Premorbid intelligence of inpatients with different psychiatric diagnoses does not differ

The diagnostic specificity of poor premorbid intelligence is controversial. We explored premorbid intelligence level in psychiatric patients with personality disorders, depressive disorders, bipolar disorders and schizophrenic disorders. 273 consecutively admitted patients and 81 controls were included in the study and tested with the ‘Test di Intelligenza Breve’, an Italian adaptation of the National Adult Reading Test. Significant differences between the clinical samples and the control subjects were found but not among the 4 clinical groups. The observation of premorbid IQ deficits in subjects with diagnoses other than schizophrenia suggests a common vulnerability diathesis, which is most likely to have a neurodevelopmental basis

Shwachman Diamond Syndrome: an emergency challenge

Shwachman Diamond Syndrome is a rare congenital disorder characterized by pancreatic insufficiency, bone marrow dysfunction and skeletal abnormalities. No specific test is available for a definitive diagnosis for SDS. In the presence of clinical features of SDS, pancreatic insufficiency should be tested for or lipomatosis radiologically demonstrated. New directions might be found in genetic analysis. Sometimes, a life-threatening event may be the first clinical manifestation of the syndrome

Shwachman Diamond Syndrome: an emergency challenge

Shwachman Diamond Syndrome is a rare congenital disorder characterized by pancreatic insufficiency, bone marrow dysfunction and skeletal abnormalities. No specific test is available for a definitive diagnosis for SDS. In the presence of clinical features of SDS, pancreatic insufficiency should be tested for or lipomatosis radiologically demonstrated. New directions might be found in genetic analysis. Sometimes, a life-threatening event may be the first clinical manifestation of the syndrome

A Smart IoT-Aware System For Crisis Scenario Management

In most dangerous events, involving many people in large buildings, rescue workers need to intervene in a timely and targeted manner in order to help most number of people and secure the environments without wasting resources. This work presents an Internet of Things(IoT)-based framework, aiming at monitoring environmental parameters in order to alert rescuers when they exceed some alarm thresholds. A hardware infrastructure driven by a software layer adds flexibility and adaptability to the Complex Event Processing engine and to a rule engine-based reflective middleware that manages and analyzes raw data in conjunction with a knowledge base modeling the application domain

Empathic and cognitive processing in people with schizophrenia: a study on an Italian sample

The aim of this study was to explore the relationships among empathy processes in terms of self-report empathy evaluation and recognition of emotional cues and Theory of Mind components. We used the Empathy Quotient – short form (EQ-s), the Pictures of Facial Affect (POFA) system, a (ToM) Irony appreciation task and the Wisconsin Card Sorting Test (WCST), respectively. The Positive and Negative Symptoms Scale (PANSS) and Global Assessment of Functioning (GAF) were also used to investigate the relationship with symptomatology and functioning. The sample consisted of 30 participants with diagnosis of schizophrenia. Our results found no significant correlations between EQ-s and other cognitive or clinical variables. PoFA total score and recognition of fear correlated with time spent to give a correct response to the ToM irony comprehension. Time spent to correctly respond to both ToM and physical vignettes correlated with negative symptoms. Positive, negative and cognitive clusters of the PANSS correlated with the GAF. The relationships we found among the considered constructs suggest that empathic processing acts on functionality improving the personal efficiency, in terms of readiness and rapidity, to cope with one’s environment, in the multifaceted social setting. Given that emotion perception in particular has been connected to social competence, independent living and community functioning, it is conceivable that emotion processing may be a potential catalyst within the mindreading process, which can have an impact both on symptomatology and social functioning

Metacognition as a predictor of improvements in personality disorders

Personality Disorders (PDs) are particularly hard to treat and treatment drop-out rates are high. Several authors have agreed that psychotherapy is more successful when it focuses on the core of personality pathology. For this reason, therapists dealing with PDs need to understand the psychopathological variables that characterize this pathology and exactly what contributes to maintaining psychopathological processes. Moreover, several authors have noted that one key problem that characterizes all PDs is an impairment in understanding mental states - here termed metacognition - which could also be responsible for therapy failures. Unfortunately, a limited number of studies have investigated the role of mentalization in the process of change during psychotherapy. In this paper, we assume that poor metacognition corresponds to a core element of the general pathology of personality, impacts a series of clinical variables, generates symptoms and interpersonal problems, and causes treatment to be slower and less effective. We explored whether changes in metacognition predicted an improvement among different psychopathological variables characterizing PDs; 193 outpatients were treated at the Third Center of Cognitive Psychotherapy in Rome, Italy, and followed a structured path tailored for the different psychopathological variables that emerged from a comprehensive psychodiagnostic assessment that considered patients' symptoms, metacognitive abilities, interpersonal relationships, personality psychopathology, and global functioning. The measurements were repeated after a year of treatment. The results showed that changes in metacognitive abilities predicted improvements in the analyzed variable

A cationic tetrapyrrole inhibits toxic activities of the cellular prion protein

Prion diseases are rare neurodegenerative conditions associated with the conformational conversion of the cellular prion protein (PrPC) into PrPSc, a self-replicating isoform (prion) that accumulates in the central nervous system of affected individuals. The structure of PrPSc is poorly defined, and likely to be heterogeneous, as suggested by the existence of different prion strains. The latter represents a relevant problem for therapy in prion diseases, as some potent anti-prion compounds have shown strain-specificity. Designing therapeutics that target PrPC may provide an opportunity to overcome these problems. PrPC ligands may theoretically inhibit the replication of multiple prion strains, by acting on the common substrate of any prion replication reaction. Here, we characterized the properties of a cationic tetrapyrrole [Fe(III)-TMPyP], which was previously shown to bind PrPC, and inhibit the replication of a mouse prion strain. We report that the compound is active against multiple prion strains in vitro and in cells. Interestingly, we also find that Fe(III)-TMPyP inhibits several PrPC-related toxic activities, including the channel-forming ability of a PrP mutant, and the PrPC-dependent synaptotoxicity of amyloid-beta (A beta) oligomers, which are associated with Alzheimer's Disease. These results demonstrate that molecules binding to PrPC may produce a dual effect of blocking prion replication and inhibiting PrPC-mediated toxicity

Lung involvement in "stable" undifferentiated connective tissue diseases: a rheumatology perspective

Previous studies of the occurrence of interstitial lung disease (ILD) in undifferentiated connective tissue diseases (UCTD) were conducted in patients admitted to Respiratory Medicine Units. The aim of the present prospective study was to investigate lung involvement in UCTD patients admitted to a Rheumatology Unit. Eighty-one consecutive UCTD patients were enrolled in the study. Each patient underwent history and physical examination, routine laboratory investigations, antinuclear antibody (ANA) profiling, B-mode echocardiography, and lung function study according to previously reported methods. Lung high resolution computed tomography (HRCT) was performed in patients who provided informed consent. Six patients (7.4%) had a history of grade II dyspnea. Three of them had a DLCO ranging from 42 to 55% of the predicted value; and a HRCT-documented ILD with a non-specific interstitial pneumonia (NSIP) pattern. Symptoms in the other three patients were due to cardiac disease. None of the 75 asymptomatic patients, had relevant findings at physical examination, 26/75 had a DLCO <80% (<70% in 10 cases). Of these, 3 of the 30 patients who underwent lung HRCT were affected by NSIP-ILD. Six of the 81 enrolled were affected by ILD, which was symptomatic in three patients. A higher percentage of patients had a reduced DLCO. The latter finding may reflect a preradiographic ILD or a preechocardiographic pulmonary vascular disease

A Smart IoT-Aware System For Crisis Scenario Management

In most dangerous events, involving many people in large buildings, rescue workers need to intervene in a timely and targeted manner in order to help most number of people and secure the environments without wasting resources. This work presents an Internet of Things(IoT)-based framework, aiming at monitoring environmental parameters in order to alert rescuers when they exceed some alarm thresholds. A hardware infrastructure driven by a software layer adds flexibility and adaptability to the Complex Event Processing engine and to a rule engine-based reflective middleware that manages and analyzes raw data in conjunction with a knowledge base modeling the application domain