Motion Analysis for Experimental Evaluation of an Event-Driven FES System

In this work, a system for controlling Functional Electrical Stimulation (FES) has been experimentally evaluated. The peculiarity of the system is to use an event-driven approach to modulate stimulation intensity, instead of the typical feature extraction of surface ElectroMyoGraphic (sEMG) signal. To validate our methodology, the system capability to control FES was tested on a population of 17 subjects, reproducing 6 different movements. Limbs trajectories were acquired using a gold standard motion tracking tool. The implemented segmentation algorithm has been detailed, together with the designed experimental protocol. A motion analysis was performed through a multiparametric evaluation, including the extraction of features such as the trajectory area and the movement velocity. The obtained results show a median cross-correlation coefficient of 0.910 and a median delay of 800 ms, between each couple of voluntary and stimulated exercise, making our system comparable w.r.t. state-of-the-art works. Furthermore, a 97.39% successful rate on movement replication demonstrates the feasibility of the system for rehabilitation purposes

Hand Gestures Recognition for Human-Machine Interfaces: A Low-Power Bio-Inspired Armband

Hand gesture recognition has recently increased its popularity as Human-Machine Interface (HMI) in the biomedical field. Indeed, it can be performed involving many different non-invasive techniques, e.g., surface ElectroMyoGraphy (sEMG) or PhotoPlethysmoGraphy (PPG). In the last few years, the interest demonstrated by both academia and industry brought to a continuous spawning of commercial and custom wearable devices, which tried to address different challenges in many application fields, from tele-rehabilitation to sign language recognition. In this work, we propose a novel 7-channel sEMG armband, which can be employed as HMI for both serious gaming control and rehabilitation support. In particular, we designed the prototype focusing on the capability of our device to compute the Average Threshold Crossing (ATC) parameter, which is evaluated by counting how many times the sEMG signal crosses a threshold during a fixed time duration (i.e., 130 ms), directly on the wearable device. Exploiting the event-driven characteristic of the ATC, our armband is able to accomplish the on-board prediction of common hand gestures requiring less power w.r.t. state of the art devices. At the end of an acquisition campaign that involved the participation of 26 people, we obtained an average classifier accuracy of 91.9% when aiming to recognize in real time 8 active hand gestures plus the idle state. Furthermore, with 2.92mA of current absorption during active functioning and 1.34mA prediction latency, this prototype confirmed our expectations and can be an appealing solution for long-term (up to 60 h) medical and consumer applications

Performance Assessment of the LIAISON\uae SARS-CoV-2 Antigen Assay On Nasopharyngeal Swabs

The SARS-CoV-2 pandemic is ongoing worldwide, causing prolonged pressure on molecular diagnostics. Viral antigen (Ag) assays have several advantages, ranging from lower cost to shorter turnaround time to detection. Given the rare occurrence of low-load viremia, antigen assays for SARS-CoV-2 have focused on nasopharyngeal swab and saliva as biological matrices, but their effectiveness must be validated. We assayed here the performances of the novel quantitative Liaison\uae SARS-CoV-2 Ag assay on 119 nasopharyngeal swabs and obtained results were compared with Hologic Panther and Abbott m2000 RT-qPCR. The Ag assay demonstrated a good correlation with viral load, shorter turnaround time, and favorable economics. The best performance was obtained in the acute phase of disease

Off-label long acting injectable antipsychotics in real-world clinical practice: a cross-sectional analysis of prescriptive patterns from the STAR Network DEPOT study

Introduction Information on the off-label use of Long-Acting Injectable (LAI) antipsychotics in the real world is lacking. In this study, we aimed to identify the sociodemographic and clinical features of patients treated with on- vs off-label LAIs and predictors of off-label First- or Second-Generation Antipsychotic (FGA vs. SGA) LAI choice in everyday clinical practice. Method In a naturalistic national cohort of 449 patients who initiated LAI treatment in the STAR Network Depot Study, two groups were identified based on off- or on-label prescriptions. A multivariate logistic regression analysis was used to test several clinically relevant variables and identify those associated with the choice of FGA vs SGA prescription in the off-label group. Results SGA LAIs were more commonly prescribed in everyday practice, without significant differences in their on- and off-label use. Approximately 1 in 4 patients received an off-label prescription. In the off-label group, the most frequent diagnoses were bipolar disorder (67.5%) or any personality disorder (23.7%). FGA vs SGA LAI choice was significantly associated with BPRS thought disorder (OR = 1.22, CI95% 1.04 to 1.43, p = 0.015) and hostility/suspiciousness (OR = 0.83, CI95% 0.71 to 0.97, p = 0.017) dimensions. The likelihood of receiving an SGA LAI grew steadily with the increase of the BPRS thought disturbance score. Conversely, a preference towards prescribing an FGA was observed with higher scores at the BPRS hostility/suspiciousness subscale. Conclusion Our study is the first to identify predictors of FGA vs SGA choice in patients treated with off-label LAI antipsychotics. Demographic characteristics, i.e. age, sex, and substance/alcohol use co-morbidities did not appear to influence the choice towards FGAs or SGAs. Despite a lack of evidence, clinicians tend to favour FGA over SGA LAIs in bipolar or personality disorder patients with relevant hostility. Further research is needed to evaluate treatment adherence and clinical effectiveness of these prescriptive patterns

The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on patients with OCD: effects of contamination symptoms and remission state before the quarantine in a preliminary naturalistic study

The containment measures implemented to reduce the progression of the COVID-19 pandemic can increase the risk of serious mental disorders, including obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD). The general fear of getting infected and the importance given to personal hygiene, may have a negative impact on this clinical population. In a group of patients with OCD who had completed an evidence-based therapeutic path for OCD before the quarantine, this study evaluated the changes on OCD symptoms during the quarantine and investigated the effects of contamination symptoms and remission state before the quarantine on OCD symptom worsening during the quarantine. The Yale-Brown Obsessive Compulsive (Y-BOCS) Severity score, administered before the quarantine, was re-administered after six weeks since the beginning of the complete lockdown. A significant increase in obsession and compulsion severity emerged. Remission status on OCD symptoms and having contamination symptoms before the quarantine were significantly associated with more elevated OCD symptom worsening during the quarantine. To our knowledge, this is the first study which assessed OCD symptoms at the COVID-19 time. Our results support the need to improve relapse prevention during the period of social restrictions and develop alternative strategies such as online consultations and digital psychiatric management

The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on patients with OCD: Effects of contamination symptoms and remission state before the quarantine in a preliminary naturalistic study

none6noThe containment measures implemented to reduce the progression of the COVID-19 pandemic can increase the risk of serious mental disorders, including obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD). The general fear of getting infected and the importance given to personal hygiene, may have a negative impact on this clinical population. In a group of patients with OCD who had completed an evidence-based therapeutic path for OCD before the quarantine, this study evaluated the changes on OCD symptoms during the quarantine and investigated the effects of contamination symptoms and remission state before the quarantine on OCD symptom worsening during the quarantine. The Yale-Brown Obsessive Compulsive (Y-BOCS) Severity score, administered before the quarantine, was re-administered after six weeks since the beginning of the complete lockdown. A significant increase in obsession and compulsion severity emerged. Remission status on OCD symptoms and having contamination symptoms before the quarantine were significantly associated with more elevated OCD symptom worsening during the quarantine. To our knowledge, this is the first study which assessed OCD symptoms at the COVID-19 time. Our results support the need to improve relapse prevention during the period of social restrictions and develop alternative strategies such as online consultations and digital psychiatric management.openDavide P.; Andrea P.; Martina O.; Escelsior A.; Davide D.; Mario A.Davide, P.; Andrea, P.; Martina, O.; Escelsior, A.; Davide, D.; Mario, A

Live Demonstration: Event-Driven Hand Gesture Recognition for Wearable Human-Machine Interface

The demonstration presents a wireless system to control video games with user hand movements. Muscles activity is detected by applying the Average Threshold Crossing (ATC) technique to the surface ElectroMyoGraphic (sEMG) signals acquired from two sets of electrodes on the user forearm. Three hand movements and an idle state are classified in real-time on a computer by implementing a Neural Network (NN) feeded with the acquired ATC values, with accuracies above 97%. Recognized gestures are then mapped to keyboard inputs to control the maneuvers of a game character

Googling for Suicide–Content and Quality Analysis of Suicide-Related Websites: Thematic Analysis

BackgroundSuicide represents a public health concern, imposing a dramatic burden. Prosuicide websites are “virtual pathways” facilitating a rise in suicidal behaviors, especially among socially isolated, susceptible individuals. ObjectiveThe aim of this study is to characterize suicide-related webpages in the Italian language. MethodsThe first 5 most commonly used search engines in Italy (ie, Bing, Virgilio, Yahoo, Google, and Libero) were mined using the term “suicidio” (Italian for suicide). For each search, the first 100 webpages were considered. Websites resulting from each search were collected and duplicates deleted so that unique webpages could be analyzed and rated with the HONcode instrument ResultsA total of 65 webpages were included: 12.5% (8/64) were antisuicide and 6.3% (4/64) explicitly prosuicide. The majority of the included websites had a mixed or neutral attitude toward suicide (52/64, 81.2%) and had informative content and purpose (39/64, 60.9%). Most webpages targeted adolescents as an age group (38/64, 59.4%), contained a reference to other psychiatric disorders or comorbidities (42/64, 65.6%), included medical/professional supervision or guidance (45/64, 70.3%), lacked figures or pictures related to suicide (41/64, 64.1%), and did not contain any access restraint (62/64, 96.9%). The major shortcoming to this study is the small sample size of webpages analyzed and the search limited to the keyword “suicide.” ConclusionsSpecialized mental health professionals should try to improve their presence online by providing high-quality material

A “transatlantic” follow-up study of the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on patients with obsessive-compulsive disorder

Background Obsessive-compulsive symptom fluctuations may be contingent on the number of stressful pandemic-related events and the resilience characterizing different cultures. We investigated the influence of the pandemic on symptom changes in a sample of obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) patients from Brazil and Italy, two countries that were highly affected by the outbreak. Methods Ninety-one OCD outpatients were evaluated at baseline and about one year later. Thirty of them were assessed in Brazil and 61 in Italy. Socio-demographic variables, symptoms' severity and the number of stressful pandemic-related events were collected. Comparisons between countries' samples were performed, and a linear regression examined whether the country of origin, demographic features and the number of stressful events were able to predict the symptoms' severity at the follow-up. Results Brazilian patients experienced more stressful pandemic-related events than Italian patients (p = 0.018). However, along with higher age (p < 0.01) and increased severity of symptoms at baseline (p < 0.01), lower number of events predicted increased symptoms' severity after one year (p < 0.01). Country of origin was not a significant predictor of severity. Limitations Small number of subjects; lack of information regarding duration of illness; and potential sample differences between countries. Conclusions During the pandemic, the occurrence of more stressful pandemic-related events was associated with decreased severity of patients' OCD symptoms. Nevertheless, older patients and those with more severe symptoms seemed prone to exhibit increased OCD severity at follow-up

The use of biomarkers for the etiologic diagnosis of MCI in Europe: an EADC survey

We investigated the use of Alzheimer's disease (AD) biomarkers in European Alzheimer's Disease Consortium centers and assessed their perceived usefulness for the etiologic diagnosis of mild cognitive impairment (MCI). We surveyed availability, frequency of use, and confidence in diagnostic usefulness of markers of brain amyloidosis (amyloid positron emission tomography [PET], cerebrospinal fluid [CSF] Aβ42) and neurodegeneration (medial temporal atrophy [MTA] on MR, fluorodeoxyglucose positron emission tomography [FDG-PET], CSF tau). The most frequently used biomarker is visually rated MTA (75% of the 37 responders reported using it "always/frequently") followed by CSF markers (22%), FDG-PET (16%), and amyloid-PET (3%). Only 45% of responders perceive MTA as contributing to diagnostic confidence, where the contribution was rated as "moderate". Seventy-nine percent of responders felt "very/extremely" comfortable delivering a diagnosis of MCI due to AD when both amyloid and neuronal injury biomarkers were abnormal (P < .02 versus any individual biomarker). Responders largely agreed that a combination of amyloidosis and neuronal injury biomarkers was a strongly indicative AD signature