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.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: 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.
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.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFNearly 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.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFIn 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.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: 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.
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.
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.
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.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFUnconsciousness 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).
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: 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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: 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.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: 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.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFConsciousness 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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