Urinary dysfunction in Parkinson’s disease patients

Background: Autonomic nervous system dysfunction that affects 70–80% of Parkinson’s disease (PD) patients, causes significant morbidity and it is correlated with poor quality of life. Objective: We assessed in a consecutive series of PD patients frequency of autonomic symptoms by means of the Scale for Outcomes for Parkinson’s disease AUTonomic (SCOPA-AUT) and we correlated it with the results of noninvasive urological studies (nUS). Methods: PD patients with known conditions that might have influenced urinary function were excluded. Clinical assessment of PD patients included the H&Y staging, UPDRS, BDI, NPI, PDQ- 39, PDSS, ESS, and the SCOPA-AUT scale. nUS consisted of uroflowmetry an…

Frequency and clinical features of progranulin mutation carriers in a series of patients affected by frontotemporal lobar de generation: report of a novel mutation

NEURODEGENERATION IN MULTIPLE SCLEROSIS: COMPARISON BETWEEN CLINICAL, NEUROPSYCHOLOGICAL, MRI,AND OPTICAL COHERENCE TOMOGRAPHY PARAMETERS

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVE Optical Coherence Tomography (OCT) enables rapid, non-invasive in vivo measurement of retinal nerve fiber layer (RNFL) thickness, reflecting axonal density within the optic nerve. There is still lack of concordance about the use of OCT in clinical routine as a surrogate measure of brain atrophy. Objective: To investigate the role of OCT as possible predictor of disability, cognitive impairment and neurodegeneration in Multiple Sclerosis (MS). MATERIAL AND METHODS We recruited patients affected by MS according to validated criteria at the Neurological Department of the University of Palermo. Patients performed Stratus OCT- 3 Zeiss to assess RNFL and GCS measurements.…

Quantitative EEG differentiates multiple sclerosis with and without cognitive impairment from healthy controls at the beginning of the disease: preliminary data

Background and aims: The present study aims to assess possible qEEG differences between newly diagnosed multiple sclerosis (MS) patients with or without cognitive impairment (CI). Methods: We enrolled 22 patients (18-55-years-old) treated with first-line drugs for <6 months, and 11 healthy controls. All subjects underwent neuropsychological assessment including BICAMS and BDI. EEG recordings were performed during a cognitive task (computerised “SDMT” subtest of BICAMS) and at rest. Based on neuropsychological assessment, patients were considered as affected (MSCI group) or not (MS group) by cognitive impairment. We analysed data comparing MSCI patients matched by sex, age (±5years) and e…

The Italian dementia with Lewy bodies study group (DLB-SINdem): toward a standardization of clinical procedures and multicenter cohort studies design

Dementia with Lewy bodies (DLB) causes elevated outlays for the National Health Systems due to high institutionalization rate and patients' reduced quality of life and high mortality. Furthermore, DLB is often misdiagnosed as Alzheimer's disease. These data motivate harmonized multicenter longitudinal cohort studies to improve clinical management and therapy monitoring. The Italian DLB study group of the Italian Neurological Society for dementia (SINdem) developed and emailed a semi-structured questionnaire to 572 national dementia centers (from primary to tertiary) to prepare an Italian large longitudinal cohort. The questionnaire surveyed: (1) prevalence and incidence of DLB; (2) clinical…