Non-Invasive Indirect Markers of Liver Fibrosis after Interferon-Free Treatment for Hepatitis C.

The effectiveness of interferon-free therapy during the course of HCV infection has already been confirmed. Liver fibrosis can be assessed in several ways, from biopsies to imaging tests. The present study evaluates the usefulness of non-invasive indirect biomarkers of liver fibrosis (APRI, GAPRI, FORNS, FIB-4, the AP index and HUI score) as markers of the effective treatment of HCV with the 3D regimen.

Neural mechanisms underlying the Rubber Hand Illusion: A systematic review of related neurophysiological studies.

Introduction: Many researchers took advantage of the well-established rubber hand illusion (RHI) paradigm to explore the link between the sense of body ownership and the different brain structures and networks. Here, we aimed to review the studies that have investigated this phenomenon by means of neurophysiological techniques.

Methods: The MEDLINE, accessed by Pubmed and EMBASE electronic databases, was searched using the medical subject headings: "Rubber hand illusion" AND "Transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS)" OR "Evoked potentials (EP)" OR "Event related potentials (ERP)" OR "Electroencephalography (EEG)".

Narrative Review: Quantitative EEG in Disorders of Consciousness.

In this narrative review, we focus on the role of quantitative EEG technology in the diagnosis and prognosis of patients with unresponsive wakefulness syndrome and minimally conscious state. This paper is divided into two main parts, i.e.

Effects of Intermittent Theta Burst Stimulation on the Clock Drawing Test Performances in Patients with Alzheimer's Disease.

The clock drawing test (CDT) is widely used in clinical neuropsychological practice. However, its neuroanatomical correlates have not been well established. This study investigated the effects of theta burst stimulation (TBS) applied over different brain regions on CDT scores in patients with Alzheimer's disease (AD).

Effects of intrathecal baclofen therapy in subjects with disorders of consciousness: a reappraisal.

Baclofen is a structural analogue of gamma-amino-butyric acid (GABA), which reduces spastic hypertonia of striated muscle due to a mechanism of GABA-ergic inhibition of mono- and polysynaptic reflexes at the spinal level. There are reports of patients with severe disorders of consciousness that presented a substantial improvement following intrathecal baclofen (ITB) administration for severe spasticity. The neural mechanisms underlying the clinical recovery after ITB have not yet been clarified.

Transcranial magnetic stimulation and gait disturbances in Parkinson's disease: A systematic review.

Transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) may offer a reliable means of characterizing important pathophysiologic aspects of motor impairments in Parkinson's disease (PD). Moreover, high-frequency repetitive TMS (rTMS), especially if delivered bilaterally over motor cortical regions, can have beneficial effects on parkinsonian motor symptoms. However, only a few studies have investigated the effects of rTMS on freezing of gait (FOG) and other gait disturbances in PD.

Altered response to repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation in patients with chronic primary insomnia.

Background: We aimed at evaluating the amplitude changes of the motor evoked potentials (MEPs) induced by of low-frequency (LF) repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS) over the primary motor cortex (M1) in10 patients with primary insomnia (PI) and in 10 age-matched healthy controls.

Methods: Median peak-to-peak MEP amplitudes were assessed in all subjects at three times: at baseline (T), after the first train of a single rTMS session (T), and after the whole rTMS procedure (T). This consists of 20 trains of 1 Hz stimulation with 50 stimuli per train and an intertrain interval of 30 s.

Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging in the Final Stage of Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease.

Sporadic Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (sCJD) is a rare fatal degenerative disease of the central nervous system. The clinical course is characterized by rapid progression of neurological and neuromuscular symptoms. The late stage with loss of consciousness is not well characterized.

Therapy of Dysphagia by Prolonged Pharyngeal Electrical Stimulation (Phagenyx) in a Patient with Brainstem Infarction.

Dysphagia after stroke impacts quality of life and is a risk factor for respiratory infections. Patients frequently require prophylactic measures including nasogastric tube or percutaneous endoscopic gastrostomy. Until recently, therapy for dysphagia was limited to training with a speech and language specialist.

Effects of Rubber Hand Illusion and Excitatory Theta Burst Stimulation on Tactile Sensation: A Pilot Study.

Synchronous visuotactile stimulation on the own hidden hand and a visible fake limb can alter bodily self-perception and influence spontaneous neuroplasticity. The rubber hand illusion (RHI) paradigm experimentally produces an illusion of rubber hand ownership and arm shift by simultaneously stroking a rubber hand in view and a participant's visually occluded hand. The aim of this cross-over, placebo-controlled, single-blind study was to assess whether RHI, in combination with high-frequency repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS) given as intermittent (excitatory) theta burst stimulation (iTBS) applied over the hand area of the primary sensory region (S1) can enhance tactile sensation in a group of 21 healthy subjects and one patient with cervical spinal cord injury.

Repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation in traumatic brain injury: Evidence from animal and human studies.

We provide here the first systematic review on the studies dealing with repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS) for traumatic brain injury (TBI) in animals and humans. Several experimental studies in animal models have explored with promising results the use of rTMS to enhance neuroprotection and recovery after TBI. However, there are surprisingly few studies that have obtained substantial evidence regarding effects of rTMS in humans with TBI, many of them are case reports investigating the heterogeneous conditions linked to TBI.

Ferritin in glioblastoma.

Elevated levels of serum ferritin (SF) are observed in several types of cancer; however, little is known on the association between ferritin and glioma, the most frequent type of human primary brain tumour. Here we report that GBM patients show significantly increased pre-surgical SF levels (i.e.

Effects of repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation in subjects with sleep disorders.

In this review, we aimed at identifying the studies that have employed repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS) in patients with sleep disorders. Low-frequency (LF) rTMS stimulating the right dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC) or the posterior parietal cortex (PPC) was found to be effective to reduce cortical hyperexcitability and improve the sleep quality in subjects with chronic primary insomnia (PI). Both high-frequency (HF) and LF rTMS applied over the primary motor cortex or the supplementary motor cortex seem to have transient beneficial effects in patients with restless legs syndrome (RLS).

Disinhibition of sensory cortex in patients with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis.

In patients with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) a motor cortical hyperexcitability has been reported in transcranial magnetic stimulation studies, but little is known about the neuronal excitability in other cortical areas. The aim of the present study was the functional evaluation of the sensory cortex in subjects with ALS by assessing the high-frequency somatosensory evoked potentials (HF-SEP). No significant HF-SEP abnormalities were observed in ALS patients with disease duration of <2 years, while the patients with a disease duration of>2 years we found a large amplitude reduction of post-synaptic HF-SEP burst.

Contribution of transcranial magnetic stimulation in restless legs syndrome: pathophysiological insights and therapeutical approaches.

Transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) may offer a reliable means to characterize significant pathophysiologic and neurochemical aspects of restless legs syndrome (RLS). Namely, TMS has revealed specific patterns of changes in cortical excitability and plasticity, in particular dysfunctional inhibitory mechanisms and sensorimotor integration, which are thought to be part of the pathophysiological mechanisms of RLS rather than reflect a non-specific consequence of sleep architecture alteration. If delivered repetitively, TMS is able to transiently modulate the neural activity of the stimulated and connected areas.

Facilitation of Auditory Comprehension After Theta Burst Stimulation of Wernicke's Area in Stroke Patients: A Pilot Study.

Single-pulse transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) and high-frequency repetitive TMS (rTMS) over Wernicke's area were found to facilitate language functions in right-handed healthy subjects. We aimed at investigating the effects of excitatory rTMS, given as intermittent theta burst stimulation (iTBS) over left Wernicke's area, on auditory comprehension in patients suffering from fluent aphasia after stroke of the left temporal lobe. We studied 13 patients with chronic fluent aphasia after an ischemic stroke involving Wernicke's area.

Transcranial magnetic stimulation and bladder function: A systematic review.

Objective: We aimed at assessing the usefulness of motor evoked potentials (MEPs) for exploring the integrity of striated sphincters and pelvic floor motor innervation in normal subjects and of repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation TMS (rTMS) in patients with neurogenic bladder dysfunction.

Methods: A systematic literature search was conducted using PubMed and Embase.

Results: We identified, reviewed and discussed 11 articles matching the inclusion criteria.

Effects of repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation on nicotine consumption and craving: A systematic review.

We performed a systematic review of the studies employing repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS) in subjects with smoking addiction. High-frequency (HF) rTMS over the prefrontal cortex (PFC), in particular the left dorsolateral PFC (DLPFC), might represent a save and innovative treatment tool for tobacco consumption and craving in nicotine-dependent otherwise healthy people. rTMS can be effective for this indication also in patients with schizophrenia, but the results are conflicting and sufficient evidence from large-scale trials is still lacking.

HMPAO-SPECT Can Discriminate between Patients with Subjective Cognitive Complaints with and without Cognitive Deficits and those with Mild Cognitive Impairment.

Background: Growing evidence suggests that pathological processes leading to Alzheimer's disease occurs gradually and begins to develop decades before the earliest clinical symptoms occur. The use of biomarkers has been proposed to detect evidence of preclinical Alzheimer's pathologic change in asymptomatic subjects. Subjective cognitive complaints (SCC) i.

Genetic algorithms for feature selection when classifying severe chronic disorders of consciousness.

The diagnosis and prognosis of patients with severe chronic disorders of consciousness are still challenging issues and a high rate of misdiagnosis is evident. Hence, new tools are needed for an accurate diagnosis, which will also have an impact on the prognosis. In recent years, functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI) has been gaining more and more importance when diagnosing this patient group.

Cholinergic transmission is impaired in patients with idiopathic normal-pressure hydrocephalus: a TMS study.

The pathophysiological mechanisms of cognitive and gait disturbances in subjects with normal-pressure hydrocephalus (NPH) are still unclear. Cholinergic and other neurotransmitter abnormalities have been reported in animal models of NPH. The objective of this study was to evaluate the short latency afferent inhibition (SAI), a transcranial magnetic stimulation protocol which gives the possibility to test an inhibitory cholinergic circuit in the human brain, in subjects with idiopathic NPH (iNPH).

Role of human prefrontal cortex in the modulation of conditioned eyeblink responses.

Classical conditioning of the eyeblink reflex (EBC) is a simple form of associative motor learning. EBC is heavily dependent on cerebellar function, but experimental studies also suggest that the prefrontal cortex (PFC) orchestrates a neuronal network which interacts with the cerebellum to mediate the conditioned eyeblink responses (CR). To further investigate the role of PFC for EBC in humans, we aimed in this study at assessing whether acquisition of CR can be modulated by focal repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS) given as theta burst stimulation (TBS) over the dorsolateral PFC (DLPFC).

Spinal cord involvement in Lewy body-related α-synucleinopathies.

Lewy body (LB)-related α-synucleinopathy (LBAS) is the neuropathological hallmark of several neurodegenerative diseases such as Parkinson disease (PD), but it is also found in neurologically asymptomatic subjects. An abnormal accumulation of α-synuclein has been reported also in the spinal cord, but extent and significance of the spinal cord involvement are still poorly defined. We aimed to review the studies addressing the spinal cord involvement of LBAS in healthy subjects and in patients with PD or other neurodegenerative diseases.

Pathophysiology of corticobasal degeneration: Insights from neurophysiological studies.

Background: Several studies have applied electrophysiological techniques to physiologically characterize corticobasal degeneration (CBD).

Methods: We performed a systematic literature search of these studies and reviewed all 25 identified articles.

Results: Conventional electroencephalography (EEG) is usually normal even in the late stages of disease.

Usefulness of EEG Techniques in Distinguishing Frontotemporal Dementia from Alzheimer's Disease and Other Dementias.

The clinical distinction of frontotemporal dementia (FTD) and Alzheimer's disease (AD) may be difficult. In this narrative review we summarize and discuss the most relevant electroencephalography (EEG) studies which have been applied to demented patients with the aim of distinguishing the various types of cognitive impairment. EEG studies revealed that patients at an early stage of FTD or AD displayed different patterns in the cortical localization of oscillatory activity across different frequency bands and in functional connectivity.