Respiratory Trajectories and Correlation with Serum Biochemical Indices in Spinal and Bulbar Muscular Atrophy.

Background/objectives: The primary life-threatening complication in spinal-bulbar muscular atrophy (SBMA) is ventilatory failure. The present study analyzes the longitudinal patterns of respiratory function tests over a follow-up of 11 years.

Methods: We collected data from 9 genetically confirmed SBMA patients.

Correlation between retinal sensitivity and retinal vascular perfusion after idiopathic epiretinal membrane peeling.

Background: To evaluate the correlations between anatomical and functional changes after idiopathic epiretinal membrane (iERM) surgery.

Methods: In this prospective, observational, single-center study, consecutive patients who underwent iERM peeling were enrolled. Reported data were pre- and postoperative best-corrected visual acuity (BCVA), retinal sensitivity (RS) and fixation stability values on microperimetry, structural macular features on SD-OCT and OCTA.

Optic neuritis following COVID-19 vaccination: Do autoimmune diseases play a role?

Purpose And Context: We report two cases of optic neuritis following Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccination in patients with autoimmune diseases. Post-vaccine optic neuritis, although rare, is reported in the literature and an autoimmune mechanism seems to be involved, especially in genetically predisposed subjects.

Method: Report of two cases of optic neuritis following COVID-19 vaccination in patients with autoimmune diseases.

Acceptability and Preliminary Results of Technology-Assisted Balance Training in Parkinson's Disease.

(1) Background: Parkinson's Disease (PD) is one of the most common causes of disability among older individuals. The advanced stages of PD are usually characterized by postural instability and, as a consequence, falls. Those are among the main factors that determine the quality of life, as well as the morbidity and mortality of a person with PD.

Pachychoroid spectrum disease and choriocapillary flow analysis in patients with Cushing disease: an optical coherence tomography angiography study.

Purpose: To investigate the presence of pachychoroid spectrum disease (PSD) in patients with Cushing disease (CD) and to evaluate subfoveal choroidal thickness (SFCT) and choriocapillary flow using spectral domain OCT (SD-OCT) with the enhanced depth imaging (EDI) and optical coherence tomography angiography (OCT-A).

Methods: Thirty-two patients with CD and 32 age- and sex-matched healthy volunteers were enrolled in this observational study. All participants had a complete ophthalmic examination including SD-OCT with EDI and OCT-A, and were subjected to the Perceived Stress Scale test (PSS).

Punctate inner choroidopathy reactivation following COVID-19: A case report.

Purpose: The purpose of this study is to report our experience with a case of punctate inner choroidopathy (PIC) reactivation following COVID-19.

Case Report: A 29-year-old caucasian woman with past ophthalmological history of bilateral PIC reported sudden visual acuity decrease in her right eye (RE) 3 weeks after SARS-CoV-2 infection. Her best-corrected visual acuity (BCVA) was 20/32 in RE; fundus examination and multimodal imaging (including indocyanine-green angiography, fundus autofluorescence, and optical coherence tomography) was consistent with unilateral PIC reactivation.

Retinal obliterative vasculitis associated to contralateral retinal neovascularization in membranoproliferative glomerulonephritis.

Purpose: To report our experience with a peculiar case of asynchronous bilateral retinal vascular occlusion in a patient suffering from membranoproliferative glomerulonephritis.

Case Report: A 57-year-old dialysed male affected by membranoproliferative glomerulonephritis who underwent kidney transplantation complained of a sudden vision loss in his right eye (RE). His best-corrected visual acuity (BCVA) was 20/40 in RE and 20/20 in the left eye (LE); ophthalmological and fluorangiographic examinations revealed unilateral retinal obliterative vasculitis with panuveitis and apparent sparing of contralateral eye.

Sclerochoroidal calcification as an incidental finding during oncological staging of a patient with parotid malignancy: A case report.

Introduction: Incidental finding of mass lesion in the choroid represents a very challenging situation for the ophthalmologist. We describe a case of an incidental, computed tomography (CT)-hyperintense, choroidal lesion in a patient with parotid malignancy and renal failure, and how multimodal imaging helped us reaching the correct diagnosis.

Case Description: A 63-year-old man with parotid gland malignancy was brought to our attention because preoperative staging CT showed a hyperintense choroidal lesion of the right eye.

EX-PRESS Glaucoma Filtration Device: Management of Complications.

The EX-PRESS glaucoma filtration device appears to be an effective addition to our options to treat refractory glaucoma. The possibility to create a sclerostomy without tissue excision provides a safe and reliable outflow pathway for aqueous that is standard in size, reducing much of the variability associated with a surgical procedure. Prospective randomized studies comparing EX-PRESS implantation with trabeculectomy show encouraging results.

Intraocular Pressure Rise Linked to Silicone Oil in Retinal Surgery: A Review.

Silicone oil represents the main choice for intraocular tamponade in cases of complicated retinal detachment surgery. The intraocular pressure of an eye filled with silicone oil could increase, driven by a variety of different forces, according to several mechanisms. Two main conditions have been highlighted, depending on the onset: early hypertension or late glaucoma.

Mild Cognitive Impairment Subtypes and Type 2 Diabetes in Elderly Subjects.

Background: Type 2 diabetes (T2D) is correlated to amnestic mild cognitive impairment (aMCI) and to non-amnestic mild cognitive impairment (naMCI). This study evaluated whether the T2D variable characterizes a peculiar cognitive profile in elderly patients. Moreover, it explores the association between glycated hemoglobin levels (HbA1c), T2D duration, insulin and oral hypoglycemic agent treatment, and cognition in elderly diabetic patients.

Photodynamic therapy and subthreshold micropulse laser treatment - A novel combined approach for the treatment of serous retinal detachment in dome-shaped macula.

Dome-shaped macula (DSM) is characterized by an inward convexity of the macula in myopic eyes, as visualized on optical coherence tomography (OCT). Serous retinal detachment (SRD) is a common complication of DSM, leading to a deterioration of visual acuity, in association with retinal pigment epithelium (RPE) atrophic changes. Many different therapeutic approaches to SRD secondary to DSM have been attempted, with variable results.

Long-term improvement of retinal sensitivity after macular hole surgery over at least 9-year-old follow-up: a case series.

Purpose: To evaluate the correlations between anatomical and functional changes in idiopathic macular hole (IMH) surgery in long-term follow-up.

Methods: This is a prospective, interventional single centre case series. The final sample is formed by 14 eyes of 14 patients who had undergone IMH surgery in our institution between 2005 and 2009 and were still followed up in 2019.

Intraocular Inflammation Control and Changes in Retinal and Choroidal Architecture in Refractory Non-Infectious Uveitis Patients after Adalimumab Therapy.

: Non-infectious uveitis represents a leading cause of visual impairment, and inflammation control represents a major priority in tackling visual acuity loss due to complications such as macular edema; different immunomodulatory drugs are currently being used, including anti-TNF-alpha Adalimumab. : This was a monocentric observational study of 18 eyes of 18 patients with non-infectious uveitis treated with Adalimumab. The primary endpoint was the control of ocular inflammation.

Non-Immersive Virtual Reality for Rehabilitation of the Older People: A Systematic Review into Efficacy and Effectiveness.

Unlabelled: Objective: the objective of this review is to analyze the advances in the field of rehabilitation through virtual reality, while taking into account non-immersive systems, as evidence have them shown to be highly accepted by older people, due to the lowest "cibersikness" symptomatology.

Data Sources: a systematic review of the literature was conducted in June 2019. The data were collected from Cochrane, Embase, Scopus, and PubMed databases, analyzing manuscripts and articles of the last 10 years.

The Eye as a Window to Systemic Infectious Diseases: Old Enemies, New Imaging.

Background: Syphilis, tuberculosis and toxoplasmosis are major infectious diseases worldwide; all of them are multisystem pathologies and share a possible ocular involvement. In this context, a fundamental help for the definitive diagnosis is provided by the ophthalmologist, through clinical evaluation and with the aid of a multimodal imaging examination.

Methods: We hereby describe selected cases who came to our attention and were visited in our eye clinic.

Flare changes after intravitreal injection of ocriplasmin in symptomatic vitreomacular traction syndrome.

Purpose: To evaluate the changes in anterior chamber flare after a single intravitreal injection of ocriplasmin (125 μg), in patients with symptomatic vitreomacular traction syndrome (VMT).

Study Design: An institutional review board-approved single-center not randomized prospective study.

Methods: Fifteen eyes of fifteen patients (9 women, 6 men) underwent intravitreal injection with ocriplasmin for symptomatic VMT (width of attachment ≤ 1500 μm).

Missense mutations in progranulin gene associated with frontotemporal lobar degeneration: study of pathogenetic features.

GRN, the gene coding for the progranulin (PGRN) protein, was recognized as a gene linked to frontotemporal lobar degeneration (FTLD). The first mutations identified were null mutations giving rise to haploinsufficiency. Missense mutations were subsequently detected, but only a small subset has been functionally investigated.

Approaching neurological diseases to reduce mobility limitations in older persons.

The rapidly increasing elderly population poses a major challenge for future health-care systems. Neurological diseases in older persons are particularly common and coexist with other clinical conditions. This is not surprising given that, for example, even patients with Alzheimer Disease (AD) could have relevant extrapyramidal signs at the moment of the diagnosis with motor signs having more negative prognostic value.

Allium cepa as a biomonitor of ochratoxin A toxicity and genotoxicity.

Ochratoxin A (OTA) is a toxin produced by Aspergillus and Penicillum moulds. Since OTA has not yet been evaluated in plant systems, this paper focused on describing the controversial effect OTA in an Allium root test model, which has known sensitivity to genotoxins and could be useful in toxin screening. Analyses of root growth and the root meristematic zone in response to OTA treatment were undertaken.

Tetanus toxin modulates serotonin transport in rat-brain neuronal cultures.

As has been previously described, tetanus toxin (TeTx) and its H(C) fragment inhibit the sodium-dependent 5-hydroxytryptamine (5-HT) uptake in rat-brain synaptosomes, probably through a kinase mechanism affecting the 5-HT transporter. Now, the inhibition of 5-HT uptake in neurons in primary culture by TeTx in a dose-dependent manner is described in this work. This effect is also produced by the nontoxic C-terminal fragment of the TeTx heavy chain (H(C)-fragment), indicating that 5-HT uptake inhibition is a consequence of the toxin binding to the plasmatic membrane and not to its catalytic activity.

Serotonin transporter phosphorylation modulated by tetanus toxin.

Tetanus toxin (TeTx) modifies Na(+)-dependent, high-affinity 5-hydroxytryptamine (5-HT, serotonin) uptake in a synaptosomal-enriched P(2) fraction from rat brain. The effect corresponds to a rapid and non-competitive uptake inhibition, and it is preceded by induction of phospholipase C (PLC) activity and translocation and down-regulation of the classical protein kinase C (PKC-alpha, -beta and -gamma) isoforms. The effects on serotonin transport and on cPKC activation were similar to the effects exhibited by phorbol ester 12-O-tetradecanoylphorbol 13-acetate (TPA).