Psychosocial resources and psychopathology among persons with neuromuscular disorders during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Background: The COVID-19 pandemic substantially affected the lives of persons with inherited neuromuscular disorders (INMD), causing disruption in clinical and support services. While several studies have investigated mental health, distress and psychosocial resources in the general population during the pandemic, little is known about the experience of persons with INMD.

Methods: This study was aimed to fill this gap by jointly investigating both psychopathological symptoms and psychosocial resources - specifically, resilience and perceived social support - among persons with INMD during the pandemic, taking into account demographic and clinical factors.

Upper Limb Changes in DMD Patients Amenable to Skipping Exons 44, 45, 51 and 53: A 24-Month Study.

Introduction: The Performance of Upper Limb version 2.0 (PUL 2.0) is increasingly used in Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy (DMD) to study longitudinal functional changes of motor upper limb function in ambulant and non-ambulant patients.

The impact of different exercise protocols on rat soleus muscle reinnervation and recovery following peripheral nerve lesion and regeneration.

Incomplete functional recovery following traumatic peripheral nerve injury is common, mainly because not all axons successfully regenerate and reinnervate target muscles. Exercise can improve functional outcomes increasing the terminal sprouting during the muscle reinnervation. However, exercise is not a panacea per se.

Guidelines of the International Headache Society for Clinic-Based Headache Registries, 1 edition.

Clinic-based headache registries collect data for a wide variety of purposes including delineating disease characteristics, longitudinal natural disease courses, headache management approaches, quality of care, treatment safety and effectiveness, factors that predict treatment response, health care resource utilization, clinician adherence to guidelines, and cost-effectiveness. Registry data are valuable for numerous stakeholders, including individuals with headache disorders and their caregivers, healthcare providers, scientists, healthcare systems, regulatory authorities, pharmaceutical companies, employers, and policymakers. This International Headache Society document may serve as guidance for developing clinic-based headache registries.

Role of Estrogens in Menstrual Migraine.

Migraine is a major neurological disorder affecting one in nine adults worldwide with a significant impact on health care and socioeconomic systems. Migraine is more prevalent in women than in men, with 17% of all women meeting the diagnostic criteria for migraine. In women, the frequency of migraine attacks shows variations over the menstrual cycle and pregnancy, and the use of combined hormonal contraception (CHC) or hormone replacement therapy (HRT) can unveil or modify migraine disease.

Tele-healthcare in migraine medicine: from diagnosis to monitoring treatment outcomes.

Introduction: Primary headaches represent a huge cost in terms of decreased productivity and migraine occupies the first position among disabilities in working population. Migraine has a high incidence, disproportionate to the available primary care centers. In most cases, migraine can be managed through the simple and accurate collection of clinical history, which makes it an ideal candidate for tele-healthcare.

The Smart Aging Platform for Assessing Early Phases of Cognitive Impairment in Patients With Neurodegenerative Diseases.

Smart Aging is a serious game (SG) platform that generates a 3D virtual reality environment in which users perform a set of screening tasks designed to allow evaluation of global cognition. Each task replicates activities of daily living performed in a familiar environment. The main goal of the present study was to ascertain whether Smart Aging could differentiate between different types and levels of cognitive impairment in patients with neurodegenerative disease.

Effect of Evening Bromazepam Administration on Blood Pressure and Heart Rate in Mild Hypertensive Patients.

Aim: To assess the effects of chronic evening oral administration of bromazepam alone or in combination with propranolol on ambulatory blood pressure (BP) and heart rate (HR) in mild hypertensive subjects.

Methods: Thirty-seven mild hypertensive patients after a 2-week placebo period were randomized to bromazepam 3 mg, propranolol 40 mg, bromazepam 3 mg plus propranolol 40 mg or placebo for 2 weeks according to a double-blind, double dummy, cross-over design. After each treatment period, 24-h BP and HR ambulatory monitoring was performed by using a non-invasive device.

Italian census on neurosciences: the ICoNe2 study.

Background: The growing impact of the emergency neurology of trauma centers and of mechanical thrombectomy for the treatment of acute ischemic stroke is revolutionizing the domain of eurosciences.

Methods: A census focused on the demographic distribution of the three main cohorts of neurosciences (neurologists, neuroradiologists, and neurosurgeons) was conducted in Italy between December 2015 and February 2017, and results were compared to the estimated retirement rates and loss for other reasons.

Results: The total number of neurosciences specialists active in Italy was 4394 at the end of the period of the survey.

The role of the transient receptor potential ankyrin type-1 (TRPA1) channel in migraine pain: evaluation in an animal model.

Background: Clinical and experimental studies have pointed to the possible involvement of the transient receptor potential ankyrin type-1 (TRPA1) channels in migraine pain. In this study, we aimed to further investigate the role of these channels in an animal model of migraine using a novel TRPA1 antagonist, ADM_12, as a probe.

Methods: The effects of ADM_12 on nitroglycerin-induced hyperalgesia at the trigeminal level were investigated in male rats using the quantification of nocifensive behavior in the orofacial formalin test.

Botulinum toxin for chronic migraine: Clinical trials and technical aspects.

OnabotulinumtoxinA has been approved for the prophylaxis of chronic migraine following the demonstration of efficacy in two large controlled trials. Data collected from pragmatic studies in the real-life setting have contributed important additional information useful for the management of this group of extremely disabled and challenging patients. The main findings from these studies are presented and discussed.

Falls, fractures and bone density in Parkinson's disease - a cross-sectional study.

Aim: Evidence suggests that falls and associated bone fractures are more frequent in patients suffering from Parkinson's disease (PD) than in the general population. In this cross-sectional study we evaluated the clinical and biochemical characteristics that are associated to falls, fractures and bone health in a population of PD subjects.

Materials And Methods: Forty-two consecutive subjects suffering from idiopathic PD (mild-to-moderate severity) with/without falls in the previous year were included.

Medication overuse headache in Europe and Latin America: general demographic and clinical characteristics, referral pathways and national distribution of painkillers in a descriptive, multinational, multicenter study.

Background: Medication overuse headache (MOH) is a very disabling and costly disorder due to indirect costs, medication and healthcare utilization. The aim of the study was to describe general demographic and clinical characteristics of MOH, along with the national referral pathways and national painkillers distribution in several European and Latin American (LA) Countries.

Methods: This descriptive cross-sectional observational study included 669 patients with MOH referred to headache-centers in Europe and LA as a part of the COMOESTAS project.

Human polyomavirus 6 DNA in the cerebrospinal fluid of an HIV-positive patient with leukoencephalopathy.

Background: Leukoencephalopathies in HAART-treated, HIV-positive patients include progressive multifocal leukoencephalopathy (PML), a result of lytic infection oligodendrocytes by JC polyomavirus (JCV), and another form characterized by the absence of JCV genome in cerebrospinal fluid (CSF).

Objectives: To test the potential viral etiology of JCV-negative leukoencephalopathy.

Study Design: CSF was collected from 43 HIV-positive patients with MRI suggestive of leukoencephalopathies.

Modulation of temporal summation threshold of the nociceptive withdrawal reflex by transcutaneous spinal direct current stimulation in humans.

Objective: Transcutaneous spinal direct current stimulation (tsDCS) modulates spinal cord pain pathways. The study is aimed to clarify the neurophysiology of the tsDCS-induced modulation of the spinal cord pain processing by evaluating the effect of the tsDCS on temporal summation threshold (TST) of the nociceptive withdrawal reflex (NWR).

Methods: In a randomized, double-blind, crossover study the effects of anodal, cathodal and sham tsDCS (2 mA, 15 min) applied on the skin overlying the thoracic spinal cord were investigated in 10 healthy subjects.

Early reperfusion injury is associated to MMP2 and IL-1β elevation in cortical neurons of rats subjected to middle cerebral artery occlusion.

The pathophysiological processes implicated in ischemic brain damage are strongly affected by an inflammatory reaction characterized by activation of immune cells and release of soluble mediators, including cytokines and chemokines. The pro-inflammatory cytokine interleukin (IL)-1β has been implicated in ischemic brain injury, however, to date, the mechanisms involved in the maturation of this cytokine in the ischemic brain have not been completely elucidated. We have previously suggested that matrix metalloproteinases (MMPs) may be implicated in cytokine production under pathological conditions.

Transdermal hormonal therapy in perimenstrual migraine: why, when and how?

Experimental and clinical evidence is strongly in favor of a role for estrogens in migraine. It is clear that estrogen fluctuations represent trigger factors for the attacks, while the resolution of these fluctuations (menopause) may be associated to the remission or, conversely, to the worsening of the disease. However, the exact mechanisms and mediators underlying the effects of estrogens in migraine are largely unknown.

Effect of sex and estrogens on neuronal activation in an animal model of migraine.

Objective: In this study, we evaluated the influence of sex and estrogen treatment on nitroglycerin (NTG)-induced neuronal activation in the rat brain.

Background: Systemic NTG activates cerebral nuclei of rat involved in nociceptive transmission, as well as in neuroendocrine and autonomic functions. These changes are considered relevant for migraine, since NTG consistently induces spontaneous-like attacks in migraineurs.

Modulation of RAGE isoforms expression in the brain and plasma of rats exposed to transient focal cerebral ischemia.

Activation of RAGE (receptor for advanced glycation endproducts) and of its subtypes may play a role in neuronal damage and neuroinflammation associated with brain ischemia, though the underlying mechanisms remain unclear. In this study, we have examined by Western blotting the expression of RAGE isoforms in the cerebral cortex and striatum of Wistar rats subjected to transient (1 or 2 h) middle cerebral artery occlusion (tMCAo). The findings show that the full-length RAGE (~50 kDa) and its isoforms in the 26-43 kDa range are significantly decreased in the ischemic cortex, but not in the striatum, after 1 and 2 h tMCAo when compared to the sham group.

[Accidents and headache].

Work accidents are a major cause of morbidity and mortality by creating a loss not only for the individual affected but also for society given the high number of absences from work that follows. Many have been efforts since the early 60 'to minimize the number of accidents but, although it is known a steady downward trend in recent years, in Italy in 2010 there were still 775,000 cases of accidents and 980 deaths. The study examined a population of 192 persons injured of which 41 have proven to be headache and data collected showed that the frequency of headache among the workers who suffer an injury is equal to 26.

Dissociated local arousal states underlying essential clinical features of non-rapid eye movement arousal parasomnia: an intracerebral stereo-electroencephalographic study.

Sleep has been shown to be a global phenomenon in which the presence of local processes of both activation and deactivation are finely orchestrated. Dysfunctional and independent action of the systems involved in non-rapid eye movement (NREM) sleep and wakefulness is deemed to be at the basis of arousal parasomnias. We show, in a patient with confusional arousals, persistence of sleep in the hippocampal and frontal associative cortices in contrast to the presence of awakening in the motor, cingulate, insular, amygdalar and temporopolar cortices.

Pisa syndrome in Parkinson's disease: clinical, electromyographic, and radiological characterization.

Abnormal postures of the trunk are a typical feature of Parkinson's disease (PD). These include Pisa syndrome (PS), a tonic lateral flexion of the trunk associated with slight rotation along the sagittal plane. In this study we describe clinical, electromyographic (EMG), and radiological features of PS in a group of 20 PD patients.

Neuropsychological evaluation and follow up in jcv- and non-jcv-related leukoencephalopathies in HIV infection.

The introduction of highly active antiretroviral therapy does not seem to have altered the incidence of progressive multifocal leukoencephalopathy (PML) in HIV infection. Moreover, the occurrence of a HIV-related leukoencephalopathy, called not determined leukoencephalopaties (NDLE), has been reported. As neuropsychological impairment remains highly prevalent in HIV infection, the aim of this study is to describe the neuropsychological profile of PML and NDLE patients, analyzing the time-related changes.