The impact of epilepsy on sleep architecture during childhood.

Purpose: The effect of etiology on the relationship between epilepsy and sleep during childhood has not been studied in detail. The aim of this study was to evaluate differences in sleep structure in drug-resistant epilepsies with different underlying causes.

Methods: We studied 31 patients with drug-resistant epilepsies with or without a structural lesion (lesional and nonlesional) and compared their sleep architecture with that of normal controls and with that of a group of children with benign epilepsy with rolandic spikes (BERS).

The role of NREM sleep instability in child cognitive performance.

Study Objectives: Based on recent reports of the involvement of cyclic alternating pattern (CAP) in cognitive functioning in adults, we investigated the association between CAP parameters and cognitive performance in healthy children.

Design: Polysomnographic assessment and standardized neurocognitive testing in healthy children.

Settings: Sleep laboratory.

Heavy Metals in Soil and Salad in the Proximity of Historical Ferroalloy Emission.

Emissions of manganese (Mn), lead (Pb), iron (Fe), zinc (Zn), copper (Cu) from ferro-alloy operations has taken place in Valcamonica, a pre-Alp valley in the province of Brescia, Italy, for about a century until 2001. Metal concentrations were measured in the soil of local home gardens and in the cultivated vegetables. Soil analysis was carried out using a portable X-Ray Fluorescence (XRF) spectrometer in both surface soil and at 10 cm depth.

Defining the borders between Sleep-Related Eating Disorder and Night Eating Syndrome.

Objectives: Nocturnal eating is a common symptom of two clinical conditions with different pathogenesis and needing different therapeutic approaches: Sleep Related Eating Disorder (SRED) and Night Eating Syndrome (NES). The first is considered a parasomnia while the second is an eating disorder; however, the distinction between SRED and NES is still a controversial matter. The aim of this study was to better define psychological, behavioral, and polysomnographic characteristics of the two syndromes.

A preliminary quantitative analysis of REM sleep chin EMG in Parkinson's disease with or without REM sleep behavior disorder.

Objectives: To compare REM sleep chin EMG quantitative features between Parkinson's disease (PD) patients with or without REM sleep behavior disorder (RBD).

Subjects And Methods: Twenty-seven consecutive PD patients (mean age 67.9 years) and 19 normal controls (mean age 67.

Effects of replacement therapy on sleep architecture in children with growth hormone deficiency.

Objective: Children with GH deficiency (GHD) show a general decrease in electroencephalographic (EEG) arousability represented by a significant global decrease in Cyclic Alternating Pattern (CAP). The aim of the present study was to evaluate if sleep structure is influenced by GH substitutive therapy by analyzing the classical sleep architecture parameters and sleep microstructure by means of CAP.

Subjects And Methods: Laboratory polysomnographic sleep recordings were obtained from five children affected by GHD (two girls and three boys; mean age: 4.

Genome-wide haplotype association study identifies the FRMD4A gene as a risk locus for Alzheimer's disease.

Recently, several genome-wide association studies (GWASs) have led to the discovery of nine new loci of genetic susceptibility in Alzheimer's disease (AD). However, the landscape of the AD genetic susceptibility is far away to be complete and in addition to single-SNP (single-nucleotide polymorphism) analyses as performed in conventional GWAS, complementary strategies need to be applied to overcome limitations inherent to this type of approaches. We performed a genome-wide haplotype association (GWHA) study in the EADI1 study (n=2025 AD cases and 5328 controls) by applying a sliding-windows approach.

Sleep instability and cognitive status in drug-resistant epilepsies.

Objective: The aims of this study were to evaluate the sleep habits of children with drug resistant epilepsy and to correlate sleep abnormalities with epilepsy and level of intelligence.

Subjects And Methods: Twenty five subjects with drug resistant epilepsy (14 males, age range 2-16.4 years) were recruited for this study.

Phenotypic heterogeneity in hereditary motor neuropathy type V: a new case report series.

Previous studies have revealed a wide phenotypic heterogeneity in hereditary motor neuropathy type V in which upper and lower motor neurons and peripheral motor axons are variously affected, even within the same family. In this case series, we describe the genetic, clinical and electrophysiological features of patients belonging to a four-generation Italian family. Because of a possible anticipation phenomenon, the disorder became apparent at an earlier age as it passed to the next generation, with a median age of onset of 65 years for the first 2 generations, 32 for the third, and 13.

Prevalence of sleep disturbances in mild cognitive impairment and dementing disorders: a multicenter Italian clinical cross-sectional study on 431 patients.

Background/aims: Sleep disturbances are common in the elderly and in persons with cognitive decline. The aim of this study was to describe frequency and characteristics of insomnia, excessive daytime sleepiness, sleep-disordered breathing, REM behavior disorder and restless legs syndrome in a large cohort of persons with mild cognitive impairment or dementia.

Methods: 431 consecutive patients were enrolled in 10 Italian neurological centers: 204 had Alzheimer's disease, 138 mild cognitive impairment, 43 vascular dementia, 25 frontotemporal dementia and 21 Lewy body dementia or Parkinson's disease dementia.

Leg movements during wakefulness in restless legs syndrome: time structure and relationships with periodic leg movements during sleep.

Background And Objective: Approximately one third of patients with restless legs syndrome (RLS) also show periodic leg movements (PLM) during relaxed wake fulness (PLMW). In contrast with the large amount of data published on periodic leg movements during sleep (PLMS), PLMW have received less attention from the scientific community. The objective of this study was to evaluate the correlations/differences of time-structure and response to a dopamine-agonist between PLMW and PLMS in patients with RLS.

Resting state cortical electroencephalographic rhythms are related to gray matter volume in subjects with mild cognitive impairment and Alzheimer's disease.

Cortical gray matter volume and resting state cortical electroencephalographic rhythms are typically abnormal in subjects with amnesic mild cognitive impairment (MCI) and Alzheimer's disease (AD). Here we tested the hypothesis that in amnesic MCI and AD subjects, abnormalities of EEG rhythms are a functional reflection of cortical atrophy across the disease. Eyes-closed resting state EEG data were recorded in 57 healthy elderly (Nold), 102 amnesic MCI, and 108 AD patients.

The time structure of leg movement activity during sleep: the theory behind the practice.

This paper evaluates, in both the theoretical and practical frameworks, the value of the application of the current criteria for the scoring of leg movement activity during sleep, recorded in clinical and research settings, for the study of restless legs syndrome (RLS) and other conditions. Recently, new parameters have been introduced to better describe the time structure of leg movement activity during sleep. The periodicity index, the distribution of inter-movement intervals, and the hourly distribution of periodic leg movements during sleep have emerged as valuable descriptors.

Sleep cyclic alternating pattern analysis in infants with apparent life-threatening events: a daytime polysomnographic study.

Objective: Non-REM sleep is characterized by a physiologic oscillating pattern that exhibits different levels of arousal, coded as cyclic alternating pattern. The aim of this study was to analyze the development of cyclic alternating pattern parameters in a group of infants with apparent life-threatening events.

Methods: A total of 26 infants with apparent life-threatening events (14 females, mean age 3.

Motor events during REM sleep in patients with narcolepsy-cataplexy: a video-polysomnographic pilot study.

Objective: We carried out a systematic video-polysomnographic analysis of the number and type of motor events during REM sleep in narcolepsy-cataplexy patients with REM sleep behavior disorder (NC + RBD) but not clinical RBD (NC-RBD).

Methods: Twelve NC + RBD and 10 NC-RBD male patients underwent video-polysomnography (video-PSG). Motor events of different type and complexity (i.

Ligand-dependent EGFR activation induces the co-expression of IL-6 and PAI-1 via the NFkB pathway in advanced-stage epithelial ovarian cancer.

The epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR), a member of the ErbB family of receptor tyrosine kinases, is expressed in up to 70% of epithelial ovarian cancers (EOCs), where it correlates with poor prognosis. The majority of EOCs are diagnosed at an advanced stage, and at least 50% present malignant ascites. High levels of IL-6 have been found in the ascites of EOC patients and correlate with shorter survival.

A new quantitative automatic method for the measurement of non-rapid eye movement sleep electroencephalographic amplitude variability.

The aim of this study was to arrange an automatic quantitative measure of the electroencephalographic (EEG) signal amplitude variability during non-rapid eye movement (NREM) sleep, correlated with the visually extracted cyclic alternating pattern (CAP) parameters. Ninety-eight polysomnographic EEG recordings of normal controls were used. A new algorithm based on the analysis of the EEG amplitude variability during NREM sleep was designed and applied to all recordings, which were also scored visually for CAP.

Resting state cortical rhythms in mild cognitive impairment and Alzheimer's disease: electroencephalographic evidence.

Physiological brain aging is characterized by a combination of synaptic pruning, loss of cortico-cortical connections and neuronal apoptosis that provoke age-dependent decline of cognitive functions. Neural/synaptic redundancy and plastic remodeling of brain networking, also secondary to mental and physical training, promotes maintenance of brain activity in healthy elderly for everyday life and fully productive affective and intellectual capabilities. Unfortunately, in pathological situations, aging triggers neurodegenerative processes that impact on cognition, like Alzheimer's disease (AD).

A quantitative analysis of the submentalis muscle electromyographic amplitude during rapid eye movement sleep across the lifespan.

The current definition of rapid eye movement (REM) sleep without atonia has no quantitative character, and cut-off values above which the level of electromyographic tone can be considered to be 'excessive' are unclear. The aim of this study was to analyse the characteristics of chin electromyographic amplitude by means of an automatic approach in a large group of normal controls, subdivided into different age groups. Eighty-eight normal controls were included, subdivided into six age groups: preschoolers (≤6 years); schoolers (6-10 years); preadolescents (10-13 years); young adults (24-40 years); middle-aged (58-65 years); and old (>65 years).

Motor cortex excitability in vascular depression.

The aim of this study was to evaluate excitatory/inhibitory intracortical circuit changes in patients with vascular depression, and whether there are any interhemispheric differences of motor cortical excitability. Fifteen vascular depressed elderly (VD), ten nondepressed subcortical vascular disease patients (SVD) and ten age-matched controls underwent bilateral motor threshold and paired-pulse studies. They were also assessed for their brain vascular burden at MRI and neuropsychological profile.

The CC genotype of transforming growth factor-β1 increases the risk of late-onset Alzheimer's disease and is associated with AD-related depression.

Transforming growth factor-β1 (TGF-β1) is a neurotrophic factor that exerts neuroprotective effects against β-amyloid-induced neurodegeneration. Recently, a specific impairment of the TGF-β1 signaling pathway has been demonstrated in Alzheimer's disease (AD) brain. TGF-β1 is also involved in the pathogenesis of depressive disorders, which may occur in 30-40% of AD patients.

Enhanced motor cortex facilitation in patients with vascular cognitive impairment-no dementia.

Data on Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation (TMS) derived measures of cortical excitability and intracortical circuits in age-related white matter changes are scarce. We aimed to assess early changes of motor cortex excitability in nondemented elderly patients with subcortical ischemic vascular disease (SVD). Ten SVD elderly and ten age-matched controls underwent paired-pulse TMS for the analysis of intracortical inhibition (ICI) and facilitation (ICF).