Publications by authors named "Marco Di Francesco"

Despite therapeutic and technological advances, the prognosis for patients with heart failure (HF) remains poor. One reason for this poor prognosis lies in the limited usage of disease-modifying therapies, such as β-blockers, renin-angiotensin system inhibitors, mineralocorticoid receptor antagonists and sodium-glucose cotransporter 2 inhibitors, namely guideline-directed medical therapy (GDMT). Concurrently, technological advances have led to the development of numerous strategies for both invasive and non-invasive telemonitoring of HF patients, potentially intercepting a phase of decompensation before its overt clinical manifestation.

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Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD) is a genetic progressive neuromuscular disorder characterized by early-onset proximal muscle weakness and significant long-term pulmonary and cardiac involvement. Due to the early pharmacological treatments and the wider adoption of non-invasive ventilation, life expectancy has significantly increased in recent years, highlighting the relevance of DMD-related cardiomyopathy and fatal arrhythmias, especially in the late stage of the disease. Current guideline-derived evaluation of sudden cardiac death (SCD) in DMD lacks accuracy, leading to inadequate arrhythmic risk stratification and jeopardized SCD prevention strategies.

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Article Synopsis
  • AI has evolved since its introduction in 1956 and is now significantly impacting healthcare, especially in patient care and information management.
  • Key AI functions like Machine Learning and Deep Learning, along with Biomimetic Intelligence, are being utilized to analyze medical data and create algorithms for better diagnosis and treatments.
  • The rising incidence of chronic limb-threatening ischemia due to diabetes and aging populations presents a challenge that AI and BI can help address by improving treatment planning and resource integration for peripheral artery disease.
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Myocardial bridging (MB) is the most frequent congenital coronary anomaly in which a segment of an epicardial coronary artery takes a tunneled course under a bridge of the myocardium. This segment is compressed during systole, resulting in the so-called "milking effect" at coronary angiography. As coronary blood flow occurs primarily during diastole, the clinical relevance of MB is heterogeneous, being usually considered an asymptomatic bystander.

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Aims: Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD) is an X-linked recessive neuromuscular disorder, characterized by significant long-term cardiac involvement. Dilated cardiomyopathy (DCM) is the main cause of death in DMD, and angiotensin-converting enzyme inhibitors (ACEi) and beta-blockers (BB) are first-line treatments in DCM. It is unknown whether angiotensin receptor-neprilysin inhibitor (ARNi) could provide greater benefits in this setting.

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Despite Italy banning use and production of asbestos in 1992, it continues to represent a risk to human health due to its permanence in the places where it was located. The aim of this work is to estimate how many schools in Rome (Italy) have asbestos containing materials (ACM), and to assess whether the location, condition and nature of ACM can influence the level of risk for student health. 3,672 schools were contacted and 1,451 participated to asbestos survey.

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We consider the follow-the-leader approximation of the Aw-Rascle-Zhang (ARZ) model for traffic flow in a multi population formulation. We prove rigorous convergence to weak solutions of the ARZ system in the many particle limit in presence of vacuum. The result is based on uniform BV estimates on the discrete particle velocity.

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