Antibacterial activity of nanoparticles and nanomaterials: a possible weapon in the fight against healthcare-associated infections.

Healthcare-associated infections are a serious threat in terms of morbidity and mortality for all patients receiving healthcare. The problem is aggravated by the increasingly widespread phenomenon of antibiotic resistance, with some microorganisms now resistant to all or almost all the currently available antibiotics. Nanomaterials are compounds used by many different industrial fields and they are currently studied for their intrinsic antimicrobial properties. To date, many researchers have considered using many different nanoparticles and nanomaterials to produce surfaces and medical devices with intrinsic antimicrobial features. Many compounds have shown very interesting and effective antimicrobial capacities and could be used, in the future, to manufacture new hospital surfaces and medical devices. However, many studies have to be carried out to evaluate the effective potential use of these compounds. The aim of this paper is to review the main literature regarding this topic, focusing on the main types of nanoparticles and nanomaterials studied for this purpose.

[Repeated radiation dose effect and DNA repair: Importance of the individual factor and the time interval between the doses]. / Effets de répétitions de doses d'irradiation et réparation de l'ADN : importance du facteur individuel et de l'intervalle de temps entre les doses.

The dose fractionation effect is a recurrent question of radiation biology research that remains unsolved since no model predicts the clinical effect only with the cumulated dose and the radiobiology of irradiated tissues. Such an important question is differentially answered in radioprotection, radiotherapy, radiology or epidemiology. A better understanding of the molecular response to radiation makes possible today a novel approach to identify the parameters that condition the fractionation effect. Particularly, the time between doses appears to be a key factor since it will permit, or not, the repair of certain radiation-induced DNA damages whose repair rates are of the order of seconds, minutes or hours: the fractionation effect will therefore vary according to the functionality of the different repair pathways, whatever for tumor or normal tissues.

Mechanical and biological results of short-stem hip implants: consideration on a series of 74 cases.

BACKGROUND: The aim of this survey was to show mid-term outcomes of a short-stem cementless hip prosthesis with metaphyseal fit and fill. METHODS: Case series is on 74 implants in 67 patients, implanted from June 2006 to December 2010 with an average follow-up of 48 months (range 36-90 months). RESULTS: In their case series, authors found some pitfalls as varus or valgus alignment, heterotopic ossification, aseptic mobilization with subsidency, and malpositioning. According to Harris Hip Score, postoperative clinical outcomes were excellent-good (84 %) and fair-poor (16 %). CONCLUSIONS: At a mid-term follow-up, the investigated implant showed a strong stability and some well-tolerated mechanical and biological pitfalls.

Wired and wireless network solution for the integrated management of data and images.

PURPOSE: This paper reports on the authors' experience with the implementation of an internal network with open structure model (extranet) inside a private healthcare institution. MATERIALS AND METHODS: An integrated clinical-administrative internal network was set up within a private orthopaedic hospital with about 90 beds. The system consists of a DICOM-based HIS-RIS network connected to the radiological department PACS, and is implemented through an internal web-server over a mixed wired-wireless network. The strengths of the system are: the use of an open-structure model allowing external access; the inclusion of a wireless component of the network, which extends access to mobile workstations; the possibility of conducting the quality assurance procedures directly from outside the hospital. RESULTS: The system allows the diagnostic images generated by the various equipment (Rx, CT, NMR, etc.) to be filed in compliance with the AIPA (Italian Authority for Information Technology in Public Administration) regulations; the images and electronic clinical records are made available to the departments by means of an internal web server. The use of the wireless component of the network has several additional advantages: for example, it enables healthcare personnel to view clinical records and diagnostic images on their laptop monitors from any department or hospital room, and it makes every change or addition readily available to the healthcare personnel. In this way the laptops represent an evolution of the traditional paper-based clinical record. Moreover, a direct connection was set up with the University Department of Image Processing with a view to increasing the hospital's efficiency and productivity. This connection allows adequate quality assurance procedures to be carried out on the radiological department equipment without requiring the physical presence of specialised staff, and therefore reducing costs and machine idle time. A second phase of the project is currently being tested. This consists in the collaboration of a pilot group of twenty family doctors to test system functionality during telebooking, teleconsulting and information exchange with specialists, as well as the possibility of keeping track of the patients' diagnostic work-up and clinical therapy. DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSIONS: In the context of the Italian healthcare system, the creation of adequate hospital information systems (HIS) and their integration with PACS was at first a prerogative of a few large hospitals. Recently, however, more and more patients have started to approach the healthcare world directly through the Internet, at first to request only information (leading to the diffusion of specialised web sites, or portals) and later also e-services. This new demand led us to create a Hospital Information System able to organise the internal activity of the hospital and offer several external services such as telebooking and teleconsulting, and therefore increase the hospital's efficiency and productivity. a method of choice for following patients after interventional procedures or as a mass-screening tool to select patients to be referred for coronary angiography.

[A new serovar of Salmonella: S. IIIb 35: 1, z13: e, n, x, z15]. / Un nuovo serovar di Salmonella: S. IIIb 35: 1, z13: e, n, x, z15.

The authors describe briefly the protocol for isolating a new serovar of Salmonella from the stools and the sand of a cage-shield of a python (Python regius (Shaw, 1802), kept as pet animal by a family in Messina. Such a finding is considered within the complex and wide investigation programme which we have been carrying out for years in our Institute of Veterinary Infectious Diseases, and within the problems rising from the Health and Hygiene field for the ever increasing diffusion of Enterobacteriaceae, by now limited to the ones collected and belonging to the Genus Salmonella.

The biological evolution of the Leeds-Keio ligament in the human knee. A histological and ultrastructural study.

The authors report their experience in the reconstruction of the anterior cruciate ligament using the Leeds-Keio ligament in 12 patients, 7 by open arthrotomy and 5 by an arthroscopic technique. The biological evolution of the new ligament was studied macroscopically and histologically in the first 6 cases treated by open arthrotomy. Arthroscopic monitoring and biopsy was carried out 4 to 10 months after operation. In 5 cases the new ligament appeared to be intact and histologically vital, with proliferation of new tissue along the new ligament. There were broken filaments of dacron hanging from the intercondylar cavity in only one case. The first macroscopic, histological and ultrastructural results show that despite a few limitations the Leeds-Keio ligament has the features required for replacement of the anterior cruciate ligament, although it will be necessary to wait 4 or 5 years before fully evaluating the durability and function of the ligament and the best operative method.