Effect of N-acetylcysteine on craving in substance use disorders (SUD): a meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials.

Background: N-acetyl cysteine (NAC) appears promising as a treatment in patients with substance use disorder (SUD) as it helps rebalance glutamate levels in the central nervous system (CNS). Basal concentrations of glutamate are indeed reduced in SUD patients but increased during craving.

Materials And Methods: We conducted a systematic review and meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials (RCTs).

Different Models of Cardiac Telerehabilitation for People with Coronary Artery Disease: Features and Effectiveness: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis.

Cardiac telerehabilitation (TR) for coronary artery disease (CAD) is a feasible alternative to the center-based rehabilitation delivery model. However, the features of exercise-based cardiac TR are still heterogeneous among studies, making it difficult to disentangle the preferable reference strategies to be recommended for the adoption of this new delivery of care. In addition, little is known about the effectiveness of different models, such as the hybrid model (CRh) including both center-based and home-based telerehabilitation approaches, and the solely home-based telerehabilitation (CTR).

Obesity as a Confounding Factor in the Diagnosis of Wilson's Disease: Case Report of Two Siblings with the Same Genotype but Different Clinical Courses.

Wilson's disease (WD) is a biallelic disease-causing variant in the gene on chromosome 13q14.3 that results in copper accumulation in many organs, particularly the liver and brain. The phenotypic spectrum is wide and symptoms at onset can be heterogeneous.

Thermal profile classification of the back of sportive and sedentary healthy individuals.

Background: Infrared thermography (IRT) is a non-harmful, risk-free imaging technique and it has application for healthy and pathological population.

Objective: The aim of this study is to evaluate the thermographic profiles of the back of sport practitioners from different disciplines and compare it with those of sedentary healthy individuals.

Method: The back of 160 healthy subjects were evaluated, and participants were grouped considering their sport practice: team sport (TS), individual sport (IS), weight training (WT), inactive (I).

Workplace health promotion: results of a combined multidisciplinary intervention over a long period - preliminary results.

Objective: Obesity is a multifactorial disease that is one of the major public health problems. It is the result of the interaction between behavioral, social and endocrine-metabolic components. Already in the 80s, it was highlighted by the World Health Organization (WHO) that the workplace is an ideal setting for introducing health promotion programs.

Thermography and rasterstereography as a combined infrared method to assess the posture of healthy individuals.

The demand for noninvasive methods to assess postural defections is increasing because back alterations are more common among the healthy population. We propose a combined infrared method of rasterstereography and thermography to assess the back without harmful effects. This study aims to provide reference data on rasterstereography and thermography to evaluate the back of a healthy population and to further study the correlation between these two methods.

Small RNA-Seq Transcriptome Profiling of Mesothelial and Mesothelioma Cell Lines Revealed microRNA Dysregulation after Exposure to Asbestos-like Fibers.

Environmental exposure to fibers of respirable size has been identified as a risk for public health. Experimental evidence has revealed that a variety of fibers, including fluoro-edenite, can develop chronic respiratory diseases and elicit carcinogenic effects in humans. Fluoro-edenite (FE) is a silicate mineral first found in Biancavilla (Sicily, Italy) in 1997.

Electrochemical C(sp)-H functionalization of ethers hydrogen-atom transfer by means of cathodic reduction.

The chemo- and stereoselective electrochemical allylation/alkylation of ethers is presented a C(sp)-H activation event. The electrosynthetic protocol enables the realization of a large library of functionalized ethers (35 examples) in high yields (up to 84%) cathodic activation of a new type of redox-active carbonate (RAC), capable of triggering HAT (Hydrogen-Atom-Transfer) events through the generation of electrophilic oxy radicals. The process displayed high functional group tolerance and mild reaction conditions.

Evaluation of Cardiovascular Activity and Emotional Experience in Healthcare Workers (HCWs) Operating in COVID-19 Wards.

The new 2019 coronavirus or SARS-CoV-2 has been the first biological agent to generate, in this millennium, such a global health emergency as to determine the adoption of public health measures. During this sanitary emergency, the emotional experience of healthcare workers (HCWs) has been hugely tested by several factors. In fact, HCWs have been exposed to greatly tiring physical, psychological and social conditions.

Neurological manifestations in patients and disease carriers in an Italian family with osteosclerosis.

Background: Hereditary cranial hyperostosis is a rare disease never described in Italy, so the neurological manifestations in patients and carriers of the disease have been little studied.

Methods: We describe the neurological and neuroimaging features of patients and carriers of the gene from a large Italian family with sclerosteosis.

Results: In this family, genetic testing detected the homozygous p.

Functional Neuroimaging in Dissociative Disorders: A Systematic Review.

Background: Dissociative disorders encompass loss of integration in essential functions such as memory, consciousness, perception, motor control, and identity. Nevertheless, neuroimaging studies, albeit scarce, have suggested the existence of particular brain activation patterns in patients belonging to this diagnostic category. The aim of this review is to identify the main functional neuroimaging correlates of dissociative disorders.

Hepatitis C diagnosis and treatment in people who use drugs: mind the gap in the linkage to care.

Objective: The objective of this study is to identify a simplified rapid screening and linkage-to-care model for HCV among PWUD.

Patients And Methods: The study stems from a collaborative project bringing together two local Italian Centers for Drug Addiction and the Hepatology-Infectious Diseases Department of Lazzaro Spallanzani. A research physician analyzed the available medical records seeking to identify HCV and HIV infected patients in care in the addiction centers.

Changes in gut microbiota in the acute phase after spinal cord injury correlate with severity of the lesion.

After spinal cord injury (SCI), patients face many physical and psychological issues including intestinal dysfunction and comorbidities, strongly affecting quality of life. The gut microbiota has recently been suggested to influence the course of the disease in these patients. However, to date only two studies have profiled the gut microbiota in SCI patients, months after a traumatic injury.

Facemask headache: a new nosographic entity among healthcare providers in COVID-19 era.

Background: SARS-CoV-2 is a novel infectious agent causing coronavirus disease 2019, which has been declared as pandemic in March 2020. Personal protective equipment has been mandatory for healthcare workers in order to contain the outbreak of pandemic disease. Mild neurological disturbances such as headache have been related to the extensive utilization of facemask.

Varicella zoster immunity loss in multiple sclerosis patient treated with ocrelizumab.

Ocrelizumab is a novel humanized anti-CD20 antibody used for treatment of relapsing remitting and primary progressive multiple sclerosis with evidence of inflammatory activity. Guidelines suggest assessing vaccination status and eventually vaccinate patients with multiple sclerosis before new disease modifying therapy initiation. However, there are not any specific recommendations about vaccinal immunity reassessment after ocrelizumab injection.

Botulinum toxin for the management of spasticity in multiple sclerosis: the Italian botulinum toxin network study.

Background: Botulinum toxin (BT) is an effective and safe treatment for spasticity, with limited evidence in multiple sclerosis (MS). We aim to describe the use of BT for the management of MS spasticity in the clinical practice, its combination with other anti-spastic treatments in MS and possible MS clinical correlates.

Methods: This is a multicentre cross-sectional observational study including 386 MS patients, receiving BT for spasticity in 19 Italian centres (age 53.

Retinal Nerve Fiber Layer Thickness and Higher Relapse Frequency May Predict Poor Recovery after Optic Neuritis in MS Patients.

Optic neuritis (ON) is a common manifestation of multiple sclerosis (MS). Aiming to evaluate the retinal nerve fiber layer (RNFL) with optical coherence tomography (OCT), patients with relapsing-remitting (RR) MS experiencing ON were consecutively enrolled. RNFL, ganglion cell layer (GCL), foveal thickness, and macular volume were evaluated in both the ON and unaffected (nON) eye within six days from the relapse onset (T0) and after six months (T1).

Incidence of sharp and needle-stick injuries and mucocutaneous blood exposure among healthcare workers.

Healthcare workers (HCWs) are exposed to biological hazards on a daily basis. The aim of the present study was to evaluate the risks of infection after occupational exposure to blood or body fluids among HCWs operating in the period 2013-2014, in a university hospital of Southern Italy. The frequency of accidents during the 2-year period was always lower than 5%.

Periventricular white matter changes in idiopathic intracranial hypertension.

Objective: To evaluate whether increased cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) pressure causes alteration of periventricular white matter (WM) microstructure in patients with idiopathic intracranial hypertension (IIH).

Methods: In a prospective study, patients with refractory chronic headache with and without IIH performed a neuroimaging study including 3T MRI, 3D Phase Contrast MR venography, and diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) of the brain. Whole-brain voxel-wise comparisons of DTI abnormalities of WM were performed using tract-based spatial statistics.

Cerebrospinal Fluid Pressure-Related Features in Chronic Headache: A Prospective Study and Potential Diagnostic Implications.

To identify the pressure-related features of isolated cerebrospinal fluid hypertension (ICH) in order to differentiate headache sufferers with ICH from those with primary headache disorder. In this prospective study, patients with refractory chronic headaches and suspected of having cerebrospinal fluid-pressure elevation without papilledema or sixth nerve palsy, together with controls, underwent 1-h lumbar cerebrospinal fluid pressure monitoring via a spinal puncture needle. We recruited 148 consecutive headache patients and 16 controls.

Validation of a self-reported instrument to assess work-related difficulties in patients with migraine: the HEADWORK questionnaire.

Background: The degree to which work-related difficulties are recognized in headache research is poor and often carried out with inadequate information such as "reduced ability to work as usual", which do not capture at all the variety of difficulties and the factors that impact over them. The aim of this paper is to present the validation of the HEADWORK questionnaire, which addresses the amount and severity of difficulties in work-related tasks and the factors that impact over them.

Methods: We developed a set of items based on a previous literature review and patients' focus groups and tested it on a wide set of patients with episodic and chronic migraine attending eight different Italian headache centers.