Hyperuricemia Is Associated With Higher Mortality in Non-diabetic Heart Failure Patients.

Introduction: Hyperuricemia (HU) is associated with an increased risk of incident heart failure (HF) and adverse HF outcomes. Patients with diabetes mellitus (DM) have a greater prevalence of HU.

Aims: We evaluated the prognostic impact of HU in patients with HF according to the coexistence of DM.

Platelet distribution width-a prognosis marker in patients with chronic heart failure.

Background: Increased levels of platelet distribution width (PDW) can predict cardiac death and infarction recurrence in acute myocardial infarction. PDW appears to be a prognosis marker in acute heart failure (HF); however, its impact on chronic HF is still unknown. We investigated the impact of PDW on chronic HF.

Revisiting the speaker discriminatory power of vowel formant frequencies under a likelihood ratio-based paradigm: The case of mismatched speaking styles.

Differentiating subjects through the comparison of their recorded speech is a common endeavor in speaker characterization. When using an acoustic-based approach, this task typically involves scrutinizing specific acoustic parameters and assessing their discriminatory capacity. This experimental study aimed to evaluate the speaker discriminatory power of vowel formants-resonance peaks in the vocal tract-in two different speaking styles: Dialogue and Interview.

Physical Activity in Mild Vascular Cognitive Impairment: Results of the AFIVASC Randomized Controlled Trial at 6 Months.

Background: Vascular cognitive impairment is frequent, in mild (mVCI) or severe forms (vascular dementia).

Objective: To do a randomized controlled-trial to evaluate the impact of physical activity on cognition (primary outcome), neurocognitive measures, quality of life, functional status, and physical function (secondary outcomes), in patients with mVCI.

Methods: A hundred and four patients with mVCI (mean age 71.

Antiphospholipid Syndrome and Patent Foramen Ovale: A Case Report and Literature Review.

Antiphospholipid syndrome (APS) is a systemic autoimmune disease characterized by arterial, venous, or microvascular thrombosis, pregnancy morbidity, or non-thrombotic manifestations in patients with persistent antiphospholipid antibodies (aPL). Catastrophic APS is a rare and severe form of APS that is defined by the presence of multiple vascular occlusive events. When a patent foramen ovale (PFO) is present, paradoxical embolization can occur, simultaneously leading to arterial and venous thrombosis.

Even a Low Comorbidity Burden Predicts Poor Outcomes in Chronic Heart Failure.

Background: Patients with heart failure often have multiple cardiovascular risk factors (CVRFs) and comorbidities (CMBs). We evaluated the impact of additive CMB and CVRF on heart failure prognosis.

Methods: We retrospectively analyzed ambulatory patients with systolic dysfunction between January 2012 and May 2018.

Lower low density lipoprotein cholesterol associates to higher mortality in non-diabetic heart failure patients.

Background: In patients with established heart failure (HF) low total cholesterol levels associate with worse prognosis. Evidence concerning the impact of Low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-c) in HF is scarce. We aimed to evaluate the prognostic impact of LDL-c in patients with HF, both with and without diabetes (DM).

Magnetic Bone Tissue Engineering: Reviewing the Effects of Magnetic Stimulation on Bone Regeneration and Angiogenesis.

Bone tissue engineering emerged as a solution to treat critical bone defects, aiding in tissue regeneration and implant integration. Mainly, this field is based on the development of scaffolds and coatings that stimulate cells to proliferate and differentiate in order to create a biologically active bone substitute. In terms of materials, several polymeric and ceramic scaffolds have been developed and their properties tailored with the objective to promote bone regeneration.

Benzodiazepine use and mortality in chronic heart failure.

Introduction: The prognostic implications of using benzodiazepines (BZD) in heart failure (HF) patients are still unknown.

Objectives: This study aimed to assess the association of BZD use with all‑cause death in ambulatory, chronic HF patients.

Patients And Methods: We investigated a retrospective cohort of ambulatory HF patients with left ventricular systolic dysfunction (LVSD).

Tannic Acid Tailored-Made Microsystems for Wound Infection.

Difficult-to-treat infections make complex wounds a problem of great clinical and socio-economic impact. Moreover, model therapies of wound care are increasing antibiotic resistance and becoming a critical problem, beyond healing. Therefore, phytochemicals are promising alternatives, with both antimicrobial and antioxidant activities to heal, strike infection, and the inherent microbial resistance.

Physical Activity Self-Report Is Not Reliable Among Subjects with Mild Vascular Cognitive Impairment: The AFIVASC Study.

Background: The World Health Organization (WHO) recommends a minimum of 150 minutes of moderate physical activity per week. Adherence to these recommendations is difficult to assess.

Objective: We aimed to evaluate the validity of self-reported physical activity in mild vascular cognitive impairment (mVCI) and whether physical activity was associated with cognitive status, by using baseline data from a randomized controlled trial.

Global Burden of Small Vessel Disease-Related Brain Changes on MRI Predicts Cognitive and Functional Decline.

Background and Purpose- Cerebral small vessel disease is characterized by a wide range of focal and global brain changes. We used a magnetic resonance imaging segmentation tool to quantify multiple types of small vessel disease-related brain changes and examined their individual and combined predictive value on cognitive and functional abilities. Methods- Magnetic resonance imaging scans of 560 older individuals from LADIS (Leukoaraiosis and Disability Study) were analyzed using automated atlas- and convolutional neural network-based segmentation methods yielding volumetric measures of white matter hyperintensities, lacunes, enlarged perivascular spaces, chronic cortical infarcts, and global and regional brain atrophy.

Impact of physical activity in vascular cognitive impairment (AFIVASC): study protocol for a randomised controlled trial.

Background: Cognitive impairment and cerebrovascular pathology are both frequent with ageing. Cognitive impairment due to vascular pathology of the brain, termed vascular cognitive impairment (VCI), is one of the most frequent causes of cognitive impairment in elderly subjects. Thus far, VCI has no specific pharmacological treatment.

Cognitive reserve moderates long-term cognitive and functional outcome in cerebral small vessel disease.

Background: Cerebral small vessel disease (SVD) is characterised by progressive white matter hyperintensities (WMH), cognitive decline and loss of functional independence. The correspondence between neuroimaging findings and the severity of clinical symptoms has been modest, however, and thus the outcome may be affected by various host factors. We investigated the predictive value of educational and occupational attainments as proxy measures of cognitive reserve on long-term cognitive and functional outcome in patients with different degrees of WMH.

White Matter Changes and Cognitive Decline in a Ten-Year Follow-Up Period: A Pilot Study on a Single-Center Cohort from the Leukoaraiosis and Disability Study.

Aims: To describe the contribution of white matter lesions to the long-term neuropsychological profiles of different groups of clinical diagnoses, and to identify neuropsychological predictors of cognitive impairment in a 10-year follow-up.

Methods: The Lisbon subcohort of the Leukoaraiosis and Disability (LADIS) study was re-evaluated performing a clinical, functional and cognitive evaluation [including Mini-Mental State Examination (MMSE), Alzheimer's Disease Assessment Scale - Cognition (ADAS-Cog) and ADAS-Cog with the extension for vascular impairment (VADAS-Cog), the 9-word version of the California Verbal Learning Test (CVLT-9), the Trail-Making test and the Stroop test] as well as an MRI scan. Using clinical diagnostic criteria, participants were identified as having no cognitive impairment (NI), cognitive impairment but no dementia (CIND) or dementia (DEM), and the effect of time on clinical diagnosis and neuropsychological profiles was analyzed.

Early-Stage White Matter Lesions Detected by Multispectral MRI Segmentation Predict Progressive Cognitive Decline.

White matter lesions (WML) are the main brain imaging surrogate of cerebral small-vessel disease. A new MRI tissue segmentation method, based on a discriminative clustering approach without explicit model-based added prior, detects partial WML volumes, likely representing very early-stage changes in normal-appearing brain tissue. This study investigated how the different stages of WML, from a "pre-visible" stage to fully developed lesions, predict future cognitive decline.

Executives' speech expressiveness: analysis of perceptive and acoustic aspects of vocal dynamics.

Purpose: To analyze speech expressiveness in a group of executives based on perceptive and acoustic aspects of vocal dynamics.

Methods: Four male subjects participated in the research study (S1, S2, S3, and S4). The assessments included the Kingdomality test to obtain the keywords of communicative attitudes; perceptive-auditory assessment to characterize vocal quality and dynamics, performed by three judges who are speech language pathologists; perceptiveauditory assessment to judge the chosen keywords; speech acoustics to assess prosodic elements (Praat software); and a statistical analysis.

Physical activity in the elderly is associated with improved executive function and processing speed: the LADIS Study.

Objectives: Physical activity reduces the risk of cognitive decline but may affect cognitive domains differently. We examined whether physical activity modifies processing speed, executive function and memory in a population of non-dementia elderly subjects with age-related white matter changes (ARWMC).

Methods: Data from the Leukoaraiosis And DISability (LADIS) study, a multicenter, European prospective cohort study aimed at examining the role of ARWMC in transition to disability, was used.

Lingual frenectomy and alveolar tap production: an acoustic and perceptual study.

In this phonetic study, productions of the consonant in the stressed syllable position of the word arara as produced by 13 subjects with short and/or anterior lingual frenulum were compared before and after lingual frenectomy. The results from the measurement of the stressed consonant duration and from the identification of the consonant manners of articulation based on the inspection of spectral characteristics are discussed and related to the answers to a perceptual identification test. After surgery, the number of tap productions did not increase, but alveolar productions did.

Depressive symptoms predict cognitive decline and dementia in older people independently of cerebral white matter changes: the LADIS study.

Objective: Depressive symptoms (DS) have been associated with increased risk of cognitive decline. Our aim was to evaluate the longitudinal influence of DS on cognition in independent older people, accounting for the severity of white matter changes (WMC).

Methods: The LADIS (Leukoaraiosis And DISability in the elderly) prospective study evaluated the impact of WMC on the transition of independent older subjects into disability.

Diffusion changes predict cognitive and functional outcome: the LADIS study.

Objective: A study was undertaken to determine whether diffusion-weighted imaging (DWI) abnormalities in normal-appearing brain tissue (NABT) and in white matter hyperintensities (WMH) predict longitudinal cognitive decline and disability in older individuals independently of the concomitant magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) findings.

Methods: A total of 340 LADIS (Leukoaraiosis and Disability Study) participants, aged 65 to 84 years, underwent brain MRI including DWI at baseline. Neuropsychological and functional assessments were carried out at study entry and repeated annually over a 3-year observational period.

Confirmatory factor analysis of the Neuropsychological Assessment Battery of the LADIS study: a longitudinal analysis.

Age-related white matter changes have been associated with cognitive functioning, even though their role is not fully understood. This work aimed to test a 3-factor model of the neuropsychological assessment battery and evaluate how the model fit the data longitudinally. Confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) was used to investigate the dimensions of a structured set of neuropsychological tests administered to a multicenter, international sample of independent older adults (LADIS study).

Physical activity prevents progression for cognitive impairment and vascular dementia: results from the LADIS (Leukoaraiosis and Disability) study.

Background And Purpose: We aimed to study if physical activity could interfere with progression for cognitive impairment and dementia in older people with white matter changes living independently.

Methods: The LADIS (Leukoaraiosis and Disability) prospective multinational European study evaluates the impact of white matter changes on the transition of independent elderly subjects into disability. Subjects were evaluated yearly during 3 years with a comprehensive clinical protocol and cognitive assessment with classification of cognitive impairment and dementia according to usual clinical criteria.