Biomedical subjects

Francesco Fattapposta

Publications and source records attributed to Francesco Fattapposta.

6 recordsLinked to original sources

PubMed2006

A chemical shift imaging study on regional metabolite distribution in a CADASIL family.

A chemical shift imaging (CSI) study was performed to directly assess relative concentrations of N-acetylaspartate (NAA), Cho and Cr metabolites in normal- and abnormal-appearing brain tissue of asymptomatic and symptomatic members of a single family with a neuropathologic, genetic and electrophysiological confirmed diagnosis of cerebral autosomal dominant arteriopathy with subcortical infarcts and leukoencephalopathy. The aim of the investigation was to evaluate clinical findings and metabolite abnormalities as early appearance of axonal injury in this syndrome. The main findings related statistically significant decreases in the mean metabolite ratios for NAA/Cr, NAA/Cho and Cho/Cr in the anterior parts in comparison with the posterior parts of the centrum semiovale in symptomatic and asymptomatic patients. The effect was considerably greater in the symptomatic patients, indicating a strong correlation between CSI and pathology results. No differences were found between the two areas in the control group. Although lactate signals were hardly detectable in individual spectra, there was a trend toward increased Lac/Cr values in the anterior parts with respect to the posterior parts in the patient group, with the effect particularly evident in the asymptomatic subjects with the gene mutation.

Adult↗

PubMed2005

Gilles de la Tourette syndrome and voluntary movement: a functional MRI study.

Tourette syndrome (TS) is hypothesised to be caused by an abnormal organization of movement control. The aim of this study was to use functional magnetic resonance imaging to study motor cortex activation in a TS patient. Usual and unusual self-paced voluntary movements were performed. The TS patient displayed supplementary motor area (SMA) activation during both tasks. This activation reflects a continuous use of the SMA to perform the voluntary motor movements required in both tasks. Moreover, the absence of tics during the execution of these voluntary motor tasks suggests that tic activity may be suppressed by additional mental effort.

Adult↗

PubMed2003

Visualization of evolving status epilepticus with diffusion and perfusion MR imaging.

Since Kojewnikoff's first description of epilepsia partialis continua, isolated case reports and small case series have elucidated the disease. However, few imaging studies have been performed. We report a case in which serial diffusion and perfusion MR imaging allowed monitoring of the changes in hemodynamic and cell membrane permeability until the resolution of clinical and electrical epileptic activity.

Aged↗

PubMedDate not supplied

Preprogramming motor dysfunction in paroxysmal kinesigenic choreoathetosis.

Paroxysmal kinesigenic choreoathetosis (PKC) is characterized by abnormal involuntary movements precipitated by sudden movement. As a result, a possible impairment of cerebral organization of voluntary motor activity is hypothesized in PKC. We examined a 14-year-old boy affected by a sporadic form of PKC, adopting a multimodal psychophysiological approach, including P300, contingent negative variation (CNV) and a specific paradigm for the study of movement related potentials (MRPs). Recordings were made before and after phenobarbital therapy. No changes were observed in the non-motor parameters (P300 and early wave of the CNV), whereas the premotor CNV component and the electrophysiological components, reflecting the preprogramming activity of a voluntary motor act, showed selective modifications induced by the anticonvulsant therapy. Our PKC patient presents a disorder of temporal organization of a voluntary motor response to a stimulus. Both a clinical improvement and normalization of motor-related electrophysiological anomalies were observed during phenobarbital (PB) therapy.

Adolescent↗

PubMedDate not supplied

Personality and the effects of acute alcohol intake. A contingent negative variation study in healthy subjects.

This study investigates the relationship between blood alcohol concentrations (BACs) and contingent negative variation (CNV). Fourteen healthy subjects were divided on the basis of their personality profiles--the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory (Hs+Hy+D/3)--into a high score (HS) and low score (LS) subgroup. The CNV was recorded using a choice-reaction time (RT) task. CNV recording was performed in two conditions: inter-stimulus intervals (ISIs) of 1500 ms and 2500 ms at three different BACs (0.3, 0.5 and 0.8 g/L) after acute alcohol administration. At the high BAC (0.8 g/L), both subgroups showed a reduced CNV amplitude area and a longer RT (p<.05) in both ISI conditions. No effects either on the CNV or on the RT were observed at the low BAC (0.3 g/L). At the intermediate BAC (0.5 g/L), the HS subgroup displayed an increased CNV amplitude (p<.05), not accompanied by a significantly longer RT (short ISI condition), and a reduced late CNV (p<.05) with a longer RT (p<.05) (long ISI condition). In the LS group, only a longer RT was observed in the long ISI condition. CNV modifications point to an individual, apparently personality-related, threshold of sensitivity to different alcohol levels.

Adult↗

PubMedDate not supplied

Early diagnosis in cerebral autosomal dominant arteriopathy with subcortical infarcts and leukoencephalopathy (CADASIL): the role of MRI.

The aim of our work was to evaluate the early presence of white matter changes on magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) in young asymptomatic children of patients with full-blown cerebral autosomal dominant arteriopathy with subcortical infarcts and leukoencephalopathy (CADASIL) in whom DNA analysis revealed a Notch3 Cys146Tyr missense mutation on chromosome 19. Brain MRI was performed in all subjects using axial and coronal spin-echo proton density and T2-weighted images, axial fluid-attenuated inversion recovery (FLAIR) and sagittal and axial T1-weighted images. In asymptomatic subjects with Notch3 gene mutation, MRI showed small T2 hyperintense foci in periventricular and subcortical white matter. Routine use of MRI in the initial phases of a CADASIL diagnostic work up and the subsequent recognition of early abnormal findings in asymptomatic subjects may lead to prompt diagnosis of the disease in these patients. Moreover, these findings suggest that genetic screening is warranted in the presence of a suspect clinical history with specific MRI abnormalities.

Adult↗