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Biomedical subjects

A Mazzucchi

Publications and source records attributed to A Mazzucchi.

At least 19 recordsLinked to original sources
PubMed1996

Post-concussive syndrome: paraclinical signs, subjective symptoms, cognitive functions and MMPI profiles.

In order to investigate the organic and psychogenic components of post-concussive syndrome (PCS), the subjective complaints, the cognitive findings and the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory (MMPI) profiles of 53 consecutive mild head injury patients (MHI) with persistent PCS were evaluated. The results seem to suggest the presence of two groups: in the first, minimal lesional signs were associated with more prolonged loss of consciousness (LC) and post-traumatic amnesia (PTA), as well as an MMPI profile not indicative of a neurotic state, whereas in the second the absence of any lesional sign was associated with shorter LC and PTA duration, as well as evidence of neurotic MMPI scores. A female prevalence was observed in the first group and a male prevalence in the other one.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1995

A new case of retrograde amnesia with abnormal forgetting rate.

The classic amnesic syndrome is characterised by a severe anterograde amnesia and a less important retrograde amnesia with sparing of the semantic component. We report the case of a patient who showed a global amnesic syndrome following a mild head injury. Initially, amnesia was both anterograde and retrograde, and also involved semantic knowledge. Two years later the picture had changed remarkably. The retrograde deficit for autobiographical events was still total, while semantic memory had recovered to a large extent. Learning had also greatly improved, but only if assessed after a short delay; abnormally rapid forgetting rate were found at longer intervals. This pattern of impairment does not lend itself to an easy interpretation. However, the hypothesis of a consolidation deficit may be advanced.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1994

Hereditary sensory and autonomic neuropathy with ataxia and late onset.

We report two brothers affected by a dominantly inherited form of hereditary sensory and autonomic neuropathy (HSAN), characterized by clinical features of sensory ataxia, and by late onset in the 6th decade. Sural nerve biopsy in the proband showed almost complete loss of myelinated fibers, and relative sparing of unmyelinated fibers. This family showed an atypical presentation of HSAN, which is usually characterized by acrodystrophic manifestations of infantile or juvenile onset. Although a few reports of HSAN presenting with late onset and/or ataxia appeared, this is the first report of a family with dominant HSAN characterized by late onset sensory ataxia.

Aged↗
PubMed1993

Reaction time responses in parkinsonian and hemiparkinsonian patients.

Twenty-one normal subjects, 32 bilateral parkinsonian patients (BPs) and 29 hemiparkinsonian patients (HP) were submitted to separate or sequentially associated motor tasks that included simple reaction times (RT), choice RTs, directional RTs, and movement RTs. The results showed that simple RTs, directional RTs, and movement times (MT) were slower in BPs as compared to normal subjects; for choice RTs there was no difference. Response patterns were similar in normal controls and BPs. In both groups RTs became more prolonged as sequentially programmed operations increased. If movement occurred at the end of the sequence, they prolonged the RTs of the preceding operations, but MTs per se did not vary. In HPs the same results were observed on the "bad" hand side versus normal controls and versus the healthy side, but a significant statistical level was reached mainly when the "bad" hand was the right one.

Attention↗
PubMed1992

Head-injured subjects aged over 50 years: correlations between variables of trauma and neuropsychological follow-up.

Neuropsychological follow-up was studied in 70 consecutive head-injured subjects aged over 50 years. Diffuse deterioration (28%), moderate deterioration (25%) and dementia (21%) were the most frequent sequelae. Analysis of correlations between neuropsychological sequelae and trauma variables showed that: (1) mild trauma did not necessarily imply good prognosis and could be followed by very severe consequences; (2) duration of post-traumatic amnesia was correlated with coma duration but not with neuropsychological outcome; (3) on the whole, no prognostic predictor of the outcome was found.

Age Factors↗
PubMed1991

A case of unilateral opercular syndrome associated with a subcortical lesion.

A patient who developed a unilateral opercular syndrome following a cerebrovascular accident is described. Computed tomography showed that the lesion did not affect the opercular cortex, but involved deep white matter and the head of the caudate nucleus of the left hemisphere. Persistent hypophonia and transient aphasia were associated. Comparison with previous cases is discussed.

Aged↗
PubMed1988

Selective impairment of the graphemic buffer in acquired dysgraphia: a case study.

The case of an Italian dysgraphic patient (S.E.), who showed a deficit of both written and oral spelling capacities, without significant differences between words and nonwords, is reported. The pattern of the patient's performance was identical on writing to dictation, delayed copying, and written naming. The most common category of errors was single-letter deletions, and errors were predominantly made in medial positions. Stimulus length appeared to be the single factor that most affected performance. This pattern is consistent with the hypothesis that S.E.'s spelling disorder results from selective damage of the Graphemic Buffer. The case is discussed in relation to current functional models of writing and is compared with similar cases reported previously.

Aged↗
PubMed1987

Involuntary grasping and groping responses to space-related visual stimuli.

Involuntary groping-grasping responses to visual stimuli were studied in relation to the location of the stimuli in the space surrounding the patient. The following space-related patterns of stimulus-response were observed in four patients: (a) responses were evoked only by visual stimuli in the hemispace ipsilateral to the arm involved; (b) responses were evoked only by visual stimuli within the reach of maximal arm extension; (c) responses were evoked only by visual stimuli in the space around the hand; (d) all such patterns were variously combined. These findings are discussed in relation to the general problem of specific correlations between sensorimotor subsystems and peripersonal behavioral space.

Adult↗
PubMed1986

Neuropsychological deficits in arterial hypertension.

Sixty subjects with uncomplicated essential hypertension and 60 matched normal subjects were submitted to neuropsychological tests in order to establish whether some impairment of cognitive functions can be evidenced even in those hypertensive subjects that are in this respect asymptomatic on standard examination and interview. The hypertensive subjects obtained significantly poorer results than normotensive subjects on memory, visuo-motor and performance tests. In the control group, the classic negative correlation pattern between age and scores was observed, while in the patient group this correlation could be confirmed only in a few tests. Subgrouping of patients according to hypertension duration and treatment showed that the impairment of cognitive functions manifested itself very early and did not tend to progress within 6-10 years of hypertension duration.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1986

Progressive multifocal leukoencephalopathy (PML): clinical and pathological findings in two short-duration patients.

The clinical features and neuropathological findings of two patients suffering from progressive multifocal leukoencephalopathy (PML) are reported. These patients had cancer and died two months and one month after onset of their neurological symptoms, respectively. In both demyelination was discovered only as a result of autopsy due to different reasons: the CAT-scan findings were misinterpreted in the first patient, while in the second diagnosis was overshadowed by the sudden progress towards a fatal outcome preceded by myoclonus and other encephalitis-like manifestations. The major findings were the extreme paucity of the mesodermal elements on the one hand, and the modest spread of the affected areas on the other. It is pointed out that, whatever the size of the lesions, characters were the same and that their formation could hardly be traced in time. The intriguing similarities between PML and several types of demyelination obtained experimentally using certain virus strains are remarked.

Aged↗
PubMed1985

Unilateral visual agnosia.

A case of unilateral visual agnosia for all types of stimuli limited to the left visual hemifield and associated with a right occipital temporal vascular lesion is reported. Questions raised by this case of hemiagnosia as compared to previous ones are discussed.

Agnosia↗
PubMed1984

Exposure-effect and exposure-response relationships between occupational exposure to styrene and neuropsychological functions.

A neuropsychological test battery was administered to 50 workers exposed to styrene and to 50 sex-, intelligence-, and age-matched controls. The main styrene metabolites, ie, mandelic acid (MA) and phenylglyoxylic acid (PGA), were measured as exposure indices in the urine collected on Saturday mornings, just before neuropsychological testing. Exposure-response and exposure-effect relationships were found between the intensity of the exposure (as reflected by the sum of MA and PGA) and the scores of the neuropsychological tests. Verbal learning skills were significantly impaired in workers with a sum of MA and PGA higher than 150 mmole/mole creatinine, corresponding to styrene airborne concentrations higher than 25 ppm (mean daily exposure). Logical memory and visuo-constructive abilities were shown to be significantly affected in workers with MA and PGA higher than 300 mmole/mole creatinine, corresponding to exposure levels of more than 50 ppm of styrene in air.

Adult↗