Publications by authors named "Marras C"

Background: Sturge-Weber Syndrome (SWS) is a rare, sporadic neurocutaneous disorder affecting the skin, brain, and eyes, due to somatic activating mutations in GNAQ or, less commonly, GNA11 gene. It is characterized by at least two of the following features: a facial capillary malformation, leptomeningeal vascular malformation, and ocular involvement. The spectrum of clinical manifestations includes headache, seizures, stroke-like events, intellectual disability, glaucoma, facial asymmetry, gingival hyperplasia, etc.

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Stereo-EEG is not just a diagnostic examination but a complex methodology, requiring an accurate synthesis of many data (anatomical, clinical, neurophysiological, cognitive, metabolic, and genetic). The implantation scheme is decided based on a hypothesis (or hypotheses) of epileptogenic zone localization. Subsequently, intracerebral electrical stimulation is used to define the extent of highly functional cortical regions and to reproduce the clinical symptoms and signs associated with seizures.

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Background: Limited evidence exists regarding the meaningfulness of symptoms experienced in early Parkinson's disease (PD).

Objectives: To identify the most bothersome symptoms experienced by people with early PD, leveraging data from the Parkinson's Disease Patient Report of Problems (PD-PROP) questionnaire within the Fox Insight Study.

Methods: Individuals with a self-reported diagnosis of PD completed the PD-PROP questionnaire, reporting up to five most bothersome symptoms.

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Oculomotor behaviour changes in patients with Parkinson's disease (PD) are a promising source of prodromal disease markers. Capitalizing on this phenomenon to facilitate early diagnosis requires oculomotor assessment in prodromal cohorts. We examined oculomotor behaviour in non-manifesting LRRK2 G2019S mutation carriers (LRRK2-NM), who have heightened PD risk.

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Background: Switching to biosimilars is an effective and safe practice in treating inflammatory diseases; however, a nocebo effect may arise as a result of the way in which the switch is communicated to a given patient.

Objective: We aimed to design a gaming-based digital educational tool (including a discussion algorithm) to support the training of health care professionals in efficiently communicating the switch to biosimilars, minimizing the generation of a nocebo effect and thus serving as an implementation strategy for the recommended switch.

Methods: The tool was developed based on interviews and focus group discussions with key stakeholders, both patients and health care professionals.

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Article Synopsis
  • - The study aimed to gather insights from Parkinson's Disease (PD) patients on their mood and anxiety issues by analyzing data from the Parkinson's Disease Patient Report of Problems (PD-PROP).
  • - Data from over 21,000 participants revealed four key categories of non-depressive mood symptoms related to PD, with findings indicating women report these symptoms more frequently, and the issues of loneliness and isolation tend to increase as the disease progresses.
  • - The research suggests that healthcare providers should pay closer attention to mood-related problems, especially anxiety, loneliness, and negative emotions in female PD patients and those with longer disease duration.
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Article Synopsis
  • The study estimates the long-term health system costs of Parkinson's disease across different phases and genders over a 10-year period using data from Ontario, Canada.
  • Researchers identified over 43,000 individuals with Parkinson's and compared their costs to matched controls without the disease, focusing on phases from preascertainment to terminal care, standardizing costs to 2020 values.
  • Findings reveal that costs increase significantly with the progression of the disease, with a 10-year average cost of $82,153, higher in women and older patients compared to men and younger individuals, emphasizing the heavy financial burden of Parkinson's disease on the healthcare system.
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Pathogenic variants in the gene represent the most common cause of autosomal dominant Parkinson's disease (PD) worldwide. We identified the p.L1795F variant in 14 White/European ancestry PD patients, including two families with multiple affected carriers and seven additional affected individuals with familial PD using genotyping and sequencing data from more than 50,000 individuals through GP2, AMP-PD, PDGENEration, and CENTOGENE.

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Article Synopsis
  • Parkinson's disease (PD) is increasingly recognized as a public health issue, particularly in lower-income countries where data is limited.
  • A systematic review of literature identified 57 relevant studies from various regions, revealing significant geographical differences in PD prevalence, with numbers ranging from 49 to 1081 per 100,000 population.
  • The study found that PD prevalence increases with age and is influenced by socioeconomic factors such as GDP per capita, highlighting the need for better data collection and standardized methodologies across different populations.
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Despite the high prevalence and burden of dysphagia in Parkinson disease (PD), the availability and trustworthiness of clinical practice guidelines (CPGs) regarding its assessment and management remains uncertain. The objective of this study is to appraise the quality of CPGs for dysphagia in PD. We searched OVID Medline, Embase, CINAHL and SpeechBite from January 2011 to July 2023 for guidance documents addressing screening, referral, monitoring, assessment, or management of dysphagia in PD.

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Objective: The aim of this study is to describe the pre- and post-operative developmental and intellectual functions in a cohort of patients who underwent surgery for drug-resistant epilepsy (DRE) before the age of 5 years.

Method: We retrospectively reviewed the medical records and neurodevelopmental assessments of a cohort of 80 surgically treated pediatric patients with DRE. We included patients if they had at least one pre- and one post-surgical neuropsychological assessments; 27 met the inclusion criteria.

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Background: A randomized trial suggested that reducing left-sided subthalamic stimulation amplitude could improve axial dysfunction.

Objectives: To explore open-label tolerability and associations between trial outcomes and asymmetry data.

Methods: We collected adverse events in trial participants treated with open-label lateralized settings for ≥3 months.

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Article Synopsis
  • Current estimates of genetic variants linked to Parkinson's disease (PD) show limitations and biases across different populations, complicating patient recruitment for clinical trials focused on genetic therapies.
  • The Rostock Parkinson's disease (ROPAD) study analyzes data from 12,580 PD patients across 16 countries, revealing that 14.8% had a genetic test positive for PD-related variants, particularly in specific genes like GBA1 and LRRK2.
  • Findings indicate higher positivity rates in patients with earlier onset (age ≤ 50) or a positive family history, emphasizing the need for more extensive genetic investigation to improve patient stratification for future clinical trials.
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Background: Depression is common in Parkinson's disease (PD) but is underrecognized clinically. Although systematic screening is a recommended strategy to improve depression recognition in primary care practice, it has not been widely used in PD care.

Methods: The 15-item Geriatric Depression Scale (GDS-15) was implemented at 5 movement disorders clinics to screen PD patients.

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Pregnancy in women with early-onset Parkinson's disease (PD) is likely to have a higher frequency given the trend toward increasing maternal age, thus resulting in a greater overlap time between childbearing age and PD risk. Deep brain stimulation (DBS) therapy is nowadays offered to PD patients at earlier stage of the disease, when women can still be pre-menopausal. However, few data are available about DBS safety during pregnancy.

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Background: A series of interesting literature reports acknowledges the notable loss of essential and non-essential amino acids (EAAs and NEAAs) during hemodialysis sessions. These losses may exceed 800 g/year, thus contributing towards accelerating the onset of malnutrition in hemodialysis patients (HD).

Objective: A novel tailored amino acid formula for oral administration was developed to replace total amounts of each individual amino acid lost during dialysis diffusive/convective HD strategies, monitoring the effects produced on nutritional and hematological status.

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Background And Objectives: Cognitive impairment is experienced by up to 80% of people with Parkinson disease (PD). Little is known regarding the subjective experience and frequency of bothersome cognitive problems across the range of disease duration as expressed directly in patients' own words. We describe the types and frequency of bothersome cognitive symptoms reported verbatim by patients with PD.

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Objective: To investigate the Italian experience on the surgical and radiosurgical treatment of drug-resistant epilepsy due to hypothalamic hamartoma (HH) in the period 2011-2021 in six Italian epilepsy surgery centers, and to compare safety and efficacy profiles of the different techniques.

Methods: We collected pseudo-anonymized patient's data with at least 12 months of follow-up. Surgical outcome was defined according to Engel classification of seizure outcome.

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The post-surgical outcome for Hypothalamic Hamartoma (HH) related epilepsy in terms of seizure freedom (SF) has been extensively studied, while cognitive and psychiatric outcome has been less frequently reported and defined. This is a systematic review of English language papers, analyzing the post-surgical outcome in series of patients with HH-related epilepsy (≥5 patients, at least 6 months follow-up), published within January 2002-December 2022. SF was measured using Engel scale/equivalent scales.

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Article Synopsis
  • Researchers are looking for better ways to treat people with Parkinson's disease by using their specific symptoms and risks to choose treatments.
  • Experts from a group called the Movement Disorders Society made 19 recommendations on how to customize treatment based on individual patient characteristics.
  • These recommendations help doctors consider future challenges, like memory problems, and how to prevent worsening symptoms, but they are not strict rules and can be changed for each patient.
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Epilepsy surgery is effective for patients with medication-resistant seizures, however 20-40% of them are not seizure free after surgery. Aim of this study is to evaluate the role of linear and non-linear EEG features to predict post-surgical outcome. We included 123 paediatric patients who underwent epilepsy surgery at Bambino Gesù Children Hospital (January 2009-April 2020).

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