Bullying at Workplace and Brain-Imaging Correlates.

The relationship between psychosocial stress at work and mental health outcome is well-known. Brain-imaging studies hypothesize morphological brain modifications connected to work-related stress. To our knowledge this is the first study describing the link between work characteristics and brain imaging in a sample of work-related psychiatric patients assessed according to standardized clinical and diagnostic criteria.

Shape of the OGTT glucose curve and risk of impaired glucose metabolism in the EGIR-RISC cohort.

Objective: To study whether the shape of the oral glucose tolerance test (OGTT)-glucose curve is a stable trait over time; it is associated with differences in insulin sensitivity, ß-cell function and risk of impaired fasting glucose (IFG) and glucose tolerance (IGT) in the Relationship between Insulin Sensitivity and Cardiovascular Disease (RISC) cohort.

Methods: OGTT-glucose curve shape was classified as monophasic, biphasic, triphasic and anomalous in 915 individuals. Oral glucose insulin sensitivity (OGIS), Matsuda insulin sensitivity index (ISI) and ß-cell function were assessed at baseline and 3years apart.

[Mobbing, organizational dysfunction and bio-psycho-social effects: an integrated assessment. Preliminary data for the validation of the Questionnaire in the Neapoletan dialect on Distress at Work(Qn-DL)].

The aim of this study is to produce preliminary data about the validation of the "Naples-Questionnaire of Distress at Work" (nQ.DW). This inventory is a new assessment tool in order to evaluate the distress perceived in the working environment by means of the differentiation of the conditions linked to the mobbing from which related to organizational disfunction.

Work-related psychopathology: rates in different work activities and relationship between subjective perception of work distress and psychiatric disturbances.

Background: The link between work distress and negative mental health outcome is an emergent topic in the scientific literature. The studies that evaluated the risk of work-related psychopathologies in the different job sectors have obtained so far controversial and inconclusive results. The identification, by means of standardized evaluation tools, of the work activities at higher risk of poor mental health is a relevant target for the occupational psychiatry and medicine.

Beyond the morphology of the glucose curve following an oral glucose tolerance test in obese youth.

Background: To describe the morphology of glucose curve during the oral glucose tolerance test (OGTT) and any association with glucose tolerance, insulin action and secretion in obese youth.

Study Design: Cross-sectional.

Methods: OGTT data of 553 patients were analysed.

Quality of life after stroke in a rehabilitation setting.

The perceived Quality of Life (QOL) was evaluated in one-hundred and eleven participants after a first-ever stroke, who were admitted in a rehabilitation center and completed a 2-month program. The World Health Organization (WHO) QOL-100 was applied. Two domains were correlated with the functional status at discharge, namely, the level of independence and the social relations.

Obsessive-compulsive symptoms in schizophrenia: their relationship with clinical features and pharmacological treatment.

Objectives: The aim of this study was to evaluate (1) the frequency of obsessive-compulsive symptoms (OCS) in patients with schizophrenia, (2) the impact of OCS on clinical features of schizophrenia, and (3) the association between type of antipsychotic treatment and presence of OCS.

Methods: OCS were evaluated using the Yale-Brown Obsessive Compulsive Scale (Y-BOCS) in 70 patients with schizophrenia. The patients were then divided into two subgroups: those with at least a moderate level of OCS and those with mild or absent OCS.

Metabolic endotoxemia and saturated fat contribute to circulating NGAL concentrations in subjects with insulin resistance.

Objective: Lipocalin-2 (neutrophil gelatinase-associated lipocalin, NGAL) is an innate immune system protein that has been linked to insulin resistance and obesity, but the mechanisms behind these associations are poorly known. We hypothesized that endotoxin (lipopolysaccharide, LPS) and fat intake were in the background of these associations.

Design: We studied four cohorts: (1) a cross-sectional study in 194 subjects; (2) the changes in NGAL concentration induced by diet and weight loss in 36 obese women (with circadian rhythm in 8 of them); (3) the effects of acute fat intake on circulating NGAL concentration in 42 morbidly obese subjects; and (4) LPS-induced NGAL secretion ex vivo (whole blood and adipose tissue explants).

Association between bullying at work and mental disorders: gender differences in the Italian people.

Background: In the last few years the international literature has shown an increasing attention for the work as life-event stressor, for its organizational characteristics as well as for job insecurity and interpersonal conflicts.

Methods: We have studied 707 subjects who approached the Work Psychopathology Medical Centre of Naples to evaluate the DSM IV diagnoses and the degree of bullying at the workplace according to Leymann's definition. Two groups, with high and with low severity of bullying, were compared, mainly in relation to gender differences.

Circadian rhythms of GIP and GLP1 in glucose-tolerant and in type 2 diabetic patients after biliopancreatic diversion.

Aims/hypothesis: We tested the hypothesis that the reversibility of insulin resistance and diabetes observed after biliopancreatic diversion (BPD) is related to changes in circadian rhythms of gastrointestinal hormones.

Methods: Ten morbidly obese participants, five with normal glucose tolerance (NGT) and five with type 2 diabetes, were studied before and within 2 weeks after BPD. Within-day variations in glucose-dependent insulinotropic polypeptide (GIP) and glucagon-like peptide 1 (GLP1) levels were assessed using a single cosinor model.

EEG spectral analysis in Alzheimer's disease and different degenerative dementias.

The EEG was recorded in 25 patients with Alzheimer's disease (AD), 25 patients with non-Alzheimer degenerative dementias (NAD), matched for age and severity of dementia and 50 age- and sex-matched normal subjects. The recordings were made with the subjects at rest with eyes closed (REC) and opened (REO). The data was subjected to spectral analysis and the power was computed in five contiguous 5.

Prolactin and insulin ultradian secretion and adipose tissue lipoprotein lipase expression in severely obese women after bariatric surgery.

Background: Hyperprolactinemia is associated with obesity. Furthermore, in human adipose tissue cultured in vitro, prolactin (PRL) inhibited lipoprotein lipase (LPL) activity via functional PRL receptors.

Objective: To study PRL and insulin ultradian rhythm and subcutaneous adipose tissue LPL mRNA and protein expressions in severely obese women before and after malabsorptive bariatric surgery.

A polynomial function of gait performance.

A mathematical data processing method is presented that represents a further step in gait analysis. The proposed polynomial regression analysis is reliable in assessing differences in the same patient and even on the same day. The program also calculates the confidence interval of the whole curve.

Menopause, insulin resistance, and risk factors for cardiovascular disease.

Objective: In this retrospective analysis of the European Group for the Study of Insulin Resistance database, a clamp data pooling project, a cardiovascular risk score (CVS) was assessed to verify whether hyperinsulinemia and/or insulin resistance were independent cardiovascular risk factors and to investigate how menopause affected CVS and insulin resistance.

Design: Information was obtained on whole-body glucose uptake (M), determined by the euglycemic hyperinsulinemic clamp technique, normalized by fat-free mass (FFM), and insulin concentration (I) at a steady state. Body composition was estimated using a labeled water technique or bioimpedance.

The role of P300 in the recovery of post-stroke global aphasia.

Seventeen right-handed patients suffering from global aphasia caused by a recent stroke in the left-hemisphere were studied. Passive P300 auditory event related potential paradigm was applied every months for 6 months. Aachen subtests were used for evaluating comprehension.

Evaluation of sexual changes after stroke.

Background: Sexual difficulties may arise after stroke. This study was aimed at evaluating and quantifying sexual changes 1 year after stroke.

Method: Sixty-eight stroke patients, consecutively admitted to our rehabilitation unit, were enrolled in the study.

The aftermath of rehabilitation for patients with severe stroke.

Objective: The study evaluates the aftermath of stroke in patients with very severe disability after their first ever stroke and dismissed after rehabilitation.

Materials And Methods: Sixty-nine inpatients were studied, who were highly disabled at discharge with a Functional Independence Measure (FIM) score in the range of 18-39. Their rehabilitation program had lasted 60 days.

Chest conduction properties and ECG equalization.

In common practice of detecting and recording biomedical signals, it is often implicitly assumed that the propagation, through the whole circuit human body-electrodes recording devices, is frequency and voltage independent. As a consequence, clinicians are not aware that recorded signals do not correspond faithfully to the original electrical activity of organs under investigation. We have studied the transmission of electrical signals in human body at various voltages and frequencies to understand if and to which extent the most diffused stimulating and recording techniques used in medicine are affected by global body conduction properties.

The effects of atrial fibrillation on functional recovery in post-stroke patients.

Purpose: This study evaluates the negative effects of atrial fibrillation (AF) on after stroke recovery and its relationship with age and other concomitant diseases.

Method: One hundred and ninety-nine consecutive inpatients, after their first stroke, were enrolled and entered a rehabilitation program lasting 60 days. The mean interval since the stroke was 19 days.

On the prognosis of outcome after stroke.

Objectives: The study was aimed at improving the accuracy of prognosis for recovery of function in patients suffering a first stroke.

Materials And Methods: Two-hundred and forty-eight patients were enrolled. The mean interval since the stroke was 23 days.

Effects of propionyl-L-carnitine on peripheral arterial obliterative disease of the lower limbs: a double-blind clinical trial.

The authors evaluated the efficacy of propionyl-l-carnitine, a drug able to reduce peripheral resistance and protect the cells against oxidative stress damage, in patients affected by peripheral arterial obliterative disease at class II of Fontaine. The study was performed on 22 patients according to a double-blind, randomized design in parallel with placebo. The drug was administered at a dosage of 1 g three times a day orally for 90 days.

Dyscalculia in the early stages of Alzheimer's disease.

Objective: To study mathematical deficits in the early stages of Alzheimer's disease (AD).

Methods: Sixty-eight patients with mild AD and 242 normal controls (NC) received a standardized battery (EC 301-R) assessing number processing and calculation abilities. AD patients also received testing for language, memory, visuo-spatial and executive-attentional domains.