Search results for "Neurologi"
showing 10 items of 1189 documents
Short-Term Neurodevelopmental Outcome in Term Neonates Treated with Phenobarbital versus Levetiracetam: A Single-Center Experience
2019
Background. Phenobarbital (PB) has been traditionally used as the first-line treatment for neonatal seizures. More recently, levetiracetam (LEV) has been increasingly used as a promising newer antiepileptic medication for treatment of seizures in neonates. Objectives. The aim of our study was to compare the effect of PB vs. LEV on short-term neurodevelopmental outcome in infants treated for neonatal seizures. Method. This randomized, one-blind prospective study was conducted on term neonates admitted to the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit of S. Bambino Hospital, University Hospital “Policlinico-Vittorio Emanuele,” Catania, Italy, from February 2016 to February 2018. Thirty term neonates with s…
Clinico-diagnostic features of neuralgic amyotrophy in childhood
2020
Neuralgic amyotrophy (NA), even known as Personage-Turner's syndrome (PTS), is a neurologic condition, affecting the lower motor neurons of brachial plexus and/or individual nerves or nerve branches, characterized by pain, muscle weakness/atrophy, and sensory symptoms. NA has an acute/subacute onset, after an infection or vaccination; it is more common in male and is rare in the pediatric population. The etiology remains uncertain, being considered heterogeneous and multifactorial. A severe acute neurologic pain around the shoulder girdle is the classic presenting symptom at onset. As the pain subsides, weakness and paresis develop. NA is usually unilateral, but sometimes, a subclinical con…
Inhibition of lymphocyte trafficking shields the brain against deleterious neuroinflammation after stroke
2011
T lymphocytes are increasingly recognized as key modulators of detrimental inflammatory cascades in acute ischaemic stroke, but the potential of T cell-targeted therapy in brain ischaemia is largely unexplored. Here, we characterize the effect of inhibiting leukocyte very late antigen-4 and endothelial vascular cell adhesion molecule-1-mediated brain invasion-currently the most effective strategy in primary neuroinflammatory brain disease in murine ischaemic stroke models. Very late antigen-4 blockade by monoclonal antibodies improved outcome in models of moderate stroke lesions by inhibiting cerebral leukocyte invasion and neurotoxic cytokine production without increasing the susceptibilit…
The MITOS system predicts long-term survival in amyotrophic lateral sclerosis
2015
ObjectiveThe choice of adequate proxy for long-term survival, the ultimate outcome in randomised clinical trials (RCT) assessing disease-modifying treatments for amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), is a key issue. The intrinsic limitations of the ALS Functional Rating Scale-Revised (ALSFRS-R), including non-linearity, multidimensionality and floor-effect, have emerged and its usefulness argued. The ALS Milano-Torino staging (ALS-MITOS) system was proposed as a novel tool to measure the progression of ALS and overcome these limitations. This study was performed to validate the ALS-MITOS as a 6-month proxy of survival in 200 ALS patients followed up to 18 months.MethodsAnalyses were performe…
Resonance of cortico-cortical connections of the motor system with the observation of goal directed grasping movements
2010
Goal directed movements require the activation of parietal, premotor and primary motor areas. In monkeys, neurons of these areas become active also during the observation of movements performed by others, especially for coding the goal of the action (mirror system). Using bifocal transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) in healthy subjects, we tested whether the observation of goal directed reach to grasp actions may lead to specific changes in the short-latency connections linking key areas of the mirror system, such as the anterior intraparietal cortex (AIP) and the ventral premotor cortex (PMv), with the primary motor cortex (M1). We found that AIP-M1 and PMv-M1 cortico-cortical interacti…
Isolated, subtle, neurological abnormalities in neurologically and cognitively healthy aging subjects
2015
The aim of this study is to describe the frequency of isolated, subtle, neurological abnormalities (ISNAs) in a large population of neurologically and cognitively healthy subjects and to compare ISNAs to various types of MRI-detected cerebrovascular lesions and subcortical brain atrophy in different age classes. 907 subjects were selected from a large, prospective hospital-based study. At baseline neurological examination, 17 ISNAs were selected. Primitive reflexes were the most common ISNAs (35.8 %), while dysphagia was the most rarely encountered (0.3 %). Measures of small vessel disease, i.e., deep and subcortical white matter hyperintensity and lacunar infarcts as well as subcortical at…
Cerebrospinal fluid tau protein is not a biological marker in amyotrophic lateral sclerosis.
2009
Background: Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) is a neurodegenerative disorder leading to progressive motor neuron cell death. Etiopathogenesis is still imperfectly known and much effort have been undertaken to find a biological marker that could help in the early diagnosis and in the monitoring of disease progression. Cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) concentrations of tau, an axonal microtubule-associated protein, have been measured in ALS with levels found increased in some studies and unchanged in others. Methods: Total CSF tau level was assayed in a population of ALS patients (n = 57) and controls (n = 110) using a specific ELISA method. Results: No significant differences in the median CS…
A 12-month prospective, observational study evaluating the impact of disease-modifying treatment on emotional burden in recently-diagnosed multiple s…
2016
Abstract Introduction Depression and anxiety are common among patients with multiple sclerosis (MS) and are frequently present at the time of MS diagnosis. Methods POSIDONIA was a 12-month, observational, prospective study conducted in Italy to evaluate the impact of disease-modifying treatment (DMT) on emotional burden in patients with recently-diagnosed MS. The Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HADS), specifically HADS anxiety (HADS-A) and depression (HADS-D) subscale scores, the Short-Form 36 Health Survey (SF-36) and the Impact of Event Scale – Revised (IES-R) were used to measure patient-reported outcomes. The Hamilton Depression Rating Scale (HDRS), HDRS-17, was used as a measure…
Reduction of depressive symptoms during inpatient treatment is not associated with changes in heart rate variability
2021
Vagally mediated heart rate variability (HRV) is a psychophysiological indicator of mental and physical health. Limited research suggests there is reduced vagal activity and resulting lower HRV in patients with Major Depressive Disorder (MDD); however little is actually known about the association between HRV and symptoms of depression and whether the association mirrors symptom improvement following psychotherapy. The aim of this study was to investigate the association between antidepressant therapy, symptom change and HRV in 50 inpatients (68% females; 17–68 years) with a diagnosis of MDD. Severity of depressive symptoms was assessed by self-report (Beck Depression Inventory II) and the …
Multiple sclerosis in twins from continental Italy and Sardinia: a nationwide study.
2005
Knowledge about the balance between heritable and nonheritable risk in multiple sclerosis (MS) is based on twin studies in high-prevalence areas. In a study that avoided ascertainment limitations and directly compared continental Italy (medium-prevalence) and Sardinia (high-prevalence), we ascertained 216 pairs from 34,549 patients. This gives a twinning rate of 0.62% among MS patients, significantly less than that of the general population. In continental Italy, probandwise concordance was 14.5% (95% confidence interval, 5.1-23.8) for monozygotic and 4.0% (95% confidence interval, 0.8-7.1) for dizygotic twins. Results in Sardinia resemble those in northern populations but in limited number…