Search PubMed⌕ Search

Biomedical subjects

F Fattapposta

Publications and source records attributed to F Fattapposta.

At least 37 records · Page 2Linked to original sources
PubMed1991

Abnormalities of cognitive functions in IDDM revealed by P300 event-related potential analysis. Comparison with short-latency evoked potentials and psychometric tests.

The possible influence of diabetes on the higher mnestic and cognitive functions has been investigated. The P300 wave latency, an endogenous electrophysiological event, was explored and compared with the multimodal short-latency evoked potential (EP) recordings (visual [VEP], brainstem auditory [BAEP], and median and tibial nerve somatosensory EPs [mSEP and tSEP, respectively]) and psychometric test measures in 16 insulin-dependent diabetic (IDDM) patients, in 16 age- and (IDDM) sex-matched nondiabetic subjects, and in a large normal reference population. The age of subjects, the duration of IDDM, and the metabolic control of patients were taken into account. P300 values were significantly increased in IDDM versus matched control subjects (P less than 0.001), and 3 patients showed values above the reference value range. Abnormal VEP recordings were present in 1 of 16 patients, BAEP in 3 of 16, mSEP in 7 of 16, and tSEP in 6 of 16. Digit-span backward test results were significantly (P less than 0.02) modified in the diabetic cohort. There was no tendency for anomalies of P300, short-latency EPs, and psychometric test values to be contemporarily present, except in 1 patient. Electrophysiological or psychometric abnormalities were not clearly correlated with the duration of IDDM or the degree of short-term metabolic control. These findings give evidence that 1) higher cognitive functions may be affected in diabetes as documented by P300 analysis and short-term memory tests, 2) endogenous electrophysiological analysis highlights neuropsychological changes not detectable by psychometric tests, 3) an alteration of evoked potentials was present in half of the IDDM subjects studied, and 4) anomalies of the CNS are patchily distributed in diabetes.

Acoustic Stimulation↗
PubMed1990

Dopaminergic pharmacological manipulations in normal humans confirm the specificity of the visual (PERG-VEP) and cognitive (P300) electrophysiological alterations in Parkinson's disease.

Retinal and occipital visual evoked potentials and event-related potentials (P300) have been recorded in normal human subjects before and after the administration of the dopaminergic receptor antagonist, haloperidol, and/or the dopaminergic precursor L-DOPA. The data show that either retinal or occipital visual potentials and P300 are delayed by haloperidol. These findings are consistent with the hypothesis that haloperidol in healthy subjects mimicks the electrophysiological abnormalities observed in Parkinson's disease. On the other hand, L-DOPA does not generally modify these latencies in normals, while it is known to decrease the same parameters in parkinsonian patients. This is in accord with the involvement of a specific mechanism in the recovery observed in parkinsonian patients after L-DOPA therapy. Our data confirm that the alterations of visual and cognitive potentials observed in Parkinson's disease are closely related to the impairment of dopaminergic transmission.

Acoustic Stimulation↗
PubMed1988

Thyrotropin-releasing hormone enhances event-related brain potentials and growth hormone release in man.

Changes in contingent negative variation (CNV), a brain-evoked potential related in arousal, as well as in serum triiodothyronine (T3), thyroxine (T4), thyroid-stimulating hormone (TSH), prolactin (PRL), cortisol and growth hormone (GH) levels were recorded in 12 male volunteers receiving either thyrotropin-releasing hormone (TRH) or saline infusion. Only during TRH administration an increase in CNV (P less than 0.02) and, 30 min later, in GH (P less than 0.05) occurred; thyroid hormones and PRL increased as well, in the absence of any correlation with CNV areas. Cortisol was not affected by TRH. As dopamine (DA) agonistic drugs notoriously increase both CNV areas and GH levels and experimental evidence for prodopaminergic properties of TRH has accumulated in animal models, a possible explanation of the results here presented might be the activation of DA pathways by TRH also in the human.

Adult↗
PubMed1987

Cerebrovascular accidents in acute myocardial infarction.

Cerebral ischemia was recorded in 1.9% of 1277 patients with myocardial infarction. In most cases ischemia involved the carotid artery system, usually causing a hemiparesis or hemiplegia. Patients were mostly elderly, and the ischemic episode worsened their prognosis. The pathogenesis was surely often of embolic origin but several facts suggest that other mechanisms were also involved. Anticoagulant therapy, at least in the form in which it was used in these patients, i.e. subcutaneous administration of calcium heparin 5000 I.U. b.i.d. for thrombophlebitis prophylaxis, does not seem to prevent these complications.

Aged↗
PubMed1987

Event-related potentials as a tool in the evaluation of cognitive functions in young subjects through the execution of a simple task.

Event-related potentials (ERPs) were recorded in 20 student volunteers. Three recordings were performed using aural stimuli of 4,000 (rare tones) and 250 Hz. In the target recording subjects were asked to count the rare tones. Endogenous and exogenous components of ERP recordings were analyzed. During the target recording N2 and P3 components were observed at 200 ms and approximately 300 ms, respectively, in addition to N1 (100 ms) and P2 (180 ms). The N2 and P3 waves are indicative of analysis at a higher cognitive level and have been termed the 'response set'. The P3 wave appeared to be stable in all subjects and may represent a useful electrophysiological method to explore mnemonic and cognitive functions in man.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1986

Central pontine myelinolysis: diagnosis by computed tomography, magnetic resonance and evoked potentials.

The intravital diagnosis of central pontine myelinolysis has become possible with the introduction of computed tomography and magnetic resonance into neurological diagnostics. These tools are of special value when neurological signs of a ventral pontine lesion are lacking, as in the case we describe. Auditory evoked potentials likewise confirm their diagnostic value with regard both to the site of the lesion and to its dorsal extent toward the pontine tegmentum.

Demyelinating Diseases↗
PubMed1986

Parkinson disease: electrophysiological (CNV) analysis related to pharmacological treatment.

The contingent negative variation (CNV) was studied in a group of patients with Parkinson's disease. Testing was carried out 3 times: after a pharmacological wash-out period and at 15 and 30 days after the start of treatment with L-DOPA and bromocriptine. Peak and area CNV increased significantly after each treatment. The post-imperative negative variation (PINV) was observed in 6 out of 10 patients. The correlation found between electrophysiological functioning (CNV) measures and pharmacological treatment supports the view that dopaminergic brain activity mediates the generation of the slow negative event-related brain potentials.

Bromocriptine↗
PubMed1985

Pain, anxiety, and contingent negative variation: a clinical and pharmacological study.

Contingent negative variation (CNV) behavior was studied in 16 volunteers who were suffering from spontaneous recurrent pain syndromes (idiopathic trigeminal neuralgia, classic migraine). The subjects were divided into two groups, "more anxious" and "less anxious," based on psychometric tests (MMPI and STAI X2). The CNV recordings were carried out, respectively, in basal resting state, during an episode of pain, while under anxiolytic treatment, and lastly, during an episode of pain while under anxiolytic therapy. CNV voltage decrease and frequent appearance of postimperative negative variation (PINV) were observed when pain was present during the recording session. These phenomena were more marked when the pain was accompanied by a greater degree of anxiety. Finally, our results suggest that this slow evoked potential is sensitive to various degrees of anxiety and to pain perception in man, making it useful in the investigation of pain as a complex sensation.

Adult↗
PubMed1984

Electrophysiological (CNV) analysis of personality traits under stress.

Contingent negative variation (CNV) recordings were performed in 55 healthy volunteers under stress condition (experimentally induced pain). A total of 20 subjects were included in the control group (no painful administration). In the tested group (n = 35) the painful stimulus was delivered before S1, between S2 and S1, and before S2. In the control group there were no changes in CNV parameters. Conversely, among the tested group a positive correlation was found between CNV values (whenever the painful stimulus was administered before S1 as well as before S2) and the highest scores in the State Trait Anxiety Inventory X 2 test. In addition, all individuals displayed the appearance of a positive deflection with a latency of about 300 ms from S2 when the experimental stress was given before S2. Furthermore, the postimperative negative variation (PINV) appeared in 13 out of 35 subjects. There was a strong correlation between the latter electrophysiological phenomenon and the Nowlis test. Our findings suggest that CNV study is useful for the investigation of personality traits in human beings under stress conditions.

Adult↗
PubMedDate not supplied

P300 variations in parkinsonian patients before and during dopaminergic monotherapy: a suggested dopamine component in P300.

P300 was recorded, using an 'odd ball' paradigm, in 18 parkinsonian patients before and during dopaminergic monotherapy. The data were compared with those of a homogeneous standard group of 20 subjects. The main finding was an increase in the P300 latency of parkinsonian patients before therapy, which recovered during dopaminergic monotherapy. In 11 voluntary healthy subjects the same therapy did not produce a reduction of the P300 latency. The data are discussed in relation to a possible dopaminergic component in P300 origin.

Aged↗
PubMedDate not supplied

Estimation of the conduction velocity of sympathetic sudomotor C fibres in healthy subjects: study of sympathetic skin reflex.

The aim of this study was to establish a simple method for estimating the conduction velocity (CV) of post-ganglionic sympathetic sudomotor C fibres (SSFCV) in the upper and lower limbs by simultaneously measuring the sympathetic skin reflex (SSR) in two distant sites. Fifty healthy volunteers were studied. SSRs were recorded with standard surface electrodes applied to both proximal (axilla and crural line) and distal sites for each limb (hand and foot). The CV of the efferent branch of the SSR was calculated by dividing the difference in the latencies of the response from two recording sites by the distance between the sites (axilla-hand for upper limb; crural line-foot for lower limb). Day-to-day reproducibility and intra-individual variability of the SSFCV were calculated. For the upper limbs, the SSFCV in the axilla-hand tract was 2.0+/-0.3 m/sec (range 1.6-2.4 m/sec). For the lower limb, the SSFCV in the crural line-foot tract was 1.4+/-0.4 m/sec (range 1.2-1.6 m/sec). Mean intra-individual variability of the SSFCV for the upper and lower limbs was 0.11 and 0.09, respectively. The coefficient of variation of the SSFCV for the upper and lower limbs was 5.1% and 5.4%, respectively. Our data show that this simple and non-invasive method can reliably be used to measure the CV of the sympathetic sudomotor fibres, in suitable temperature conditions, and may be useful when investigating the physiological functions of peripheral nerves in patients with peripheral neuropathies.

Action Potentials↗
PubMedDate not supplied

[Parkinson disease and cognitive evoked potentials].

The Authors introduce some questions concerning cognitive impairment in Parkinsonian patients and they focus the attention on 'bradyphrenia'. They briefly discuss the methodological difficulties in studying this kind of disturbances in Parkinson's disease (PD) and the approach to this problem with the help of the Event-Related Potentials or ERPs. Finally, they review literature and their data on Contingent Negative Variation (CNV) and P300 in PD and conclude that interesting and useful informations can be obtained by means of the electrophysiological methods.

Cognition Disorders↗
PubMedDate not supplied

Event-related potentials and autonomic functions.

The authors pointed out how some of the anatomic structures involved in the genesis of the event related potentials (ERPs) are also considered parts of the supranuclear regulation apparatus of the autonomic nervous system. Since there are evident functional similarities between some components of the ERPs and the orienting reflex--primitive form of attention--that is clearly associated with an autonomic activation, it could be interesting to evaluate the parameters of the ERPs in those experimental and clinical situations in which there is a functional involvement of the vegetative nervous system.

Autonomic Nervous System↗
PubMedDate not supplied

Endogenous evoked potentials and vigilance levels variations.

The authors consider the possible relationship between the autonomic functions and the contingent Negative Variation (CNV). This relationship has been found both in psychopathological conditions and after the administration of psychotropic drugs. Some preliminary data are reported on the correlations observed between CNV and the autonomic activation (R-R interval) during a sodium lactate infusion.

Arousal↗
PubMedDate not supplied

[Syringomyelia. Clinical and neurophysiologic correlations (SEP) as a function of surgical treatment].

The authors have studied the somatosensory evoked potential (SEP) behavior following stimulation of upper and lower limbs in two subjects affected by syringomyelia. The patients were evaluated electrophysiologically before and after decompressive surgical treatment. The findings indicate a positive correlation between the SEP recordings and the role of CSF pressure in the central nervous system.

Adult↗