The Rao's Brief Repeatable Battery version B: normative values with age, education and gender corrections in an Italian population.

The Brief Repeatable Battery (BRB) of Neuropsychological Tests is one of the most widely used instruments to assess cognitive functioning in multiple sclerosis patients. However, to date, normative data for the Italian population are available only for the version A, which limits the use of the battery in longitudinal evaluations. We administered the BRB version B to 132 healthy subjects to obtain normative values taking into account the influences of demographic factors on the test scores and calculating corrections for these relevant factors (age, gender and education). Higher age and educational level were associated with better performance on all the tests. The World List Generation was also influenced by gender, since women performed better than men. Moreover, some tests of the version B seem to be easier than those of version A. Our data can improve the applicability of the BRB for both clinical and research purposes in longitudinal assessments.

[Organization of colon-rectal cancer screening in the Provincial Health Agency of Ragusa]. / L'organizzazione dello screening dei tumori del colon retto nell'Azienda Sanitaria Provinciale di Ragusa.

Cancer screening is a secondary prevention program that permits early diagnosis of neoplasias and precancerous lesions are in order to diminish mortality and morbidity for certain types of tumors (breast, colon-rectal, and cervical). In 2010, the Ragusa Provincial Health Agency began screening for colon-rectal cancer in an experimental phase that initially involved only the municipality of Ragusa but that was then extended to other municipalities of the province. Although the organizing model suffered from many managerial problems including lack of human resources and tools, there was good collaboration and involvement of the public health/hygiene offices and the general practitioners and volunteer associations. This type of networking was useful in that adhesion to screening was well above that expected. Another winning aspect of the project resulted in clear and pertinent communication to the population.

Quality of life, depression and fatigue in mildly disabled patients with relapsing-remitting multiple sclerosis receiving subcutaneous interferon beta-1a: 3-year results from the COGIMUS (COGnitive Impairment in MUltiple Sclerosis) study.

BACKGROUND: The precise relationships among quality of life, depression, fatigue and cognitive impairment in multiple sclerosis (MS) are complex and poorly understood. OBJECTIVE: To assess the effects of subcutaneous interferon beta-1a on quality of life, depression and fatigue over 3 years in the COGIMUS study, and to examine the relationship between these outcomes and baseline cognitive status. METHODS: COGIMUS was an observational 3-year trial assessing cognitive function in 459 patients with relapsing-remitting MS treated with subcutaneous interferon beta-1a. RESULTS: In total, 331 patients completed the study (168 received interferon beta-1a, 44 µg subcutaneously three times weekly, and 163 received interferon beta-1a, 22 µg subcutaneously three times weekly). Mean MS Quality of Life-54 (MSQoL-54) composite scores did not change over time. There were no significant differences between groups in MSQoL-54 composite scores when patients were grouped by treatment dose and baseline cognitive status. Mean (standard deviation) Hamilton Depression Rating Scale score decreased from 6.8 (4.9) at baseline to 5.8 (5.9) at year 3. Mean total Fatigue Impact Scale scores were low (<30) at all time points. CONCLUSION: Quality of life, depression and fatigue remained largely stable over 3 years; no effects of treatment dose or baseline cognitive status were found.

Can expectancy influence hemispheric asymmetries?

We carried out three experiments with the aim of verifying a critical assumption of Kinsbourne's (Acta Psychol., 33 (1970), 193-201; Attention and Performance V, London: Academic press, (1975), pp. 81-96) 'dynamic' attentional hypothesis of hemispheric asymmetries, namely, that asymmetries arise only when subjects know in advance what type of stimulus and/or cognitive mode they are about to be engaged with. We used a paradigm modified from Posner (J. Exp. Psychol., 109 (1980), 160-174) to study the effects of non-spatial 'cognitive' cueing on hemispheric asymmetries using a lexical decision and a visuo-spatial discrimination task (acute vs. obtuse angles). While we did not find significant overall hemispheric asymmetries with the spatial material, we found a consistent advantage of the left hemisphere in the lexical decision task. In Experiment 2 where the cue was presented in central vision and only the stimuli were lateralised and in Experiment 3 where both cue and stimuli were lateralised to the same hemisphere, the left hemisphere advantage did not interact with the effect of cueing. In contrast, in Experiment 4, where only the cue was lateralised and the stimuli were centrally presented, the left hemisphere advantage in the lexical decision task emerged only following invalid cueing. While the results of Experiments 2 and 3 are not in keeping with Kinsbourne's hypothesis, the result of Experiment 4 shows that some pre-exposural mechanisms may indeed affect the emergence of hemispheric asymmetries. A differential susceptibility in 'disengaging' from the processing mode induced by an invalid cue might represent another interesting example of hemispheric difference.