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Law no. 281, enacted by the Italian Parliament in 1991, was the first that aimed at managing urban free-roaming cats living in colonies, without killing and/or moving them from their site. It had been anticipated by the Lazio Regional Law no. 63/1988 and subsequently refined by the Lazio Regional Law no. 34/1997. These laws introduced: (i) the cats' right to live free and safe; (ii) the compulsory neutering of cats by the Veterinary Services of the Local Health Unit; (iii) the institutionalization of cat caretakers. Within this context, this paper intends to evaluate the effects of the application of the Italian laws on management of urban free-roaming cats for the years 1988 to 2018. To this end, some indicators have been built and applied to our activity data: number of censused colonies and number of cats; number of stable colonies due to neutering; number of hygiene and sanitary notifications; number of notifications to check cat welfare; number of bites by unowned free-roaming cats; number of notifications of cat poisoning. The number of citizens' requests for institutional interventions by public veterinary services in cat colonies management and, accordingly, the detection of cat colonies yet unknown, seem to confirm the interest of people to control the cat colonies in Rome in a humanitarian way, as evidenced in our data. This fact/phenomenon should be analyzed in its multiple dimensions, also including the many changes and social unrests which have affected the human-cat relationship in the last 30 years.

Background Cancer cachexia is characterized by muscle depletion and exercise intolerance caused by an imbalance between protein synthesis and degradation and by impaired myogenesis. Myofibre metabolic efficiency is crucial so as to assure optimal muscle function. Some drugs are able to reprogram cell metabolism and, in some cases, to enhance metabolic efficiency. Based on these premises, we chose to investigate the ability of the metabolic modulator trimetazidine (TMZ) to counteract skeletal muscle dysfunctions and wasting occurring in cancer cachexia. Methods For this purpose, we used mice bearing the C26 colon carcinoma as a model of cancer cachexia. Mice received 5 mg/kg TMZ (i.p.) once a day for 12 consecutive days. A forelimb grip strength test was performed and tibialis anterior, and gastrocnemius muscles were excised for analysis. Ex vivo measurement of skeletal muscle contractile properties was also performed. Results Our data showed that TMZ induces some effects typically achieved through exercise, among which is grip strength increase, an enhanced fast‐to slow myofibre phenotype shift, reduced glycaemia, PGC1α up‐regulation, oxidative metabolism, and mitochondrial biogenesis. TMZ also partially restores the myofibre cross‐sectional area in C26‐bearing mice, while modulation of autophagy and apoptosis were excluded as mediators of TMZ effects. Conclusions In conclusion, our data show that TMZ acts like an ‘exercise mimetic’ and is able to enhance some mechanisms of adaptation to stress in cancer cachexia. This makes the modulation of the metabolism, and in particular TMZ, a suitable candidate for a therapeutic rehabilitative protocol design, particularly considering that TMZ has already been approved for clinical use.

BackgroundWe reported that 6-month therapy with intravenous immunoglobulin (IVIg) was more frequently effective or tolerated than intravenous methylprednisolone (IVMP) in patients with chronic inflammatory demyelinating polyradiculoneuropathy (CIDP). We now retrospectively compared the proportion of patients who eventually worsened after discontinuing therapy and the median time to clinical worsening.MethodsBy March 2013, data were available from 41 of the 45 patients completing the trial with a median follow-up after therapy discontinuation of 42 months (range 1–60). Three patients withdrew during the original study and one failed to respond to either of the therapies. No patient received a diagnosis alternative to CIDP during the follow-up.ResultsTwenty-eight of the 32 patients treated with IVIg (as primary or secondary therapy after failing to respond to IVMP) improved after therapy (87.5%) as compared with 13 of the 24 patients treated with IVMP as primary or secondary therapy (54.2%). After a median follow-up of 42 months (range 1–57), 24 out of 28 patients responsive to IVIg (85.7%) worsened after therapy discontinuation. The same occurred in 10 out of 13 patients (76.9%) responsive to IVMP (p=0.659) after a median follow-up of 43 months (range 7–60). Worsening occurred 1–24 months (median 4.5) after IVIg discontinuation and 1–31 months (median 14) after IVMP discontinuation (p=0.0126).ConclusionsA similarly high proportion of patients treated with IVIg or IVMP eventually relapse after therapy discontinuation but the median time to relapse was significantly longer after IVMP than IVIg. This difference may help to balance the more frequent response to IVIg than to IVMP in patients with CIDP.

Background: An extensive use of transesophageal echocardiography (TEE) has recently been suggested for the diagnosis of infective endocarditis (IE). In this study, we investigated whether among patients with negative transthoracic echocardiography (TTE), subgroups can be identified among whom TEE can be avoided/delayed. Methods: We conducted a retrospective study of 637 consecutive patients who underwent TEE for suspected IE. We selected 375 patients with negative TTE. For each patient, we obtained age, sex, blood culture (BC), blood exams, evidence of embolism, presence of moderate/severe heart valve disease, valve prostheses, and intracardiac devices. Results: IE was eventually diagnosed in 56 patients. Variables independently associated with IE at multivariate analysis included positive BC (OR 3.45; p = 0.006), evidence of embolism (OR 13.0; p < 0.001), bioprosthetic heart valves (OR 4.31; p < 0.001) and platelet count < 150,000/mL (OR 2.47; p = 0.014). In patients without any of these predictors for IE (n = 81), only 1 had a diagnosis of IE and no in-hospital IE-related deaths occurred. Among patients with negative BC (n = 127), IE prevalence increased with the number of other predictors, but IE-related mortality was 0%. IE prevalence (10.8%) and IE related in-hospital mortality (2.7%) were also rather low in patients with a positive blood culture without any other independent predictors for IE but were 20% (IE-related mortality 3.8%) and 71% (IE-related mortality 28.6%) in those with only one or 2–3 other IE predictors, respectively. Conclusions: Our data suggest that, among patients with suspected IE and negative TTE, subgroups can be identified in whom TEE might be safely avoided or delayed.

Background: Little is known about the cortical activation changes during clinical relapses in multiple sclerosis (MS). Objective: To assess cross-sectional and longitudinal differences in functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) cortical patterns between the relapsing and stable phases of MS. Methods: We studied 32 patients with relapsing–remitting MS with mild disability: 19 within 48 h of symptom onset of a new relapse (G1) and 13 in the stable phase, relapse-free for at least 6 months (G2). All patients underwent fMRI twice, upon entry (time 1) and 30–50 days later (time 2), during right-hand movement. Results: No between-group differences were observed in age, disability or T2 lesion load. Between-group analysis showed a significant difference in the ipsilateral precentral gyrus (IPG) activation at time 1. Activity differences in the IPG expressed reduced deactivation in G1 compared with G2. Longitudinal changes in brain activity in the IPG were significantly greater in G1 than G2. G1 patients with a slow clinical recovery (n = 8) showed different activity at baseline and greater activity changes over time in the IPG than patients with a fast recovery (n = 11). Conclusion: This study shows that the relapsing phase is associated with reduced brain deactivation in the IPG, which is more marked in patients with a slow clinical recovery. Increased cortical excitability associated with inflammation may determine functional modifications within the ipsilateral motor area.

Brillouin Light Scattering (BLS) spectroscopy is a non-invasive, non-contact, label-free optical technique that can provide information on the mechanical properties of a material on the sub-micron scale. Over the last decade it has seen increased applications in the life sciences, driven by the observed significance of mechanical properties in biological processes, the realization of more sensitive BLS spectrometers and its extension to an imaging modality. As with other spectroscopic techniques, BLS measurements not only detect signals characteristic of the investigated sample, but also of the experimental apparatus, and can be significantly affected by measurement conditions. The aim of this consensus statement is to improve the comparability of BLS studies by providing reporting recommendations for the measured parameters and detailing common artifacts. Given that most BLS studies of biological matter are still at proof-of-concept stages and use different--often self-built--spectrometers, a consensus statement is particularly timely to assure unified advancement.

Brillouin Light Scattering (BLS) spectroscopy is a non-invasive, non-contact, label-free optical technique that can provide information on the mechanical properties of a material on the sub-micron scale. Over the last decade it has seen increased applications in the life sciences, driven by the observed significance of mechanical properties in biological processes, the realization of more sensitive BLS spectrometers and its extension to an imaging modality. As with other spectroscopic techniques, BLS measurements not only detect signals characteristic of the investigated sample, but also of the experimental apparatus, and can be significantly affected by measurement conditions. The aim of this consensus statement is to improve the comparability of BLS studies by providing reporting recommendations for the measured parameters and detailing common artifacts. Given that most BLS studies of biological matter are still at proof-of-concept stages and use different--often self-built--spectrometers, a consensus statement is particularly timely to assure unified advancement.