Search results for "ANSM"

Secondary tactile hypoesthesia: a novel type of pain-induced somatosensory plasticity in human subjects

2004

Quantitative sensory testing revealed that pain induced by intracutaneous capsaicin injection elicited secondary hyperalgesia coexisting with secondary tactile hypoesthesia. Mapping the areas of altered mechanical sensations adjacent to the capsaicin injection disclosed that the area of secondary hyperalgesia was always nested in a larger area of secondary hypoesthesia easily detected as numbness by most subjects. Psychometric functions revealed a twofold rightward shift of tactile detection (hypoesthesia), which coexisted with a more than fourfold leftward shift of pricking pain detection (hyperalgesia) in the same skin area. As a mechanism we propose a functional switch at the spinal leve…

Clinical evaluation of antiseptic mouth rinses to reduce salivary load of SARS-CoV-2

2021

AbstractMost public health measures to contain the COVID-19 pandemic are based on preventing the pathogen spread, and the use of oral antiseptics has been proposed as a strategy to reduce transmission risk. The aim of this manuscript is to test the efficacy of mouthwashes to reduce salivary viral load in vivo. This is a multi-centre, blinded, parallel-group, placebo-controlled randomised clinical trial that tests the effect of four mouthwashes (cetylpyridinium chloride, chlorhexidine, povidone-iodine and hydrogen peroxide) in SARS-CoV-2 salivary load measured by qPCR at baseline and 30, 60 and 120 min after the mouthrinse. A fifth group of patients used distilled water mouthrinse as a contr…

Spectral Transmission of the Human Crystalline Lens in Adult and Elderly Persons: Color and Total Transmission of Visible Light

2012

Purpose To experimentally measure the spectral transmission of human crystalline lenses belonging to adult and elderly persons, and to determine the color and total transmission of visible light of such crystalline lenses. Methods The spectral transmission curve of 32 human crystalline lenses was measured using a PerkinElmer 800UV/VIS spectrometer. Total transmission of visible light and the chromatic coordinates of these crystalline lenses were determined from these curves for solar illumination. Results The crystalline lens that filters UV and its transmission in the visible spectrum decreases with age; such a decrease is greater for short wavelengths. The total transmission of visible li…

Asymmetry in dopamine D2/3 receptors of caudate nucleus is lost with age

2007

Molecular and functional imaging techniques reveal evidence for lateralization of human cerebral function. Based on animal data, we hypothesized that asymmetry in dopamine neurotransmission declines during normal aging. In order to test this hypothesis, we measured dopamine D2/3 receptor availability with [18F]desmethoxyfallypride-PET (DMFP) in putamen and caudate nucleus (NC) of 21 healthy, right-handed males (24-60 years; 35+/-10). For volumetric analysis, high-resolution T1-weighted MR-images were obtained in 18 of the PET-subjects in order to assess possible age-related decreases in NC and putamen volume. The calculated DMFP binding potentials (BP) showed a right-ward asymmetry in NC of…

Prevalence and genomic variability of transfusion transmitted virus in Italian cryptogenic chronic liver disease and healthy blood donors

2002

Abstract Background. Infection with transfusion transmitted virus, a new member of the Parvoviridae family, has been found in patients both with chronic and fulminant post-transfusion cryptogenic hepatitis. Aim. To evaluate the prevalence and clinical impact of transfusion transmitted virus infection in Italy. Patients and Methods. Studies were carried out on 256 patients and control subjects from three centres from Northern, Central and Southern Italy (92 nonA-nonC chronic hepatitis, 10 acute non fulminant cryptogenic hepatitis, 41 hepatitis C virus-related chronic hepatitis and 113 blood donors). Serum transfusion transmitted virus was detected by nested polymerase chain reaction using tw…

Increased facilitation of the primary motor cortex following 1 Hz repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation of the contralateral cerebellum in nor…

2005

Connections between the cerebellum and the contralateral motor cortex are dense and important, but their physiological significance is difficult to measure in humans. We have studied a group of 10 healthy subjects to test whether a modulation of the excitability of the left cerebellum can affect the excitability of the contralateral motor cortex. We used repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS) at 1 Hz frequency to transiently depress the excitability of the left cerebellar cortex and paired-pulse TMS testing of intracortical inhibition (ICI) and intracortical facilitation (ICF) to probe the excitability of cortico-cortical connections in the right motor cortex. The cortical sile…

Marine sponge collagen: isolation, characterization and effects on the skin parameters surface-pH, moisture and sebum

2002

A previously described isolation procedure for collagen of the marine sponge Chondrosia reniformis Nardo was modified for scaling-up reasons yielding 30% of collagen (freeze-dried collagen in relation to freeze-dried sponge). Light microscope observations showed fibrous structures. Transmission electron microscopy studies proved the collagenous nature of this material: high magnifications showed the typical periodic banding-pattern of collagen fibres. However, the results of the amino acid analysis differed from most publications, presumably due to impurities that still were present. In agreement with earlier studies, sponge collagen was insoluble in dilute acid mediums and all solvents inv…

Disentangling common and specific neural subprocesses of response inhibition.

2012

article i nfo Response inhibition is disturbed in several disorders sharing impulse control deficits as a core symptom. Since response inhibition is a cognitively and neurally multifaceted function which has been shown to rely on differing neural subprocesses and neurotransmitter systems, further differentiation to define neurophys- iological endophenotypes is essential. Response inhibition may involve at least three separable cognitive sub- components, i.e. interference inhibition, action withholding, and action cancelation. Here, we introduce a novel paradigm - the Hybrid Response Inhibition task - to disentangle interference inhibition, action withholding and action cancelation and their…

Italian males recovering from mild COVID-19 show no evidence of SARS-CoV-2 in semen despite prolonged nasopharyngeal swab positivity.

2020

'Prefrontal' cognitive performance of healthy subjects positively correlates with cerebral FDOPA influx: an exploratory [18F]-fluoro-L-DOPA-PET inves…

2006

Dopamine neurotransmission influences those cognitive processes, which are generally regarded as prefrontal cortical functions. In previous positron‐emission‐tomography (PET) studies, net blood‐brain clearance of [(18)F]‐fluoro‐l‐DOPA (FDOPA) correlated with impaired cognitive performance in patients with Parkinson's disease or schizophrenia. We hypothesized that FDOPA influx also correlates with performance of cognitive tasks associated with prefrontal functioning in healthy volunteers. The net blood‐brain clearance of FDOPA (K [Formula: see text]) was mapped in a group of 11 healthy volunteers and calculated in striatal volumes‐of‐interest. The Wisconsin‐Card‐Sorting‐Test (WCST), Stroop‐T…