Publications by authors named "Gaetano Bernardi"

Rheumatoid meningitis (RM) is a rare but often aggressive neurological complication of rheumatoid arthritis. The diagnosis of RM, besides the clinical, radiological, and laboratory criteria, usually requires a cerebral biopsy. Based on the two cases presented in this paper, we propose a new laboratory marker.

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We present the case of a man exhibiting a clinical phenotype of behavioral variant of frontotemporal dementia (bvFTD). The man had developed psychiatric disturbances with verbal aggressiveness over a few months, followed by cognitive and frontal behavioral disorders, fulfilling the clinical criteria for bvFTD. Atrophy and hypometabolism in frontotemporal regions were consistent with the diagnosis.

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Article Synopsis
  • The kappa index (K-Index) measures intrathecal immunoglobulin synthesis using a specific ratio of cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) and serum markers, but there's little data on how consistent these measurements are across different labs.
  • In a study involving 15 paired CSF and serum samples analyzed by eight laboratories, there was excellent agreement in CSF KFLC measurements and good agreement in serum KFLC across different testing methods.
  • The concordance for positive K-Index results was substantial overall and very good among certain laboratories, indicating that patients are unlikely to receive conflicting results regarding K-Index positivity despite variations in testing techniques.
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Background: Cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) free light chains (FLCs) can be an alternative assay to oligoclonal bands (OCBs) in inflammatory neurological disorders, but threshold has no consensus.

Objective: To assess the diagnostic accuracy of CSF FLCs in multiple sclerosis (MS) and other neurological diseases.

Methods: A total of 406 patients from five Italian centers.

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This document presents the guidelines for onconeural antibody testing that have been developed following a consensus process built on questionnaire-based surveys, internet contacts, and discussions at workshops of the sponsoring Italian Association of Neuroimmunology (AINI) congresses. Essential clinical information on paraneoplastic neurological syndromes, indications and limits of onconeural antibody testing, instructions for result interpretation, and an agreed laboratory protocol (Appendix) are reported for the communicative community of neurologists and clinical pathologists.

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This document presents the guidelines for the cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) analysis and the determination of oligoclonal bands (OCBs) as pivotal tests in neuroinflammatory pathologies of the central nervous system. The guidelines have been developed following a consensus process built on questionnaire-based surveys, internet contacts, and discussions at workshops of the sponsoring Italian Association of Neuroimmunology (AINI) congresses. Essential clinical information on the pathologies in which the CSF analysis is indicated, and, particularly, on those characterized by the presence of OCBs in the intrathecal compartment, indications and limits of CSF analysis and OCB determination, instructions for result interpretation, and agreed laboratory protocols (Appendix) are reported for the communicative community of neurologists and clinical pathologists.

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Biomarkers of brain amyloidosis and neurodegeneration/synaptic dysfunction are featured in recent diagnostic criteria for Alzheimer's disease. Several gaps in our knowledge, however, need to be filled before they can be adopted clinically. The aim of this article is to describe a roadmap, developed by a multidisciplinary task force, to rationally implement biomarkers for Italian Memory Clinics.

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Although the use of cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) amyloid β1-42 (Aβ42), tau (T-tau), and phosphorylated tau (p-tau181) gives added diagnostic and prognostic values, the diffusion is still limited in clinical practice and only a restricted number of patients receive an integrated clinico-biological diagnosis. By a survey, we aimed to do a "selfie" of the use and diffusion of CSF biomarkers of dementia in Italy, the standardization of pre-analytical procedures, the harmonization of ranges, and the participation to Quality Control programs. An online questionnaire was sent to the members of SIBioC and SINdem-ITALPLANED and to main neurological clinics all over Italy.

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The purpose of this study is to describe the epidemiological surveillance of microbiological sentinel events (SEs) carried out between 2012 and 2014 at the Neurological Hospital Carlo Besta, Milano, Italy. The setting is inpatient care with multidrug-resistant infections. The aim of the procedure is to formalize the management mode, reporting and transmission of SEs.

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Paraneoplastic neurological syndromes (PNSs) are a group of immune-mediated neurological disorders occurring in patients with systemic cancers which are associated with the presence of anti-neuronal antibodies. In this retrospective study, serum and cerebrospinal fluid of 489 patients were analyzed for the presence of well characterized onconeural antibodies. The 18 PNS patients positive for onconeural antibodies were reanalyzed to evaluate possible intrathecal synthesis.

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Susac's Syndrome (SS) is an autoimmune endotheliopathy of cerebral, retinal and cochlear arterioles. We report of an HIV-infected woman who developed a first SS episode following a spontaneous reduction of plasma viral load and several relapses six years later, following initiation of combined antiretroviral therapy (cART). Corticosteroids and intravenous immunoglobulins alone did not control the disease, which improved after combined treatment with acyclovir and ganciclovir.

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High-grade gliomas are highly vascularized tumors, in which the amount of new blood vessels is closely related with the degree of malignancy. The role of endothelial progenitor cells (EPCs) in the neoangiogenesis of gliomas and the effects of post-surgical therapies (i.e.

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In recent years, the involvement of the immune system in acquired forms of cerebellar ataxia has been frequently demonstrated. In this study, we describe 6 out of 49 patients with subacute or chronic progressive cerebellar ataxia in whom antibodies against neuronal and non-neuronal antigens were identified. Two women had anti-Yo antibodies; two patients had anti-gliadin antibodies in the presence of celiac disease; one patient had a complex autoimmune disorder associated with anti-Ro-52/SS-A and anti-muscle-specific kinase antibodies, and a patient developed subacute cerebellar syndrome associated with the presence of a prostatic adenocarcinoma and atypical antibodies reacting both with cerebellar tissue and with the prostatic tumor.

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Background: Identification of neoplastic cells in cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) by cytological analysis is the key diagnostic feature of leptomeningeal metastasis (LM). Because of the lack of sensitivity of this test, considerable efforts have been made to identify alternative diagnostic markers. Data from the literature suggest that measurement of tumor markers (TM) in CSF may be helpful for improving the diagnosis.

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A group of neurologists and clinical neurochemists representing twelve countries worked towards a consensus on laboratory techniques to improve the quality of analysis and interpretation of cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) proteins. Consensus was approached via a virtual Lotus Notes-based TeamRoom. This new approach respecting multicultural differences, common views, and minority opinions, is available in http://www.

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Rasmussen's encephalitis (RE) is a rare condition characterized by drug-resistant seizures, recurrent status epilepticus and progressive lateralized neurological deterioration. There is evidence of autoimmune involvement in the pathogenesis. We investigated the presence of anti-GluR3 antibodies against peptides A and B in patients with RE (n=11), partial and generalized epilepsy (n=85) and other neurological diseases (n=30).

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Background: Intravenous methylprednisolone hemisuccinate is administered to patients with multiple sclerosis (MS) during exacerbations to improve the rate of recovery. Corticosteroids could be beneficial in MS exacerbations also by decreasing transmigration of peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMNCs) through the blood-brain barrier.

Objectives: To evaluate how in vivo intravenous methylprednisolone treatment in patients with MS could influence transmigration of PBMNCs in an in vitro model; to perform transmigration experiments through a methylprednisolone-treated endothelium with PBMNCs from untreated healthy control subjects to evaluate putative selective effects of corticosteroids on endothelium; concomitantly, to quantify the concentration of matrix metalloproteinases 2 and 9 in supernatants of PBMNCs and in serum samples from methylprednisolone-treated patients with MS; to evaluate monokine induced by interferon-gamma release in the supernatants of human umbilical vein endothelial cells treated with interferon-gamma alone or interferon-gamma and methylprednisolone; and to perform gene expression studies of matrix metalloproteinases 2 and 9 in human umbilical vein endothelial cells and PBMNCs from methylprednisolone-treated patients with MS.

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