Comorbidity in myasthenia gravis: multicentric, hospital-based, and controlled study of 178 Italian patients.

Background: Myasthenia gravis (MG) is an autoimmune disorder with fluctuating weakness that causes significant disability and morbidity. Comorbidities may influence the course of MG, particularly in specific subgroups. The aim of this study is to investigate the frequency of comorbidities in MG patients compared to healthy controls (HC) and to evaluate their distribution according to age at disease onset, sex, and disease severity.

Pathophysiology of multiple sclerosis damage and repair: Linking cerebral hypoperfusion to the development of irreversible tissue loss in multiple sclerosis using magnetic resonance imaging.

Background And Purpose: Reduced cerebral perfusion has been observed in multiple sclerosis (MS) and may contribute to tissue loss both acutely and chronically. Here, we test the hypothesis that hypoperfusion occurs in MS and relates to the presence of irreversible tissue damage.

Methods: In 91 patients with relapsing MS and 26 healthy controls (HC), gray matter (GM) cerebral blood flow (CBF) was assessed using pulsed arterial spin labeling.

Functional Neurologic Disorders, disorders to be managed by neurologists, or are neurologists wandering in a dangerous field with inadequate resources?

In recent years, some neurologists reconsidered their approach to Medically Unexplained Symptoms and proposed Functional Neurologic Disorders (FND) as a new entity, claiming that neurology could offer alternative treatment options to the psychotherapies provided in psychiatry settings. FNDs, for this purpose, should include only the disorders listed as Conversion from the Somatic Symptom and Related Disorders (SSRD) group. The present review analyzes the rationale of this position and challenges the arguments provided for its support.

Bipolar spectrum disorders in neurologic disorders.

Psychiatric symptoms frequently predate or complicate neurological disorders, such as neurodegenerative diseases. Symptoms of bipolar spectrum disorders (BSD), like mood, behavioral, and psychotic alterations, are known to occur - individually or as a syndromic cluster - in Parkinson's disease and in the behavioral variant of frontotemporal dementia (FTD). Nonetheless, due to shared pathophysiological mechanisms, or genetic predisposition, several other neurological disorders show significant, yet neglected, clinical and biological overlaps with BSD like neuroinflammation, ion channel dysfunctions, neurotransmission imbalance, or neurodegeneration.

The factitious/malingering continuum and its burden on public health costs: a review and experience in an Italian neurology setting.

Factitious disorder is classified as one of the five aspects of somatic symptom disorders. The fundamental element of factitious disorder is deception, i.e.

Diabetes Mellitus and Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis: A Systematic Review.

Background: Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS) is a degenerative disorder which affects the motor neurons. Growing evidence suggests that ALS may impact the metabolic system, including the glucose metabolism. Several studies investigated the role of Diabetes Mellitus (DM) as risk and/or prognostic factor.

Agitation and Dementia: Prevention and Treatment Strategies in Acute and Chronic Conditions.

Agitation is a behavioral syndrome characterized by increased, often undirected, motor activity, restlessness, aggressiveness, and emotional distress. According to several observations, agitation prevalence ranges from 30 to 50% in Alzheimer's disease, 30% in dementia with Lewy bodies, 40% in frontotemporal dementia, and 40% in vascular dementia (VaD). With an overall prevalence of about 30%, agitation is the third most common neuropsychiatric symptoms (NPS) in dementia, after apathy and depression, and it is even more frequent (80%) in residents of nursing homes.

Unusual Presentation of Bilateral Carotid Artery Dissection: The Importance of Reasoning Outside the Box.

A bilateral internal carotid artery dissection presenting with atypical symptoms of cerebral hypoperfusion has been rarely reported, especially in the absence of obvious precipitating factors. A middle-aged woman presented to the emergency department with a 2-day-history of progressive left arm numbness and weakness, confusion, disorientation and clumsiness worsened by upright position. A cerebral hypoperfusion condition was hypothesized and confirmed by a CT angiography, which showed bilateral internal carotid dissection with uncertain etiology.