1,720,984 research outputs found
Neurotransmitter deficits in behavioural and psychological symptoms of Alzheimer's disease
No full textBehavioural and psychological symptoms of dementia (BPSD) occur in 50–90% of Alzheimer’s disease (AD) patients. Imbalance of different
neurotransmitters (acetylcholine, dopamine, noradrenaline and serotonin), involvement of specific brain regions responsible for emotional
activities (parahippocampal gyrus, dorsal raphe and locus coeruleus) and cortical hypometabolism have been proposed as neurobiological substrate
of BPSD. Compared to with respect to the neurochemical component, the cholinergic dysfunction seems to play a major role in contributing to
BPSD occurrence. This view is also supported by the findings of recent trials with cholinesterase inhibitors, showing that these drugs are effective
in controlling and/or improving BPSD, independent on effects on cognitive dysfunction. On the site of psychotropic drugs, atypical or novel
antipsychotics represent the reference drugs for treating BPSD, whereas classic antipsychotic drugs for their profile and the potential side effects
should be avoided
Treatment of Alzheimer's disease: from pharmacology to a better understanding of disease pathophysiology
No full textAlzheimer’s disease (AD) is the most common cause of cognitive impairment in older patients and is expected to increase greatly in prevalence
in the next future. It is characterized by the development of senile plaques and neurofibrillary tangles, which are associated with neuronal loss
affecting to a greater extent cholinergic neurons. A cascade of pathophysiological events is triggered in AD that ultimately involves common
cellular signalling pathways and leads to cellular and neural networks dysfunction, failure of neurotransmission, cell death and a common clinical
outcome. The process is asynchronous and viable neurons remain an important target for therapeutic intervention at each stage of disease evolution.
At present symptomatic drugs inhibiting the degradation of acetylcholine within synapses and more recently glutamate receptor antagonists
represent the mainstay of therapy. However, interventions able to halt or slow disease progression (i.e., disease-modifying agents) are necessary.
Although much progress has been made in this area, there are currently no clinically approved interventions for AD classed as disease modifying or
neuroprotective. This paper reviews the main symptomatic strategies available for treating AD and future strategies for improving our therapeutic
approach to AD
Treatment of Alzheimer's disease: from pharmacology to a better understanding of disease pathophysiology.
No full textAlzheimer's disease (AD) is the most common cause of cognitive impairment in older patients and is expected to increase greatly in prevalence in the next future. It is characterized by the development of senile plaques and neurofibrillary tangles, which are associated with neuronal loss affecting to a greater extent cholinergic neurons. A cascade of pathophysiological events is triggered in AD that ultimately involves common cellular signalling pathways and leads to cellular and neural networks dysfunction, failure of neurotransmission, cell death and a common clinical outcome. The process is asynchronous and viable neurons remain an important target for therapeutic intervention at each stage of disease evolution. At present symptomatic drugs inhibiting the degradation of acetylcholine within synapses and more recently glutamate receptor antagonists represent the mainstay of therapy. However, interventions able to halt or slow disease progression (i.e., disease-modifying agents) are necessary. Although much progress has been made in this area, there are currently no clinically approved interventions for AD classed as disease modifying or neuroprotective. This paper reviews the main symptomatic strategies available for treating AD and future strategies for improving our therapeutic approach to AD
Plasma total homocysteine levels and the C677T mutation in the methylenetetrahydrofolate reductase (MTHFR) gene : a study in an Italian population with dementia
No full text
Going Beyond Counting First Authors in Author Co-citation Analysis
Get PDFThe present study examines one of the fundamental aspects of author co-citation analysis (ACA) - the way co-citation
counts are defined. Co-citation counting provides the data on which all subsequent statistical analyses and mappings
are based, and we compare ACA results based on two different types of co-citation counting - the traditional type that
only counts the first one among a cited work's authors on the one hand and a non-traditional type that takes into
account the first 5 authors of a cited work on the other hand. Results indicate that the picture produced through this non-traditional author co-citation counting contains more coherent author groups and is therefore considerably clearer. However, this picture represents fewer specialties in the research field being studied than that produced through the traditional first-author co-citation counting when the same number of top-ranked authors is selected and analyzed. Reasons for these effects are discussed
Variations on the Author
Get PDF“Variations on the Author” discusses two of Eduardo Coutinho’s recent films (Um Dia na Vida, from 2010, and Últimas Conversas, posthumously released in 2015) and their contribution to the general question of documentary authorship. The director’s filmography is characterized by a consistent yet self-effacing form of authorial self-inscription: Coutinho often features as an interviewer that rather than express opinions propels discourses; an interviewer that is good at listening. This mode of self-inscription characterizes him as an author who is not expressive but who is nonetheless markedly present on the screen. In Um Dia na Vida, however, Coutinho is completely absent form the image, while Últimas Conversas, on the contrary, includes a confessional prologue that moves the director from the margins to the center of his films. This article examines the ways in which these works stand out in the filmography of a director who offers new insights into the notion of cinematic authorship
Appropriate Similarity Measures for Author Cocitation Analysis
Get PDFWe provide a number of new insights into the methodological discussion about author cocitation analysis. We first argue that the use of the Pearson correlation for measuring the similarity between authors’ cocitation profiles is not very satisfactory. We then discuss what kind of similarity measures may be used as an alternative to the Pearson correlation. We consider three similarity measures in particular. One is the well-known cosine. The other two similarity measures have not been used before in the bibliometric literature. Finally, we show by means of an example that our findings have a high practical relevance.information science;Pearson correlation;cosine;similarity measure;author cocitation analysis
Severity of acute intracerebral haemorrhage, elderly age and atrial fibrillation: Independent predictors of poor outcome at three months
No full textinvestigated clinical factors leading to poor outcome at three months in patients with intracerebral haemorrhage
(ICH) in order to better understand the role of clinical features in prognostic evaluation.
Subjects and methods: This was a prospective cohort study on patients having ICH admitted to two Italian
hospitals (the Stroke Units at “Ospedale Santa Maria della Misericordia“, Perugia and “Ospedale C. Poma“,
Mantua) between January 1, 2006 and June 30, 2010.
Results: A total of 470 consecutive ICH patients (mean age 73.89±13.02 years) were included and of these,
241 (51.1%) were males. At three months, 293 (62.3%) patients had poor outcome including 133 (27.6%)
deaths. The resulting significant predictors of poor outcome from univariate analysis included: age, NIH
Stroke Scale Score (NIHSSS) at admission, hyperglycaemia and the presence of atrial fibrillation (AF).
These variables were confirmed in logistic regression analyses as being independent predictors of disability:
age (OR 1.04 95% CI, 1.02–1.07, p=0.0001), AF (OR 3.18 95% CI, 1.12–9.05 p=0.03) and NIHSSS (OR 1.38 95%
CI, 1.28–1.48, p=0.0001), while elderly age (OR 1.10 95% CI, 1.06–1.14, p≤0.0001) and high NIHSSS (OR 1.25
95% CI, 1.19–1.31, p≤0.0001) resulted being independent predictors of mortality.
Conclusions: This study found that severity of ICH, elderly age and AF were independent predictors of poor
outcome in ICH patients at three months. Thereby, this highlights the importance of understanding the
roles of clinical features in ICH prognostic evaluation.Background and purpose Prognostic risk factors of haemorrhagic stroke are not yet fully identified. This study investigated clinical factors leading to poor outcome at three months in patients with intracerebral haemorrhage (ICH) in order to better understand the role of clinical features in prognostic evaluation. Subjects and methods This was a prospective cohort study on patients having ICH admitted to two Italian hospitals (the Stroke Units at "Ospedale Santa Maria della Misericordia", Perugia and "Ospedale C. Poma", Mantua) between January 1, 2006 and June 30, 2010. Results A total of 470 consecutive ICH patients (mean age 73.89 ± 13.02 years) were included and of these, 241 (51.1%) were males. At three months, 293 (62.3%) patients had poor outcome including 133 (27.6%) deaths. The resulting significant predictors of poor outcome from univariate analysis included: age, NIH Stroke Scale Score (NIHSSS) at admission, hyperglycaemia and the presence of atrial fibrillation (AF). These v..
Dispelling the Myths Behind First-author Citation Counts
Get PDFWe conducted a full-scale evaluative citation analysis study of scholars in the XML research field to explore just how different from each other author rankings resulting from different citation counting methods actually are, and to demonstrate the capability of emerging data and tools on the Web in supporting more realistic citation counting methods. Our results contest some common arguments for the continued
use of first-author citation counts in the evaluation of scholars, such as high correlations between author rankings by first-author citation counts and other citation
counting methods, and high costs of using more realistic citation counting methods that are not well-supported by the ISI databases. It is argued that increasingly available digital full text research papers make it possible for citation analysis studies to go beyond what the ISI databases have directly supported and to employ more
sophisticated methods
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