity according to local resources and specific patient features. Suggestions for promoting cooperation between neonatologists, paediatric neurologists, and neurophysiologists, organisational restructuring, and teleneurophysiology implementation are provided.
A late Neanderthal tooth from northeastern Italy Romandini, Matteo; Oxilia, Gregorio; Bortolini, Eugenio ...
Journal of human evolution,
October 2020, 2020-10-00, 20201001, 2020-10, Letnik:
147
Journal Article
Recenzirano
Odprti dostop
The site of Riparo Broion (Vicenza, northeastern Italy) preserves a stratigraphic sequence documenting the Middle-to-Upper Paleolithic transition, in particular the final Mousterian and the Uluzzian ...cultures. In 2018, a human tooth was retrieved from a late Mousterian level, representing the first human remain ever found from this rock shelter (Riparo Broion 1). Here, we provide the morphological description and taxonomic assessment of Riparo Broion 1 with the support of classic and virtual morphology, 2D and 3D analysis of the topography of enamel thickness, and DNA analysis. The tooth is an exfoliated right upper deciduous canine, and its general morphology and enamel thickness distribution support attribution to a Neanderthal child. Correspondingly, the mitochondrial DNA sequence from Riparo Broion 1 falls within the known genetic variation of Late Pleistocene Neanderthals, in accordance with newly obtained radiocarbon dates that point to approximately 48 ka cal BP as the most likely minimum age for this specimen. The present work describes novel and direct evidence of the late Neanderthal occupation in northern Italy that preceded the marked cultural and technological shift documented by the Uluzzian layers in the archaeological sequence at Riparo Broion. Here, we provide a new full morphological, morphometric, and taxonomic analysis of Riparo Broion 1, in addition to generating the wider reference sample of Neanderthal and modern human upper deciduous canines. This research contributes to increasing the sample of fossil remains from Italy, as well as the number of currently available upper deciduous canines, which are presently poorly documented in the scientific literature.
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