Publications by authors named "Cecchi F"

Objective: In recent years, the use of zebrafish () as laboratory models has significantly increased. Ensuring their welfare is crucial, with the cognitive bias test emerging as a valuable tool to assess their emotional state. This systematic review examines the application of the cognitive bias test in zebrafish research.

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Background: The Motricity Index (MI) is a commonly used method of measuring muscle strength in post-stroke hemiparesis. This study aimed to produce the MI Italian version (MI-IT) and assess its reliability in subjects with stroke.

Methods: Phase-1: stepwise approach to MI-IT production and pilot-testing with 10 health professionals to ensure clarity of each item and instructions for administration and scoring.

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  • The study aimed to evaluate the effectiveness of robot-assisted training (RAT) for adults with Parkinson's disease through a systematic review and meta-analysis of randomized-controlled trials.
  • A total of 15 trials involving 629 participants were analyzed, revealing significant uncertainty regarding RAT's effectiveness compared to other treatments due to risks of bias and low participant numbers.
  • The findings suggest that more rigorous and high-quality studies are essential to determine the true benefits and risks of RAT for Parkinson's disease patients.
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  • * Twenty-one adult horses and twenty-three senior horses were assessed using the Target Touch Test, which was performed initially and again after 10 days.
  • * While no significant differences were found in memory abilities at the first test, senior horses performed slower on the second test, indicating they can still learn but may take longer to recall information compared to younger horses.
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Good data quality is vital for personalising plans in rehabilitation. Machine learning (ML) improves prognostics but integrating it with Multiple Imputation (MImp) for dealing missingness is an unexplored field. This work aims to provide post-stroke ambulation prognosis, integrating MImp with ML, and identify the prognostic influential factors.

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Nearly 35 years after its initial publication in 1989, the Italian Society of Sports Cardiology and the Italian Federation of Sports Medicine (FMSI), in collaboration with other leading Italian Cardiological Scientific Associations (ANCE - National Association of Outpatient Cardiology, ANMCO - National Association of Inpatient Cardiology, SIC - Italian Society of Cardiology), proudly present the 2023 version of the Cardiological Guidelines for Competitive Sports Eligibility. This publication is an update of the previous guidelines, offering a comprehensive and detailed guide for the participation of athletes with heart disease in sports. This edition incorporates the latest advances in cardiology and sports medicine, providing current information and recommendations.

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In stroke survivors, persistent seizure activity could be associated with poor functional outcomes. At the same time, antiepileptic over-treatment could hamper post-stroke recovery. We systematically investigated the occurrence of seizures, the prevalence of epileptic discharges, and delta slow waves on electroencephalogram (EEG) and anti-seizure medication (ASM) management in relation to clinical manifestations and EEG abnormalities.

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Background: In 2008, a Working Group of the Italian Society of Physical and Rehabilitation Medicine (SIMFER) published the first minimum protocol for assessing stroke patients (PMIC) to define functional needs and outcomes. The recent PMIC revision (PMIC2020) introduces a document for all rehabilitation settings, incorporating updated measurement tools.

Aim: The aim of this study was to investigate the PMIC2020 feasibility and administration time (AT) in post-stroke inpatients and to examine the influence of demographic and clinical variables on AT.

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Background: Participation represents the most relevant indicator of successful functioning after a severe traumatic brain injury (sTBI), since it correlates with a higher perceived quality of life by patients, their families, and healthcare professionals. Nevertheless, studies on Italian population are lacking.

Aim: The aim of this study was to evaluate the long-term participation and its early predictors in patients after a sTBI.

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Background: Caregivers' involvement in the diagnostic and monitoring processes of the level of consciousness of patients with Disorders of Consciousness (DoC) is strongly encouraged by international guidelines, as current literature suggests a better chance to detect behavioural responses when caregivers are involved in clinical assessments. Since caregivers' involvement during clinical assessments can be difficult, the Social And Family Evaluation (SAFE) scale has been recently proposed as a standardised tool that caregivers can autonomously use to collect their opinions about the level of consciousness of patients with DoC, based on the behaviours manifested by the patients in a given time-window.

Objective: Providing preliminary results concerning SAFE adoption.

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  • Integrating genetic data into conservation management in Latin America requires collaboration between researchers and managers to address biodiversity challenges.
  • A survey of 468 conservation managers across 21 Latin American countries showed that 65% had engaged in genetic assessments, finding them valuable for management decisions.
  • The study identified barriers for the 35% of respondents who hadn't used genetic assessments, including limited funding, lack of lab facilities, and insufficient trained personnel.
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  • Transthoracic echocardiography (TTE) is essential for screening athletes, particularly those under 40 with symptoms or family histories related to cardiac issues, as well as in follow-up cases of cardiovascular disease.
  • It is a cost-effective imaging tool for assessing heart changes from intense training (the athlete's heart) and for identifying serious conditions that could lead to sudden cardiac death, such as cardiomyopathies.
  • An expert opinion from the Italian Society of Sports Cardiology highlights scenarios for TTE use, differentiating between normal and abnormal heart adaptations, and recommends a standardized dataset for reporting TTE findings in sports cardiology.
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Many targeted cancer therapies rely on biomarkers assessed by scoring of immunohistochemically (IHC)-stained tissue, which is subjective, semiquantitative, and does not account for expression heterogeneity. We describe an image analysis-based method for quantitative continuous scoring (QCS) of digital whole-slide images acquired from baseline human epidermal growth factor receptor 2 (HER2) IHC-stained breast cancer tissue. Candidate signatures for patient stratification using QCS of HER2 expression on subcellular compartments were identified, addressing the spatial distribution of tumor cells and tumor-infiltrating lymphocytes.

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Unconsciousness in severe acquired brain injury (sABI) patients occurs with different cognitive and neural profiles. Perturbational approaches, which enable the estimation of proxies for brain reorganization, have added a new avenue for investigating the non-behavioural diagnosis of consciousness. In this prospective observational study, we conducted a comparative analysis of the topological patterns of heartbeat-evoked potentials (HEP) between patients experiencing a prolonged disorder of consciousness (pDoC) and patients emerging from a minimally consciousness state (eMCS).

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Background: In patients with Hypertrophic Cardiomyopathy (HCM) S-ICD is usually the preferred option as pacing is generally not indicated. However, limited data are available on its current practice adoption and long-term follow-up.

Methods: Consecutive HCM patients with S-ICD implanted between 2013 and 2021 in 3 international centers were enrolled in this observational study.

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  • The study aimed to differentiate between patients in a Minimally Conscious State (MCS) who show high-level behavioral responses (MCS+) and those who do not (MCS-), as this impacts treatment strategies.
  • Researchers used low-density EEG recordings to assess brain activity in 57 MCS patients, applying graph metrics to analyze connectivity across different frequency bands.
  • Results indicated that MCS- patients had less brain activity integration in the α band, while MCS- patients showed greater clustering in the δ band; machine learning models achieved a 79% accuracy in distinguishing between MCS+ and MCS-.
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Objective: To prospectively investigate the evolution of the consciousness state and the cannula-weaning progression in patients with prolonged disorders of consciousness.

Design: Nonconcurrent cohort study.

Setting: A rehabilitation unit.

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Objective: To describe multiple congenital ocular anomalies in three litters of Jack Russell Terrier puppies.

Animals Studied: Seven purebred Jack Russell Terrier puppies from three related litters and their four parents.

Procedures: Medical records of the puppies and their parents were evaluated.

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Introduction: Although older adults are particularly vulnerable to the effects of climate change, they seem to be overall less concerned about it, and less inclined to support climate policies. The study aims to identify the communication strategies that have been evaluated in promoting awareness and/or climate friendly behaviors in older adults.

Methods: We searched multiple electronic databases for studies that evaluated the effects of any interventions aimed at communicating climate change to older persons (over 65 years) and assessed the results as awareness and /or behavioral changes.

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Objective: There is emerging confidence that quantitative EEG (qEEG) has the potential to inform clinical decision-making and guide individualized rehabilitation after stroke, but consensus on the best EEG biomarkers is needed for translation to clinical practice. This study investigates the spatial qEEG spectral and symmetry distribution in patients with a left/right hemispheric stroke, to evaluate their side-specific prognostic power in post-acute rehabilitation outcome.

Methods: Resting-state 19-channel EEG recordings were collected with clinical information on admission to intensive inpatient rehabilitation (within 30 days post stroke), and six months post stroke.

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This study investigates the genealogical and demographic trends of the Massese sheep breed in Tuscany from 2001 to 2021. The Herd Book kept by the Italian Sheep and Goat Breeders Association (Asso.Na.

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Background: Intensive treadmill training (TT) has been documented to improve gait parameters and functional independence in Parkinson's Disease (PD), but the optimal intervention protocol and the criteria for tailoring the intervention to patients' performances are lacking. TT may be integrated with augmented virtual reality (AVR), however, evidence of the effectiveness of this combined treatment is still limited. Moreover, prognostic biomarkers of rehabilitation, potentially useful to customize the treatment, are currently missing.

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  • A study examined cognitive impairments in 49 stroke patients using the Montreal Cognitive Assessment (MoCA) at three different time points: admission, discharge, and a six-month follow-up.
  • Findings revealed that while cognitive impairments decreased over time in most domains, attention and executive functions continued to improve, while issues with visuospatial and language skills increased in the long term.
  • The results underline the significance of a domain-specific approach in stroke rehabilitation, as specific cognitive domains can predict recovery and needed interventions.
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Background: Despite having revolutionized the treatment paradigm for advanced melanoma, not all patients benefit from immune checkpoint inhibitor therapy. To date, there are no predictive biomarkers for response or the occurrence of immune-related adverse events (irAEs) to programmed cell death protein 1 (PD-1) inhibitors. Our aim was to investigate the predictive and prognostic role of single nucleotide variants (SNVs) of genes involved in the PD-1 axis.

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Consciousness can be defined as a phenomenological experience continuously evolving. Current research showed how conscious mental activity can be subdivided into a series of atomic brain states converging to a discrete spatiotemporal pattern of global neuronal firing. Using the high temporal resolution of EEG recordings in patients with a severe Acquired Brain Injury (sABI) admitted to an Intensive Rehabilitation Unit (IRU), we detected a novel endotype of consciousness from the spatiotemporal brain dynamics identified via microstate analysis.

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