Since the beginning of the pandemic due to the novel severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) and its related disease, coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), several articles reported negative outcomes in surgery of infected patients. Aim of this study is to report results of patients with COVID-19-positive swab, in the perioperative period after surgery. Data of COVID-19-positive patients undergoing emergent or oncological surgery, were collected in a retrospective, multicenter study, which involved 20 Italian institutions. Collected parameters were age, sex, body mass index, COVID-19-related symptoms, patients’ comorbidities, surgical procedure, personal protection equipment (PPE) used in operating rooms, rate of postoperative infection among healthcare staff and complications, within 30-postoperative days. 68 patients, who underwent surgery, resulted COVID-19-positive in the perioperative period. AK7 Symptomatic patients were 63 (92.5%). Fever was the main symptom in 36 (52.9%) patients, followed by dyspnoea (26.5%) and cough (13.2%). We recorded 22 (32%) intensive care unit admissions, 23 (33.8%) postoperative pulmonary complications and 15 (22%) acute respiratory distress syndromes. As regards the ten postoperative deaths (14.7%), 6 cases were related to surgical complications. One surgeon, one scrub nurse and two circulating nurses were infected after surgery due to the lack of specific PPE. We reported less surgery-related pulmonary complications and mortality in Sars-CoV-2-infected patients, than in literature. Emergent and oncological surgery should not be postponed, but it is mandatory to use full PPE, and to adopt preoperative screenings and strategies that mitigate the detrimental effect of pulmonary complications, mostly responsible for mortality.Human noroviruses are a major cause for gastroenteritis outbreaks. Filter-feeding bivalve molluscs, which accumulate noroviruses in their digestive tissues, are a typical vector for human infection. RT-qPCR, the established method for human norovirus detection in food, does not allow discrimination between infectious and non-infectious viruses and can overestimate potentially infectious viral loads. To develop a more accurate method of infectious norovirus load estimation, we combined intercalating agent propidium monoazide (PMAxx™)-pre-treatment with RT-qPCR assay using in vitro-cultivable murine norovirus. Three primer sets targeting different genome regions and diverse amplicon sizes were used to compare one-step amplification of a short genome fragment to three two-step long-range RT-qPCRs (7 kbp, 3.6 kbp and 2.3 kbp amplicons). Following initial assays performed on untreated infectious, heat-, or ultraviolet-inactivated murine noroviruses in PBS suspension, PMAxx™ RT-qPCRs were implemented to detect muri utilising infectious human norovirus) to provide an added measure of security to food safety authorities in the hazard assessment of potential bivalve mollusc contamination.Idiopathic multicentric Castleman disease (iMCD) is a systemic lymphoproliferative disease involving multiple organs, including the kidneys. Membranous nephropathy (MN) has been rarely reported as a complication of iMCD. We herein report the case of a 48-year-old man with a 9-year history of iMCD that was complicated by treatment-resistant nephrotic syndrome due to MN. The first renal biopsy performed at the age of 45 years showed diffuse and global MN with a mild glomerular endothelial injury. He was treated with combined therapy of corticosteroids, immunosuppressants, and tocilizumab, an anti-interleukin-6 (IL-6) receptor monoclonal antibody, which was administered every 2-3 weeks. However, nephrotic syndrome persisted, and renal impairment slowly worsened. Serial biopsy performed at 3 years after the first biopsy confirmed advanced lesions of both MN-related and glomerular endothelial injuries. Modification of the therapeutic strategy to weekly administration of tocilizumab gradually led to the remission of proteinuria, allowing the termination of corticosteroids. Thus, the present case suggests a close link between excessive IL-6 actions and the development of glomerular lesions in iMCD. Successful treatment by strict inhibition of IL-6 actions, in this case, may provide a clue for deciding the therapeutic strategy for severe renal complications associated with iMCD.Four new 3,4-secocycloartane triterpenoids, pseudolactones A-D (1-4), were isolated from the ethanol extract of the cones of Pseudol arixamabilis. Their structures were established by extensive 1D- and 2D-NMR experiments. The cones of P. arixamabilis are enriched in the ring-expanded or cleaved cycloartane triterpenoids. This work provides new insight into cycloartane triterpenoids from the cones of P. arixamabilis.

For

Tc-sestamibi parathyroid single photon emission computed tomography/computed tomography (SPECT/CT), the traditional full-arc 360° acquisition technique has been suggested but not the theoretically low tissue-attenuated anterior 180° method. We aimed to compare the diagnostic performances and target-to-background ratios of anterior 180° and 360° SPECT/CT imaging.

Ninety-nine patients who underwent

Tc-sestamibi scintigraphy and received a surgical-pathological diagnosis of parathyroid adenoma or hyperplasia were enrolled. The SPECT/CT reconstructed images with anterior 180° and full-arc 360° data were interpreted by two physicians using a scoring scale, and the lesions were semi-quantified using target-to-background ratios for both image sets.

In total, 113 abnormal parathyroid lesions were identified on the SPECT/CT images. The agreements of interpretation between the two image sets and readers were very good (κ value 0.83-1.00). The accuracies of summative interpretation for the anterior 180° and full-arc 360° SPECT/CT were 83.04% and 82.46%, respectively. The target-to-background ratios were significantly higher for the anterior 180° than the full-arc 360° images (P < 0.01).

The anterior 180° SPECT/CT technique, a time-saving method, can provide satisfactory diagnostic performance and superior lesion contrast compared with the full-arc 360° SPECT/CT technique in

Tc-sestamibi parathyroid imaging.

The anterior 180° SPECT/CT technique, a time-saving method, can provide satisfactory diagnostic performance and superior lesion contrast compared with the full-arc 360° SPECT/CT technique in 99mTc-sestamibi parathyroid imaging.