Search results for "RC3"
showing 10 items of 896 documents
Vaccination in multiple sclerosis patients treated with highly effective disease-modifying drugs: an overview with consideration of cladribine tablets
2021
Infectious diseases are an important consideration in autoimmune conditions such as multiple sclerosis. Infective episodes may trigger relapses and significantly deteriorate the course of the disease. Some immunotherapies may cause increased rates of infection-related adverse events. Thus, infection and vaccine-related issues should be included in the individualized patient-specific treatment strategy and counseling before starting therapy and regularly on treatment. Clinical and epidemiological studies as well as pharmacovigilance data repeatedly demonstrated the safety of the great majority of vaccines in multiple sclerosis patients. Moreover, studies have shown that vaccinations with kil…
Obesity as a Risk Factor for Alzheimer’s Disease: Implication of Leptin and Glutamate
2019
Obesity is known to induce leptin and insulin resistance. Leptin is a peptide hormone synthesized in adipose tissue that mainly regulates food intake. It has been shown that insulin stimulates the production of leptin when adipocytes are exposed to glucose to encourage satiety; while leptin, via a negative feedback, decreases the insulin release and enhances tissue sensitivity to it, leading to glucose uptake for energy utilization or storage. Therefore, resistance to insulin is closely related to leptin resistance. Obesity in middle age has also been related to Alzheimer’s disease (AD). In recent years, the relation between impaired leptin signaling pathway and the onset of AD has been stu…
The Assessment of Serum Concentrations of AGEs and Their Soluble Receptor (sRAGE) in Multiple Sclerosis Patients
2021
Background: Advanced glycation end products (AGEs) are involved in the pathogenesis of many diseases, including neurodegenerative diseases such as multiple sclerosis (MS). The aim of the study was to determine serum concentrations of AGEs and their soluble receptor (sRAGE) in MS patients and healthy controls and to investigate their possible influence on disease activity. Methods: Serum concentrations of AGE and sRAGE in patients with MS and healthy controls were determined by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA). Results: The mean serum AGE concentration in patients with MS was higher than in healthy controls, whereas the mean serum sRAGE concentration was lower than in the control gr…
Diagnostic Criteria for Parkinson's Disease: From James Parkinson to the Concept of Prodromal Disease.
2018
The diagnosis of Parkinson’s disease (PD) is based on clinical features and differently to the common opinion that detecting this condition is easy, seminal clinico-pathological studies have shown that up one-fourth of patients diagnosed as PD during life has an alternative diagnosis at post-mortem. The misdiagnosis is even higher when only the initial diagnosis is considered, since the diagnostic accuracy improves by time, during follow-up visits. Given that the confirmation of the diagnosis of PD can be only obtained through neuropathology, to improve and facilitate the diagnostic-therapeutic workup in PD, a number of criteria and guidelines have been introduced in the last three decades.…
Somatosensory Training Improves Proprioception and Untrained Motor Function in Parkinsons Disease
2018
Background: Proprioceptive impairment is a common feature of Parkinson's disease (PD). Proprioceptive function is only partially restored with anti-parkinsonian medication or deep brain stimulation. Behavioral exercises focusing on somatosensation have been promoted to overcome this therapeutic gap. However, conclusive evidence on the effectiveness of such somatosensory-focused behavioral training for improving somatosensory function is lacking. Moreover, it is unclear, if such training has any effect on motor performance in PD.Objective: To investigate, whether proprioception improves with a somatosensory focused, robot-aided training in people with PD (PWPs), and whether enhanced proprioc…
Vancomycin resistant Enterococcus faecium (VRE) vertebral osteomyelitis after uneventful spinal surgery: A case report and literature review
2017
Abstract Objective Case report and literature review. Background Enterococcus faecium is an emerging pathogen responsible for post procedural infections in patients who have undergone spinal decompression surgery. In this case report, the authors discuss and review recent literature on approaches to post-operative spinal infection. Case report We herein report the case of a 55-year-old HIV-negative Caucasian Italian woman who showed vertebral osteomyelitis with abscesses around the interbody cage caused by an Enterococcus faecium vancomycin resistant gen-Van A, following a Transforaminal Lumbar Interbody Fusion (TLIF). The same strain was detected in disc biopsy, urine culture and rectal sw…
Successful management of a cerebral abscess secondary to chronic cholesteatoma caused by Prevotella melaninogenica and Peptococcus anaerobius – A cas…
2016
Abstract Cerebral abscess following cholesteatomatous otomastoiditis is a life-threatening complication and poses diagnostic and therapeutic challenges. We report a case of life-threatening cerebritis and cerebral abscess due to a collection of pus from an aerobic super infections occurring months after the apparent resolution of an otogenic brain abscess in a 67-year-old immunocompetent Italian female. Two gram-positive anaerobic pathogens were isolated during secondary neurosurgical procedures and antibiotic treatment was adopted to resolve the complications. Another objective of this study was to review the literature on gram-positive anaerobic pathogens and brain abscess complications i…
Reducing Peripheral Inflammation with Infliximab Reduces Neuroinflammation and Improves Cognition in Rats with Hepatic Encephalopathy
2016
Inflammation contributes to cognitive impairment in patients with hepatic encephalopathy (HE). However, the process by which peripheral inflammation results in cognitive impairment remains unclear. In animal models, neuroinflammation and altered neurotransmission mediate cognitive impairment. Taking into account these data, we hypothesized that in rats with HE: (1) peripheral inflammation is a main contributor to neuroinflammation; (2) neuroinflammation in hippocampus impairs spatial learning by altering AMPA and/or NMDA receptors membrane expression; (3) reducing peripheral inflammation with infliximab (anti-TNF-a) would improve spatial learning; (4) this would be associated with reduced n…
Complete locked-in and locked-in patients: Command following assessment and communication with vibro-tactile P300 and motor imagery brain-computer in…
2017
Many patients with locked-in syndrome (LIS) or complete locked-in syndrome (CLIS) also need brain-computer interface (BCI) platforms that do not rely on visual stimuli and are easy to use. We investigate command following and communication functions of mindBEAGLE with 9 LIS, 3 CLIS patients and three healthy controls. This tests were done with vibro-tactile stimulation with 2 or 3 stimulators (VT2 and VT3 mode) and with motor imagery (MI) paradigms. In VT2 the stimulators are fixed on the left and right wrist and the participant has the task to count the stimuli on the target hand in order to elicit a P300 response. In VT3 mode an additional stimulator is placed as a distractor on the shoul…
Assessing Command-Following and Communication With Vibro-Tactile P300 Brain-Computer Interface Tools in Patients With Unresponsive Wakefulness Syndro…
2018
Persons diagnosed with disorders of consciousness (DOC) typically suffer from motor disablities, and thus assessing their spared cognitive abilities can be difficult. Recent research from several groups has shown that non-invasive brain-computer interface (BCI) technology can provide assessments of these patients' cognitive function that can supplement information provided through conventional behavioral assessment methods. In rare cases, BCIs may provide a binary communication mechanism. Here, we present results from a vibrotactile BCI assessment aiming at detecting command-following and communication in 12 unresponsive wakefulness syndrome (UWS) patients. Two different paradigms were admi…