Shock waves modulate corticospinal excitability: A proof of concept for further rehabilitation purposes?

Background: Focal extracorporeal shock wave therapy (fESWT) is a physical therapy vastly studied and used for various musculoskeletal disorders. However, the effect of fESWT on central nervous system is still to be determined.

Objective: To elucidate spinal and supra-spinal mechanisms of fESWT in healthy subjects, in order to widen the spectrum of its clinical applications.

Mild brain injury and anticoagulants: Less is enough.

Background: Despite the higher theoretical risk of traumatic intracranial hemorrhage (ICH) in anticoagulated patients with mild head injury, the value of sequential head CT scans to identify bleeding remains controversial. This study evaluated the utility of 2 sequential CT scans at a 48-hour interval (CT1 and CT2) in patients with mild head trauma (Glasgow Coma Scale 13-15) taking oral anticoagulants.

Methods: We retrospectively evaluated the clinical records of all patients on chronic anticoagulation treatment admitted to the emergency department for mild head injury.

Perceptual and response-related components of unilateral neglect may evolve independently of one another: evidence from five single-case studies.

The Milner Landmark Task allows the disentanglement of perceptual and response-related components of unilateral neglect. If these two components reflect separate functional systems, then cases should be observed in which the two components evolve differently across time. To test this hypothesis we surveyed a continuous series of 21 right hemisphere stroke patients.

The assessment of colour perception, naming and knowledge: a new test device with a case study.

Besides ocular diseases, also cerebral damage may cause colour vision deficits; cerebral lesions may be associated with a variety of clinical conditions that impair colour processing. This study presents procedures and normative data for a rapid, comprehensive seven-test battery aimed at assessing colour perception, colour naming and object colour knowledge. The norms, obtained from 96 healthy Italian participants, allow normality/pathology judgements on the basis of one-sided tolerance limits, after adjusting the score of each test for the demographic variables of the proband subjects.

Agranulocytosis and hepatic toxicity with ticlopidine therapy: a case report.

Introduction: Ticlopidine is a platelet inhibitor used to prevent thrombosis in patients with cerebrovascular or coronary artery disease. The most common side effects are mild and transitory: diarrhea, dyspepsia, nausea and rashes. More serious, but less frequent, adverse effects are hematological dyscrasia and cholestatic hepatitis.

Posterior cerebral artery infarcts and semantic category dissociations: a study of 28 patients.

In this study we analysed the relationship between damage in the territory of the posterior cerebral artery and semantic knowledge, with special reference to category dissociations. Twenty-eight posterior cerebral artery stroke patients (18 left, 8 right and 2 bilateral posterior cerebral artery infarctions) completed a neuropsychological battery aimed at assessing semantic knowledge. The battery included picture naming, word-picture matching, a verbal semantic questionnaire and a picture reality decision task.