Through stern social restraint measures, Italy has recently overcome the epidemic peak of COVID-19 (Coronavirus Disease-19) respiratory syndrome induced by SARS-CoV-2 and the attention is progressively moving toward its sequelae, especially on pulmonary fi brosis and the associated pulmonary functional decline [1-3].To date, these events remain speculative, although, in the recent past, syndromes similar to COVID-19 with long term sequelae, have been sustained by other members of Coronaviridae Family, such as Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus (SARS-CoV) and Middle East Respiratory Coronavirus (MERS-CoV).

Objective: Atrial fibrillation (AF) is a common and clinically relevant supra-ventricular arrhythmia which represents an independent risk factor for development of heart failure as well as for ischemic stroke. Clinical management of this pathology can be still challenging in many patients, in particular the older ones and/or those which present comorbidity. The interest in biomarkers for diagnosis and management of the AF becomes more evident in recent years. We studied the possible role of the soluble sST2 and the GDF15 as biomarkers to stratify the risk of patients with persistent or permanent AF. Method: The serum concentrations of these biomarkers have been measured in a group of 58 patients (mean age 83.6 ? 6.0 years) and in a control set of 40 individuals. Results: The mean serum concentration of sST2 is 22.6 (18.85-25.35) ng/mL in the AF group, while

Background: QTc prolongation is common though dangerous clinical condition associated with increased risk of life-threatening arrhythmia torsades de pointes. The goal of this short communication is to evaluate the principal causes of risk of QTc prolongation that are observed in an emergency department and discuss the differences between drug- and non-drug-associated factors. Methods: The retrospective analysis is carried out on 130 patients that presented a QTc prolongation (>480 ms for males and >470 for female, respectively) admitted to the emergency department of a single Italian hospital. Patients with pacemaker (22) were excluded from this study. For each patient a minimum of 3 ECGs (12 leads) was recorded. Attention is paid to electrolytes disturbances and pharmacotherapy, with a particular emphasis on the use of antibiotics. Results: Mean age of the patients was 79.6 years (SD=11.3), and females and males were almost equally present (46.6 % F, 53.7 % M). The average QTc value is 492.2 ms (493.3 ms F, 492.8 M). The patients were divided into those with electrolytes disturbances (24.0 %), antimicrobial therapy (35.2%), both antimicrobial therapy and electrolytes disturbances (24.1 %), and other causes of QTc prolongation (16.7 %). Conclusion: This analysis shows the relevance of the empirical therapy established at the admission, in particular for infective diseases, as an important risk factor for the prolongation of QTc. Other factors that can increase the risk are electrolytes alterations, advanced age, cardiovascular diseases, and drug-drug interaction.