PubMed Health⌕ Search

Biomedical subjects

S Zanini

Publications and source records attributed to S Zanini.

At least 19 recordsLinked to original sources
PubMed2005

Italian Right Hemisphere Language Battery: the normative study.

Clinical neurolinguistics still lacks consolidated and standardised tools for the assessment of impairments of pragmatics of verbal communication. In the present paper we present norms of the Italian version of the Right Hemisphere Language Battery (Batteria del Linguaggio dell'Emisfero Destro, BaLED) originally devised by Bryan. The normative study has been conducted with the recruitment of 440 healthy subjects. The battery of tests was not intended to be cognitively oriented, by providing evidence of the cognitive impairments underpinning verbal pragmatic deficits; on the contrary, it permits the detection of the presence/absence of impairments in processing the main pragmatic features of verbal communication traditionally associated with right hemisphere lesions. Thus, apart from being a clinical tool for diagnosing pragmatic impairments of verbal communication, the BaLED represents a useful initial battery of tests for clinical assessment and for selecting specific populations of neurological patients suitable for investigation in further experimental studies.

Adult↗
PubMed2004

Apert syndrome: analysis of associated brain malformations and conformational changes determined by surgical treatment.

Apert Syndrome, also called acrocephalosyndactylia type 1, is characterized by craniostenosis with early fusion of sutures of the vault and/or cranial base, associated to mid-face hypoplasia, symmetric syndactylia of the hands and feet and other systemic malformations. CNS malformations and intracranial hypertension are frequently observed in these patients. Early surgical treatment aims to minimize the deleterious effects of intracranial hypertension. Fronto-orbital advancement, the usual surgical technique, increases the intracranial Volume and improves the disposition of encephalic structures previously deformed by a short skull. This study analyzes CNS alterations revealed by magnetic resonance in 18 patients presenting Apert Syndrome, and the conformational alterations in the encephalic structures after surgical treatment. The patients' age in February 2001 ranged from 14 to 322 Months (m=107). Image study included brain magnetic resonance showing ventricular enlargement in five cases (27.8%), corpus callosum hypoplasia in five cases (27.8%), septum pellucidum hypoplasia in five cases (27.8%), cavum vergae in two cases (11.1%) and, arachnoid cyst in the posterior fossa in two cases (11.1%). Absence of CNS alterations was noted in 44.4% of cases. A corpus callosum morphologic index was established by dividing its height by its length, which revealed values that ranged from 0.4409 to 1.0237. The values of this index were correlated to the occurrence or absence of surgical treatment (p=0.012; t=2.83). Data analysis allowed the conclusion that the corpus callosum morphologic measure quantified the conformational alterations of the cerebral structures determined by the surgical treatment.

Acrocephalosyndactylia↗
PubMed2004

Greater syntactic impairments in native language in bilingual Parkinsonian patients.

OBJECTIVE: To investigate the presence of syntactic impairments in native language in Parkinson's disease. METHODS: Twelve bilingual patients, with Friulian as their first language (L1) and Italian as their second (L2), with Parkinson's disease and 12 normal controls matched for age, sex, and years of schooling, were studied on three syntactic tasks. RESULTS: Patients with Parkinson's disease showed a greater impairment of L1 than L2. CONCLUSIONS: These findings provide evidence of greater basal ganglia involvement in the acquisition and further processing of grammar in L1 v L2 possibly due to a major involvement of procedural memory in representing L1 grammar.

Basal Ganglia↗
PubMed1999

Speaking speed effects on delayed auditory feedback disruption of speech fluency.

24 Italian medical students performed a task of verbal fluency. 12 students (the control group) receiving Normal Auditory Feedback and 12 students receiving Delayed Auditory Feedback (delay of 200 msec.) performed six trials in six different experimental settings: normal or increased speaking rate, and, for each condition, once with bilateral input of the auditory feedback, once to the right ear, and once to the left ear. At the normal speaking rate, the disruptive effect of delayed feedback was confirmed. As the speaking rate increased, the total number of errors increased within the control group but decreased within the group given delayed feedback, although the total number of errors was always greater for the latter. In addition, speech was more disrupted when the auditory input was returned to the right ear (left hemisphere) for all the different conditions: Normal and Delayed Auditory Feedback, normal and increased speaking rate. In particular, the left hemisphere was less resistant to the disruptive effect of the delayed feedback than the right hemisphere. From these results, we suggest that, when speaking more quickly, one uses more central mechanisms of movement programming (cortical-cerebellum-thalamus-cortical, cortical-corpus striatum-thalamus-cortical, and cortical-thalamus-cortical circuits), or attentional control (cortico-reticular-cortical circuits) than peripheral mechanisms (tactile, proprioceptive, and acoustic circuits). This may explain the decreased disruptive influence of delayed auditory feedback on speed, fluency, and quality at increased speaking rates. Hemispheric specialization processes, however, may explain the more pronounced susceptibility of the left hemisphere or the less pronounced susceptibility of the right hemisphere during the delayed feedback condition. In fact, the former processes phonemic, grammatical, and lexical features of words whilst the latter is competent in using metaphors and prosody in controlling the emotional aspects of language. Moreover, the right hemisphere is more active on attentional tasks.

Acoustic Stimulation↗
PubMed1982

[Verapamil in effort angina: a multi-centre study].

We have performed a multi-centre study with 47 outpatients in order to evaluate the efficacy of Verapamil (V) in the treatment of stable effort angina, and to compare the effect of two different doses of the drug (240 and 360 mg/die). The protocol consisted of a first period of Placebo, followed by the double-blind randomized cross-over administration of Placebo (P) and Verapamil (V) in doses of 240 and 360 mg/die. The symptomatology, the consumption of TNG, the ECG pattern at rest and during exercise, the maximum exercise tolerance during exercise and the rate of recovery were evaluated at the end of each 1 month period. V. provided a significant reduction of the number of angina attacks and of the consumption of TNG pills with improvement of symptomatology. The maximum exercise performance improved without changes in maximum rate pressure double product. A decrease of double product was observed at rest and during the recovery period. The higher dose of V. (360 mg/die) provides a better improvement in the number of angina attacks, in the symptomatology, in the double product at rest, and in the rate of recovery than the lower dose (240 mg/die). Thus these data indicate that V. provides anti-anginal efficacy by reducing myocardial oxygen demand, and increases exercise tolerance in effort angina patients.

Adult↗
PubMed1979

[Physical work capacity of the patient with myocardial infarction submitted to intensive rehabilitative training (author's transl)].

The Authors have examined two homogeneous groups of patients with myocardial infarction; one underwent (61 patient) to a rehabilitating training, the other underwent (42 patient) to a domiciliary physical program. Patients have been considered by means of bicycle ergometer test at 2, 4, 12 and 24 months from myocardial infarction. They have been taken into consideration clinical and Ecg factors and also, as an index of physical work capacity was considered the complete work developed, the VO2 max/Kg per min., the product B.P. x H. R. and the pulse O2. The average value of parameters have been statistically compared by means of the t of Student, analysis of variation x2, and the test of Kolmogorov-Smirnov; moreover the correlation with linear coefficient has been studied. Afterwards the many-varied discriminating analysis and the test F di Snedelor have been carried out just for the index of functionality. From the statistical analysis of the data considered it results an increase of the functional capacity and its maintenance long after in the group that underwent to the rehabilitating training. However, two years after, this increase of capacity did not result greater than that obtained, in the same period of time, by the group of patients who underwent to a domiciliary physical rehabilitating program. These considerations point out the necessity of keeping physical exercise indefinitely or at least of repeating it periodically. In that event they suggest the right time to programme further cycles of training.

Adult↗
PubMed1978

[Aorto-coronary by-pass: pre and post-operative ergometric evaluation of 95 patients (author's transl)].

95 angina patients surgically treated by aortocoronary saphenous vein by-pass, have been studied by comparing the factors limiting the exercise (i.e. muscular exhaustion, angina, electrocardiographic changes), the total work performed, the O2 consumption and the heart rate-arterial pression product. After surgery the incidence of positive effort tests (effort angina and/or ecg evidence of myocardial ischemia) decreased from 79% to 27,4% (p less than 0,001), and the average amount of work performed increased from 2718 to 3504 Kgm (p less than 0,01), the MVO2 from 13,9 to 15,6 cc/min/Kg. (p less than 0,01) and the heart rate-arterial pression product from 206 to 243 (p less than 0,001). The patients who preoperatively were more invalidated (that is able to performe a lasser amount of physical work) presented a more pronounced improvement in comparison with those who had a greater tolerance to exercise. It seems therefore that for these latter patients the bypass grafting surgery should be justified only if a significant increase of life expectancy and reduction of myocardial infarction incidence could be definitely proved. The exercise performance improvement after surgery was statistically significant only in the patients with post infarction or with unstable angina not in those with chronic angina. The perioperative infarction (present in 8,4% of cases) did not show any unfavorable correlation with the result of the late postoperative effort test.

Adult↗