Publications by authors named "ABBATE F"

Article Synopsis
  • The Itel-MMSE is an easy-to-use telephone screening tool for dementia that gained traction during COVID-19 but needed validation and faced issues like a ceiling effect.
  • This study standardized and validated the Itel-MMSE, recruiting 707 healthy participants and 368 individuals with Mild Cognitive Impairment and Alzheimer's Disease to establish new cut-off scores.
  • Results indicated that the Itel-MMSE is effective in identifying dementia, with strong performance metrics in distinguishing between normal conditions and cognitive impairments, supporting its use in remote screenings.
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Piezo proteins have been identified as mechanosensitive ion channels involved in mechanotransduction. Several ion channel dysfunctions may be associated with diseases (including deafness and pain); thus, studying them is critical to understand their role in mechanosensitive disorders and to establish new therapeutic strategies. The current study investigated for the first time the expression patterns of Piezo proteins in zebrafish octavolateralis mechanosensory organs.

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The advent of computerized medical recording systems in healthcare facilities has made data retrieval tasks easier, compared to manual recording. Nevertheless, the potential of the information contained within medical records remains largely untapped, mostly due to the time and effort required to extract data from unstructured documents. Natural Language Processing (NLP) represents a promising solution to this challenge, as it enables the use of automated text-mining tools for clinical practitioners.

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Radiological interpretations, while essential, are not infallible and are best understood as expert opinions formed through the evaluation of available evidence. Acknowledging the inherent possibility of error is crucial, as it frames the discussion on improving diagnostic accuracy and patient care. A comprehensive review of error classifications highlights the complexity of diagnostic errors, drawing on recent frameworks to categorize them into perceptual and cognitive errors, among others.

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Article Synopsis
  • Transient erythroblastopenia of childhood (TEC) is a rare condition affecting children, typically linked to viral and immune factors, and has now been associated with COVID-19.
  • A case is presented of a child with severe red blood cell depletion and absent erythroblasts in the bone marrow after a SARS-CoV-2 infection, showing signs similar to a known severe immune disorder (HLH).
  • The report suggests that COVID-19 can induce TEC and emphasizes the need to include it in assessments of patients with unexplained red blood cell production issues, considering its relation to diseases like MIS-C.
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Article Synopsis
  • - The study identifies Piezo 1 and Piezo 2 as important mechanosensitive channels in zebrafish chemosensory organs, with potential implications for treating various disorders.
  • - It is the first report of Piezo protein expression in adult zebrafish olfactory and taste organs, highlighting their specific localization and roles in sensory neurons.
  • - The findings suggest distinct patterns of Piezo protein distribution, which could enhance our understanding of how these channels contribute to sensory processing in zebrafish.
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Article Synopsis
  • The study investigates the effectiveness of the Italian Uniform Data Set Neuropsychological Test Battery (I-UDSNB) in differentiating between Mild Cognitive Impairment (MCI), Alzheimer's Disease (AD), and healthy controls (HC).
  • The research involved 137 patients randomly assigned to MCI, AD, and HC groups and employed statistical analyses to identify tests that effectively distinguished between these groups.
  • Results indicated that specific episodic memory tests from the I-UDSNB, particularly the Craft Story and Five Words tests, showed significant differentiation between MCI, AD, and HC, confirming the battery's reliability for assessing cognitive decline.
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Mycoplasmas are known as the minimalist microorganisms in the microbes' world. Their minimalist nature makes them highly sensitive to the environmental conditions and limits their ability to survive for extended periods outside their animal host. Nevertheless, there are documented instances of mycoplasma transmission over significant distances and this phenomenon may be linked to relatively unexplored abilities of mycoplasmas, such as their capacity to synthesize biofilm-the predominant mode of bacterial growth in nature.

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Specific subpopulations of neurons in nerve and sensory systems must be developed and maintained, and this is accomplished in significant part by neurotrophins (NTs) and the signaling receptors on which they act, called tyrosine protein kinase receptors (Trks). The neurotrophins-tyrosine protein kinase receptors (NTs/Trks) system is involved in sensory organ regulation, including the visual system. An NTs/Trks system alteration is associated with neurodegeneration related to aging and diseases, including retinal pathologies.

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Background: Innovative digital solutions are shaping a new concept of dementia care, opening additional venues for prevention, diagnosis, monitoring and treatment. Hereby, we report the development of a tablet-based teleneuropsychology platform (Tenèpsia®), from concept to certification as Medical Device (MD) Class IIA, as per new MD regulation 745/2017.

Methods: The platform was designed for the remote cognitive evaluation and created thanks to the effort of a collaborative working group including experts from three Italian scientific societies and Biogen Italia S.

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The occurrence of clinically significant changes in empathy is a matter of debate in Alzheimer's disease (AD). Altered empathic mechanisms observed in AD may be a consequence of cognitive impairment, more specifically of reduced mental flexibility and self-regulation. The present study explored possible changes in empathy for subjects in the prodromal phase of AD, namely mild cognitive impairment (MCI) due to AD, and of their neural substrates.

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The gilthead seabream, one of the most important species in Mediterranean aquaculture, with an increasing status of exploitation in terms of production volume and aquafarming technologies, has become an important research topic over the years. The accumulation of knowledge from several studies conducted during recent decades on their functional and biological characteristics has significantly improved their aquacultural aspects, namely their reproductive success, survival, and growth. Despite the remarkable progress in the aquaculture industry, hatchery conditions are still far from ideal, resulting in frequent abnormalities at the beginning of intensive culture, entailing significant economic losses.

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The morphology of the oral cavity of fish is related to their feeding habits. In this context, taste buds are studied for their ability to catch chemical stimuli and their cell renewal capacity. Vimentin RV202 is a protein employed as a marker for mesenchymal cells that can differentiate along different lineages and to self-renew, while Calretinin N-18 is employed as a marker of sensory cells, and ubiquitin is a protein crucial for guiding the fate of stem cells throughout development.

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Calcium-binding proteins (CaBPs) are members of a heterogeneous family of proteins able to buffer intracellular Ca ion concentration. CaBPs are expressed in the central and peripheral nervous system, including a subpopulation of retinal neurons. Since neurons expressing different CaBPs show different susceptibility to degeneration, it could be hypothesized that they are not just markers of different neuronal subpopulations, but that they might be crucial in survival.

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Standardized radiological reports stimulate debate in the medical imaging field. This review paper explores the advantages and challenges of standardized reporting. Standardized reporting can offer improved clarity and efficiency of communication among radiologists and the multidisciplinary team.

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Introduction: Impairment of episodic memory is largely considered the main cognitive marker of prodromic Alzheimer's disease (AD). Nevertheless, the neuropathological process in AD starts several years before and, apart from biomarkers well defined in the Amyloid (A), Tauopathy (T), Neurodegeneration (N) framework, early clinical and neuropsychological markers able to detect mild cognitive impairment (MCI) due to AD before the appearance of memory disorders are lacking in clinical practice. Investigations on semantic memory have shown promising results in providing an earlier marker of dementia in MCI patients.

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This study evaluates the morpho-functional modifications that characterize meniscal development from neonatal to adult dogs. Even if menisci are recognized as essential structures for the knee joint, poor information is available about their morphogenesis, in particular in dog models. Menisci from a group of Dobermann Pinchers aged 0, 10, 30 days, and 4 years (T0, T10, T30, adult, respectively) were analyzed by SEM, histochemistry (Safranin O and Picro Sirius Red Staining analyzed under a polarized light microscope), immunofluorescences (collagen type I and II), biomechanical (compression) and biochemical analyses (glycosaminoglycans, GAGs, and DNA content).

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Background: Anorexia of aging, defined as a decrease in appetite and a preponderant loss of body weight occurring in late life, is one of the most common diseases affecting older people. The peptide hormone cholecystokinin (Cck) is known to play a key role in regulating food intake and satiety in higher vertebrates. In humans as well as in rats, an increased concentration of Cck was described as the basis of appetite loss in elderly.

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Breast cancer is the most common forms of cancer and a leading cause of mortality in women. Early and correct diagnosis is, therefore, essential to save lives. The development of diagnostic imaging applied to the breast has been impressive in recent years and the most used diagnostic test in the world is mammography, a low-dose X-ray technique used for imaging the breast.

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Bronchiolitis represents one of the major causes of hospitalization and mortality in children younger than 1 year, but its management continues to be heterogenous both in those who are hospitalized and in those who are not. To assess the impact of the publication of the Italian guidelines on bronchiolitis in October 2014, we analyzed data from children aged ≤12 months admitted for bronchiolitis at the University Hospital of Pisa from January 2010 to December 2019, dividing them into two groups based on whether admission was either preceding (Group 1) or following (Group 2) the publication of the guidelines. 346 patients (mean age 4.

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Rationale And Objectives: The new version of the Contrast Enhanced Mammography (CEM) Breast imaging Reporting and Data System (BIRADs) encourages investigations of a new enhancement descriptor: "Lesion Conspicuity" (LC). The study aims to assess the diagnostic performance and the relationship with the receptor profile of this new enhancement descriptor.

Materials And Methods: Three hundred twenty-five patients with 381 breast lesions who underwent CEM before histological assessmentwere selected.

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Article Synopsis
  • Recent technology in artificial intelligence is helping doctors better understand and treat breast cancer, like figuring out if a tumor is aggressive and predicting how well a patient will respond to treatment.
  • Radiomics is a new way of analyzing medical images with advanced math to give doctors more useful information.
  • The article talks about how AI has developed in breast imaging, what the process looks like, the benefits it can bring, and also the challenges doctors face when trying to use it in everyday practice.
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