Sensor-based technological therapy devices could be a possible neurorehabilitation strategy for motor rehabilitation in patients with stroke during the post-acute hospitalization, especially for ...treating upper extremities function limitations. The audio-visual feedback devices are characterized by interactive therapy games that allow training the movement of shoulders, elbows, and wrist, measuring the strength and the active range of motion of upper limb, registering data in an electronic database to quantitatively monitoring measures and therapy progress. This study aimed to investigate the effects of sensor-based motor rehabilitation in add-on to the conventional neurorehabilitation for improving the upper limb functions in patients with subacute stroke. Thirty-seven patients were enrolled in the study and randomly assigned to the experimental group and the control group. The training consisting of twelve sessions of upper limb training compared with twelve sessions of upper limb sensory-motor training, without robotic support. Both rehabilitation programs were performed for 40 minutes three times a week, for 4 weeks, in addition to conventional therapy. All patients were evaluated at the baseline (T0) and after 4 weeks of training (T1). The within-subject analysis showed a statistically significant improvement in both groups in all clinical scales. The analysis of effectiveness revealed that, compared with baseline (T0), the improvement percentage in the Modified Barthel Index was greater in the experimental group than the control group. The use of a sensor-based training with audio-video-feedback could be a useful complementary strategy for improving upper limb motor functions in patients with stroke during post-acute neurorehabilitation.
Negative symptoms account for a clinical dimension of schizophrenia. They are partly the cause of functional disability of this disease. Clinical experience shows that antipsychotics have little or ...no effect on these symptoms. The aim of this review is to gather existing data on the treatment of negative symptoms with antidepressants. The combination of antipsychotics with antidepressants is a therapeutic strategy commonly used for the treatment of these symptoms. The pro-dopaminergic effects of antidepressants explain their effectiveness on negative symptoms. There are many comparative, randomized, controlled studies evaluating the efficacy of antidepressant associated with antipsychotic for the treatment of negative symptoms. Furthermore three meta-analyses have been conducted. The overall results suggest that the use of antidepressants may contribute to clinical improvement of negative symptoms in schizophrenia. The limitations of these studies are the small number of patients included and the definition and assessment of negative symptoms. The existing scales are not sufficiently discriminating. Further research using new measurement tools should help refine these results.
The management of negative symptoms appears to be a major challenge because of functional disability induced by these symptoms and their relative resistance to treatments currently on the market. The ...aim of this article is to review new approaches that may enable optimal management of these symptoms. First, we describe the methodological difficulties that hindered the development and evaluation of specific treatment, and objectives currently defined to enable the development of new pharmacological approaches. Then we present the monotherapy and adjuvant therapies that have been assessed, including first and second generation antipsychotics, psychostimulants, antidepressants, cholinergic and glutamatergic agents, the oxytocin, hormones and more invasive therapies such as transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS) and electroconvulsive therapy (ECT). Other molecules are under development and evaluation such alpha-7 nicotinic receptor agonists.
European plaice (Pleuronectes platessa) is quite frequently substituted with other flatfish, especially with Yellow fin sole (Limanda aspera), which differs not only in meat quality but also ...particularly in its origin and manipulation chain. We propose an integrated approach of laboratory and in silico mtDNA PCR-RFLP procedures generating a set of restriction patterns easily resolvable in agarose gel, able to discriminate with certainty P. platessa from other 20 flatfish species. The herein proposed procedure is an economical and valid tool in detecting mislabelled seafoods.
Because the histopathological features of some primary adenocarcinomas of the sinonasal tract may show considerable overlap, we assessed the diagnostic value of a panel of immunohistochemical markers ...in the distinction between these malignancies. Paraffin-embedded tumour tissue sections from a series of 39 primary adenocarcinomas of the sinonasal tract, including 25 cases of intestinal-type adenocarcinoma (ITAC), 10 cases of salivary gland-type carcinoma and 4 cases of tubulopapillary low-grade adenocarcinoma were immunostained for CDX-2, cytokeratin 7 and cytokeratin 20. Diffuse nuclear staining for CDX-2 was identified in 80% of ITACs, while all non-ITACs were negative. Staining for cytokeratin 20 was positive in 84% of ITACs, including all cases negative for CDX-2, but negative in all other adenocarcinomas. Cytokeratin 7 was consistently positive in 88% of ITACs and in 100% of non-ITACs. Normal sinonasal epithelia expressed cytokeratin 7, but not CDX-2 and cytokeratin 20. Staining for CDX-2 and cytokeratin 20 has potential use in separating ITACs from other primary malignant glandular neoplasms of the nasal cavities and paranasal sinuses.
Genetic analyses allowed management and conservative programmes specifically designed for biodiversity conservation purposes. To date, no information is available for the
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e definition of any ...Italian northern pike population, because of their wide, highly fragmented, distribution. Low gene flow levels may have caused some of the health population problems emerging from professional fisheries data, underlining a marked reduction of these populations. This paper reports the first estimate of genetic
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e of the Lake Trasimeno's northern pike, by means of microsatellites data, over the last four decades compared with five other significant Italian populations.
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e values were evaluated through specific software and
θ estimator. The
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e results confirm that, despite a marked reduction between 1966 and 1997 and a less than optimal status, the Trasimeno population shows a positive trend in its health status, presumably due to proper management programmes. Considerations on the biological conservation and management of this pike population are also reported.
Purpose: To compare the morphology and function of the corneal endothelium in the early postoperative period after extracapsular cataract extraction (ECCE) and phacoemulsification.
Setting: ...University Eye Clinic of Trieste, Italy.
Methods: In this prospective, randomized study of patients scheduled for cataract surgery, 40 patients were divided into two groups of 20 patients each. Group 1 had ECCE and Group 2, phacoemulsification; both had capsular bag intraocular lens (IOL) implantation. Preoperatively and 7 and 30 days postoperatively, a complete ophthalmological examination, endothelial specular microscopy, ultrasonic pachymetry, and anterior segment fluorophotometry were done. Visual acuity, endothelial cell density, cell size variation coefficient, corneal thickness, endothelial permeability coefficient, and endothelial pump function were studied.
Results: Visual acuity was better 7 days after phacoemulsification than after ECCE, but no differences were observed after 30 days. No significant differences in postoperative loss of endothelial cells were found between the two groups. Coefficient of variation in size, corneal thickness, and endothelial permeability significantly increased in both groups 7 days postoperatively, but only in the ECCE group 30 days postoperatively; the differences between the two groups were statistically significant. Endothelial pump function significantly increased after 7 days in only the phacoemulsification group.
Conclusions: Functional endothelial failure occurred in the early period after ECCE. Phacoemulsification seemed to minimize postoperative functional damage to the endothelium.
The two freshwater sponges Ephydatia fluviatilis and Ephydatia mülleri belong to the widespread Spongillidae family. Their morphological tracts are very similar and can be distinguished mainly on the ...basis of their gemmuloscleres. However, when gemmules are absent it is essential to have an unambiguous species attribution for a population genetic study based on fresh tissues and historical collections. This article reports a simple Polymerase Chain Reaction-Restriction Fragment Length Polymorphism (PCR-RFLP) analysis, applied to DNA extracted from both gemmules and fresh tissues in order to discriminate between the two congeneric E. fluviatilis and E. mülleri. Such a biomolecular method is based on the discriminative enzymes' digestion of each of the three amplified fragments 5.8S-ITS2-28S, D3 domain of the 28S subunit and COI. Two restriction enzymes were tested for a 620-642 bp fragment of 5.8S-ITS2-28S and for a 342 bp fragment of the D3 domain of the 28S, one restriction enzyme was tested for a 681 bp fragment codifying for COI. Obtained digestion patterns were diagnostic for each of the two species, providing a relatively simple, fast and cheap method for species attribution compared to sequencing.
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