There are about 21062 clinical studies being (or have been) conducted in Italy. The country of the clinical trial is determined by the location of where the clinical research is being studied. Most studies are often held in multiple locations & countries.
Adnexal torsion is the fifth most common gynecologic emergency. Thirty percent of all cases of adnexal torsion occur in females younger than 20 years. Approximately 5 of 100,000 females aged 1-20 years are affected, with girls older than 10 years at increased risk because of hormonal influences and gonadal growth that result in an increased frequency of physiologic and pathologic masses. The most common clinical symptom of torsion is sudden-onset abdominal pain that is intermittent, non-radiating, and associated with nausea and vomiting in 62% and 67% of cases respectively. Moreover, abdominal tenderness is a clinical sign which is reported in up to 88% of patients with adnexal torsion. None of the following tests are useful in the diagnosis of adnexal torsion: leukocytosis, pyuria, C-reactive protein, and erythrocyte sedimentation rate. Actually, transabdominal ultrasonography is the imaging modality of choice with a sensitivity of 92% and specificity of 96% in detecting adnexal torsion. A second-line imaging tool in the diagnosis of adnexal torsion is magnetic resonance, which may require a sedation in selected cases. Consequently, there are no clinical or imaging criteria sufficient to confirm the preoperative diagnosis of adnexal torsion to date. Therefore, patients with a clinical suspicion for adnexal torsion should undergo emergent diagnostic laparoscopy.
NOTCH signaling in the skin exerts a pivotal role in the regulation of normal keratinocytes turnover by mediating the balance between proliferation, differentiation, apoptosis and autophagic flux progression. Two skin diseases are characterized by the presence of gene variants that cause an impairment in NOTCH signaling: hidradenitis suppurativa(HS) and Dowling-Degos disease(DDD). To date, both HS and DDD are orphan diseases still lacking of specific treatments. This project aims at improving the current knowledge on the pathogenesis of HS and DDD, by deepening the understandings on the role played by keratinocytes in these pathologies and also by determining why mutations found in the same pathway cause different diseases. This study aimed to obtain in vitro models, derived directly from patients (from hair follicles) and from keratinocytes (HaCaT) cell cultures, for the study of these skin pathologies and also for the testing of novel innovative therapies such as photobiomodulation therapy.
Celiac disease (CD) is a common auto-immune disorder induced by gluten ingestion in genetically susceptible individuals (HLA-DQ2/DQ8). Gluten induces small-bowel villous atrophy and a specific immune response characterized by the production of CD-autoantibodies against transglutaminase 2 (anti-TG2) and endomysium (EMA). In symptomatic patients with positive-serum antibodies and villous atrophy, the diagnosis of CD is clearcut. However, 10-30% of patients evaluated for suspected CD show only mild histopathologic changes and fluctuating serologic markers, a condition identified as potential CD. In such cases the diagnosis may remain uncertain. CD-autoantibodies are produced by intestinal B-cells in the early phases of the disease, before their appearance in the serum and when the duodenal mucosa is still normal. Intestinal CD-antibodies (I-CD-abs) are a marker of CD, have a high sensitivity and specificity for CD and identify those patients with potential CD who are at risk of progression to villous atrophy. I-CD-abs can be detected by double immunofluorescence staining on frozen duodenal sections or by using an endomysial antibody assay in the culture medium of duodenal biopsies (EMAbiopsy). The diagnostic accuracy of these techniques is comparable as they both have high sensitivity and specificity. However, their implementation in clinical practice is limited because they require both experienced operators and well-equipped laboratories. There is an unmet need: the development of a new simple and effective diagnostic tool that any gastroenterology unit can use in routine diagnostics to ensure a prompt diagnosis in suspected CD patients, who may benefit from a therapy based on gluten-free diet, and to reduce both unnecessary medical investigations and diagnostic delays. In order to simplify and shorten times for the detection of these intestinal antibodies, the study aims to substitute the EMAbiopsy assay with a supernatant obtained quickly after mechanical lysis of fresh intestinal biopsy specimen. The obtained samples will be tested with rapid (about 15 minutes) immune-chromatographic anti-TG2 assay (Rapid Intestinal anti-TG2 Assay).
The proposed study aims to assess the efficacy and tolerability of adapting the CDED to the Mediterranean diet pattern, without compromising its key principles, namely the exclusion of ultra-processed foods with potential pro-inflammatory effects on the intestines. The decision to modify the CDED according to the characteristics of the Mediterranean diet pattern and to evaluate the potential of this modified version of the exclusion diet for Crohn's disease in terms of efficacy and tolerability are the main objectives of this study. These objectives are driven not only by scientific evidence regarding the anti-inflammatory potential and protective role against chronic-degenerative diseases demonstrated by the Mediterranean diet but also to allow for greater adherence to Italian dietary traditions and improve compliance with the dietary regimen. Furthermore, to date, there are no comprehensive multi-omic investigations integrating dietary data with microbiome, metabolome, and transcriptome profiles that can demonstrate the effect of the CDED at "omic" levels. A very recent study on pediatric patients shows interesting results regarding differential profiles of fecal metabolites after administration of CDE or NEE in different weeks of therapy.
ASC is a life-threatening medical emergency. The lack of a timely intervention has shown to be associated with a mortality rate higher than 20% in adults, whereas a prompt targeted therapy has displayed a decrease of the aforementioned rate to 1%. Therefore, the identification of predictors of poor outcome trough an objective tool may provide crucial help to individualize the timing of second line treatment initiation. At the state of the art, PUCAI represents the only validated tool to appraise the risk of first-line treatment failure and there is a lack of objective methods with a prognostic value in ASC. BUS has proven to be a reliable tool in assessing disease activity in children with UC and it has also shown statistically significant correlation with endoscopic features of disease activity. Given the literature suggesting a role for BUS in severe UC and the results from our retrospective study we aim to validate our findings trough a prospective assessment of the potential prognostic role of BUS in ASC.
The biological spatial and temporal heterogeneity of High Grade Serous Ovarian Carcinoma (HGSOC) severely impacts the effectiveness of therapies and is a determinant of poor outcomes. Current histological evaluation is made on a single tumour sample from a single disease site per patient thus ignoring molecular heterogeneity at the whole-tumour level, key for understanding and overcoming chemotherapy resistance. Imaging can play a crucial role in the development of personalised treatments by fully capturing the disease's heterogeneity. Radiomics quantify the image information by capturing complex patterns related to the tissue microstructure. This information can be complemented with clinical data, liquid biopsies, histological markers and genomics ("radiogenomics") potentially leading to a better prediction of treatment response and outcome. However, the extracted quantitative features usually represent the entire tumour, ignoring the spatial context. On the other hand, radiomics-derived imaging habitats characterize morphologically distinct tumour areas and are more appropriate for monitoring the changes in the tumour microenvironment over the course of therapy. In order to successfully incorporate the habitat-imaging approach to the clinic, histological and biological validation are crucial. However, histological validation of imaging is not a trivial task, due to issues such as unmatched spatial resolution, tissue deformations, lack of landmarks and imprecise cutting. Patient-specific three-dimensional (3D) moulds are an innovative tool for accurate co-registration between imaging and histology. The aim of this study is to optimize and integrate such an automated computational 3D-mould co-registration approach in the clinical work-flow in patients with HGSOC. The validated radiomics-based tumour habitats will also be used to guide tissue sampling to decipher their underlying biology using genomics analysis and explore novel prediction markers.
Chronic kidney disease (CKD) affects about 10% of the world population, with high morbidity and mortality. Genetic kidney diseases are increasingly recognized across all age groups and represent over 20% of all the causes of CKD. Accurate diagnosis allows necessary and unnecessary diagnostic procedures to be defined, avoids unnecessary treatments, improves prognosis prediction, identifies other family members for genetic counseling, and defines risks for living donor kidney transplantation. The research group coordinated by the Principal Investigator has recently developed an algorithm for the genetic diagnosis in pediatric and adult patients with CKD. The application of this personalized diagnostic algorithm on a local study led to a global diagnostic yield of 70%, suggesting that this strategy has the potential to substantially improve the diagnostic approach to patients with rare kidney disorders. The aim of this study is to validate and implement these results by extending its application in a multicentric study involving nephrology units that are referral centers for rare kidney diseases at national level.
The present study aims to evaluate the trend of neuropathic pain in patients treated with Peacetil for a period of two months. Neuropathic pain will me assessed through the Numeric Rating Scale (NRS) questionnaire score.
Osteoporosis is a chronic skeletal disease which leads to a decrease in bone strength which increases the risk of fractures. Clinically overt hypercortisolism leads to hypertension, central obesity, diabetes and osteoporosis. More recently, even the condition of mild and asymptomatic hypercortisolism has been associated with increased prevalence of chronic complications of cortisol excess and mortality. In patients with osteoporosis this form of hypercortisolism may remain occult (hidden hypercortisolism, HidHyCo). Although asymptomatic, however, this subtle cortisol excess is associated with an increased risk of osteoporosis and fragility fractures. Moreover, HidHyCo prevalence seems to be increased in osteoporotic patients. The HidHyCo case finding is of utmost importance. However, given the high prevalence of bone fragility and the relatively low diagnostic accuracy of the currently available tests for the HidHyCo detection, a mass screening for HidHyCo is considered unthinkable. As now, no guidelines are available for addressing the HidHyCo screening in osteoporosis. Therefore, the aims of the present study are the following: i) to assess the HidHyCo prevalence in a sample of osteoporotic patients; ii) to compare the clinical characteristics between osteoporotic/osteopenic patients with HidHyCo and those without HidHyCo in order to determine the clinical characteristics more frequently associated with the HidHyCo presence and to identify those osteoporotic patients worthy of HidHyCo screening; iii) to further investigate bone quality and turnover in HidHyCo patients, to characterize HidHyco patients from a molecular and genetic point of view and to evaluate the pathogenetic mechanisms explaining the negative effects of endogenous cortisol excess on bone health in these patients and the potential role of the genetic background and of the gut microbiome. The HidHyCo could be present in a not negligible percentage of osteopenic/osteoporotic patients. In these patients, osteoporosis and, if present, other comorbidities can improve by the surgical resection of the adrenal or pituitary adenoma if feasible, or by the use of drugs able to modulate cortisol secretion or glucocorticoid sensitivity. Moreover, the case-finding could be reserved in those patients at higher risk of having HidHyCo, therefore, reducing the costs of a scarcely specific mass screening.
This will be a longitudinal, prospective, observational multicenter study where the role of EUS-E will be examined in differentiating subepithelial gastrointestinal tumors in 138 patients