Publications by authors named "Domenico Marco Bonifati"

Article Synopsis
  • * Current treatments can have side effects and don't always work well for everyone, so there's a big need for better options.
  • * A new drug called eculizumab has been approved in Italy and might help those who don’t respond to standard treatments, and experts think it could meet the needs of many patients with MG.
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People affected by the Long COVID-19 (LC) syndrome often show clinical manifestations that are similar to those observed in patients with mild cognitive impairments (MCI), such as olfactory dysfunction (OD), brain fog, and cognitive and attentional diseases. This study aimed to investigate the chemosensory-evoked related potentials (CSERP) in LC and MCI to understand if there is a common pathway for the similarity of symptoms associated with these disorders. Eighteen LC patients (mean age 53; s.

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Background: Covid-19 pandemic has boosted telemedicine in medical clinical practice. Experience in the management of chronic neurological disorders is limited as well as patient opinion. During Covid-19 pandemic, we evaluated patients' satisfaction and opinion about televisits in a large group of patients with chronic neurological disorders.

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Background: An 82-year-old right-handed man, a retired teacher, reported the occurrence, three years earlier, of difficulties in moving his left arm and foot, tremor in his left hand, and gestures of the left upper limb that appeared to be independent of the patient's will.

Objective: We describe an unusual case of corticobasal syndrome (CBS) showing disease-associated biomarkers of dementia with Lewy bodies (DLB).

Methods: Clinical, neuropsychological, imaging, and biomarker evaluations were conducted, including tau and amyloid-β levels in the cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) and a RT-QuIC assay for α-synuclein both in the CSF and olfactory mucosa (OM), as well as a QEEG assessment.

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Introduction: Myasthenia gravis (MG) is an autoimmune disease, for which the risk of exacerbation after vaccines is debated. The aim of this study is to review the available literature concerning safety and efficacy of vaccines in MG. In addition, we also conducted a retrospective research of MG exacerbations and new onset MG after anti-SARS-CoV-2 vaccination in a large cohort of patients.

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Background: Functional neurological disorders (FND) are disabling medical conditions commonly seen in neurological practice. Neurologists play an essential role in managing FND, from establishing a diagnosis to coordination of multidisciplinary team-based treatment for patients. With this study, we investigated the knowledge and the clinical experience of Italian neurologists in managing patients with FND.

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Objective: To validate the Italian version of the Myasthenia Gravis Impairment Index (MGII).

Introduction: MGII is a recent promising measure developed for MG patient evaluation. It includes a clinical severity evaluation and a patient-reported questionnaire.

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Article Synopsis
  • The study aimed to explore how traditional stroke risk factors affect the likelihood of intracerebral hemorrhage (ICH) based on age.
  • Researchers conducted a case-control analysis involving 3,492 ICH patients and an equal number of stroke-free controls from a multi-center study in Italy.
  • Results indicated that untreated hypertension significantly increases ICH risk more in younger individuals, while untreated hypercholesterolemia's impact decreases with age; untreated diabetes and high alcohol intake were only risky for older adults.
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Background: COVID-19 pandemic has boosted telemedicine in medical clinical practice. Experiences in the management of chronic neurological disorders are limited and scattered. The aim of the study was to evaluate feasibility and efficacy of virtual visit for chronic neurological disorders during COVID-19 pandemic.

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Introduction And Study Aim: Embolic strokes of undetermined source (ESUS) represent a rather recent diagnostic entity under clinical research for relapse prevention in cryptogenic stroke patients. Despite strict diagnostic criteria, ESUS definition ignores major clinical and radiological aspects, so including heterogeneous cases and probably influencing trial results. This study researches clinically relevant phenotypes among ESUS patients.

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Objective: To investigate the role of alcohol as a causal factor for intracerebral hemorrhage (ICH) and whether its effects might vary according to the pathogenic mechanisms underlying cerebral bleeding.

Methods: We performed a case-control analysis, comparing a cohort of consecutive white patients with ICH aged 55 years and older with a group of age- and sex-matched stroke-free controls, enrolled in the setting of the Multicenter Study on Cerebral Haemorrhage in Italy (MUCH-Italy) between 2002 and 2014. Participants were dichotomized into excessive drinkers (>45 g of alcohol) and light to moderate drinkers or nondrinkers.

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Aim: To evaluate the protective role of routine shunting in patients with acute watershed stroke (WS) undergoing carotid endarterectomy (CEA).

Methods: A total of 138 patients with symptomatic carotid stenosis (SCS) who underwent CEA after acute ischemic stroke from March 2008 to March 2015 were included in this study. Transient ischemic attacks were excluded.

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Importance: Although sparse observational studies have suggested a link between migraine and cervical artery dissection (CEAD), any association between the 2 disorders is still unconfirmed. This lack of a definitive conclusion might have implications in understanding the pathogenesis of both conditions and the complex relationship between migraine and ischemic stroke (IS).

Objective: To investigate whether a history of migraine and its subtypes is associated with the occurrence of CEAD.

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Article Synopsis
  • A study compared the effectiveness of percutaneous PFO closure versus medical therapy for preventing further embolisms in young patients (ages 18 to 45) who had experienced unexplained ischemic strokes.
  • Out of 521 patients analyzed, rates of subsequent strokes and brain ischemia were similar between both treatment groups, with PFO closure showing a slight advantage among younger patients and those with larger shunt sizes.
  • The findings suggest that while PFO closure is comparable to medical treatment, it may be particularly beneficial for specific subgroups, warranting further research into targeted treatment strategies.
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Objective: Although a concern exists that 3-hydroxy-3-methylglutaryl coenzyme A reductase inhibitors (statins) might increase the risk of intracerebral haemorrhage (ICH), the contribution of these agents to the relationship between serum cholesterol and disease occurrence has been poorly investigated.

Methods: We compared consecutive patients having ICH with age and sex-matched stroke-free control subjects in a case-control analysis, as part of the Multicenter Study on Cerebral Haemorrhage in Italy (MUCH-Italy), and tested the presence of interaction effects between total serum cholesterol levels and statins on the risk of ICH.

Results: A total of 3492 cases (mean age, 73.

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Factors predicting family history (FH) of premature arterial thrombosis in young patients with ischaemic stroke (IS) have not been extensively investigated, and whether they might influence the risk of post-stroke recurrence is still unknown. In the present study we analysed 1,881 consecutive first-ever IS patients aged 18-45 years recruited from January 2000 to January 2012 as part of the Italian Project on Stroke in Young Adults (IPSYS). FH of premature arterial thrombosis was any thrombotic event [IS, myocardial infarction or other arterial events event] < 45 years in proband's first-degree relatives.

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Background: Data on long-term risk and predictors of recurrent thrombotic events after ischemic stroke at a young age are limited.

Methods And Results: We followed 1867 patients with first-ever ischemic stroke who were 18 to 45 years of age (mean age, 36.8±7.

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Inflammation of central nervous system (CNS) is usually associated with trauma and infection. Neuroinflammation occurs in close relation to trauma, infection, and neurodegenerative diseases. Low-level neuroinflammation is considered to have beneficial effects whereas chronic neuroinflammation can be harmful.

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Huntington's disease (HD) is a progressive neurodegenerative disorder that is caused by abnormal expansion of CAG trinucleotide repeats. Neuroinflammation is a typical feature of most neurodegenerative diseases that leads to an array of pathological changes within the affected areas in the brain. The neurodegeneration in HD is also caused by aberrant immune response in the presence of aggregated mutant huntingtin protein.

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Empirical evidence indicates that cognitive consequences of cerebellar lesions tend to be mild and less important than the symptoms due to lesions to cerebral areas. By contrast, imaging studies consistently report strong cerebellar activity during tasks of action observation and action understanding. This has been interpreted as part of the automatic motor simulation process that takes place in the context of action observation.

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Background: The recent literature suggests that the incidence and prevalence of myasthenia gravis (MG) are changing. We performed a population-based study of MG in the province of Trentino (524,826 inhabitants) and compared the results with those collected 20 years ago.

Methods: Multiple sources of information (discharge diagnosis, antibody tests and anticholinesterase drugs) were analyzed.

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