Guideline-directed medical therapy in severe heart failure with reduced ejection fraction: An analysis from the HELP-HF registry.

Aim: Persistent symptoms despite guideline-directed medical therapy (GDMT) and poor tolerance of GDMT are hallmarks of patients with advanced heart failure (HF) with reduced ejection fraction (HFrEF). However, real-world data on GDMT use, dose, and prognostic implications are lacking.

Methods And Results: We included 699 consecutive patients with HFrEF and at least one 'I NEED HELP' marker for advanced HF enrolled in a multicentre registry.

The sequelae of mastectomy and quadrantectomy with respect to the reaching movement in breast cancer survivors: evidence for an integrated rehabilitation protocol during oncological care.

Background: Breast cancer (BC) is the most common cancer among women in developed countries. Several types of surgical interventions are commonly used in BC, such as mastectomy and quadrantectomy, followed by radiation or not. Today, BC rehabilitation can help survivors obtain and maintain the highest physical, social, psychological, and vocational functioning possible, within the limits that are created by cancer and its treatments.

The recovery of reaching movement in breast cancer survivors: two different rehabilitative protocols in comparison.

Background: Breast cancer (BC) is the most common cancer in women in the developed world. The about the sequelae of surgery, especially in case of mastectomy or modified radical mastectomy is grown. Nowadays it is important choose appropriate exercise programs to allow recovery in "quantity" but also in "quality" of the movement of the operated upper limb.

The effect of aquatic physical therapy on patients with multiple sclerosis: A systematic review and meta-analysis.

Background: The aquatic environment has unique properties, such a buoyancy, turbulence, hydrostatic pressure, and resistance, which can be used to gain a range of exercise benefits. During the last decade, hydrotherapy has spread in a very heterogeneous rehabilitation field. However, the efficacy of this kind of rehabilitation is not clear in scientific literature.

Physical Activity Scale for the Elderly: Translation, Cultural Adaptation, and Validation of the Italian Version.

Objective: The aim of the study was to translate and culturally adapt the Physical Activity Scale for the Elderly into Italian (PASE-I) and to evaluate its psychometric properties in the Italian older adults healthy population.

Methods: For translation and cultural adaptation, the "Translation and Cultural Adaptation of Patient-Reported Outcomes Measures" guidelines have been followed. Participants included healthy individuals between 55 and 75 years old.

Complications following endoscopic intracranial procedures in children.

Background: The significant technological improvement of endoscopic instrumentation has allowed, in the last 10 years, a widespread diffusion of neuroendoscopic procedures. Nevertheless, severe, sometimes life-threatening, complications may occur during neuroendoscopic surgery, and the incidence and age specificity of complications in children have been underdescribed so far.

Materials And Methods: Complications recorded in a prospectively collected database of pediatric patients undergoing neuroendoscopic procedures were analysed; the medical histories of the patients and the surgical procedures were reviewed.

Neuroendoscopic treatment of multiloculated hydrocephalus in children.

Object: The authors performed a retrospective analysis of data obtained in a series of 30 patients suffering from multiloculated hydrocephalus and treated endoscopically. The goal of the study was to evaluate the effectiveness of neuroendoscopic treatment as an alternative to the placement of multiple shunts to relieve intracranial hypertension, to simplify the shunt system, and to reduce the high rate of shunt revision.

Methods: The endoscopic procedures included intraventricular septum fenestration, aqueductoplasty, Monro foraminoplasty, and third ventriculostomy.

Neuroendoscopic management of interhemispheric cysts in children.

Object: Interhemispheric arachnoid cysts are very rare, and they are often associated with complex brain malformations such as corpus callosum agenesis and hydrocephalus. Debate remains concerning the proper management of these lesions. Placement of shunts and microsurgical marsupialization of the cyst are the traditional options.

The role of transventricular neuroendoscopy in the management of craniopharyngiomas: three patient reports and review of the literature.

Background: Management of craniopharyngiomas is problematic and often requires multimodal protocols. In the last decade neuroendoscopy has been increasingly used in the management of these lesions.

Patient Reports: We report three cases of craniopharyngiomas in which various endsocopic procedures were performed.

Intracranial pressure monitoring and lumbar puncture after endoscopic third ventriculostomy in children.

Objective: The aim of this study is to analyze changes in intracranial pressure (ICP) after endoscopic third ventriculostomy (ETV) performed in children affected by noncommunicating hydrocephalus.

Methods: ICP was continuously recorded for an average of 7 days in 64 children who underwent 68 ETVs for obstructive triventricular hydrocephalus of various etiology. In the first group (44 children), ETV was performed as the primary treatment; in the second group (20 children), the patients presented with shunt malfunction and underwent ETV and shunt removal.

Current state and future development of intracranial neuroendoscopic surgery.

Since the introduction of the modern, smaller endoscopes in the 1960s, neuroendoscopy has become an expanding field of neurosurgery. Neuroendoscopy reflects the tendency of modern neurosurgery to aim towards minimalism; that is, access and visualization through the narrowest practical corridor and maximum effective action at the target point with minimal disruption of normal tissue. Transventricular neuroendoscopy allows the treatment of several pathologies inside the ventricular system, such as obstructive hydrocephalus and intra-/paraventricular tumors or cysts, often avoiding the implantation of extracranial shunts or more invasive craniotomic approaches.

Endoscopic third ventriculostomy in the treatment of hydrocephalus in posterior fossa tumors in children.

Object: The purpose of the present study is to assess the effectiveness of endoscopic third ventriculostomy (ETV) in children with hydrocephalus related to posterior fossa tumors.

Methods: Between September 1999 and December 2002, 63 children with posterior fossa tumors were treated at Santobono Hospital in Naples, Italy. Twenty-six patients had severe hydrocephalus.

Second-line chemotherapy with the association of liposomal daunorubicin, carboplatin and etoposide in children with recurrent malignant brain tumors.

Progressive or recurrent high-grade gliomas are characterized by a very poor prognosis, and the relevance of second-line chemotherapy is still unassessed. Although it has been reported that liposomal anthracyclines and carboplatin show some activity in these patients, their association has never been investigated. We have treated six children with recurrent high-grade glioma after surgery, radiotherapy and chemotherapy, and one child with progressive teratoid/rhabdoid tumor with the combination of liposomal daunorubicin and carboplatin plus etoposide.

Aqueductal stenosis 9 years after mumps meningoencephalitis: treatment by endoscopic third ventriculostomy.

Introduction: Hydrocephalus due to aqueductal stenosis following mumps meningoencephalitis is a rare condition, reported only in 16 cases in the literature. The pathogenetic role of the mumps virus in inducing aqueductal stenosis has been demonstrated experimentally in animal models and clinically proven in a few cases. Although obstructive in nature, the post-infectious etiology raises the question as to whether third ventriculostomy is the appropriate treatment.

Efficacy of sequential chemotherapy including methotrexate and doxorubicin in an infant with partially resected choroid plexus carcinoma.

This report refers to a 3-month-old male, with a residual choroid plexus carcinoma following partial resection, who was successfully treated with sequential chemotherapy without any postoperative radiation therapy. Along with carboplatin, we also used doxorubicin and methotrexate, hypothesizing that, given the patient's age, the blood-brain barrier should not hamper drug delivery to the tumor. According to this hypothesis, the treatment achieved complete remission of the disease, which lasts 27 months after the diagnosis.

Cytogenetic evaluation of isochromosome 17q in posterior fossa tumors of children and correlation with clinical outcome in medulloblastoma. Detection of a novel chromosomal abnormality.

Background: A number of chromosomal abnormalities have been described in the presence of central nervous system tumors; isochromosome 17q, representing a loss of heterozygosity for the short arm of the chromosome 17, is the one most frequently reported in association with medulloblastoma. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the prognostic correlation of this variable, compared with other variables (surgery extent and radiotherapy), with survival.

Methods And Results: We looked for the presence of i(17q) in 32 children affected by posterior fossa tumors, including 16 medulloblastomas and 2 teratoid/rhabdoid tumors.

The treatment of the positional plagiocephaly with a new thermoplastic orthotic device.

Introduction: An increasing number of infants presenting with posterior cranial asymmetry are referred to the paediatric neurosurgeon for clinical evaluation. Most of these cranial dysmorphisms cannot be due to lambdoidal sinostosis, since they originate from pre- (intrauterine constraint) or postnatal (prematurity, torticollis, sleeping position) predisposing factors that have deformed the cranial vault. In the literature there is broad consensus about the conservative management of this nonsynostotic plagiocephaly by means of "positional therapy" or "orthoplasty moulding" with cranial helmets or bands.