Objective and design: A clinicopathological score has been proposed by Trouillas et al. to predict the evolution of pituitary adenomas. Aim of our study was to perform an independent external validation of this score and identify other potential predictor of post-surgical outcome. Methods: The study sample included 566 patients with pituitary adenomas, specifically 253 FSH/LH-secreting, 147 GH-secreting, 85 PRL-secreting, 72 ACTH-secreting and 9 TSH-secreting tumours with at least 3-year post-surgical follow-up. Results: In 437 cases, pituitary adenomas were non-invasive, with low (grade 1a: 378 cases) or high (grade 1b: 59 cases) proliferative activity. In 129 cases, tumours were invasive, with low (grade 2a: 87 cases) or high (grade 2b: 42 cases) proliferative activity. During the follow-up (mean: 5.8 years), 60 patients developed disease recurrence or progression, with a total of 130 patients with pituitary disease at last follow-up. Univariate analysis demonstrated a significantly higher risk of disease persistence and recurrence/progression in patients with PRL-, ACTH- and FSH/LH-secreting tumours as compared to those with somatotroph tumours, and in those with high proliferative activity (grade 1b and 2b) or >1 cm diameter. Multivariate analysis confirmed tumour type and grade to be independent predictors of disease-free-survival. Tumour invasion, Ki-67 and tumour type were the only independent prognostic factors of disease-free survival. Conclusions: Our data confirmed the validity of Trouillas’ score, being tumour type and grade independent predictors of disease evolution. Therefore, we recommend to always consider both features, together with tumour histological subtype, in the clinical setting to early identify patients at higher risk of recurrence.

Background: Pramipexole is a dopamine full agonist approved for the treatment of Parkinson’s disease and restless legs syndrome. Its high affinity for the D3 receptor and neuroprotective, antioxidant, and anti-inflammatory activity provides a rationale for the treatment of depression. In this paper, we review studies on the effectiveness and safety of antidepressant pramipexole augmentation in treatment-resistant depression. Methods: This comprehensive systematic review and meta-analysis of observational studies on pramipexole–antidepressant augmentation included patients with resistant unipolar and bipolar depression. The primary outcome measure was the treatment response, measured at the study endpoint. Results: We identified 8 studies including 281 patients overall, 57% women and 39.5% with bipolar disorder and 60.5% with major depressive disorder. The mean follow-up duration was 27.3 weeks (range 8–69). The pooled estimate of treatment response was 62.5%, without significant differences between unipolar and bipolar depression. Safety was good, with nausea and somnolence the most frequent side effects. Conclusions: The findings of this systematic review, needing further confirmation, show that off-label use of pramipexole as augmentation of antidepressant treatment could be a useful and safe strategy for unipolar and bipolar treatment-resistant depression.

Aims: Depression in type 2 diabetes may heavily affect the course of the disease. In this study, we investigated, among new cases with type 2 diabetes, the incidence and clinical predictors of depression and determined the extent to which depression constitutes a risk factor for acute and long-term diabetes complications and mortality. Methods: In this population-based retrospective cohort study, incident cases of type 2 diabetes without a prior history of depression were identified from the administrative databases of the Emilia-Romagna Region, Italy, between 2008 and 2017 and followed up until 2020. Logistic regression models were used to identify the predictors of depression. Cox regression models were used to estimate the risk of acute complications over three years, and the risk of long-term complications and mortality over ten years. Results: Incident cases with type 2 diabetes were 30,815, of whom 5146 (16.7%) developed depression. The predictors of depression onset were as follows: female sex, age > 65 years, living in rural areas and comorbid diseases. Depression in type 2 diabetes was associated with a 2.3-fold risk of developing acute complications, 1.6-fold risk of developing long-term complications and 2.8-fold mortality risk. Conclusions: Our findings highlight that depression is associated with an increased risk for complications in type 2 diabetes and mortality and should not be neglected. Therefore, it is important to promote screening activities and introduce targeted and personalized treatment for depression in order to reduce the risk of poor short- and long-term outcomes of diabetes.

Estimating the morbidity of a population is strategic for health systems to improve healthcare. In recent years administrative databases have been increasingly used to predict health outcomes. In 1992, Von Korff proposed a Chronic Disease Score (CDS) to predict 1-year mortality by only using drug prescription data. Because pharmacotherapy underwent many changes over the last 3 decades, the original version of the CDS has limitations. The aim of this paper is to report on the development of the modified version of the CDS. The modified CDS (M-CDS) was developed using 33 variables (from drug prescriptions within two-year before 01/01/2018) to predict one-year mortality in Bologna residents aged ≥50 years. The population was split into training and testing sets for internal validation. Score weights were estimated in the training set using Cox regression model with LASSO procedure for variables selection. The external validation was carried out on the Imola population. The predictive ability of M-CDS was assessed using ROC analysis and compared with that of the Charlson Comorbidity Index (CCI), that is based on hospital data only, and of the Multisource Comorbidity Score (MCS), which uses hospital and pharmaceutical data. The predictive ability of M-CDS was similar in the training and testing sets (AUC 95% CI: training [0.760–0.770] vs. testing [0.750–0.772]) and in the external population (Imola AUC 95% CI [0.756–0.781]). M-CDS was significantly better than CCI (M-CDS AUC = 0.761, 95% CI [0.750–0.772] vs. CCI-AUC = 0.696, 95% CI [0.681–0.711]). No significant difference was found between M-CDS and MCS (MCS AUC = 0.762, 95% CI [0.749–0.775]). M-CDS, using only drug prescriptions, has a better performance than the CCI score in predicting 1-year mortality, and is not inferior to the multisource comorbidity score. M-CDS can be used for population risk stratification, for risk-adjustment in association studies and to predict the individual risk of death.

Background: Pirfenidone and Nintedanib have significantly improved the prognosis of patients with idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF), reducing mortality risk and exacerbations. This study aimed to analyze antifibrotic treatment utilization and its association with clinical outcomes (i.e., acute exacerbation or death) during 2014–2021 in newly diagnosed IPF patients, using Healthcare Utilization Databases of the Marche Region, Italy. Methods: The first 12-month adherence to antifibrotic was estimated using the Proportion of Days Covered (PDC), defining adherence as PDC ≥ 75%. State Sequence Analysis over the initial 52 weeks of treatment was used to identify adherence patterns. The role of adherence patterns on acute exacerbations/death, adjusted by demographic, clinical features, and monthly adherence after the 52-week period (time-dependent variable), was assessed with Cox regression. Results: Among 667 new IPF cases, 296 received antifibrotic prescriptions, with 62.8% being adherent in the first year. Three antifibrotic utilization patterns emerged—high adherence (37.2%), medium adherence (42.5%), and low adherence (20.3%)—with median PDCs of 95.3%, 79.5%, and 18.6%, respectively. These patterns did not directly influence three-year mortality/exacerbation probability, but sustained adherence reduced risk over time. Conclusions: Good adherence was observed in in this population-based study, emphasizing the importance of continuous antifibrotics therapy over time to mitigate adverse outcomes.