Background: The efficacy of subthalamic stimulation on axial signs of Parkinson's disease (PD) is debated in the literature. This study delves into the dynamic interplay of gait and posture, specifically probing their nuanced response to subthalamic stimulation and levodopa.
Methods: We used wearable sensor technology to examine alterations in the spatiotemporal parameters of gait and posture in individuals with PD before and 6 months after subthalamic deep brain stimulation (STN-DBS) surgery.
Background: Progressive Supranuclear Palsy (PSP) is a rare, heterogeneous neurodegenerative disease for which no treatment is currently available. In the context of clinical trials, the representativeness of the included patients is crucial for the generalizability of the results. Herein, we present results from a multicenter perspective study to identify the most restrictive criteria for patient selection and to assess the representativeness of eligible patients.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFObjectives: Neuropsychiatric symptoms, such as apathy, disinhibition and irritability, are common in Progressive Supranuclear Palsy (PSP). The Frontal Behaviour Inventory (FBI) is a useful instrument for the evaluation of behavioural disorders in neurodegenerative diseases. The main goal of the present study was to explore the psychometric properties of the FBI in PSP.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground And Purpose: Centers for training in autonomic nervous system (ANS) disorders are not widely available and the recent coronavirus 2019 pandemic temporarily reduced training opportunities in autonomic medicine across European countries. Here we evaluated the current state of education, clinical skills and postgraduate educational preferences on ANS disorders of European neurology residents and consultants.
Methods: A 23-item questionnaire was developed and distributed online amongst European neurology residents and consultants via mailing lists of the European Academy of Neurology.
Background: Plasma levels of the catecholamine norepinephrine (NE) has emerged as a useful tool to help differentiate pre- and post-ganglionic disorders in patients with cardiovascular autonomic failure (AF). However, data on intrasubject reliability in individuals with these conditions are limited. We evaluated the intrasubject reproducibility of supine plasma NE levels drawn across two consecutive time points under controlled conditions during head-up table testing in a large cohort of patients with alpha-synucleinopathies and both pre- and post-ganglionic cardiovascular AF.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFParkinsonism Relat Disord
August 2024
Background: In spite of being considered the gold-standard of care, little is known about the real-life use of in-home and multidisciplinary care in atypical parkinsonism.
Objective: Primary: Examine real-life multidisciplinary care use for Progressive Supranuclear Palsy (PSP). Secondary: a) Compare PSP care to advanced Parkinson's disease (APD) care; (b) Explore demographic and clinical variables associated with care needs in both groups.
. Recent innovative neurostimulators allow recording local field potentials (LFPs) while performing motor tasks monitored by wearable sensors. Inertial sensors can provide quantitative measures of motor impairment in people with subthalamic nucleus deep brain stimulation.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Blood pressure control in Parkinson's disease (PD) under subthalamic deep brain stimulation (STN-DBS) is influenced by several intertwined aspects, including autonomic failure and levodopa treatment.
Objective: To evaluate the effect of chronic STN-DBS, levodopa, and their combination on cardiovascular autonomic functions in PD.
Methods: We performed cardiovascular reflex tests (CRTs) before and 6-months after STN-DBS surgery in 20 PD patients (pre-DBS vs.
The most critical burden for People with Epilepsy (PwE) is represented by seizures, the unpredictability of which severely impacts quality of life. The design of real-time warning systems that can detect or even predict ictal events would enhance seizure management, leading to high benefits for PwE and their caregivers. In the past, various research works highlighted that seizure onset is anticipated by significant changes in autonomic cardiac control, which can be assessed through heart rate variability (HRV).
View Article and Find Full Text PDFJ Parkinsons Dis
March 2024
Background: Increased prevalence of cardiovascular autonomic failure might play a key role on Parkinson's disease (PD) progression of glucocerebrosidase gene (GBA)-mutated patients, determining a malignant phenotype of disease in these patients.
Objective: To objectively characterize, for the first time, the cardiovascular autonomic profile of GBA-mutated patients compared to idiopathic PD patients by means of cardiovascular reflex tests (CRTs).
Methods: This is a case-control (1 : 2) study on PD patients belonging to well-characterized prospective cohorts.
Background: Functional motor disorders (FMD) are a frequent neurological condition affecting patients with movement disorders. Commonly described in younger adults, their manifestation can be also associated to an elderly onset.
Objective: To assess the prevalence and describe the clinical manifestations of FMD with elderly and younger onset and their relationship with demographical and clinical variables.
Purpose: To understand the influence of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic on clinical autonomic education and research in Europe.
Methods: We invited 84 European autonomic centers to complete an online survey, recorded the pre-pandemic-to-pandemic percentage of junior participants in the annual congresses of the European Federation of Autonomic Societies (EFAS) and European Academy of Neurology (EAN) and the pre-pandemic-to-pandemic number of PubMed publications on neurological disorders.
Results: Forty-six centers answered the survey (55%).
Background And Objective: Early-onset Parkinson's disease (EOPD) commonly recognizes a genetic basis; thus, patients with EOPD are often addressed to diagnostic testing based on next-generation sequencing (NGS) of PD-associated multigene panels. However, NGS interpretation can be challenging in a diagnostic setting, and few studies have addressed this issue so far.
Methods: We retrospectively collected data from 648 patients with PD with age at onset younger than 55 years who underwent NGS of a minimal shared panel of 15 PD-related genes, as well as PD-multiplex ligation-dependent probe amplification in eight Italian diagnostic laboratories.
Background And Purpose: Levodopa (LD) is the main treatment for parkinsonism, but its use may be limited by a potential hypotensive effect.
Methods: We evaluated the cardiovascular effect of LD performing head-up tilt test (HUTT) before and 60 min after 100/25 mg LD/dopa-decarboxylase inhibitor (pre-LD vs. post-LD HUTT) in 164 patients with parkinsonism on chronic LD treatment.
Introduction: Health administrative databases are widely used for the estimation of the prevalence of Parkinson's disease (PD). Few in general, and none used in Italy, have been validated by testing their diagnostic accuracy. The primary objective was to validate two algorithms for the identification of persons with PD using clinical diagnosis as the reference standard on an Italian sample of people with PD.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFFront Neurol
May 2023
Introduction: Subthalamic (STN) local field potentials (LFPs) in the beta band are considered potential biomarkers for closed-loop deep brain stimulation (DBS) in Parkinson's disease (PD). The beta band is further dissected into low-and high-frequency components with somewhat different functions, although their concomitance and association in the single patient is far to be defined. We present a 56-year-old male PD patient undergoing DBS showing a double-beta peak activity on both sides.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFIsolated REM Sleep Behavior Disorder (iRBD) is the strongest prodromal marker for α-synucleinopathies. Overt α-synucleinopathies and aging share several mechanisms, but this relationship has been poorly investigated in prodromal phases. Using DNA methylation-based epigenetic clocks, we measured biological aging in videopolysomnography confirmed iRBD patients, videopolysomnography-negative and population-based controls.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFEur J Neurol
March 2023
Objective: To investigate the impact of the coronavirus-disease-2019 (COVID-19) pandemic on European clinical autonomic practice.
Methods: Eighty-four neurology-driven or interdisciplinary autonomic centers in 22 European countries were invited to fill in a web-based survey between September and November 2021.
Results: Forty-six centers completed the survey (55%).
Introduction: Functional Motor Disorders (FMDs) represent nosological entities with no clear phenotypic characterization, especially in patients with multiple (combined FMDs) motor manifestations. A data-driven approach using cluster analysis of clinical data has been proposed as an analytic method to obtain non-hierarchical unbiased classifications. The study aimed to identify clinical subtypes of combined FMDs using a data-driven approach to overcome possible limits related to "a priori" classifications and clinical overlapping.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Different studies, mostly with limited cohorts, have suggested the effects of patients' characteristics on levodopa (LD) pharmacokinetics.
Objective: We primarily aimed at investigating in a large population the relationship between patients' features and LD kinetic variables, to assess the main demographic and clinical predictors of LD clinical pharmacokinetics.
Methods: The study was retrospective, based on data collected from subjects with parkinsonism on chronic LD undergoing LD therapeutic monitoring (TM).