Pilot Randomized Controlled Trial of the WHO Caregiver Skills Training in Public Health Services in Italy

Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders - Parents of children with ASD (N?=?86; mean age 44.8 months; 67 boys) were randomized to either WHO Caregiver Skills Training...     

Cerebral amyloid load determination in a clinical setting: interpretation of amyloid biomarker discordances aided by tau and neurodegeneration measurements

Neurological Sciences - Alzheimer’s disease (AD) diagnosis can be hindered by amyloid biomarkers discordances. We aim to interpret discordances between amyloid positron emission tomography...     

A night of sleep deprivation alters brain connectivity and affects specific executive functions

Neurological Sciences - Sleep is a fundamental physiological process necessary for efficient cognitive functioning especially in relation to memory consolidation and executive functions, such as...     

Do catastrophizing and autonomic-reduced flexibility mediate pain outcomes in chronic headache?

Neurological Sciences - Maladaptive cognitive strategies and reduced autonomic flexibility have been reported in chronic pain conditions. No study to date addressed the effects of maladaptive...     

Same strategy for pitfalls of radiotherapy in different anatomical districts

Oral mucositis (OM) and radiodermatitis (RD) are serious side effects of radiotherapy (RT), often leading to its suspension, need for analgesics, and enteral/parenteral nutrition. Laser therapy is becoming a recommended treatment option. This prospective study aimed at demonstrating the beneficial effect of class IV laser therapy (HPLT) on RT-induced OM, an off-label use of HPLT to treat RD in breast cancer patients. Fifty-three cancer patients, during/after RT and/or chemotherapy (CT), affected by OM, were treated with HPLT during four consecutive days (970?±?15 nm, 5 W (50 %), 35–6000 Hz, 240 s). Assessment of OM (Grading Objective Scale, WHO-SCALE), pain (visual analogue scale, VAS), functional ability, subjective parameters, and site/severity of OM were recorded over time. Similarly, 27 breast cancer patients affected by RD were treated by HPLT and monitored over time for grade, discomfort, itching, and bleeding. Progressive improvement of WHO-SCALE from day 7 on, and of VAS from day 2 on (p?<?0.000) was registered. All patients’ functional capacity improved on day 4 (p?<?0.05). All subjective parameters improved on day 14 (p?<?0.001) except for voice, which improved on day 21 (p?<?0.000). Ulcerations’ dimension and erythema’s severity significantly decreased in all sites examined (p?<?0.05). Similarly, HPLT proved to be beneficial in managing RD for all the parameters considered (p?<?0.002). Regardless of OM grade/site and of kind/site of tumor, HPLT proved to be effective in healing OM as well as RD. In both cases, effective treatment can improve life quality through a safe, easy, innovative approach. Therefore, HPLT may become an integral part of everyday practice in the management of RT adverse effects.     

Rehabilitative intervention during and after pediatric hematopoietic stem cell transplantation: An analysis of the existing literature

Hematopoietic stem cell transplantation is a therapeutic strategy for several oncohematological diseases. It increases survival rates but leads to a high incidence of related effects. The objective of this paper was to examine the existing literature on physical exercise interventions among pediatric HSCT recipients to explore the most often utilized rehabilitative assessment and treatment tools. Studies published from 2002 to April 1, 2015 were selected: 10 studies were included. A previous literary review has shown that rehabilitation programs have a positive impact on quality of life. Our analysis identified some significant outcome variables and shared intervention areas.     

Adverse genetic prognostic profiles define a poor outcome for cystectomy in bladder cancer

Fluorescence in situ hybridization analysis was performed to evaluate P16 (9p21), P53 (17p13.1), RB1 (13q14), HER2 (17q11.2) genes and chromosomes 3, 7, 9 and 17 in 62 bladder cancer cystectomies. We found chromosome aneusomy ranged between 74.2% and 91.9%. The highest percentage of homozygous deletion was found in the P16 gene (48.4%), while the highest percentage of heterozygous deletion was in the RB1 gene (51.6%). Chromosome 17 aneusomy significantly increased in tumors with higher stage, and RB heterozygous deletion showed a higher percentage of tumors with positive lymph node. Multiple correspondence analysis (MCA) showed four different biological tumor profiles, but only one could be associated with survival, defining the most unfavorable biological profile, characterized by P53 and P16 as homozygous and heterozygous and RB as homozygous deletion. Overall survival was significantly shorter in patients with at least two positive variables out of the five detected by MCA using the Kaplan-Meier's method. The biological stratification of advanced bladder cancer patients is of particular clinical interest, because the assessment of genetic factors predictive of tumor aggressiveness may influence postoperative therapeutic strategies.