Pasquale Dolce

University of Naples Federico II | UNINA · Department of Public Health

Objective: This study aimed to validate in Italian the Worker Well-Being Questionnaire developed by U.S. National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health. Methods: The questionnaire was independently translated into Italian by two authors. Translations were compared to obtain a synthesis that was back-translated. Back-translations were subm...

Background For infants exposed in utero to Toxoplasma gondii , current guidelines recommend monitoring the specific antibody titer until 12 months of age. In this study, we investigated the antibody titer decay in the mother-infant dyad. Methods This is a single center, population-based cohort study of neonates referred for prenatal exposure to To...

Objectives: To assess the clinical complications reported after the ingestion of sharp/pointed foreign bodies (FBs) in pediatric age, their incidence among all FB ingestions and the features and clinical presentation of children. Study design: We've recruited all consecutive patients aged 0-14 years, admitted for sharp/pointed FB ingestion. Clin...

This study investigates longitudinal changes in health-related quality of life (HRQoL) in early-onset multiple sclerosis (MS) patients and explores the impact of disease activity (relapses) on such changes. People with MS (PwMS) onset between 12 and 25 years of age were followed longitudinally. At baseline and at year 4, patients were asked to fill...

Objectives: The aims of our study were to evaluate health-related quality of life (HRQoL) in children affected by Inflammatory Bowel Disease (IBD) during the first wave of COVID-19 pandemic and after 12 months. Methods: This was a single-center, prospective, observational study conducted between April 2020 and April 2021. Children from 10 to 18...

Purpose Scientific knowledge on health-related quality of life (HRQoL) in patients with neuroendocrine neoplasm (NEN) is still limited and longitudinal assessment of HRQoL over the time in NEN patients are scarce. The current study aimed to assess the role of clinical severity and heterogeneity of NEN, as well as resilience, in the HRQoL of NEN pat...

Background: The increased intake of FODMAP (fermentable oligosaccharides, disaccharides, monosaccharides, and polyol) rich foods has been suggested as a possible trigger of functional gastrointestinal disorders (FGIDs). Despite the high FODMAP content, the Mediterranean diet (MD) appears to have beneficial effects on health. Our aim was to evaluat...

Quantile composite-based path modeling is a recent extension to the conventional partial least squares path modeling. It estimates the effects that predictors exert on the whole conditional distributions of the outcomes involved in path models and provides a comprehensive view on the structure of the relationships among the variables. This method c...

Introduction There has been an increasing interest for the laparoscopic treatment of early gastric cancer, especially among Eastern surgeons. However, the oncological effectiveness of Laparoscopic Gastrectomy (LG) for Advanced Gastric Cancer (AGC) remains a subject of debate, especially in Western countries where limited reports have been published...

Aim: The aim of the present study was to analyse clinical data of children referred for disk battery ingestion in order to assess short- and long-term reported injuries and to identify outcome predictors and trends, define the urgency of intervention and refine treatment guidelines. Methods: The records of all children admitted to Santobono-Paus...

This study explored the influence of five multicultural personality traits (i.e., Cultural Empathy, Open-Mindedness, Social Initiative, Emotional Stability, Flexibility) in predicting management styles (i.e., Integrating, Obliging, Compromising, Dominating, Avoiding) adopted by teachers from five European countries (Austria, Belgium, Germany, Italy, S...

The present paper deals with convergence issues of Lohmöller’s procedure for the computation of the components in the PLS-PM algorithm. More datasets and proofs are given to highlight the convergence failure of this procedure. Consequently, a new procedure based on the Signless Lapalacien matrix of the indirect graph between constructs is introduce...

Backgrounds: For infants exposed in utero to Toxoplasma gondii, current guidelines recommend monitoring the specific antibody titer until 12 months of age. In this study, we investigated the antibody titer decay in the mother-infant dyad. Methods: This is a single center, population-based cohort study of neonates referred for prenatal exposure to T...

Objectives: Infantile acute upper gastrointestinal bleeding involves a decision for therapeutic intervention that most pediatricians first coming into contact with the patient are, not unreasonably, unable to objectively provide. Therefore, some objective tools of individual risk assessment would seem to be crucial. The principal aim of the presen...

Objectives: The aim of this study was to assess the prevalence of functional gastrointestinal disorders (FGIDs) in children of Mediterranean area using Rome IV criteria and to compare the prevalence of FGIDs using Rome IV and Rome III criteria. Methods: This was a cross-sectional study enrolling children and adolescents living in Croatia, Greece...

Composite-based path modeling aims to study the relationships among a set of constructs, that is a representation of theoretical concepts. Such constructs are operationalized as composites (i.e. linear combinations of observed or manifest variables). The traditional partial least squares approach to composite-based path modeling focuses on the cond...

Introduction Heteronormativity describes a hierarchical societal system that encompasses heterosexuality and binary gender identity as normal and natural, defining boundaries of acceptable heterosexuality and gender identity. As no comprehensive measures of heteronormativity exist in Italy, this study evaluated the psychometric characteristics of a...

Background and Objectives In the setting of a minimally invasive approach, we aimed to compare short and long-term postoperative outcomes of patients treated with neoadjuvant therapy (NAT) + surgery or upfront surgery in Western population. Methods All consecutive patients from six Italian and one Serbian center with locally advanced gastric cance...

This study explores which patient characteristics could affect the likelihood of starting low back pain (LBP) treatment with opioid analgesics vs. Non-Steroidal Anti-Inflammatory Drugs (NSAIDs) in an Italian primary care setting. Through the computerized medical records of 65 General Practitioners, non-malignant LBP subjects who received the first...

Dental anxiety is a crucial problem for dentistry because it may represent a significant risk to oral health. Different factors, whether non-cognitive (e.g., traumatic dental events) or cognitive (e.g., the patient's subjective perceptions), may cause dental anxiety. However, previous studies have assessed these factors as independent predictors of...

The objective of the current research was to explore the potential prognostic value of readily available clinical and pathologic variables in bladder cancer. The novel association found between cholesterol levels and prognosis may provide the rationale for exploring novel treatments. Patients included had histologically confirmed urothelial bladder...

Trust in governmental organizations is a crucial factor in terms of encouraging people to conform to public health regulations, such as those recommended to slow down the spread of SARS-CoV-2. However, trust in governmental organizations tends to decline over time, reducing the compliance with public health regulations. This study aimed at explorin...

Background Previous research shows that a lung ultrasound score (LUS) can anticipate CPAP failure in neonatal respiratory distress syndrome. Research Question Can LUS also predict the need for surfactant replacement? Study Design and Methods Multicenter, pragmatic study on preterm neonates who underwent lung ultrasound at birth and those given su...

Foreign body ingestion in children is a challenging clinical scenario. Children may be completely asymptomatic or present with overt symptoms, including drooling, dysphagia, chest pain, and feeding refusal (1, 2, 3). The majority of ingested foreign bodies passes spontaneously along the gastrointestinal (GI) tract and causes no harm nor symptoms.

Background: Celiac disease (CD) is an autoimmune enteropathy in which HLA-DQ haplotypes define susceptibility. Our aim was to evaluate if belonging to a certain HLA-DQ class risk could be associated to the clinical, serological and histological presentation of CD. Methods: We performed a retrospective observational monocentric study including al...

Background and objectives: The utility of a lung ultrasound score (LUS) has been described in the early phases of neonatal respiratory distress syndrome (RDS). We investigated lung ultrasound as a tool to monitor respiratory status in preterm neonates throughout the course of RDS. Methods: Preterm neonates, stratified in 3 gestational age cohort...

Partial least squares path modeling is a statistical method that allows to analyze complex dependence relationships among several blocks of observed variables, each one represented by a latent variable. The computation of latent variable scores is an essential step of the method, achieved through an iterative procedure named here Hanafi–Wold’s proc...

Serial body site swabbing is used to monitor horizontal spread of aggressive bacterial species in the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU). Since colonization/carriage is thought to precede systemic infection, one might expect to retrieve colonizing pathogens from blood cultures. This hypothesis, however, has not been fully investigated in very low...

During the first phase of the COVID-19 outbreak, Italy experienced problems of public order and maladjusted behavior. This study assessed the role of negative affectivity, right-wing authoritarianism, and anxiety of COVID-19 infection in explaining a variety of the maladjusted behaviors (i.e., “China-phobic” discrimination, panic buying) observed w...

Objective Age is considered a negative prognostic factor for High Grade Gliomas (HGGs) and many neurosurgeons remain skeptical about the benefits of aggressive treatment. New surgical and technological improvements may allow extended safe resection, with lower level of post-operative complications. This opportunity opens the unsolved question about...

Background: The inferior mesenteric artery (IMA) preservation in elective laparoscopic left colectomy for diverticular disease may reduce the risk of anastomotic leakage. However, an increased risk of bleeding is assumed. The purpose of this study is to investigate the risk of colorectal anastomosis bleeding, when IMA is resected or preserved duri...

Context Although health-related quality of life (HRQoL) is a fundamental outcome in oncological clinical trials, its evaluation in the neuroendocrine neoplasm (NEN) research field is still limited. Objectives This study assessed the role of clinical severity (i.e., presence or absence of metastasis and lines of therapies) and heterogeneity (i.e.,...

The Clinical Interview on the Sense of Grip on Chronic Disease has been administered to 68 mothers of children affected by Hereditary Angioedema (C1-Inh HAE), Type 1 Diabetes (T1D), Juvenile Rheumatoid Arthritis (JRA). The objectives are to detect general features of the experience of parenting children with chronic illness as well as the specifici...

Although both docetaxel and androgen-receptor-axis-targeted (ARAT) agents have yielded survival improvements in combination with androgen deprivation therapy (ADT) compared to ADT alone in metastatic castration-sensitive prostate cancer (mCSPC) patients, the optimal therapeutic choice remains to be established. We analyzed estimates of the hazard r...

Aim: Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) virus-specific reverse transcriptase-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) represents the diagnostic gold standard. We explored the value of chest ultrasonography to predict positivity to SARS-CoV-2 on RT-PCR in suspected COVID-19 cases. Patients & methods: Consecutive patients with...

Background: Healthcare-associated infections (HAIs) occur frequently in intensive care units (NICUs). The aim of this study was to analyze the results of surveillance of HAIs in a III level NICU in Naples, Italy during 2013-2017 and to compare with those obtained during 2006-2010. Methods: The surveillance included 1265 neonates of all birth wei...

Background Volumetric high-resolution computed tomography (HRCT) of the chest has recently replaced incremental CT in the diagnostic workup of idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF). Concomitantly, visual and quantitative scores have been proposed for disease extent assessment to ameliorate disease management. Purpose To compare the performance of de...

Background: Nutritional support is very important in the treatment of Paediatric Inflammatory Bowel Disease (IBD). The role of the Mediterranean Diet (MD) has been understudied in children with IBD. The aims of this study were to assess the dietary intakes of IBD children in comparison with healthy controls (HCs), their adherence to MD; and the re...

The present paper announces and demonstrates several properties of the correlation matrix implied by a recursive path model. The main result is that this matrix is affine with respect to the model parameters. These properties concern especially the estimation step in which one should seeks for numerical value for each parameter. Several minimizatio...

Purpose: To evaluate the possible role of occupational low dose ionizing radiation exposure in increasing the healthcare workers’ risk of thyroid functional alterations. Methods: 120 healthcare workers exposed to ionizing radiation (60 belonging to category A with a potential exposure to an annual dose between 6 and 20 mSv and 60 to category B pote...

Aim We evaluate whether the Pro12Ala polymorphism of PPARγ2 has a role in the progression of diabetes by modulating the occurrence of treatment failure to glucose‐lowering drugs. Materials and Methods We studied 215 patients with T2D participating in the TOSCA.IT study. All participants were insufficiently controlled (HbA1c 7.0‐9.0%) with metformi...

Containment measures adopted to reduce the spread of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) have produced a general perception of job insecurity. Dentists have been highly affected by such measures, as they represent an easy source of contagion. As perceived job insecurity is associated with psychological distress and Italian dentists have been highly...

Objectives To evaluate the retinal and choriocapillaris vascular networks in macular region and the central choroidal thickness (CCT) in patients affected by Huntington disease (HD), using optical coherence tomography angiography (OCTA) and enhanced depth imaging spectral-domain OCT (EDI SD-OCT).Methods We assessed the vessel density (VD) in superf...

Despite relevant medical advancements, metastatic breast cancer remains an uncurable disease. HER2 signaling conditions tumor behavior and treatment strategies of HER2 expressing breast cancer. Cancer treatment guidelines uniformly identify dual blockade with pertuzumab and trastuzumab plus a taxane as best first line and trastuzumab emtansine as p...

Transgender and gender nonconforming (TGNC) people experience high levels of minority stress and associated risk for negative mental health outcomes. Notwithstanding, TGNC people may resist the negative effects of minority stress on health through the resilience factors. As no comprehensive measures of gender minority stress and resilience exist in...

Background and Aim: Cytomegalovirus (CMV) is the main cause of congenital infection in developed countries leading to deafness but the burden of sensorineural hearing loss (SNHL) in asymptomatic children remains incompletely characterized. Aim of this study was to evaluate the long-term audiological outcome in this group of patients. Methods: Conse...

Background Both docetaxel and androgen-receptor-axis-targeted (ARAT) agents are approved in metastatic castration-sensitive prostate cancer (mCSPC) patients. Predictive factors of therapy efficacy are lacking. Methods We included articles reporting data about randomized-controlled clinical trials (RCTs) testing an ARAT agent plus ADT vs. ADT. We a...

Background : The relationship between exclusive enteral nutrition (EEN) and bone status is poorly defined in pediatric Crohn disease (CD). Aims : The aim of this study was to investigate the impact of EEN on body composition, nutritional status, and bone mineral density (BMD) in an incident CD cohort. Methods : 18 newly diagnosed CD children star...

Background and aims Dietary choices are influenced by several factors, including physiological, social or genetic factors. Among these, flavor is the most important determinant modulating food preferences. Aim of the present study was to assess flavor identification abilities in patients with obesity (Ob) in comparison with matched normal weight (N...

Objective The current study examined the role of internalized transphobia (IT) as a mediator between gender‐related rejection and mental health, and reflective functioning (or mentalization) as a resilience factor moderating the relationship between both rejection and IT with mental health. Method This online study included 203 Italian transgender...

This paper presents a procedure that aims to combine explanatory and predictive modeling for the construction of new psychometric questionnaires based on psychological and neuroscientific theoretical grounding. It presents the methodology and the results of a procedure for items selection that considers both the explanatory power of the theory and...

Background and aims: Recent adult evidence suggests that infliximab (IFX) trough levels (TL) in patients with severe ulcerative colitis (UC) may be decreased. The aims of our study were to compare post-induction IFX TL of children with severe versus moderate UC and to evaluate short- and long-term outcomes. Methods: In this single-center retrosp...

: Immunotherapy based on anti PD-1/PD-L1 inhibitors has proven to be more effective than sunitinib in the first-line setting of advanced renal cell carcinoma (RCC). RCC patients with sarcomatoid histology (sRCC) have a poor prognosis and limited therapeutic options. We performed a systematic review and a meta-analysis of randomized-controlled trial...

The aim of this monocentric cross-sectional study was to evaluate the psychometric characteristics of the Italian version of the Level of Exposure-Dental Experiences Questionnaire (LOE-DEQ) in an Italian sample of 253 dental patients ranging from 18–80 years of age. The LOE-DEQ assesses 16 potential dental distressing experiences and 7 general trau...

Continuous management of dialysis patients exposes family caregivers to significant psychophysical risks. Having demonstrated the effectiveness of artificial intelligence in the care and assistance processes, it was hypothesized the implementation of a mobile app which would detect the distress of these Family Caregivers in order to activate suppor...

The way individuals make choices and decisions influences their behavior and life style. The choice is not simply based on rational and formal logic, but it's influenced by many emotional and social factors. Starting from this assumption, some studies investigated the way in which emotions influence decision-making processes, while others explored...

Background: Obesity is a major worldwide threat to human health. Increasing evidence indicates that epigenetic modifications have a major impact on the natural history of this disorder. Ankyrin Repeat Domain 26 (Ankrd26) is involved in the development of both obesity and diabetes in mice and is modulated by environmentally induced epigenetic modif...

Background and aims: In pediatrics receiving a diagnosis of a chronic condition is a matter that involves caregivers at first. Beyond the basic issues of caring for the physical condition of the ill child, how caregivers face and make sense of the disease orients and co-constructs their children’s sensemaking processes of the disease itself. The ai...

Purpose Many different treatments are suggested by guidelines to treat grade 1−2 (G1−G2) neuroendocrine tumors (NET). However, a precise therapeutic algorithm has not yet been established. This study aims at identifying and comparing the main therapeutic sequences in G1−G2 NET. Methods A retrospective observational Italian multicenter study was de...

Purpose Primary (PVHs) and incisional (IHs) ventral hernias represent a common indication for surgery. Nevertheless, most of the papers presented in literature analyze both types of defect together, thus potentially introducing a bias in the results of interpretation. The purpose of this systematic review and meta-analysis is to highlight the diffe...

A review of the literature has highlighted that some studies have defined an indicator of trust regarding one’s geographical community, but that few studies refer to the community, in relation to the role of its social interactions used to attain and promote personal and collective planning. Therefore, this study introduced community trust as a com...