On the Clinimetrics of the Montreal Cognitive Assessment: Cutoff Analysis in Patients with Mild Cognitive Impairment due to Alzheimer's Disease.

Background: In the era of disease-modifying therapies, empowering the clinical neuropsychologist's toolkit for timely identification of mild cognitive impairment (MCI) is crucial.

Objective: Here we examine the clinimetric properties of the Montreal Cognitive Assessment (MoCA) for the early diagnosis of MCI due to Alzheimer's disease (MCI-AD).

Methods: Data from 48 patients with MCI-AD and 47 healthy controls were retrospectively analyzed.

Co-ultraPEALut in Subjective Cognitive Impairment Following SARS-CoV-2 Infection: An Exploratory Retrospective Study.

Neurological involvement following coronavirus disease 19 (COVID-19) is thought to have a neuroinflammatory etiology. Co-ultraPEALut (an anti-inflammatory molecule) and luteolin (an anti-oxidant) have shown promising results as neuroinflammation antagonists. The aim of this study was to describe cognitive impairment in patients with post-COVID-19 treated with co-ultraPEALut.

Insights into attention and memory difficulties in post-COVID syndrome using standardized neuropsychological tests and experimental cognitive tasks.

The COVID-19 pandemic has given rise to post-acute cognitive symptoms, often described as 'brain fog'. To comprehensively grasp the extent of these issues, we conducted a study integrating traditional neuropsychological assessments with experimental cognitive tasks targeting attention control, working memory, and long-term memory, three cognitive domains most commonly associated with 'brain fog'. We enrolled 33 post-COVID patients, all self-reporting cognitive difficulties, and a matched control group (N = 27) for cognitive and psychological assessments.

Stuttering-Like Dysfluencies as a Consequence of Long COVID-19.

Purpose: We present two patients who developed neurogenic stuttering after long COVID-19 related to SARS-CoV-2 infection.

Methods And Results: Both patients experienced both physical (e.g.

Cognitive deficit in post-acute COVID-19: an opportunity for EEG evaluation?

Background And Purpose: Among the most common post-COVID symptoms, many patients experienced subjective cognitive deficit, commonly named "brain fog," that might be present also in those individuals without severe acute COVID-19 respiratory involvement. Some studies have investigated some of the mechanisms that might be associated with the brain fog with objective techniques including transcranial magnetic stimulation and neuroimaging.

Methods: The aim of this study was to investigate the presence of electroencephalographic (EEG) alterations in people with post-COVID self-reported cognitive deficit.

Optimal MoCA cutoffs for detecting biologically-defined patients with MCI and early dementia.

Objective: In this phase II psychometric study on the Montreal cognitive assessment (MoCA), we tested the clinicometric properties of Italian norms for patients with mild cognitive impairment (PwMCI) and early dementia (PwD) and provided optimal cutoffs for diagnostic purposes.

Methods: Retrospective data collection was performed for consecutive patients with clinically and biologically defined MCI and early dementia. Forty-five patients (24 PwMCI and 21 PwD) and 25 healthy controls were included.

Using the ATN system as a guide for the neuropsychological assessment of Alzheimer's disease.

Introduction: Many studies have attempted to determine whether Alzheimer's disease (AD) in-vivo biomarkers can predict neuropsychological performance since pathophysiological changes precede cognitive changes by several years. Nonetheless, neuropsychological measures can also detect cognitive deterioration in cognitively normal individuals with AD-positive biomarkers. Recent studies have investigated whether cognitive measures can be used as a proxy for biomarkers.

Smart technology for physical activity and health assessment during COVID-19 lockdown.

Background: The worldwide lockdown in response to COVID-19 pandemics has often led to physical inactivity and social distancing. When combined, these factors may affect quality and life and increase the risk of different diseases. Therefore, assessment of physical activity levels should be encouraged to monitor and identify those at a higher risk of inactivity.

Thrombolysis' benefits on early post-stroke language recovery in aphasia patients.

Introduction: Thrombolysis may affect ischemic stroke-related size, pattern and nature of infarcts, and has the potential to change aphasia presentation and recovery. Data on evolution of post-stroke aphasia following thrombolysis are still scarce. The aim of this study was to determine the course of language recovery through a well-validated language assessment battery after acute ischemic stroke and investigate whether traditional categorical classifications of aphasia can describe the clinical picture in post-thrombolysis phase.

Connected Speech Deficit as an Early Hallmark of CSF-defined Alzheimer's Disease and Correlation with Cerebral Hypoperfusion Pattern.

Background: Diagnosis of prodromal Alzheimer's disease (AD) still represents a hot topic and there is a growing interest for the detection of early and non-invasive biomarkers. Although progressive episodic memory impairment is the typical predominant feature of AD, communicative difficulties can be already present at the early stages of the disease.

Objective: This study investigated the narrative discourse production deficit as a hallmark of CSFdefined prodromal AD and its correlation with cerebral hypoperfusion pattern.

Stuttering-like hesitation in speech during acute/post-acute phase of immune-mediated encephalitis.

Purpose: Neurogenic stuttering may be evident after a lesion/dysfunction of wider neural networks. Here we present a case of acquired stuttering as the consequence of immune-mediated encephalitis.

Methods: The case of a 71-year old male who complained about the progressive onset of stuttering and disequilibrium as the consequence of immune-mediated encephalitis, is here reported.

A new MAPT deletion in a case of speech apraxia leading to corticobasal syndrome.

Speech apraxia is a disorder of speech motor planning/programming leading to slow rate, articulatory distortion, and distorted sound substitutions. We describe the clinical profile evolution of a patient presenting with slowly progressive isolated speech apraxia that eventually led to the diagnosis of corticobasal syndrome (CBS), supporting the evidence that this rare speech disorder can be the first presentation of CBS. Moreover, we found a novel variant in MAPT gene, which is hypothesized to be disease-causing mutation.

Early Recovery of Aphasia through Thrombolysis: The Significance of Spontaneous Speech.

Background: Aphasia is one of the most devastating stroke-related consequences for social interaction and daily activities. Aphasia recovery in acute stroke depends on the degree of reperfusion after thrombolysis or thrombectomy. As aphasia assessment tests are often time-consuming for patients with acute stroke, physicians have been developing rapid and simple tests.

Allographic agraphia for single letters.

The case is reported of a patient (PS) who, following acute encephalitis with residual occipito-temporal damage, showed a selective deficit in writing cursive letters in isolation, but no difficulty to write cursive-case words and non-words. Notably, he was able to recognize the same allographs he could not write and to produce both single letters and words in print. In addition to this selective single letter writing difficulty, the patient demonstrated an inability to correctly perform a series of imagery tasks for cursive letters.

Decompressive craniectomy and early cranioplasty for the management of severe head injury: a prospective multicenter study on 147 patients.

Objective: In emergency care of patients with severe blunt head injury, uncontrollable high intracranial pressure is one of major causes of morbidity and mortality. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the efficacy of aggressive surgical treatment in managing uncontrollable elevated intracranial pressure coupled with early skull reconstruction.

Methods: This was a prospective study on a series of 147 consecutive patients, managed according to the same protocol by five different neurosurgical units, for severe head injuries (Glasgow coma scale score ≤8/15 and high intracranial pressure >25 mm Hg) during a five-year period.

Good division, but bad addition, subtraction and multiplication. A "leftmost-first" bug?

The present investigation reports the case of patient AS, ambidextrous, who showed a selective problem with arithmetical procedures in addition, subtraction and multiplication, contrasting with complete sparing of division. AS displayed a specific and never described "bug" error, involving the selection of digits that have to be added, subtracted or multiplied. This bug consisted in inverting the order of the numbers that have to be selected to correctly solve the operation.

Griscelli syndrome type 2: long-term follow-up after unrelated donor bone marrow transplantation.

Griscelli syndrome (GS) is a rare autosomal recessive disease characterized by silvery hair ('partial albinism'). Three forms exist; GS type 2 (GS2), the most common one, is characterized by severe primary immunodeficiency with acute episodes of hemophagocytic lymphohistiocytosis (HLH) which may be fatal in the absence of hematopoietic stem cell transplantation. A 5-year-old boy with HLH was referred to us because of silvery-gray hair present since birth.

Allographic agraphia: a case study.

We report the case of patient MN, diagnosed with frontotemporal dementia, who exhibited a severe impairment in writing letters and words in upper-case print in the face of accurate production of the same stimuli in lower-case cursive. In contrast to her written production difficulties, MN was unimpaired in recognizing visually presented letters and words in upper-case print. We find a modest benefit of visual form cueing in the written production of upper-case letters, despite an inability to describe or report visual features of letters in any case or font.

Involvement of oxygen radicals in cytarabine-induced apoptosis in human polymorphonuclear cells.

We investigated apoptosis in polymorphonuclear neutrophils (PMNs) induced by cytarabine (Ara-C). This drug increased apoptosis by 100% with respect to the controls after 3 hr of incubation. This increase was inhibited by N-acetyl-L-cysteine (NAC) or diphenyleneiodonium chloride (DPI).

Human platelets bind and degrade 2-arachidonoylglycerol, which activates these cells through a cannabinoid receptor.

The endocannabinoid 2-arachidonoylglycerol (2-Delta(4)Ach-Gro) activates human platelets in platelet-rich plasma at physiological concentrations. The activation was inhibited by selective antagonists of CB(1) and CB(2) cannabinoid receptors, but not by acetylsalicylic acid. Human platelets can metabolize 2-Delta(4)Ach-Gro by internalization through a high affinity transporter (K(m) = 300 +/- 30 nM, V(max) = 10 +/- 1 pmol.

Acute childhood idiopathic thrombocytopenic purpura: AIEOP consensus guidelines for diagnosis and treatment. Associazione Italiana di Ematologia e Oncologia Pediatrica.

Background And Objective: A recent evaluation carried out by the Associazione Italiana di Ematologia e Oncologia Pediatrica (AIEOP) about practice management of acute childhood idiopathic thrombocytopenic purpura (ITP) revealed a remarkable difference of behaviors among the different AIEOP centers. A need for common practice guidelines for this frequent illness arose from this observation. Our aim was to make the diagnosis and treatment of childhood ITP uniform.

Effect of amlodipine on exercise-induced platelet activation in patients affected by chronic stable angina.

Background: Literature concerning exercise-induced platelet activation in chronic stable angina is somewhat confusing. The reason lies in the type of exercise as well as in methodological problems. A powerful, recently introduced procedure to detect platelet activation is flow cytometry.

Anandamide activates human platelets through a pathway independent of the arachidonate cascade.

Anandamide (arachidonoylethanolamide, AnNH) is shown to activate human platelets, a process which was not inhibited by acetylsalicylic acid (aspirin). Unlike AnNH, hydroperoxides generated thereof by lipoxygenase activity, and the congener (13-hydroxy)linoleoylethanolamide, were unable to activate platelets, though they counteracted AnNH-mediated stimulation. On the other hand, palmitoylethanolamide neither activated human platelets nor blocked the AnNH effects.

Superoxide release by human polymorphonuclear leukocytes in the presence of deferoxamine.

Background And Objective: Anecdotal reports in patients with acute and chronic iron overload have recently indicated that the efficacy and safety of an alternative chelation program including intravenous and/or continuous delivery of deferoxamine (DFO) may be in contrast with the risk of developing lung injury. Production of oxygen radicals has been postulated to be an important mechanism by which polymorphonuclear leukocytes (PMNs) could cause tissue injury in patients undergoing this alternative treatment method.

Methods: PMNs obtained from healthy donors were incubated at 37 degrees C for 30 min with DFO (across the drug concentration 0.