Incidence of young-onset dementia in Italy: The Brescia register study.

Introduction: The goal of the present work was to assess the incidence of dementia with onset before the age of 65 years (i.e., young-onset dementia [YOD]) and define the frequencies of young-onset Alzheimer's disease (AD), frontotemporal lobar degeneration (FTLD), and dementia with Lewy bodies (DLB) in the general population.

Spatial Learning by Using Non-Visual Geometry and a Visual 3D Landmark in Zebrafish ().

Fish conjoin environmental geometry with conspicuous landmarks to reorient towards foraging sites and social stimuli. Zebrafish () can merge a rectangular opaque arena with a 2D landmark (a blue-colored wall) but cannot merge a rectangular transparent arena with a 3D landmark (a blue cylinder) without training to "feel" the environment thanks to other-than-sight pathways. Thus, their success is linked to tasks differences (spontaneous vs.

The impact of COVID-19 on health status of home-dwelling elderly patients with dementia in East Lombardy, Italy: results from COVIDEM network.

Background: COVID-19 outbreak has led to severe health burden in the elderly. Age, morbidity and dementia have been associated with adverse outcome.

Aims: To evaluate the impact of COVID-19 on health status in home-dwelling patients.

Clinical Presentation of COVID19 in Dementia Patients.

Objective: No studies analyzing the role of dementia as a risk factor for mortality in patients affected by COVID-19. We assessed the prevalence, clinical presentation and outcomes of dementia among subjects hospitalized for COVID19 infection.

Design: Retrospective study.

Development and Validation of a Scoring System That Includes Corrected QT Interval for Risk Analysis of Patients With Cirrhosis and Gastrointestinal Bleeding.

Background & Aims: The electrocardiographic QT interval frequently is prolonged in patients with cirrhosis. Acute gastrointestinal bleeding further prolongs corrected QT (QTc) in patients with cirrhosis, which has been associated with an increased risk of death within 6 weeks. We aimed to confirm these findings and develop a mortality risk index that incorporates QTc.

The Music Therapy Session Assessment Scale (MT-SAS): Validation of a new tool for music therapy process evaluation.

Background: Music therapy (MT) interventions are aimed at creating and developing a relationship between patient and therapist. However, there is a lack of validated observational instruments to consistently evaluate the MT process.

Aim: The purpose of this study was the validation of Music Therapy Session Assessment Scale (MT-SAS), designed to assess the relationship between therapist and patient during active MT sessions.

Assessment of the Incremental Diagnostic Value of Florbetapir F 18 Imaging in Patients With Cognitive Impairment: The Incremental Diagnostic Value of Amyloid PET With [18F]-Florbetapir (INDIA-FBP) Study.

Importance: Cerebral amyloidosis is a key abnormality in Alzheimer disease (AD) and can be detected in vivo with positron emission tomography (PET) ligands. Although amyloid PET has clearly demonstrated analytical validity, its clinical utility is debated.

Objective: To evaluate the incremental diagnostic value of amyloid PET with florbetapir F 18 in addition to the routine clinical diagnostic assessment of patients evaluated for cognitive impairment.

End-of-life decision-making and quality of ICU performance: an observational study in 84 Italian units.

Purpose: To appraise the end-of-life decision-making in several intensive care units (ICUs) and to evaluate the association between the average inclination to limit treatment and overall survival at ICU level.

Design: Prospective, multicenter, observational study, lasting 12 months.

Setting: Eighty-four Italian, adult ICUs.

Changes in characteristics of Alzheimer patients at first visit to centers for dementia: a 10-year follow-up study.

Background And Aims: The Cronos Project is an observational study on Alzheimer's disease (AD), created by Italy's Ministry of Public Health in 2000. The aim of our study was to evaluate whether the clinical characteristics of patients at their first visit to the Alzheimer Evaluation Unit (UVA) changed from September 2000 to December 2009, and to examine possible reasons for changes noted.

Methods: 1532 consecutive patients were enrolled in two UVAs (September 2000 to December 2009) in a retrospective, descriptive study, with medical records as the primary source of data.

Proposal of a flexible structural-organizing model for the Intensive Care Units.

Background: The aim of this study was to verify the capability of the Italian Group for the Evaluation of Intervention in Intensive Care Medicine (Gruppo Italiano Valutazione Interventi in Terapia Intensiva, GiViTI) Intensive Care Units (ICUs) in providing high level care (HLC) and to develop a flexible organiziational model, allowing for different levels of care in each ICU.

Methods: Once the number of active beds, personnel and technology of each ICU were determined, we computed whether the available bed number and all available resources could provide HLC according to international standards. For ICUs lacking staff or equipment for safe HLC in all declared beds, we calculated the best combination between HLC and observation/monitoring beds with less need for nurses and technology (low level of care, LLC) in order to optimise the utilization of each bed.

Delirium in a sub-intensive care unit for the elderly: occurrence and risk factors.

Background And Aims: The objective was to study occurrence and risk factors of delirium in a new model of care, the Sub-Intensive Care Unit for the elderly (SICU), which is a level of care between that offered by ordinary wards and intensive care.

Methods: A prospective observational study of 401 consecutively admitted patients, 60+ years, in a four-bed SICU in the geriatric ward of a general hospital. Delirium was detected by the Confusion Assessment Method (CAM) at admission (prevalent) and during SICU stay (incident).

Subintensive care unit for the elderly: a new model of care for critically ill frail elderly medical patients.

Objective: An increasing number of elderly patients are admitted to the hospital for critical diseases and the gap between supply and demand of intensive care resources is a growing problem. To meet this challenge, 4 beds in a 24-bed acute care for the elderly (ACE) medical unit were dedicated to a subintensive care unit (SICU). Severely ill elderly medical patients, requiring a higher level of care than provided in ordinary wards, are admitted.

Continuous quality improvement in intensive care medicine. The GiViTI Margherita Project - Report 2005.

Aim: The assessment of the quality of intensive care medicine is mandatory in the modern healthcare system. In Italy, the GiViTI (Gruppo Italiano per la Valutazione degli Interventi in Terapia Intensiva) network is working in this field since 1991 and it now involves 295 out of the about 450 Italian intensive care units (ICU). In 2002 GiViTI launched a project for the continuous quality assessment and improvement that is now joined by 180 ICUs.

Relationship between functional loss before hospital admission and mortality in elderly persons with medical illness.

Objective: This hospital-based prospective study tests the hypothesis that, in a large group of hospitalized elderly patients, those who report functional decline between pre-illness baseline and hospital admission have a higher risk of death.

Methods: Nine hundred fifty elderly ambulant patients (F = 69.3%; mean age 78.

The management of adverse clinical events in nursing homes: a 1-year survey study.

Objective: In Italian nursing homes (NHs), care delivery at night and during holidays is not regulated by regional laws; some facilities employ staff physicians, others employ physicians engaged from year to year (temporary physicians), and others employ publicly funded National Health System (NHS) physicians. This study was designed to determine whether the use of different kinds of physicians leads to different outcomes with regard to the rate of hospitalization and appropriateness of the management of adverse clinical events.

Design: Prospective, nonrandomized-survey data collection.

Special care units for demented patients: a multicenter study.

The local government of Regione Lombardia, Italy, recently (1994) funded a clinical and research project specifically devoted to dementia (Piano Alzheimer). A central role in this project has been reserved for the special care units (SCUs) for demented patients with behavioral disturbances. In order to evaluate their effectiveness, eight SCUs took part in this study.

Brain magnetic resonance imaging in congenital hypothyroid infants at diagnosis.

The aim of our study was to investigate the central nervous system (CNS) morphology and myelination with magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) in congenital hypothyroid (CH) infants detected by neonatal screening before replacement therapy. We studied 11 CH infants, 9 girls and 2 boys, mean age 22 days, 3 with aplasia, 5 with ectopia, 2 with hypoplasia of the thyroid gland, 1 with unknown diagnosis. As normal controls 22 term newborns (38 to 41 weeks of gestational age) were studied.

Good nutritional oral intake is associated with equal survival in demented and nondemented very old patients.

Objective: To evaluate the association of oral food intake with survival in very old demented nursing home patients.

Design: A prospective cohort study.

Setting: A nursing home in northern Italy.

Assessment of functional ability with the bed rise difficulty scale in a group of elderly patients.

The aim of the study (part of the Progetto Longitudinale Gussago) was to evaluate the variables related to the difficulty in rising from a bed in 2 groups of elderly patients: nursing home residents, and patients admitted to a geriatric evaluation and management unit. Functional ability was tested through the bed rise difficulty scale (BRD). The version used in this study considered only those 7 items (out of 12) found to be of value.

Food intake and mortality in the frail elderly.

Background: Adequate qualitative and quantitative food intake is a major determinant of health. However, nutritional requirements in the elderly are unknown, and even more so in the frail elderly. The aim of the study was to evaluate the influence of energy and macro-nutrients on health in the frail nursing home elderly.

A nutritional index predicting mortality in the nursing home.

Objective: To define a sensitive and specific index, based on nutritional indicators, predicting mortality in nursing home patients.

Design: A prospective cohort study.

Setting: A nursing home.

Fear of falling in nursing home patients.

The study analyzes the characteristics of 54 nursing home patients (12 male, 42 female; mean age 81.9 +/- 7.9 years) with and without the complaint of the fear of falling, and the association of this fear with falling and functional status.