A data-driven cluster analysis to explore cognitive reserve and modifiable risk factors in early phases of cognitive decline.

The present study was aimed to cluster sub-groups of patients with varying degrees of cognitive impairment (Subjective Cognitive Decline, mild or Major Neurocognitive Disorder) based on their modifiable risk factors and cognitive reserve with k-means analysis. As a secondary analysis, we described the identified clusters from different perspectives, i.e.

Generation of iPSC lines derived from skin fibroblasts of two healthy controls using non-transmissible form of Sendai Virus.

We established two iPSC lines starting from skin fibroblasts of two healthy individuals using Sendai-virus-based technique. The obtained iPSCs were characterized showing same STR profile as starting fibroblasts, normal karyotype, loss of stemness vectors, expression of stemness markers, both through real-time PCR and immunofluorescence, (OCT4, SOX2, TRA-1-60, NANOG and SSEA4) and in vitro differentiation into three germ layers.

Investigating the individual and joint effects of socioeconomic status and lifestyle factors on mild cognitive impairment in older Italians living independently in the community: results from the NutBrain study.

Objectives: Despite extensive research, a clear understanding of the role of the interaction between lifestyle and socioeconomic status (SES) on cognitive health is still lacking. We investigated the joint association of socioeconomic factors in early to midlife and lifestyle in later life and Mild Cognitive Impairment (MCI).

Design: Observational cross-sectional study.

Advancing Italian biomedical information extraction with transformers-based models: Methodological insights and multicenter practical application.

The introduction of computerized medical records in hospitals has reduced burdensome activities like manual writing and information fetching. However, the data contained in medical records are still far underutilized, primarily because extracting data from unstructured textual medical records takes time and effort. Information Extraction, a subfield of Natural Language Processing, can help clinical practitioners overcome this limitation by using automated text-mining pipelines.

Cognitive Hemorrhagic Onset in Cerebral Amyloid Angiopathy: Neuroimaging Features.

Background: Intracerebral hemorrhage and cognitive decline are typical clinical presentations of cerebral amyloid angiopathy (CAA).

Objective: To determine whether magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) features differ between CAA with hemorrhagic cognitive onset.

Methods: In this retrospective study, sixty-one patients with CAA were classified by onset presentation of the disease: hemorrhage (n = 31) or cognitive decline (n = 30).

Outcomes of a computer-based cognitive training (CoRe) in early phases of cognitive decline: a data-driven cluster analysis.

The present study aimed to identify clusters of cognitive profiles as well as to explore the effects of these clusters on demographic/individual characteristics and on improvements after a computer-based cognitive training (CCT) in early cognitive impairment. Fifty-seven subjects underwent to an adaptive CCT for 3 weeks (4 individual face-to-face sessions/week of 45 min) and were evaluated at baseline (T0), post-intervention (T1), and after 6 (T2) and 12 (T3) months. Clusters of cognitive profiles were explored with k-means analysis.

Potential Contribution of Hypertension to Evolution of Chronic Migraine and Related Mechanisms.

Aims: To investigate the potential contributions of diastolic and systolic blood pressure (BP) and the circadian rhythm of BP to chronic migraine evolution.

Methods: This cross-sectional study included four groups of patients selected based on migraine frequency (high frequency ≥ 10 days per month and low frequency < 10) and on the presence of hypertension. Among-group and pairwise comparisons were carried out to investigate potential neurophysiologic differences in the cerebral vessel reactivity to a nitroglycerin test, in autonomic balance (tilting test), and BP circadian rhythm.

Vascular Lesions and Brain Atrophy in Alzheimer's, Vascular and Mixed Dementia: An Optimized 3T MRI Protocol Reveals Distinctive Radiological Profiles.

Background: Vascular lesions may be a common finding also in Alzheimer's dementia, but their role on cognitive status is uncertain.

Objective: The study aims to investigate their distribution in patients with Alzheimer's, vascular or mixed dementia and detect any distinctive neuroradiological profiles.

Methods: Seventy-six subjects received a diagnosis of Alzheimer's (AD=32), vascular (VD=26) and mixed (MD=18) dementia.

Extracellular Vesicles Derived From Plasma of Patients With Neurodegenerative Disease Have Common Transcriptomic Profiling.

Objectives: There is a lack of effective biomarkers for neurodegenerative diseases (NDs) such as Alzheimer's disease (AD), Parkinson's disease (PD), amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), and frontotemporal dementia. Extracellular vesicle (EV) RNA cargo can have an interesting potential as a non-invasive biomarker for NDs. However, the knowledge about the abundance of EV-mRNAs and their contribution to neurodegeneration is not clear.

Effects of Oral Administration of Alprazolam and Lorazepam as Hypnotics on Cardiovascular Parameters in Hypertensive Patients.

Background: Previous studies have suggested that evening intake of benzodiazepine affects blood pressure (BP) and/or heart rate (HR) in healthy and hypertensive subjects. The aim of this study was to compare the effect of chronic oral administration of alprazolam and lorazepam as hypnotics on ambulatory BP and HR in patients with mild hypertension.

Methods: Consecutive outpatients of both sexes with newly diagnosed, never-treated mild hypertension were randomized, after a 4-week placebo run-in period, to receive alprazolam 0.

Medical Informatics Platform (MIP): A Pilot Study Across Clinical Italian Cohorts.

With the shift of research focus to personalized medicine in Alzheimer's Dementia (AD), there is an urgent need for tools that are capable of quantifying a patient's risk using diagnostic biomarkers. The Medical Informatics Platform (MIP) is a distributed e-infrastructure federating large amounts of data coupled with machine-learning (ML) algorithms and statistical models to define the biological signature of the disease. The present study assessed (i) the accuracy of two ML algorithms, i.

Pitfals in recognition and management of trigeminal neuralgia.

Background: Trigeminal neuralgia (TN) is a severe, disabling form of painful cranial neuropathy. Even though TN has a typical clinical picture, diagnosis it is often missed or delayed in clinical practice. In order to investigate the occurrence of diagnostic and therapeutic errors in TN, we studied 102 patients suffering from TN recruited through a multicentric survey.

Incremental value of amyloid-PET versus CSF in the diagnosis of Alzheimer's disease.

Purpose: To compare the incremental diagnostic value of amyloid-PET and CSF (Aβ42, tau, and phospho-tau) in AD diagnosis in patients with mild cognitive impairment (MCI) or mild dementia, in order to improve the definition of diagnostic algorithm.

Methods: Two independent dementia experts provided etiological diagnosis and relative diagnostic confidence in 71 patients on 3 rounds, based on (1) clinical, neuropsychological, and structural MRI information alone; (2) adding one biomarker (CSF amyloid and tau levels or amyloid-PET with a balanced randomized design); and (3) adding the other biomarker.

Results: Among patients with a pre-biomarker diagnosis of AD, negative PET induced significantly more diagnostic changes than amyloid-negative CSF at both rounds 2 (CSF 67%, PET 100%, P = 0.

The Treatment of Trigeminal Autonomic Cephalalgias: An Overview.

Trigeminal autonomic cephalalgias (TACs) are primary headaches that include cluster headache (CH), paroxysmal hemicrania (PH), and short-lasting unilateral neuralgiform headache attacks (SUNHAs) with conjunctival injection and tearing (SUNCT) or cranial autonomic features (SUNA). Hemicrania continua (HC) is another form that has been ascribed to TACs for clinical and pathophysiologic reasons. Cluster headache is the most common of these syndromes, even if comparatively rare, with a lifetime prevalence of around 1 in 1,000.

Effect of flunitrazepam as an oral hypnotic on 24-hour blood pressure in healthy volunteers.

Purpose: The present study was carried out in order to assess the effects of chronic administration of flunitrazepam (as an oral hypnotic) on 24-h blood pressure (BP) and heart rate (HR) in healthy young adults.

Materials And Methods: Following a 2-week placebo run-in period, 28 healthy volunteers (13 males and 15 females) between 21 and 30 years were randomized to receive either flunitrazepam 1 mg or placebo (both administered once a day in the evening) for 4 weeks in two cross-over periods; each separated by a 2-week placebo period. At the end of each study period, non-invasive 24-h BP and HR ambulatory monitoring was performed.

Effect of ramipril/hydrochlorothiazide and ramipril/canrenone combination on atrial fibrillation recurrence in hypertensive type 2 diabetic patients with and without cardiac autonomic neuropathy.

Introduction: The aim of this study was to compare the effect of ramipril/canrenone versus ramipril/hydrochlorothiazide (HCTZ) combination on atrial fibrillation (AF) recurrence in type 2 diabetic hypertensives with and without cardiac autonomic neuropathy (CAN).

Material And Methods: A total of 289 hypertensive type 2 diabetic patients, 95 with CAN, in sinus rhythm but with at least two episodes of AF in the previous 6 months were randomized to ramipril 5 mg plus canrenone 50 mg (titrated to 10/100 mg) or to ramipril 5 mg plus HCTZ 12.5 mg (titrated to 10/25 mg) or to amlodipine 5 mg (titrated to 10 mg) for 1 year.

Botulinum Toxin Is Effective in the Management of Neurogenic Dysphagia. Clinical-Electrophysiological Findings and Tips on Safety in Different Neurological Disorders.

Neurogenic dysphagia linked to failed relaxation of the upper esophageal sphincter (UES) can be treated by injecting botulinum toxin (BTX) into the cricopharyngeal (CP) muscle. We compared the effects of this treatment in different neurological disorders with dysphagia, to evaluate its efficacy over time including the response to a second injection. Sixty-seven patients with neurogenic dysphagia associated with incomplete or absent opening of the UES (24 with brainstem or hemispheric stroke, 21 with parkinsonian syndromes, 12 with multiple sclerosis, and 10 with spastic-dystonic syndromes secondary to post-traumatic encephalopathy) were treated with the injection of IncobotulinumtoxinA (dose 15-20 U) into the CP muscle under electromyographic guidance.

Ambulatory 24-h ECG monitoring and cardiovascular autonomic assessment for the screening of silent myocardial ischemia in elderly type 2 diabetic hypertensive patients.

The aim of the study was to evaluate the usefulness of Holter monitoring for the detection of silent myocardial ischemia (SMI) in elderly type 2 diabetic patients with hypertension and the possible relationship between SMI and cardiovascular autonomic neuropathy (CAN). Two hundred and forty-three asymptomatic outpatients, aged 65-75 years, with type 2 diabetes and essential hypertension underwent 24-h ECG monitoring and 5 tests for the evaluation of both parasympathetic (heart rate variability, response to breath deeping, and Valsalva manoeuvre) and sympathetic (cold pressor test and orthostatic hypotension test) autonomic function. A total of 518 asymptomatic episodes of ST depression during Holter monitoring indicative of SMI were detected in 51 of the 243 studied patients (20.

Twenty-four-hour blood pressure profile, orthostatic hypotension, and cardiac dysautonomia in elderly type 2 diabetic hypertensive patients.

Purpose: The aim of this study was to evaluate the relationship between orthostatic hypotension (OH), defined as a decrease in systolic blood pressure (SBP) ≥20 mmHg and/or a decrease in diastolic blood pressure (DBP) ≥10 mmHg, and 24-h ambulatory BP profile in elderly hypertensive type 2 diabetic patients.

Methods: After a 2-week antihypertensive wash-out period, 200 hypertensive well-controlled diabetic outpatients, aged 65-75 years, underwent a clinical examination, including BP measurements, ECG, 24-h ABP monitoring (ABPM), an orthostatic test, and three tests for cardiovascular autonomic function assessment [deep breathing, heart rate (HR) variability, resting HR].

Results: According to their nighttime BP profile, patients were divided into three groups: dippers (n = 86) (BP fall during nighttime ≥10 %), non-dippers (n = 80) (BP fall during nighttime 0-10 %), and reverse dippers (n = 34) (nighttime BP > daytime BP).

The Neuropharmacology of Cluster Headache and other Trigeminal Autonomic Cephalalgias.

Trigeminal autonomic cephalalgias (TACs) are a group of primary headaches including cluster headache (CH), paroxysmal hemicrania (PH) and short-lasting unilateral neuralgiform headache with conjunctival injection and tearing (SUNCT). Another form, hemicrania continua (HC), is also included this group due to its clinical and pathophysiological similarities. CH is the most common of these syndromes, the others being infrequent in the general population.

The role of diet and lifestyle in adolescents with headache: a review.

Several dietary habits and lifestyles can be associated with different headache types or with their progression to chronic forms. Different population-based studies have tried to investigate this relationship with poor or contradictory results. We shortly reported the current knowledges available in literature in this regard, paying particular attention to the role that certain factors play in modifying frequency and intensity of headache in adults and in adolescents.

Physico-chemical characterisation of the modifications I and II of (R,S) propranolol hydrochloride: solubility and dissolution studies.

The crystallisation conditions and the physicochemical properties of the modifications I and II of (R,S) propranolol hydrochloride were investigated. Detailed methods of preparation of the two forms were described. Data from FTIR spectroscopy, X-ray powder diffraction, thermal analysis, solubility and dissolution studies were used for the identification and the characterisation of the two forms.

Solid-state investigation of fluocinolone acetonide.

Three crystalline modifications of fluocinolone acetonide, A, B and C, were characterized by means of FTIR, DSC, TG-FTIR, MICRO-FTIR and X-ray diffractometry. They were easily differentiated by their IR absorption bands in the 3600-3400 cm-1 range. The thermal behavior was also elucidated using combined techniques; thermomicroscopy and thermogravimetry coupled with Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy were found to be very useful tools for a better understanding of thermal events.