1,721,092 research outputs found
A new Editorial Board of Monaldi Archives for Chest Disease
No full textIn recent years, Monaldi has reached a widespread diffusion and consolidated its reputation as a good quality scientific journal in the field of cardiopulmonary rehabilitation. Many of these achievements are due to the hard work of many pulmonary physicians, most of them, including the last two former Editors, Claudio F. Donner and Ciro Rampulla, part of the FSM and distinguished leaders of research groups in their field. Commercing in 2002, Monaldi has divided the published issues in a Cardiologic and in a Pulmonary Series, issued separately.
This year, FSM decided to renew also the Editorial Board of the Pulmonary series. Beginning with the present issue we (Antonio Spanevello and Bruno Balbi) are the two new Co-Editors. We are currently Head and Scientific Secretary, respectively, of the Pulmonary Rehabilitation Department, the organization that comprises the Pulmonary Physicians working at FSM. As Editors we will work together with two Deputy Editors (Dr. Mirco Lusuardi, Head of Pulmonary Rehabilitation, Health Authority of Reggio Emilia and Dr. Maurizio Luisetti, Head of Biochemistry and Genetics in Pulmonary Medicine, University of Pavia) and two Executive Editors (Dr. Giuseppe Brunetti and Dr. Luca Bianchi, both at FSM). This “under fifty” Editorial Board, is deeply committed to doing the best for our Journal and to continue and extend the precious work done by the previous Editors.
We heritage a healthy and well-nourished scientific journal. It is an honor and a privilege to take over as Editors from Ciro Rampulla and we thank him for his wise and culturally rich contribution to Monaldi. As Editor in Chief of the past Editorial Board in the last 2 years Ciro worked hard and refined the editorial and administrative procedures, with the full support of the FSM. His example will be a guide for us to chair the Editorial Board of the Journal
The fight against tobacco
Full text linkThis issue of Monaldi Archives for Chest Diseases – Respiratory Series –, the first of 2013, is almost
entirely dedicated to papers dealing with the fight against tobacco and its deleterious effects on human
health, particularly on respiratory health.
Along the last 10 years our Journal published many reports on this important if not crucial issue inside
the section denominated “Tobacco Pouch”. This issue is thus to be seen as a ... bigger Tobacco Pouch, one
that can possibly contain an up to date of the huge burden of problems that tobacco smoke poses to each
and every one of the Health Systems throughout the world.
The fight against tobacco can start from an educational approach addressed to school children, as it is
described in the Di Paco article [1] where the Authors evaluated their educational strategy in a cohort of
school children. Another important point is the fight against exposure of tobacco smoke of “innocent bystanders”
as people living, working in indoor environment shared with smokers can be somehow defined.
Ferrante and Coll. described this last frontier of the fight against tobacco [2]. This fight is of course firstly
addressed to smokers (i.e. first hand smoke), to people who live and work with smokers, while they
smoke (second hand smokers) but also to people, including infants, babies, children and adolescents, living
in houses or anyhow sharing indoor ambient air with smokers who smoke when they are not present
(third hand smoke). The combination of tobacco smoke pollutants which remain in an indoor environment,
the so-called ‘third-hand smoke’, represent a new concept in the field of tobacco control.
Once the smoking habit is already in place, different strategies can be adopted to get smokers to quit.
Pharmacological approaches have been proved successful but only in a minority of smokers, as the article
by Santus et al review [3]. Even more difficult is the approach to patients with COPD who, despite appropriate
advice and counseling, do not quit. Jimenez Ruiz reviewed for us the pharmacological and counseling
strategies to be used in these difficult cases [4, 5].
Last but not least, we decided to include also an article on the controversial yet currently heavily present
in the news of the so called “electronic cigarettes” or Electronic Nicotine Delivery Systems (ENDS)
[6]. In our Country, as the accompanying Editorial of Stefano Nardini points out [7] ENDS are becoming
a big issue for many reasons. Commercial interest, lack of clear indications from the Health Authorities related
to the lack of any certain evidence on their effects, poor knowledge by the vast majority of Physicians
on this topic are just some of the many faces of the problems related to the diffusion in the last two
years of ENDS in Italy. In this context, we decided to publish the article by Caponnetto et al [6], knowing
that this is a controversial issue, that there are conflicting interests between the need for more research and
the current wide use of ENDS. Certainly Monaldi is not sponsoring any strategy that involves the use of
ENDS of any brand before a clear indication is released by National and International Regulatory Agencies.
We just wanted our Journal to deal somehow with this problem to raise the interest of our readers on
the many questions that our patients are asking to us every day.
Finally a word of gratitude to Stefano Nardini who helped us with a great deal of work in this enterprise.
Without his commitment this “Big Tobacco Pouch” issue of Monaldi simply would not be available
to our readers
Accomplishments, engagements and new challenges for the Monaldi Archives for Chest Disease
Full text linkThe Editors: Antonio Spanevello, Bruno Balbi Another year has passed, and we would like to thank and recognize all of the many members who have contributed to the editorial process and content of Monaldi during 2018. Our submissions are increasing, citations for our papers are rising, and recognition of the journal is broadening. Not settled for focusing on past goings-on only, we now direct our efforts toward building an even greater impact
Efficacy of augmentation therapy for emphysema associated with α1-antitrypsin deficiency: Enough is enough
No full textAging and induced-sputum cells.
No full textWe read with interest the article by Thomas et al1 (December 2004) on the influence of age on induced sputum in normal subjects. We think that the discussion on the possible physiopathologic mechanisms could be deepened. Although an influence of advancing age on lung cellularity in healthy subjects has been already described,2 reference values for cell counts in induced sputum in healthy adults _ 50 years old are not available.
The possible explanations of the results found by Thomas et al1 could be an impairment in humoral lung immunity in older healthy subjects compared with younger healthy subjects,3 and the presence of a low-grade inflammation in the lower respiratory tracts of many asymptomatic, older subjects.4 In particular, a previous study2 has reported in BAL fluid of the older healthy individuals an increase in CD4_/CD8_ lymphocytes ratio probably due to a repeated antigenic stimulation or irritation by environmental substances of the immune cells in the lower respiratory tract during the years. The recurrent antigen stimulation on the immune cells in the lung could be demonstrated by the decreasing with age of CD19_ B lymphocytes that represent the B cells not yet differentiated into antibody-secreting cells, suggesting that B cells on mucosal surface of airways in older subjects has been driven to differentiate by previous repeated antigen stimulations. The low-grade inflammation in the airways observed in older subjects might be related to the decline in the lung function that starts in the fourth to fifth decade of life in normal never-smoker humans. The mechanism by which neutrophils are recruited to within the airways in older healthy subjects is still unclear. A number of neutrophil chemoattractants can be secreted by inflammatory cells that reside in the airways, and epithelial cells can release cytokines, such as IL-8, which have a potent chemoattractant activity for neutrophils.5 Low-grade persistent
inflammation may occur because of the loss of factors that normally down-regulate the inflammatory response to pollutants or repetitive antigenic stimulations, combined with advancing age. Epithelial cells could be a significant source of neutrophil chemoattractants, which contributes to a low-grade inflammation in older subjects. Persistent, low-grade inflammation could damage elastin and perhaps lead to the age-associated loss of elastin fibers. Therefore, considering that many patients affected by asthma or COPD who increasingly perform induced sputum are often _ 50 years old, these findings deserve further investigations
Biomarkers nell’ Espettorato Indotto
No full textRecentemente, nei programmi di ricerca, un certo numero di ipotesi sono state avanzate sulle varie metodiche in grado di valutare e misurare biomarkers infiammatori. In particolar modo, negli ultimi decenni, sono state messe a punto metodiche meno invasive, rispetto ai gold standard per la misurazione dello stato di flogosi bronchiale, rappresentati dal BAL e dalle biopsie bronchiali, quali quelle dell'analisi dei gas esalati, dell'esalato condensato e dell'espettorato indotto. tra queste emerge, in particolare, l'analisi dell'espettorato indotto, metodica standardizzata e validata, che, per l'alto grado di sensibilità e non-invasività, ha assunto, nell'ultima decade, un ruolo sempre più centrale nel caratterizzare il profilo infiammatorio alla base delle più comuni patologie dell'apparato respiratorio, tra le quali: l'Asma, la BPCO e la tosse cronica. A questo proposito, evidenze scientifiche supportano la sua importanza nel fornire utili indicazioni sia nella diagnostica, migliorando la comprensione della patogenesi, sia nella gestione clinica. Pertanto, è lecito pensare che sia giunto il momento per tale metodica di uscire dal campo della ricerca per entrare a pieno titolo in quello della pratica clinica
Going Beyond Counting First Authors in Author Co-citation Analysis
Full text linkThe present study examines one of the fundamental aspects of author co-citation analysis (ACA) - the way co-citation
counts are defined. Co-citation counting provides the data on which all subsequent statistical analyses and mappings
are based, and we compare ACA results based on two different types of co-citation counting - the traditional type that
only counts the first one among a cited work's authors on the one hand and a non-traditional type that takes into
account the first 5 authors of a cited work on the other hand. Results indicate that the picture produced through this non-traditional author co-citation counting contains more coherent author groups and is therefore considerably clearer. However, this picture represents fewer specialties in the research field being studied than that produced through the traditional first-author co-citation counting when the same number of top-ranked authors is selected and analyzed. Reasons for these effects are discussed
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