0000000000134925
AUTHOR
Giacomo Bruni
Abnormal thyroid hormones and non-thyroidal illness syndrome in obstructive sleep apnea, and effects of CPAP treatment
Objective In obstructive sleep apnea (OSA), while both hypothyroidism and hyperthyroidism have been studied, the occurrence of non-thyroidal illness syndrome (NTIS) (normal thyroid stimulating hormone [TSH] with low triiodotironine) has not been investigated. We explored the occurrence of NTIS in patients with moderate to severe OSA and its relationship to the severity of nocturnal respiratory disorders. We also studied the occurrence of subclinical hypothyroidism (SH, ie, high TSH with normal thyroxine) in OSA and changes in circulating TSH, free triiodotironine (fT3) and free thyroxine (fT4) after CPAP treatment. Methods After a nocturnal respiratory polysomnography, 125 consecutive patie…
New distributional data for the Mediterranean medicinal leech Hirudo verbana Carena, 1820 (Hirudinea, Hirudinidae) in Italy, with a note on its feeding on amphibians
Author(s): Marrone, Federico; Alfonso, Giuseppe; Barbagallo, Rosario; Brandmayr, Pietro; Bruni, Giacomo; Costa, Simone; Farina, Giovanni; Gerecke, Reinhard; Iannarelli, Angelina; Mazza, Giuseppe; Mazzei, Antonio; Menchetti, Mattia; Moretti, Valerio; Mori, Emiliano; Novaga, Riccardo; Pecoraro, Marco; Schifani, Enrico; Stoch, Fabio; Vecchioni, Luca | Abstract: Scarce data are currently available about the distribution of the Mediterranean medicinal leech Hirudo verbana in Italy, and most of the known occurrence localities are based on records collected in the nineteenth and the first half of the twentieth century, which were not confirmed in the last decades, mostly due to a lack of surveys. …
DISTRIBUTION AND CHARACTERIZATION OF MELANISM IN GRASS SNAKES FROM ITALY
In snakes, melanism can improve thermoregulation efficiency, reproductive success and provide additional protection to internal organs from solar radiation. For these reasons, such conditions could be beneficial for animals living in both cold and warm environments. For widely distributed species of grass snake (genus Natrix), several single encounters of melanic individuals are reported in the literature. In the period 2015-2021 a significant number of unpublished observations of melanic Natrix helvetica and N. natrix were collected on the Italian territory and integrated with bibliographic data. The present work illustrates the chromatic variation within melanic individuals and investigat…
Aliens Coming by Ships: Distribution and Origins of the Ocellated Skink Populations in Peninsular Italy
The ocellated skink (Chalcides ocellatus) is a widespread lizard, naturally distributed between the Maghreb and coastal Pakistan, with few insular populations in the Mediterranean coastal area. Some populations of this species have also been recorded in peninsular Italy, Campania and Southern Tuscany due to accidental introductions via touristic and commercial routes. In this work, we conducted genetic analyses on mitochondrial DNA COXI, cytb and 16S mtDNA genes on a sample of Italian insular and peninsular populations. Differently from what previously suggested, the nucleus in Portici (Southern Italy) may have originated from Sardinia. The intense trade and touristic traffic between Sardin…