Cognition in Patients with Spinocerebellar Ataxia 1 (SCA1) and 2 (SCA2): A Neurophysiological and Neuropsychological Approach.

: Cognitive impairment in spinocerebellar ataxia patients has been reported since the early-disease stage. We aimed to assess cognitive differences in SCA1 and SCA2 patients. : We performed neuropsychological (NPS) and neurophysiological (auditory event-related potentials, aERPs) assessments in 16 SCA1 and 18 SCA2 consecutive patients.

Thalamic ventral-Oralis complex/rostral zona incerta deep brain stimulation for midline tremor.

Background: Midline Tremor is defined as an isolated or combined tremor that affects the neck, trunk, jaw, tongue, and/or voice and could be part of Essential Tremor (ET), or dystonic tremor. The clinical efficacy of deep brain stimulation for Midline Tremor has been rarely reported. The Ventral Intermediate Nucleus and Globus Pallidus Internus are the preferred targets, but with variable outcomes.

Let's Talk Safety - Data from the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit Safety and Bed Capacity Huddles.

Background: Huddles are brief team meetings designed to communicate essential information. Safety huddles provide a forum to identify and review patient safety events. In a just culture, everyone is accountable for patient safety.

The Incidence of Myasthenia Gravis in the Province of Ferrara, Italy, in the Period of 2008-2022: An Update on a 40-Year Observation and the Influence of the COVID-19 Pandemic.

Myasthenia gravis (MG) is the most common neuromuscular junction disorder. We evaluated the MG incidence rate in the province of Ferrara, Northern Italy, over two time frames (2008-2018 and 2019-2022, i.e.

Idiopathic cervical dystonia and non-motor symptoms: a pilot case-control study on autonomic nervous system.

Purpose: Non-motor symptoms, such as sleep disturbances, fatigue, neuropsychiatric manifestations, cognitive impairment, and sensory abnormalities, have been widely reported in patients with idiopathic cervical dystonia (ICD). This study aimed to clarify the autonomic nervous system (ANS) involvement in ICD patients, which is still unclear in the literature.

Methods: We conducted a pilot case-control study to investigate ANS in twenty ICD patients and twenty age-sex-matched controls.

Electrophysiological and neuropsychological assessment of cognition in spinocerebellar ataxia type 1 patients: a pilot study.

Background: Event-related potentials (ERPs) reflect cognitive processing: negative early components (N100, N200) are involved in the sensory and perceptual processing of a stimulus, whereas late positive component P300 requires conscious attention. Both neuropsychological and affective disorders are present in patients with spinocerebellar ataxia type 1 (SCA1), but the underlying mechanisms need further clarification.

Materials And Methods: In this pilot study, we assessed cognitive processing by recording auditory ERPs in 16 consecutive SCA1 patients and 16 healthy controls (HC) matched for age and sex.

Physiologically Difficult Airway in the Patient with Severe Hypotension and Metabolic Acidosis.

The expertise to recognize and manage the difficult airway is essential in anesthesiology. Conventionally, this refers to anatomical concerns causing difficulties with facemask ventilation and/or with tracheal intubation. Severe derangements in patients' physiology can make induction and intubation likewise difficult, and approximately 30% of critically ill patients had cardiovascular collapse subsequently to intubation.

Massive Upper Body and Cervicofacial Subcutaneous Emphysema Following Robotic Myomectomy.

Subcutaneous emphysema is defined as the unintentional introduction of air or carbon dioxide in the subcutaneous tissues. The use of robotic surgical techniques has greatly expanded over the past decade specifically to treat intraperitoneal pathology. In general, advantages of these minimally invasive procedures are reported to decrease operating time, patient morbidity, and shorten hospital stay providing a safe alternative to traditional surgery.

Intraoperative monitoring of sensory part of the trigeminal nerve using blink reflex during microvascular decompression for trigeminal neuralgia.

Intraoperative monitoring during cerebellopontine angle surgery is widely accepted. While techniques which monitor cranial motor nerves are commonly used, monitoring the sensory afferents has been challenging. Considering the reflex arc, blink reflex (BR) might be useful in monitoring the sensory part of the trigeminal nerve, the brainstem connections and the facial nerve.

Peripheral neuropathy in 30 duodopa patients with vitamins B supplementation.

Objectives: Peripheral neuropathy (PN) is a significant concern and potential cause of withdrawal in patients with Parkinson's disease (PD) treated with Levodopa/Carbidopa Intestinal Gel (LCIG) infusion. Vitamin B deficiency and/or hyperhomocysteinemia levodopa-related are considered possible causative factors. In this study, we evaluated PN incidence in LCIG-PD patients treated since the beginning of infusion with vitamins B supplementation.

Acute respiratory failure onset in a patient with Guillain-Barré syndrome after Legionella-associated pneumonia: a case report.

A 69-year-old white man was admitted because of a clinical history of persistent cough and fever. Chest x-rays showed bilateral lung infiltrates with air bronchograms, whereas the urine antigen test resulted positive for Legionella pneumophila. The next day, he was transferred to the intensive care unit and intubated because of severe renal and respiratory distress.

Migraine-like headache with autonomic symptoms in midbrain malformation.

We report a case of midbrain malformation characterized by right deviation of the medulla oblongata associated with elongation and ectasia of the basilar and left vertebral arteries in a patient with a long history of migraine-like headache with autonomic symptoms.

Emerging issues on selection criteria of levodopa carbidopa infusion therapy: considerations on outcome of 28 consecutive patients.

Many studies confirmed the efficacy and safety of continuous infusion of intrajejunal levodopa/carbidopa gel (CIILG) for advanced Parkinson's disease (PD). Although this treatment is widely used, definite inclusion/exclusion criteria do not exist. In this prospective open-label study, we evaluated the long-term outcome in 28 consecutive patients and sought to detect any predictive factor to identify the best candidates for CIILG therapy.

Deficiency of TDAG51 protects against atherosclerosis by modulating apoptosis, cholesterol efflux, and peroxiredoxin-1 expression.

Background: Apoptosis caused by endoplasmic reticulum (ER) stress contributes to atherothrombosis, the underlying cause of cardiovascular disease (CVD). T-cell death-associated gene 51 (TDAG51), a member of the pleckstrin homology-like domain gene family, is induced by ER stress, causes apoptosis when overexpressed, and is present in lesion-resident macrophages and endothelial cells.

Methods And Results: To study the role of TDAG51 in atherosclerosis, male mice deficient in TDAG51 and apolipoprotein E (TDAG51(-/-)/ApoE(-/-)) were generated and showed reduced atherosclerotic lesion growth (56 ± 5% reduction at 40 weeks, relative to ApoE(-/-) controls, P<0.

PPAR ligands decrease human airway smooth muscle cell migration and extracellular matrix synthesis.

Airway smooth muscle cells produce extracellular matrix proteins, which in turn can promote smooth muscle survival, proliferation and migration. Currently available therapies have little effect on airway smooth muscle matrix production and migration. Peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor (PPAR) ligands are reported to decrease migration and matrix production in various cell lines.

[Headache in Behçet's disease: case-control study and literature review].

Objective: To evaluate the prevalence of headache and its different patterns in patients with Behçet's disease (BD) with and without neurological involvement and to investigate clinical correlations.

Methods: Patients fulfilling the International Study Group criteria for Behçet disease (ISGc) were studied. Patients were invited to fill a "headache questionnaire", which consisted of two sections: the first one included demographic and anamnestic data, family history for both headache and BD, disease duration and clinical manifestations of BD; the second section included items about headache, investigated accordingly to International Headache Society diagnostic criteria (IHS, 2004).

Posterior reversible encephalopathy syndrome in an 87-year-old woman with Escherichia coli bloodstream infection.

We present the case of an 87-year-old woman with history of hypertension, hypercholesterolemia, ischemic heart diseases, urinary tract infections, and cerebrovascular disease who experienced a transient clinical picture characterized by confusion, lethargy, and acute renal dysfunction in the course of urinary tract infection with Escherichia coli bacteremia. Escherichia coli bloodstream infection was associated with brain computed tomography (CT) and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) patterns in which the lesion distribution was consistent with posterior reversible encephalopathy syndrome (PRES). Diagnosis of PRES was confirmed by demonstration of vasogenic edema on apparent diffusion coefficient (ADC) maps and near-complete resolution of clinical manifestations at discharge.

Migraine.

Migraine is a neurovascular disorder which affects one fifth of the general population. Disability due to migraine is severe and involves patients from infancy through senescence and it is aggravated by the fact there is no complete cure. However, various drugs for the symptomatic or prophylactic treatment of the disease are available.

Pallidal stimulation for segmental dystonia: long term follow up of 11 consecutive patients.

Pallidal stimulation is a convincing and valid alternative for primary generalized dystonia refractory to medical therapy or botulinum toxin. However, the clinical outcome reported in literature is variable most likely because of heterogeneity DBS techniques employed and /or to clinical dystonic pattern of the patients who undergo surgery. In this study, we report the long term follow up of a homogeneous group of eleven subjects affected by segmental dystonia who were treated with bilateral stimulation of the Globus Pallidus pars interna (GPi) from the years 2000 to 2008.

CGRP receptors in the control of pain and inflammation.

Calcitonin gene related peptide (CGRP) has been proposed to contribute to pain transmission and inflammation and for these reasons to the mechanism of migraine. CGRP is, in fact, expressed in and released from a subset of polymodal primary sensory neurons of the trigeminal ganglion. Release of CGRP in the dorsal spinal cord has been associated to nociceptive transmission, and release from perivascular nerve endings causes neurogenic vasodilatation.