Publications by authors named "Maria Lo Monaco"
Coronary microvascular dysfunction is a clinical condition very diffuse in many different settings. Often the diagnosis can be very tricky, and choosing the proper diagnostic strategy can be fundamental for reaching the goal. The aim of this review is to evaluate the properties and the feasibility of our tests in specific scenarios by looking at the performances of each methodology reported in the literature.
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- - Risk stratification for dangerous heart arrhythmias and sudden cardiac death is challenging for doctors, but multiparametric mapping via MRI can help identify issues leading to these irregularities.
- - Current use of this advanced mapping method in clinical settings is limited, despite evidence linking mapping abnormalities to increased arrhythmia risk in various heart diseases.
- - The review emphasizes the need for more clinical studies to evaluate how these mapping techniques can enhance patient selection for implantable cardioverter defibrillator treatments beyond traditional MRI methods.
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- Functional movement disorders (FMD) can resemble Parkinson's disease (PD), making it challenging to differentiate between the two, but examining social cognition and other psychological factors may aid in diagnosis.
- A study involved participants with FMD, PD, and healthy controls to assess their social cognition abilities, attention, and dissociative symptoms, revealing that while both groups struggled with Theory of Mind, only PD showed notable attention issues.
- Findings suggest that cognitive disturbances in FMD are independent and distinct from the cognitive impairments seen in PD, highlighting that while FMD demonstrates psychodynamic features like dissociation, the line between 'organic' and 'functional' disorders remains unclear.
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- The Italian Society of Echography and Cardiovascular Imaging (SIECVI) conducted a national survey to investigate stress echocardiography (SE) practices across Italy, collecting data from 228 laboratories in November 2022.
- The survey revealed that out of 179 centers performing SE, most were located in northern Italy, and the study categorized them into low, moderate, and high volume of activity based on the number of SE examinations.
- Key findings indicated differences in the use of stressors, with a tendency for high-volume centers to employ multiple stress techniques and incorporate advanced evaluations like coronary flow velocity reserve (CFVR) more frequently than low and moderate volume centers.
To identify the cortical and subcortical distribution of atrophy and the disorganization of white matter bundles underlying the apraxic disorders in a patient with corticobasal degeneration (CBD). Patient underwent appropriate neuropsychological tasks aimed at identifying the nature of the apraxic disorder and morphometric structural MRI with whole-brain voxel-wise analysis. Progressive limbkinetic apraxia (LKA) with onset in the right upper limb with subsequent extension to the limbs, trunk, orofacial district, and eye movements was documented, associated with element of ideomotor apraxia (IMA).
View Article and Find Full Text PDFDuring the last 30 years, we have assisted to a great implementation in anticancer treatment with a subsequent increase of cancer survivors and decreased mortality. This has led to an ongoing interest about the possible therapy-related side-effects and their management to better guide patients therapy and surveillance in the chronic and long-term setting. As a consequence cardio-oncology was born, involving several different specialties, among which radiology plays a relevant role.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: The Italian Society of Echocardiography and Cardiovascular Imaging (SIECVI) conducted a national survey to understand better how different echocardiographic modalities are used and accessed in Italy.
Methods: We analyzed echocardiography laboratory activities over a month (November 2022). Data were retrieved via an electronic survey based on a structured questionnaire, uploaded on the SIECVI website.
: Functional movement disorders (FMD) represent a spectrum of psychosomatic symptoms particularly sensitive to stress. The COVID-19 pandemic has increased psychological distress worldwide and may have worsened FMD. The study aimed to confirm this hypothesis and to test whether in FMD there is a relationship between affective temperament, emotional dysregulation and psychological distress due to the pandemic.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: The role of lipoprotein(a) (Lp[a]) in risk stratification following an acute myocardial infarction (AMI) is still debated. We aimed to investigate whether elevated Lp(a) levels in patients with AMI treated by percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) are associated with worse outcomes.
Methods: We designed a retrospective registry including patients with AMI undergoing PCI.
Botulinum toxin A (BoNT/A) is the first-line treatment for idiopathic cervical dystonia (ICD) and is widely used in the clinical setting. To date, scanty data are available on the effectiveness of BoNT in treating acquired cervical dystonia (ACD). Here we present a long-term follow-up of ACD patients treated with BoNT/A that focused on safety and efficacy.
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- - Huntington's disease (HD) is a genetic brain disorder linked to a specific mutation (CAG repeat expansion) in the Huntingtin gene, typically appearing in mid-life but can occur at any age, with the number of repeats somewhat predicting the age of onset.
- - A study analyzed data from a global HD registry to identify various factors—including sociodemographic and psychobehavioral variables—that influence the age of motor onset beyond just genetic factors.
- - Findings reveal that patients with later onset often have less family history of the disease, are more likely to be married, live in urban areas, and have lower educational levels, suggesting that non-genetic factors play a significant role in the disease's progression.
The aims of this study were to assess the incidence rate and risk factors for sialorrhea in the long-term follow-up in a cohort of 132 patients with advanced Parkinson's disease [88 with deep brain stimulation (DBS) and 44 on medical treatment]. The incidence rate of sialorrhea did not differ between the two groups; male sex, Hoehn and Yahr stage and dysphagia resulted risk factors for sialorrhea. These findings indicate that DBS does not increase the risk of developing sialorrhea.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFExperimental evidence indicates that the inferior frontal gyrus (IFG) processes emotional/affective features crucial to elaborate knowledge about social groups and that knowledge of social concepts is stored in the anterior temporal lobe (ATL).We investigated whether knowledge about social groups is impaired in Parkinson's disease (PD), in which dysfunctional connectivity between IFG and ATL has been demonstrated.PD patients ( = 20) and healthy controls (HC, = 16) were given a lexical decision task in a semantic priming paradigm: the prime-targets included 144 words and 144 pseudowords, each preceded by three types of prime ("animals," "things," "persons").
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground And Purpose: Huntington's disease (HD) is an autosomal dominant condition caused by CAG-triplet repeat expansions. CAG-triplet repeat expansion is inversely correlated with age of onset in HD and largely determines the clinical features. The aim of this study was to examine the phenotypic and genotypic correlates of late-onset HD (LoHD) and to determine whether LoHD is a more benign expression of HD.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFObjectives: Functional movement disorders (FMD) refer to a heterogeneous group of manifestations incongruent with known neurological diseases. Functional neuroimaging studies in FMD indicate the overlap between cerebral regions in which abnormal activation occurs and those considered crucial for theory of mind (ToM), the ability to attribute mental states. The aim of this study was to explore whether FMD might be related to ToM disorders to the extent that they reduce the ability to make inferences about the mental states underlying motor behaviour during social interaction.
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- Frailty is a significant issue among older adults with ischemic heart disease (IHD), leading to worse health outcomes and higher mortality rates, but a systematic review examining their relationship has been lacking.
- In a comprehensive analysis of 37 studies, it was found that the prevalence of IHD in frail individuals is about 17%, while frailty occurs in about 19% of those with IHD, indicating a notable overlap.
- The study emphasizes the importance of recognizing frailty in older IHD patients for tailored cardiovascular care and calls for more research into the underlying connections between the two conditions.
QTc prolongation is reported in patients with hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (HCM). However, the causes of the QTc interval increase remain unclear. The main contribution to QTc prolongation in HCM is attributed to the myocardial hypertrophy and related structural damage.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFIntroduction: As an emerging infectious disease, the clinical and virologic course of COVID-19 requires better investigation. The aim of this study is to identify the potential risk factors associated with persistent positive nasopharyngeal swab real-time reverse transcription‒polymerase chain reaction tests in a large sample of patients who recovered from COVID-19.
Methods: After the acute phase of SARS-CoV-2 epidemic infection, the Fondazione Policlinico A.
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- In East Asia, face masks have been widely accepted as a method to reduce viral spread, while their use has faced stigma in Europe and North America, a view that's changed during the COVID-19 pandemic.
- A study involving four male COVID-19 patients examined the effectiveness of surgical masks, where two wore masks for 5 hours while the others did not.
- Results showed that the environment around patients without masks was contaminated with SARS-CoV-2, while the area around masked patients tested negative, supporting masks as a cost-effective tool to reduce viral transmission.
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- The study explores peripheral writing errors in individuals with primary progressive aphasia (PPA) and examines their potential link to parkinsonism symptoms (PSs).
- It finds that those with PSs tend to have more peripheral writing errors compared to those without, suggesting a connection to cognitive control issues.
- The presence of peripheral errors could serve as a clinical marker for specific PPA subtypes and provide insights into the individual clinical profiles of patients.