Frontostriatal deficit in Motor Neuron Disease/Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (MND/ALS)

So far, cognitive derangements in MND/ALS have not been widely studied. Nevertheless, it seems that in subgroups of patients cognitive functions are impaired in different degree, so that often at least two sub-types of the syndrome are reported: Motor Neuron Disease/Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis/Dementia Syndrome (MND/ALS/DS) and Motor Neuron Disease/Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis/ Aphasia Syndrome (MND/ALS/AS. A third subtype showing both symptoms of cognitive impairment may be identified in subgroups of patients and denominated Motor Neuron Disease/Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis/Dementia-Aphasia Syndrome (MND/ALS/DAS). Frontostriatal system is reported as a network heavily damaged in MND/ALS/DS, MND/ALS/AS, MND/ALS/DAS. The system is plausibly responsible of motor skills and verbs production, hence to become aware of a possible frontostriatal deficit in subgroup of MND/ALS patients might consent us to link at the brain level (motor) action and verbs and possibly ideomotor praxia and verbs. We have used Goal-Oriented Perception Task (GOPT) and Action Fluency Task (AFT) in order to detect with some accuracy impairments related to gestaltic analysis directed toward a goal, and verb retrieval deficits possibly underlying executive system dysfunction that destabilizes the ability to mentally coordinate the information associated with a verb. These tests should consent to detect possible frontostriatal derangements. We have tested 10 MND/ALS patients and 10 healthy subjects matched fore age, sex and laterality. AFT showed that 3 out of 6 patients are heavily impaired in this test (6.3 (mean) verbs generated vs 13.3 of the control group). GOPT detected a remarkable impairment in all patients: p=0.0021 (grammatical side), p=0.0002 (perceptual side). Reported frontostriatal deficit in MND/ALS seems confirmed by this study, and probably it is more easily detected by GOPT than by AFT

UTILIZZO DELLA MESOTERAPIA NEL TRATTAMENTO DEL DOLORE NEI PAZIENTI CON DISTONIA CERVICALE: PROVE DI EFFICACIA IN UN PICCOLO CAMPIONE DI SOGGETTI

Si valutano gli affetti della somministrazione per via mesoterapica di analgesici e miorilassanti nel trattamento del dolore nei pazienti affetti da distonia cervicale. I risultati ottenuti possono essere di interesse allo scopo di ridurre gli effetti avversi che spesso si presentano dopo trattamento a lungo termine con farmaci antinfiammatori e analgesici convenzionali di uso comune in questa categoria di pazienti

Un caso di sindrome atassica in polineuropatia sensitivo-motoria di origine dismetabolica trattato efficacemente con agopuntura e con trattamento di mindfull e di imageryness

si descrive l'approccio multimodale nel trattamento riabilitativo di un caso di polineuropatia e s, dismetabolic

Robotic assisted rehabilitation in Virtual Reality with the L-EXOS

This study presents the evaluation results of a clinical trial of robotic-assisted rehabilitation in Virtual Reality performed with the PERCRO L-Exos (Light-Exoskeleton) system, which is a 5-DoF force-feedback exoskeleton for the right arm. The device has demonstrated itself suitable for robotic arm rehabilitation therapy when integrated with a Virtual Reality (VR) system. Three different schemes of therapy in VR were tested in the clinical evaluation trial, which was conducted on a group of nine chronic stroke patients at the Santa Chiara Hospital in Pisa-Italy. The results of this clinical trial, both in terms of patients performance improvements in the proposed exercises and in terms of improvements in the standard clinical scales which were used to monitor patients receovery are reported and discussed. The evaluation both pre and post-therapy was carried out with both clinical and quantitative kinesiologic measurements. Statistically significant improvements were found in terms of Fugl-Meyer scores, Ashworth scale, increments of active and passive ranges of motion of the impaired limb, and quantitative indexes, such as task time and error

Trattamento integrato della nevalgia trigeminale con agopuntura e terapia intradermodistrettuale: descrizione di un caso clinico

Effetti combinati di tecniche di medicina complementare nel trattamento della nevralgia trigeminal

Ruolo della terapia intradermodistrettuale nel management del dolore in pazienti affetti da distonia cervicale idiopatica

si descrive una nuova tecnica di trattamento del dolore nocicettivo nelle distonie focal

Deficit di tiamina: rara causa di ipotermia in paziente con grave cerebrolesione acquisita: descrizione di un caso clinico

si descrivono gli approcci terapeutici in un caso di ipotermia protratt

Valutazione clinico-strumentale degli effetti analgesici dell'agopuntura nella malattia di Parkinson: descrizione di un caso clinico

si descrive la valutazione clinica ( con scale) e strumentale ( con potenziali evocati laser) degli effetti di un ciclo di agopuntura sulla sintomatologia algica di una paziente affetta da malattia di Parkinso

Reciprocal dynamics of EEG alpha and delta oscillations during spontaneous blinking at rest: A survey on a default mode-based visuo-spatial awareness

By means of a narrowband wavelet analysis (0.5-6Hz), EEG delta event-related oscillations (EROs), both time- and phase-locked to spontaneous blinking (delta blink-related oscillations or delta BROs), have recently been demonstrated. On the basis of their spatiotemporal characteristics, delta BROs have been proposed as being involved in an automatic mechanism of maintaining awareness in a visuo-spatial context. The aim of the present study was: a) to investigate whether spontaneous blinking was also able to modulate alpha oscillations and, if so, b) whether this modulation was consistent with delta BROs, in order c) to acquire additional information for a better understanding of the cognitive phenomena underlying blinking. Using a broadband (0.5-100 Hz) continuous wavelet transform (CWT), we analysed a total of 189 three-second EEG epochs time-locked to the blinks of seven healthy volunteers. The EEG signals were submitted both to band-pass filtered cross-trial averaging (to obtain frequency-specific BROs) and to alpha event-related synchronization/desynchronization (i.e., blink-related synchronization/desynchronization, BRS/BRD). The alpha oscillations showed: a) an early BRS; b) a BRD in the same temporal window of the delta BROs and, c) a late BRS. We postulate that: a) the early BRS represents the short-term memory maintenance of the last visually perceived trace of the surroundings; b) the alpha BRD is associated with the comparison between the newly perceived image of the environment and its mnestic representation, and, lastly, c) the late BRS is connected with neuronal recovery phenomena