Psychometric Properties of the Revised Clinical Institute Withdrawal Alcohol Assessment and the Brief Alcohol Withdrawal Scale in a Psychiatric Population.

Objective: Psychiatric illness complicates the assessment of alcohol and sedative withdrawal (ASW). This study measured the diagnostic characteristics of the Revised Clinical Institute Withdrawal Alcohol Assessment (CIWA-Ar) and the Brief Alcohol Withdrawal Scale (BAWS) compared with a reference standard in patients with psychiatric illness and evaluated their administration time.

Methods: This prospective quality improvement (QI) project conducted in November, 2016 evaluated 35 consecutive unique patients in psychiatric settings.

Type a niemann-pick disease. Description of three cases with delayed myelination.

We describe three patients with type A Niemann-Pick disease (NPD-A). NPD-A is an autosomal recessive neuronal storage disease classified among the sphingolipidoses, characterized by accumulation of sphingomyelin in various tissues and in the brain. Magnetic Resonance imaging (MRI) of our three patients showed a marked delay of myelination with frontal atrophy.

Progression of coronary artery calcification in predialysis patients.

Background: In patients on dialysis coronary artery calcification (CAC) rapidly proceeds due to impaired mineral metabolism and/or exogenous calcium load. Progression has not been assessed in patients with chronic kidney disease not yet requiring dialysis (CKD patients). In this study, rate and determinants of CAC progression have been evaluated in CKD patients who are exposed to minor derangement of mineral metabolism and calcium load.

Ectopic suprasellar pituitary adenoma. A case report.

The occurrence of a pituitary adenoma located entirely outside the sella turcica, so-called ectopic adenoma, is extremely rare. We report a case of a non secreting-pituitary adenoma located above the diaphragma sellae, with no invasion into the sella turcica, confirmed at surgery. The tumor was initially treated unsuccessfully by operations via the transphenoidal route.

Brain damage in glycogen storage disease type I.

Objective: To investigate brain morphology and function in patients with glycogen storage disease type I (GSDI).

Study Design: Nineteen patients (13 females and 6 males, aged 0.9-22.

fMRI of the auditory system: understanding the neural basis of auditory gestalt.

Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) has rapidly become the most widely used imaging method for studying brain functions in humans. This is a result of its extreme flexibility of use and of the astonishingly detailed spatial and temporal information it provides. Nevertheless, until very recently, the study of the auditory system has progressed at a considerably slower pace compared to other functional systems.

High field functional MRI.

Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) has become the most widely used approach for studying brain functions in humans. The rapid and widespread diffusion of fMRI has been favoured by the properties this technique presents, and particularly by its sensitivity in analysing brain functional phenomena and by the lack of biological invasiveness, resulting in an unprecedented and unparalleled flexibility of use. These properties of fMRI brought the functional examination of the brain within the reach of the whole neuroscience community and have appreciably stimulated the research on the functional processes of the living brain.

Neural processing of auditory looming in the human brain.

Acoustic intensity change, along with interaural, spectral, and reverberation information, is an important cue for the perception of auditory motion. Approaching sound sources produce increases in intensity, and receding sound sources produce corresponding decreases. Human listeners typically overestimate increasing compared to equivalent decreasing sound intensity and underestimate the time to contact of approaching sound sources.

Coordinate and categorical judgements in spatial imagery. An fMRI study.

We aimed at verifying whether the hemispheric specialisation for categorical/coordinate spatial judgements also applies to the spatial imagery domain by the use of whole-brain fMRI. In a block-design experiment we used the "coordinate" mental clock test, contrasting it with a "categorical" task applied to the same clock stimuli; as a control task we used a syllable counting task requiring a verbal-phonological judgement on the same material of the two imagery tasks. Our results showed that categorical and coordinate spatial judgements on imagined stimuli rely on the activation of a set of cortical areas, centred upon the superior parietal lobule (SPL) bilaterally.

Patterns of recovery and change in verbal and nonverbal functions in a case of crossed aphasia: implications for models of functional brain lateralization and localization.

We present a 2-year verbal and nonverbal follow-up of a crossed aphasic patient. The patient had suffered from widespread ischemic damage in the area of right middle cerebral artery, with a parieto-temporal lesion. Three months postonset he showed classical Wernicke's aphasia associated with oral, limb and constructional apraxia and left hemineglect.

How many alien hand syndromes? Follow-up of a case.

We report the follow-up of a patient affected by a persistent alien left nondominant hand. CT and MRI showed an ischemic lesion localized to the mesial frontal region and involving the supplementary motor area and anterior fibers of the corpus callosum. These findings support theories suggesting a critical role of both these lesions in determining "chronic" forms of alien hand of either upper limb.

[MR vs CT: which is the diagnostic advantage in neuroradiology].

The comparative adequacy was studied of the two main neuroradiological imaging methods, MR imaging and CT, through the analysis of 1500 MR examinations with a preliminary CT study. The comparison was made by giving a score to the diagnostic contribution of MR imaging, especially as far as changes in the therapeutical approach were concerned. The results varied according to the various pathologies, to the different anatomical regions explored, and to the site of the masses.

Craniopharyngioma of the cranial base and nasopharynx.

A rare case of craniopharyngioma extending to the cranial base and nasopharynx is reported and eight other cases in the literature are reviewed. The embryology and the clinical features of these tumors are discussed. Tomograms of the skull and computed tomography are the most useful radiological tools of investigation.

[The spinal vacuum phenomenon. Radiographic and tomodensitometry aspects].

The spinal vacuum phenomenon is readily recognized by computed tomography: there fore its observation has become frequent enough. The side of the gaseous collection (intervertebral disk, vertebral body, apophyseal joint) depends on the disease inducing the phenomenon. Radiological and CT aspects of this findings are discussed.