Report from a Consensus Conference on the treatment of Ménière's disease with betahistine: rationale, methodology and results.

Ménière's disease is a disorder of the inner ear that causes vertigo, tinnitus, fullness and hearing loss. Although several treatments are available, the success rate is reported to be around 70%, similar to placebo. Betahistine, a weak H1 receptor agonist and an effective H3 receptor antagonist, is frequently prescribed for Ménière's disease, especially to reduce recurrent vertigo attacks.

Cross-cultural adaptation and validation of the Italian version of the patient-rated wrist/hand evaluation questionnaire.

An Italian version of the patient-rated wrist/hand evaluation (PRWHE) questionnaire was obtained through the standardized process of cross-cultural adaptation. The PRWHE-Italian (IT) was tested on 63 patients in order to evaluate comprehension, reliability and validity as correlated to the validated version of the disabilities of the arm shoulder and hand (DASH)-IT and SF-36. No patients had difficulty completing the PRWHE-IT questionnaire.

Novel three-stage ascertainment method: prevalence of PD and parkinsonism in South Tyrol, Italy.

Background: A number of community-based studies on the prevalence of PD have been conducted worldwide, but they are often extremely costly and time consuming.

Objective: To assess the prevalence of PD and parkinsonism for the population aged between 60 and 85 years in South Tyrol, Northern Italy, using a novel population-based three-stage ascertainment method.

Methods: Seven hundred fifty persons aged 60 to 85 years from South Tyrol received a validated screening mail questionnaire for parkinsonism.

Validation of a mail questionnaire for parkinsonism in two languages (German and Italian).

As part of a larger epidemiological study [Neuro-Epidemiology Project South-Tyrol (NEPT)], we investigated the accuracy of a mail questionnaire for parkinsonism in two languages (German and Italian). We administered the instrument to 40 randomly selected subjects with parkinsonism (Italian-speaking, n = 20; German-speaking, n = 20), attending our Parkinson's disease clinic regularly. Each patient was matched by age, sex and language with a subject without parkinsonism residing in the same South-Tyrol Province in Northern Italy.

Correlation of segmental carpal tunnel pressures with changes in hand and wrist positions in patients with carpal tunnel syndrome and controls.

We investigated pressures at 1 cm intervals along the carpal tunnel in 39 patients with carpal tunnel syndrome (CTS) and 12 controls. Pressures were measured for relaxed and gripping hand positions in combination with neutral, extended, and flexed wrist positions. Patient pressures exceeded control pressures, were below the previously reported 30 mmHg threshold for four of five locations in the relaxed neutral position and were typically greater in extension than in flexion.