Attenuation of the peak ground motion for the special case of Vrancea intermediate-depth earthquakes and seismic hazard assessment at NPP Cernavoda

Attenuation specific from Vrancea intermediate-depth focus toward SE is revised at length in order to re-evaluate the seismic hazard at the nuclear power plant (NPP) Cernavoda. To this aim, we took into consideration all the strong motion data available for the region and test a large range of relationship types. Since the instrumental data are limited as magnitude and  depth intervals, the extrapolation based on the attenuation laws deduced from these data to great magnitudes is very instable and must be carefully considered. The extrapolation outside the characteristic domain of the available database leads to large deviations, especially at large magnitudes and for the relations which contain the depth as independent parameter

Therapeutic combination of radiofrequency surgical dissection and oral acitretin in the management of perianal Buschke–Löwenstein tumour: a case report

Giant condyloma acuminatum (GCA), or Buschke–Löwenstein tumour (BLT), is a rare large tumour of the anogenital area. It is caused by human papillomavirus genotypes 6 and 11, and it is characterized by aggressive local invasion and frequent recurrences after treatment. Treatment of choice is radical excision, although chemotherapy and radiation are also used in special cases. We report a case of a young man with anogenital GCA, presenting with a large perianal mass and pain during defaecation. The patient was treated by surgical removal of almost the entirety of the mass, using radiofrequency surgical dissection. The concurrent use of oral acitretin for the treatment of erythrodermic psoriasis led to elimination of the remaining disease. The patient remains free of disease 26 months after the end of treatment. </jats:p

Expert Consensus Conference. The screening for hepatitis C infection in adults in Italy, May 5-6, 2005.

A Consensus Conference was convened by the Italian National Institute of Health on May 5\u20136, 2005, to address the issue of the screening for hepatitis C virus infection in adults in Italy. It was concluded that a mass screening for hepatitis C virus infection is inappropriate. It was recommended that the following high-risk groups be tested for hepatitis C virus infection, particularly if they are potentially eligible for antiviral treatment: subjects with history of intravenous drug use; haemodialysis patients; subjects who received blood coagulation factors before 1987; subjects who received blood transfusions or organ transplantation before 1992; households of hepatitis C virus-infected individuals; subjects with multiple sexual partners which have or have had a sexually transmitted disease. A screening for hepatitis C virus infection was considered unjustified for persons who are scheduled for an invasive procedure (e.g. surgery, endoscopy) and during pregnanc

Approaches to the treatment of anaemia in patients with chronic heart failure

An association between anaemia, poor functional status and, compared to non-anaemic patients, worse clinical status and a higher risk of hospitalisation and death has been consistently reported in chronic heart failure (CHF), although cause an effect has not been proven. While it is attractive to think that correction of a co-morbidity that exacerbates already diminished delivery of oxygen to the tissues in heart failure is likely to beneficial, the possible haemodynamic effects of increasing haemoglobin, for example vasoconstriction, might not be. Consequently, the balance of benefit and risk of anaemia correction in CHF is uncertain, may vary according to the severity of anaemia (and other factors) and needs to be properly evaluated. To date, most studies of anaemia correction in CHF have used erythropoiesis stimulating agents (ESAs). The trials with erythropoietin have been of small size, uncontrolled or unblended/single blind, raising concerns again about interpretation of subjective outcomes. In addition, the analyses of these trials have been suboptimal. Two double-blind, placebo-controlled, darbepoetin studies have been published in full. Neither showed an improvement in functional capacity or consistent effect on patient reported symptoms/quality of life. Darbepoetin is, however, currently being tested in a large-scale, phase III morbidity and mortality trial, the Reduction of Events with Darbepoetin alfa in Heart Failure (RED-HF) which should contribute important information of the safety and efficacy of ESAs in this syndrome. Other approaches, notably parenteral iron supplementation, are also being evaluated and other agents for anaemia correction are under development