Movements execution in amnestic mild cognitive impairment and Alzheimer's disease.

We evaluated the relationship between motor and neuropsychological deficits in subjects affected by amnestic Mild Cognitive Impairment (aMCI) and early Alzheimer's Disease (AD). Kinematics of goal-directed movement of aMCI and AD subjects were compared to those of age-matched control subjects. AD showed a slowing down of motor performance compared to aMCI and controls.

No association between the cystatin C gene polymorphism and Alzheimer's disease: a case-control study in an Italian population.

Cystatin C is an amyloidogenic protein found together with beta-amyloid in cerebral arteriolar walls of both patients with Alzheimer's Disease (AD) and conghopilic amyloid angiopathy. Several findings implicate cystatin C in the pathogenesis of vascular diseases. Recent genetic association studies proposed cystatin C gene (CST3) as a susceptibility factor for AD, although other reports did not replicate this finding.

Cognitive impairment in Behçet's disease patients without overt neurological involvement.

We investigated the prevalence of cognitive impairment in patients with Behçet's disease (BD) without overt neurological involvement. The influence of disease duration, disease activity, prednisone dosage, and anxiety and depression levels was evaluated. Twenty-six consecutive BD outpatients and 26 healthy controls matched for age, education and sex completed a comprehensive neuropsychological battery including tests of memory, visuospatial and constructional abilities, language, attention and psychomotor speed, non-verbal reasoning and executive functioning.

No association between Glu298Asp endothelial nitric oxide synthase polymorphism and Italian sporadic Alzheimer's disease.

A great amount of evidence suggests that neuroinflammation may be a major pathogenetic mechanism in the pathophysiology of sporadic Alzheimer's Disease (sAD). Recently, polymorphisms in the endothelial nitric oxide synthase (NOS3) gene have been associated to late onset Alzheimer's Disease in a British population. However, other groups failed to replicate this finding in Asiatic and Caucasian populations.

Lack of association between angiotensin converting enzyme polymorphism and sporadic Alzheimer's disease.

Epidemiological and pathogenetic evidences suggest a strong association between vascular risk factors and sporadic Alzheimer's disease (sAD). In agreement with the vascular hypothesis of AD, the role of various candidate genes for atherosclerosis has been investigated, leading to conflicting results. In order to clarify the significance of angiotensin-converting enzyme (ACE) gene insertion (I)/deletion (D) polymorphism in a group of patients with sAD, we conducted a case-control study including 149 cases and 149 age and sex matched controls.

Migraine headaches in adolescents: a five-year follow-up study.

Background And Objectives: Longitudinal studies of juvenile migraine are very few. We investigated the prevalence and evolution over 5 years of migraine without aura (MWOA) and migraineous disorder (MD) in an adolescent population.

Methods: Sixty-four subjects (34 girls and 30 boys, mean age 17.