A new tool for the evaluation of the rehabilitation outcomes in older persons: a machine learning model to predict functional status 1 year ahead.

Purpose: To date, the assessment of disability in older people is obtained utilizing a Comprehensive Geriatric Assessment (CGA). However, it is often difficult to understand which areas of CGA are most predictive of the disability. The aim of this study is to evaluate the possibility to early predict-1 year ahead-the disability level of a patient using machine leaning models.

Association between serum vitamin D and metabolic syndrome in middle-aged and older adults and role of supplementation therapy with vitamin D.

Objectives: To evaluate i) the correlation between vitamin D (vit. D) serum concentrations and metabolic syndrome (MetS); ii) the efficacy of 6 months supplementation therapy with vit. D.

Relationship between vitamin D and body fat distribution evaluated by DXA in postmenopausal women.

Objective: The aim of this study was to explore the relationship between 25-hydroxyvitamin D (25[OH]D) serum concentrations and body fat distribution in a sample of postmenopausal women.

Methods: We enrolled sixty-two postmenopausal women; 25(OH)D serum concentrations, serum intact parathyroid hormone, blood analyses, and anthropometric measurements were carried out. Body fat composition was evaluated by dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry.

Exercise training and music therapy in elderly with depressive syndrome: a pilot study.

Objective: Recent studies have thrown doubt on the true effectiveness of anti-depressants in light and moderate depression. The aim of this study is to evaluate the impact of physical training and music therapy on a sample group of subjects affected by light to moderate depression versus subjects treated with pharmacological therapy only.

Design And Setting: Randomized controlled study.

Hypovitaminosis D: which oral supplement therapy?

Objectives: the possible therapeutic role of vitamin D in different kind of diseases explains the growing interest in this vitamin due to its pleiotropic effects. This short report shows preliminary results of prevalence of hypovitaminosis D in a group of patients and proposes a oral supplement therapy effective in correcting hypovitaminosis in a short time, without side effects.

Methods: 243 patients (aged 26-93; 67 males) were enrolled at this study.

The Mozart effect in patients suffering from tinnitus.

Conclusion: The study suggests that Mozart therapy could be a valid alternative to the common sound therapy methods in tinnitus patients.

Objectives: The aim of the study was to evaluate the presence of the Mozart effect as indexed by a variation in tinnitus intensity and tolerability.

Method: Sixty-two individuals aged between 22 and 78 years, reporting tinnitus for at least 1 year, were enrolled for the study.

Empirical antibiotic therapy (ABT) of lower respiratory tract infections (LRTI) in the elderly: application of artificial neural network (ANN). Preliminary results.

LRTI are among the most common diseases in developed countries, including chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), one of the most frequent conditions. Their treatment in general practice is often unsuccessful and this increases hospital admissions. We know, bacterial infections in the elderly show a higher morbidity and mortality, either for more severe symptoms, than in younger adults, or because the causing agent often remains unknown.

Vitamin D: drug of the future. A new therapeutic approach.

Besides increasing calcium absorption in the bowel and promoting the normal formation and mineralization of bone, vitamin D exerts relevant pleiotropic effects in different tissues. Serum levels of vitamin D show correlation with the risk of infections, cardiovascular diseases, cancer and autoimmune disorders. The possible therapeutic role of vitamin D in different kind of diseases: inflammatory, immunologic, infectious and neoplastic ones, explains the growing interest in this vitamin due to its pleiotropic effects, and makes it a candidate to become a potential drug in the next future.

Montelukast therapy and psychological distress in chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD): a preliminary report.

Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) is an alteration in which ventilatory function, exercise capacity and health status of patients progressively decline and it is characterized by an increase of inflammatory cytokines such as TNF-α, LTB4, IL-8, etc. In this study we considered twenty patients (15 males and 5 females; mean age: 72.8 ± 6.

Third degree of atrioventricular block: a rare geriatric complication that may cause sudden death. Remarks on two clinical cases.

Two clinical cases are reported that have in common the electrocardiographic detection of a third degree atrioventricular block (AVB), which occurred in the first case in a man of 78 years, hospitalized in our unit after an accidental fall with an ensuing head trauma, and in the second case, in a woman of 67 years, after cataract surgery on her left eye. The complete or third degree AVB is a bradyarrhythmia characterized by the absence of paroxystic or permanent atrioventricular conduction. Several studies conducted on subjects between the ages of 60 and 85 pointed out that the incidence of AVB-type bradyarrhythmias of a degree greater than the first is extremely rare, i.

The influence of lifestyle on cardiovascular risk factors. Analysis using a neural network.

The cardiovascular pathologies are the most common causes of death in the elderly patient. To single out the main risk factors in order to effectively prevent the onset of the disease, the authors experimented a special computerized tool, the neural network, that works out a mathematical relation that can obtain certain data (defined as output) as a function of other data (defined as input). Data were processed from a sample of 276 subjects of both sexes aged 26-69 years old.

Myocardial cytoprotection by trimetazidine against anthracycline-induced cardiotoxicity in anticancer chemotherapy.

The ability of trimetazidine (2,3,4, trimethoxybenzylpiperazine dihydrochloride, TMZ) to protect the myocardium against anthracycline (ANT)-induced cardiotoxicity during chemotherapy has been evaluated in female patients with breast cancer. A clinical trial was conducted in 61 patients subdivided into three groups: group 1 (n = 15, G1 ) treated with standard ANT protocol and cardioprotection by dexrazoxane (DEX) plus TMZ (60 mg, daily dose); group 2 (n = 22, G2) treated with ANT and cardioprotection by TMZ only; and group 3 (n = 24, G3) scheduled to receive ANT therapy and DEX. All the patients submitted to an echocardiographic evaluation of diastolic function (E wave velocity, A wave velocity, isovolumetric relaxation time [IVRT], deceleration time [DT]) at enrollment (T0), at T1 time, at T2 time, and at T3 time.

An assessment of the main metabolic variables of cardiovascular risk in a sample population of workers in Rome.

Background: The last few years have seen an increased necessity to assess the cardiovascular risk factors on large samples of the population in Italy. A look at the citizens of a small rural town Brisighella is well known.

Methods: Three hundred and five individuals of average age 40.

Life habits and cardiovascular risk in a group of bank employees in Rome.

Background: For the past thirty years, many countries, especially the USA, have been performing clinical and laboratory studies to establish the most prominent disease risk factors, in particular those involved in cardiovascular diseases. The main aim of these studies is to reduce disease related risks by intervening at an early age.

Methods: We studied 305 patients, 198 males and 107 females, all employees in Rome, mean age 40.

Mammary Paget's disease with acantholytic features and without any detectable breast tumor.

Paget's disease is usually associated with an underlying adenocarcinoma of the breast. The initial manifestation is an eczematous or psoriasiform lesion of the nipple, soon extending to the mammary areola and then to the surrounding skin. The histology of the lesions is characterized by the presence, within the epidermal layer, of the so-called Paget's cells, i.

Ovarian cancer and unilateral naevoid telangiectasia: a rare association.

The Authors describe the case of a 58-year-old woman affected by erythematous telangiectasis lesions on the antero-lateral surface of the right hip during papillary serous cystoadenocarcinoma of the right ovary. The diagnosis, based on clinical and histological findings, was unilateral naevoid telangiectasia. After a review of literature the Authors assume a possible role of the oestrogens in the pathogenesis of such infrequent disease.

[Juvenile dyslipidemia as early risk factor for atherosclerosis. Analysis of a sample of school age boys].

Atherosclerosis appears already in the first years of life. Several factors may accelerate the age of onset and the gravity of its symptoms. Particular importance is attributed to lipid metabolism in youth.