The COVID-19 pandemic influenced people’s everyday lives because of the health emergency and the resulting socio-economic crisis. People use social media to share experiences and search for information about the disease more than before. This paper aims at analysing the discourse on COVID-19 developed in 2020 by Italian tweeters, creating a digital storytelling of the pandemic. Employing thematic analysis, an approach used in bibliometrics to highlight the conceptual structure of a research domain, different time slices have been described, bringing out the most discussed topics. The graphical mapping of these topics allowed obtaining an easily readable representation of the discourse, paving the way for novel uses of thematic analyses in social sciences.

Textual analyses on scientific publications are increasingly employed in Bibliometrics to explore the conceptual structure of a research domain, often overlooking other rich metadata that can provide deeper insights into the scientific landscape of reference. This paper introduces an innovative technique to explore the conceptual structure of different observation units in a joint representation. The proposed strategy segments bibliographic datasets based on several metadata dimensions, such as the authors (and their characteristics), the corresponding institutions, or their geographical localisation. It provides detailed maps that depict multiple conceptual frameworks, allowing for detailed comparisons and insights in a joint visualisation. We employed these strategic diagrams to visualise and analyse the oncological research of Italian Academic Medical Centres (AMCs), particularly focusing on public institutions. The analysis focuses on how different AMCs specialise and interact, providing a comparative framework that aids AMCs themselves in directing their research strategies toward innovative fronts. Furthermore, these visualisations can assist policymakers and healthcare stakeholders in understanding the broader research environment, which is crucial for informed decision-making regarding funding and policy development related to the AMCs’ triple mission.

Objectives: To assess the diagnostic delay, the number and type of referrals and the clinical and psychological profile in a wide sample of patients with Burning Mouth Syndrome (BMS).Materials and Methods: Data on the disease onset, oral symptoms, type and number of practitioners consulted, misdiagnoses, and the presence of medically unexplained extraoral physical symptoms were recorded in 500 BMS patients. Potential predictors of diagnostic delay were also evaluated.Results: The mean diagnostic delay was 29.71 ± 47.19 months. An average of 2.61 ± 1.65 practitioners were consulted by each patient, the most frequent being the general physicians (287; 57.4%), maxillofacial surgeons (111; 22.2%), and otolaryngologists (104; 20.8%). The mean number of misdiagnoses was 3.54 ± 1.85. Nonspecific stomatitis, candidiasis, and gastroesophageal reflux were the most common misdiagnoses. Higher age, low education, the presence of dysgeusia, and a previous history of psychiatric illness were predictors of a longer diagnostic delay (p‐value: 0.028, 0.050, 0.007, 0.034, respectively).Conclusions: The lack of knowledge among specialists, the high rate of misdiagnosis, and the diagnostic delay of BMS highlight the need to introduce educational interventions in all medical specialties in order to promote an early and appropriate diagnosis, thereby improving the prognosis and quality of life of the patients.

Background: Xerostomia and sialorrhea often accompany Burning Mouth Syndrome (BMS) despite no change in saliva quantity. This study analyzed BMS patients with different symptom combinations: burning only (B), burning and xerostomia (BX), burning and sialorrhea (BS), and burning with xerostomia and sialorrhea (BXS), using a large sample of 500 patients from the University of Naples Federico II. Methods: After a medical evaluation, patients were divided into four groups based on their reported symptoms: B (140), BX (253), BS (49), and BXS (58). Patient data on education, BMI, smoking/alcohol habits, comorbidities, medication use, pain intensity, quality, and psychological profile were collected. Results: The BX group showed a higher prevalence of patients taking blood thinners. Additional symptoms varied among groups, with the BX group experiencing more dysgeusia and globus, and the BS group reporting more tingling. Multivariate analysis identified BMI, dysgeusia, globus, and blood thinner use as significant factors in the B and BX groups, while male gender, tingling, alcohol use, and pain quality were significant in the BS and BXS groups. Conclusions: Overall, BMS patients display a complex range of symptoms, with xerostomia being the most frequent additional symptom. Sociodemographic, psychological, and medical factors cannot fully explain the variations in symptomatology among different patient subgroups. Further research is needed to understand the underlying causes and develop tailored treatment approaches.

Background: To assess the prevalence of hypertension (HTN) in burning mouth syndrome (BMS) patients and to investigate its relationship with sociodemographic factors, pain and the psychological profile. Methods: A case-control study was conducted by enrolling 242 BMS patients and 242 controls matched for age and gender. Sociodemographic and clinical characteristics were recorded, and all participants completed numeric rating scale (NRS), the short-form of the McGill pain questionnaire (SF-MPQ), the Hamilton rating scale for anxiety and depression (HAM-A, HAM-D), the Pittsburgh sleep quality index (PSQI) and the Epworth sleepiness scale (ESS). Results: The BMS patients presented with a statistically significant higher prevalence of HTN compared to that in the controls (55% versus 33.5%; p-value: <0.001) and higher median scores of the NRS, SF-MPQ, HAM-A, HAM-D, PSQI and ESS (p < 0.001). Multivariate regression analysis in the BMS patients indicated positive correlations between HTN and age, systemic diseases, drug consumption and anxiety (p-value: <0.001) and these predictors were responsible for 11.3% of the HTN variance in the BMS patients, when considered together. Conclusions: The prevalence of HTN was significantly higher in the BMS patients, since ageing, the presence of comorbidities, drug consumption and anxiety were potential predictors. Further studies are needed to better investigate the relationship between BMS and HTN.

Academic Health Centers (AHCs) have an enormous impact on health, society, and national competitiveness. They have a threefold strategic mission and heterogeneous models of governance. Our aim is to investigate how different AHC configurations are associated with research performance. The method we adopted follows two steps. First, we identify organizational configurations through cluster analysis of nine variables. Second, we correlate these configurations to bibliometric measures of research outputs. Findings show that AHCs, that are specialty-focused and not mainly involved in educational activities are more productive and have more research impact than fully integrated and affiliated AHCs. Those AHCs also share secondary contextual features.