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Papers by Tiziana Giovannini

Techniques in coloproctology, 2014

Data on the benefits of synbiotics in functional constipation are conflicting. The aim of this st... more Data on the benefits of synbiotics in functional constipation are conflicting. The aim of this study was to assess whether the administration of the synbiotic supplement Psyllogel Megafermenti(®) normalized stool consistency and decreased intestinal transit time (ITT) in patients with severe functional constipation, based on its ability to impact on the gut microbiota. We conducted a pilot randomized, double-blind, controlled trial. After a 2-week run-in period, patients from a tertiary care setting with severe functional constipation fulfilling the Rome III Diagnostic Criteria in the past year were randomly assigned to receive by mouth 2 bags/day of Psyllogel Megafermenti(®) (Group A) or 2.8 g of maltodextrin twice daily (Group B) for 8 weeks. Primary endpoints were increase of bowel evacuations with normal stool consistency and volume, and ITT reduction. Secondary endpoints included symptom improvement according to the Rome III Diagnostic Criteria, reduction of the Agachan-Wexner ...

International Journal of Technology Assessment in Health Care, 2012

Objectives:Information on the impact of computed tomography coronary angiography (CTCA) on patter... more Objectives:Information on the impact of computed tomography coronary angiography (CTCA) on patterns of care is scarce. In particular, it is not clear if, and to what extent, its adoption actually leads to a reduction in the use of other diagnostics tools. The aim of this study was to evaluate whether the adoption of CTCA in Emilia-Romagna (an Italian region with a population of 4.4 million) had any effect on utilization rates of myocardial perfusion scintigraphy (MPS) and coronary angiography (CA).Methods:Interrupted time series (ITS) were applied to monthly volumes of MPS and CA tests performed from 2003 to 2010, to assess trends in usage rates for those procedures before and after CTCA was adopted by all the healthcare organizations operating in the region.Results:After an increase in the first year of CTCA introduction, its use remained stable over the study period. After September 2006, a significant decrease in MPS volumes (31 percent;p< .0001) and a much less tangible decre...

... Luca Vignatelli, Maria Camerlingo, Antonella Negro, Tiziana Giovannini, Luciana Ballini Osser... more ... Luca Vignatelli, Maria Camerlingo, Antonella Negro, Tiziana Giovannini, Luciana Ballini Osservatorio Regionale per l'Innovazione (ORI) at Agenzia sanitaria e sociale regionale (ASSR) Emilia-Romagna Region - Italy ... SR databases: Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews ...

Starch - Stärke, 2002

Collaborative study results put in evidence that PCR tests are generally well suited for detectin... more Collaborative study results put in evidence that PCR tests are generally well suited for detecting the presence of GMOs on a qualitative basis (yes/no). Difficulties arise when GMOs have to be quantitatively identified in food ingredients. Real-Time, or kinetic PCR, points out quantification and interpretation limits when quantification has to be done on a very small total DNA amount. An essential requirement for PCR-based techniques is the knowledge of the GMO-specific DNA sequence target. Many labs find it difficult to keep up with the rate at which life science companies are creating new GMOs and the finding of adequate reference standards to be used as positive analytical controls.

Scientific Reports

After spinal cord injury (SCI), patients face many physical and psychological issues including in... more After spinal cord injury (SCI), patients face many physical and psychological issues including intestinal dysfunction and comorbidities, strongly affecting quality of life. The gut microbiota has recently been suggested to influence the course of the disease in these patients. However, to date only two studies have profiled the gut microbiota in SCI patients, months after a traumatic injury. Here we characterized the gut microbiota in a large Italian SCI population, within a short time from a not only traumatic injury. Feces were collected within the first week at the rehabilitation center (no later than 60 days after SCI), and profiled by 16S rRNA gene-based next-generation sequencing. Microbial profiles were compared to those publicly available of healthy age- and gender-matched Italians, and correlated to patient metadata, including type of SCI, spinal unit location, nutrition and concomitant antibiotic therapies. The gut microbiota of SCI patients shows distinct dysbiotic signat...

Journal of Neurotrauma

The lack of reliable diagnostic and prognostic markers for spinal cord injured (SCI) patients is ... more The lack of reliable diagnostic and prognostic markers for spinal cord injured (SCI) patients is a severe obstacle in development and testing of new therapies, also impairing appropriate rehabilitation care. The sparse available data on biochemical composition of the cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) during acute and/or chronic phase of the lesion provided up-to-now inconsistent results. In this pilot study, we then explored the possibility to combine a multiparametric and bioinformatics analysis of the CSF to its biological properties tested on different cells types, suitable to investigate inflammation and remyelination. The patients enrollment was based on stringent inclusion criteria, i.e. cervical and thoracic SCI trauma, CSF collection within 24 hours from trauma, type of surgical approach for spine stabilization, no steroid therapy before CSF collection. Eleven SCI patients and four healthy controls were included, and in three patients CSF was also collected at 3 months after lesion. We identified 19 proteins among the 60 investigated cytokines, chemokines, growth factors and structural biomarkers, which are transiently regulated at 24h after SCI. A bioinformatic analysis indicated that IL-6 and IL-10 are in the core of the interconnected net of activated proteins. Cell based experiments indicate that CSF from SCI patients stimulate astroglia derivation from neural precursor cells, and an inverse correlation between IL-8 CSF level and oligodendrocyte precursor cells generated from neural stem cells was also observed. Results from this pilot study suggest that a combined bioanalytic and biological approach to analyze SCI CSF at different times after injury could be a useful approach to identify reliable diagnostic and prognostic markers in SCI.

http://asr.regione.emilia-romagna.it ORI Osservatorio regionale per l'innovazione Technology Port... more http://asr.regione.emilia-romagna.it ORI Osservatorio regionale per l'innovazione Technology Portable computed tomography (CT) for the study of diagnostic imaging in specialised areas or setting commercial Technology name CereTom NL 3000. Outside Italy the following devices are also available: CereTom Otoscan for ENT (Neurologica, USA) » xCAT » ® ENT (Xoran Technologies) ScanMate Mobile CT System (Schaerer Mayfield, » USA) Tomoscan (Philips): no longer available. »

International Journal of Molecular Sciences

Although, biomarkers are regarded as an important tool for monitoring injury severity and treatme... more Although, biomarkers are regarded as an important tool for monitoring injury severity and treatment efficacy, and for predicting clinical evolution in many neurological diseases and disorders including spinal cord injury, there is still a lack of reliable biomarkers for the assessment of clinical course and patient outcome. In this study, a biological dataset of 60 cytokines/chemokines, growth factorsm and intracellular and extracellular matrix proteins, analyzed in CSF within 24 h of injury, was used for correlation analysis with the clinical dataset of the same patients. A heat map was generated of positive and negative correlations between biomarkers and clinical rating scale scores at discharge, and between biomarkers and changes in clinical scores during the observation period. Using very stringent statistical criteria, we found 10 molecules which correlated with clinical scores at discharge, and five molecules, which correlated with changes in clinical scores. The proposed met...

Genome, 1999

Relatively few molecular analyses are available for diploid oat species, which constitute the maj... more Relatively few molecular analyses are available for diploid oat species, which constitute the majority of the wild species of Avena and, therefore, the principal natural reservoir of variability. The present work reports an RAPD- (random amplified polymorphic DNA) and RFLP-(restriction fragment length polymorphism) based study of the intra- and interspecific variability of seven diploid A-genome oat species. Both types of markers resulted in valid tools for identifying polymorphisms both within and between species. The two statistical analyses, UPGMA (unweighted pair group method, arithmetic mean) and PCoA (principal coordinate analysis), computed on the basis of genetic similarities estimated from RAPDs and RFLPs, showed that the different accessions grouped according to species, but the similarity coefficients were consistently higher in the RFLP analysis. Furthermore, slight differences were observed in the intra- and interspecific relationships found with the two types of marker...

Techniques in coloproctology, 2014

Data on the benefits of synbiotics in functional constipation are conflicting. The aim of this st... more Data on the benefits of synbiotics in functional constipation are conflicting. The aim of this study was to assess whether the administration of the synbiotic supplement Psyllogel Megafermenti(®) normalized stool consistency and decreased intestinal transit time (ITT) in patients with severe functional constipation, based on its ability to impact on the gut microbiota. We conducted a pilot randomized, double-blind, controlled trial. After a 2-week run-in period, patients from a tertiary care setting with severe functional constipation fulfilling the Rome III Diagnostic Criteria in the past year were randomly assigned to receive by mouth 2 bags/day of Psyllogel Megafermenti(®) (Group A) or 2.8 g of maltodextrin twice daily (Group B) for 8 weeks. Primary endpoints were increase of bowel evacuations with normal stool consistency and volume, and ITT reduction. Secondary endpoints included symptom improvement according to the Rome III Diagnostic Criteria, reduction of the Agachan-Wexner ...

International Journal of Technology Assessment in Health Care, 2012

Objectives:Information on the impact of computed tomography coronary angiography (CTCA) on patter... more Objectives:Information on the impact of computed tomography coronary angiography (CTCA) on patterns of care is scarce. In particular, it is not clear if, and to what extent, its adoption actually leads to a reduction in the use of other diagnostics tools. The aim of this study was to evaluate whether the adoption of CTCA in Emilia-Romagna (an Italian region with a population of 4.4 million) had any effect on utilization rates of myocardial perfusion scintigraphy (MPS) and coronary angiography (CA).Methods:Interrupted time series (ITS) were applied to monthly volumes of MPS and CA tests performed from 2003 to 2010, to assess trends in usage rates for those procedures before and after CTCA was adopted by all the healthcare organizations operating in the region.Results:After an increase in the first year of CTCA introduction, its use remained stable over the study period. After September 2006, a significant decrease in MPS volumes (31 percent;p< .0001) and a much less tangible decre...

... Luca Vignatelli, Maria Camerlingo, Antonella Negro, Tiziana Giovannini, Luciana Ballini Osser... more ... Luca Vignatelli, Maria Camerlingo, Antonella Negro, Tiziana Giovannini, Luciana Ballini Osservatorio Regionale per l'Innovazione (ORI) at Agenzia sanitaria e sociale regionale (ASSR) Emilia-Romagna Region - Italy ... SR databases: Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews ...

Starch - Stärke, 2002

Collaborative study results put in evidence that PCR tests are generally well suited for detectin... more Collaborative study results put in evidence that PCR tests are generally well suited for detecting the presence of GMOs on a qualitative basis (yes/no). Difficulties arise when GMOs have to be quantitatively identified in food ingredients. Real-Time, or kinetic PCR, points out quantification and interpretation limits when quantification has to be done on a very small total DNA amount. An essential requirement for PCR-based techniques is the knowledge of the GMO-specific DNA sequence target. Many labs find it difficult to keep up with the rate at which life science companies are creating new GMOs and the finding of adequate reference standards to be used as positive analytical controls.

Scientific Reports

After spinal cord injury (SCI), patients face many physical and psychological issues including in... more After spinal cord injury (SCI), patients face many physical and psychological issues including intestinal dysfunction and comorbidities, strongly affecting quality of life. The gut microbiota has recently been suggested to influence the course of the disease in these patients. However, to date only two studies have profiled the gut microbiota in SCI patients, months after a traumatic injury. Here we characterized the gut microbiota in a large Italian SCI population, within a short time from a not only traumatic injury. Feces were collected within the first week at the rehabilitation center (no later than 60 days after SCI), and profiled by 16S rRNA gene-based next-generation sequencing. Microbial profiles were compared to those publicly available of healthy age- and gender-matched Italians, and correlated to patient metadata, including type of SCI, spinal unit location, nutrition and concomitant antibiotic therapies. The gut microbiota of SCI patients shows distinct dysbiotic signat...

Journal of Neurotrauma

The lack of reliable diagnostic and prognostic markers for spinal cord injured (SCI) patients is ... more The lack of reliable diagnostic and prognostic markers for spinal cord injured (SCI) patients is a severe obstacle in development and testing of new therapies, also impairing appropriate rehabilitation care. The sparse available data on biochemical composition of the cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) during acute and/or chronic phase of the lesion provided up-to-now inconsistent results. In this pilot study, we then explored the possibility to combine a multiparametric and bioinformatics analysis of the CSF to its biological properties tested on different cells types, suitable to investigate inflammation and remyelination. The patients enrollment was based on stringent inclusion criteria, i.e. cervical and thoracic SCI trauma, CSF collection within 24 hours from trauma, type of surgical approach for spine stabilization, no steroid therapy before CSF collection. Eleven SCI patients and four healthy controls were included, and in three patients CSF was also collected at 3 months after lesion. We identified 19 proteins among the 60 investigated cytokines, chemokines, growth factors and structural biomarkers, which are transiently regulated at 24h after SCI. A bioinformatic analysis indicated that IL-6 and IL-10 are in the core of the interconnected net of activated proteins. Cell based experiments indicate that CSF from SCI patients stimulate astroglia derivation from neural precursor cells, and an inverse correlation between IL-8 CSF level and oligodendrocyte precursor cells generated from neural stem cells was also observed. Results from this pilot study suggest that a combined bioanalytic and biological approach to analyze SCI CSF at different times after injury could be a useful approach to identify reliable diagnostic and prognostic markers in SCI.

http://asr.regione.emilia-romagna.it ORI Osservatorio regionale per l'innovazione Technology Port... more http://asr.regione.emilia-romagna.it ORI Osservatorio regionale per l'innovazione Technology Portable computed tomography (CT) for the study of diagnostic imaging in specialised areas or setting commercial Technology name CereTom NL 3000. Outside Italy the following devices are also available: CereTom Otoscan for ENT (Neurologica, USA) » xCAT » ® ENT (Xoran Technologies) ScanMate Mobile CT System (Schaerer Mayfield, » USA) Tomoscan (Philips): no longer available. »

International Journal of Molecular Sciences

Although, biomarkers are regarded as an important tool for monitoring injury severity and treatme... more Although, biomarkers are regarded as an important tool for monitoring injury severity and treatment efficacy, and for predicting clinical evolution in many neurological diseases and disorders including spinal cord injury, there is still a lack of reliable biomarkers for the assessment of clinical course and patient outcome. In this study, a biological dataset of 60 cytokines/chemokines, growth factorsm and intracellular and extracellular matrix proteins, analyzed in CSF within 24 h of injury, was used for correlation analysis with the clinical dataset of the same patients. A heat map was generated of positive and negative correlations between biomarkers and clinical rating scale scores at discharge, and between biomarkers and changes in clinical scores during the observation period. Using very stringent statistical criteria, we found 10 molecules which correlated with clinical scores at discharge, and five molecules, which correlated with changes in clinical scores. The proposed met...

Genome, 1999

Relatively few molecular analyses are available for diploid oat species, which constitute the maj... more Relatively few molecular analyses are available for diploid oat species, which constitute the majority of the wild species of Avena and, therefore, the principal natural reservoir of variability. The present work reports an RAPD- (random amplified polymorphic DNA) and RFLP-(restriction fragment length polymorphism) based study of the intra- and interspecific variability of seven diploid A-genome oat species. Both types of markers resulted in valid tools for identifying polymorphisms both within and between species. The two statistical analyses, UPGMA (unweighted pair group method, arithmetic mean) and PCoA (principal coordinate analysis), computed on the basis of genetic similarities estimated from RAPDs and RFLPs, showed that the different accessions grouped according to species, but the similarity coefficients were consistently higher in the RFLP analysis. Furthermore, slight differences were observed in the intra- and interspecific relationships found with the two types of marker...