41 research outputs found
Cognitive rehabilitation in non-communicative brain-damaged patients
Conscious patients with severe motor and speech disorders have great difficulty interacting with the environment and communicating with other people. Several augmentative communication devices are now available to exploit these patients’ expressive potential, but their use often demands considerable cognitive effort. Non-communicative patients with severe brain lesions may have, in addition, specific cognitive deficits that hinder the efficient use of augmentative communication methods. Some neuropsychological batteries are now available for testing these patients. On the basis of such cognitive assessments, cognitive rehabilitation training can now be applied, but we underline that this training must be tailored to single patients in order to allow them to communicate autonomously and efficiently
Rare causes of early-onset dystonia-parkinsonism with cognitive impairment: a de novo PSEN-1 mutation
Mutations in PSEN1 are responsible for familial Alzheimerâ\u80\u99s disease (FAD) inherited as autosomal dominant trait, but also de novo mutations have been rarely reported in sporadic early-onset dementia cases. Parkinsonism in FAD has been mainly described in advanced disease stages. We characterized a patient presenting with early-onset dystonia-parkinsonism later complicated by dementia and myoclonus. Brain MRI showed signs of iron accumulation in the basal ganglia mimicking neurodegeneration with brain iron accumulation (NBIA) as well as fronto-temporal atrophy. Whole exome sequencing revealed a novel PSEN1 mutation and segregation within the family demonstrated the mutation arose de novo. We suggest considering PSEN1 mutations in cases of dystonia-parkinsonism with positive DAT-Scan, later complicated by progressive cognitive decline and cortical myoclonus even without a dominant family history
Polyphenols, Antioxidant, Antibacterial, and Biofilm Inhibitory Activities of Peel and Pulp of Citrus medica L., Citrus bergamia, and Citrus medica cv. Salò Cultivated in Southern Italy
The aim of this paper was to study the polyphenols of peel and pulp of three Citrus
taxa — Citrus medica, Citrus bergamia, and Citrus medica cv. Salò — cultivated in the Cosenza province,
Southern Italy, and to evaluate their antioxidant and antibacterial activity, performed against
Escherichia coli, Listeria monocytogenes, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Staphylococcus aureus, and
Pectobacterium carotovorum. Furthermore, we assessed the inhibitory effect of the extracts on
bacterial capacity to form biofilm, and on the metabolic activity of the cells present therein. The
results indicated that such extracts could find new potential applications in the field of natural
antioxidant and anti-bacterial agents in pharmaceutics, agriculture, and food fields