Validation of the Italian version of the Multiple Sclerosis Intimacy and Sexuality Questionnaire-19.

BACKGROUND: People with multiple sclerosis (MS) may experience sexual dysfunction throughout the disease course. Validated scales to assess sexual dysfunction in MS for Italian patients are lacking. Hence, we aimed at validating Multiple Sclerosis Intimacy and Sexuality Questionnaire (MSISQ-19) for Italian MS patients. METHODS: We included both male and female MS patients. Each patient completed the Italian translation of the MSISQ-19. Construct validity was explored by the exploratory factor analysis and the Cronbach's alpha coefficient. Test-retest stability and concurrent internal and external validity were examined by Pearson' correlation coefficients. RESULTS: We enrolled 369 MS patients (323 female and 46 male). Italian MSISQ-19 showed a Cronbach's alpha of 0.92. MSISQ-19 test and retest total scores correlated between each other (r = 0.48, p = 0.01). MSISQ-19 total score also correlated with primary, secondary and tertiary subscales (p < 0.001). CONCLUSION: The Italian Version of the MSISQ-19 showed satisfactory internal consistency and reliability with moderately adequate test-retest reproducibility, suggesting that it may be used as a valuable measure of sexual dysfunction in the Italian population.

Placenta Accreta Spectrum Disorders: How to reduce maternal transfusion? A center experience on extraperitoneal retrograde hysterectomy.

OBJECTIVE: Placenta Accreta Spectrum disorders (PASd) refer to the range of pathologic adherence of placenta associated with high maternal morbidity and mortality due to severe and sometimes life-threatening hemorrhage at the time of delivery. The aim of this study is to describe the surgical technique of extraperitoneal retrograde hysterectomy, which has allowed a reduction of blood transfusions compared to patients who underwent classical post-partum hysterectomy. STUDY DESIGN: We collected data from twelve patients with antenatal diagnosis of PASd treated between 2018 and 2021 with an extra-peritoneal hysterectomy using a posterior retrograde approach and we compared them to patients who underwent classical hysterectomy for suspected PASd, treated between 2007 and 2017. RESULTS: The classical hysterectomy group presented a higher frequency of blood and plasma transfusion compared to the extraperitoneal hysterectomy group. In particular, classical hysterectomy resulted in an independent risk factor for transfusion, with an increment of 6.6 times of risk. CONCLUSION: Even if future studies are required, we think that extraperitoneal hysterectomy could be a safe option in case of PASd, considering that classical hysterectomy compared to this approach increases, in our population, the risk of blood and plasma transfusion.

Use of Sotrovimab in a cohort of pregnant women with a high risk of COVID 19 progression: a single-center experience.

Neutralizing monoclonal antibodies (mAbs) have been shown to reduce disease progression in patients with underlying predisposing conditions. Unfortunately, there is no evidence on the use of Sotrovimab in pregnant women. Herein we present a case series of pregnant women who received mAbs with Sotrovimab following the Italian Drug Agency (AIFA) indications. Since February 1, 2022 all pregnant women - regardless of gestational age - admitted to Obstetrics & Gynaecology of Policlinico University of Bari, with positive nasopharyngeal NAAT for SARS-CoV-2 were screened according to the AIFA indications for Sotrovimab and, if eligible, were proposed for treatment. Data on COVID-19, pregnancy, delivery, newborn outcomes, and adverse events were collected. From February 1 to May 15, 2022, 58 pregnant women were screened. Fifty (86%) patients were eligible, 19 of them (32.7%) denied their consent, in 18 cases (31%), the drug was temporarily unavailable, and the remaining 13 (22%) were treated with Sotrovimab. Out of these 13 patients, 6 (46%) were in the 3rd and 7 (54%) in the 2nd trimester of pregnancy. None of the 13 patients experienced adverse reactions due to Sotrovimab and all had a good clinical outcome. Furthermore, evaluating pre- and post-infusion clinical status and hematochemical profile, a reduction in D-dimers and an increase in SARS-CoV-2 antibodies (p < 0.01) during the 72 h following the infusion were observed. Our data, the first on the use of Sotrovimab in pregnant women, showed the safety and efficacy drug profile and its potential crucial role in preventing COVID-19 disease progression.

Cognitive fatigability is a quantifiable distinct phenomenon in multiple sclerosis.

Cognitive fatigability in multiple sclerosis represents the decrease in cognitive performance over time. It is a frequent symptom that negatively affects quality of life and ability to work. There are no objective measures of cognitive fatigability. This study aimed at quantifying cognitive fatigability despite the learning effect and to clarify whether cognitive fatigability represents a free-standing phenomenon rather than an aspect of cognitive impairment. We measured information processing speed with the Symbol Digit Modalities Test, and the number of right answers was recorded every 30 s for 180 s. We approximated the number of right answers as function of time with two logarithmic models, one including a first-order term alone and the other adding also a second-order term. The coefficient of the latter (B) may quantify performance deflection and may represent cognitive fatigability. We tested 173 patients with multiple sclerosis, including 119 cognitively impaired and 54 cognitively preserved patients, and 35 healthy subjects. The performance of cognitively preserved patients showed a deflection at the end of task that was detected neither in controls nor in cognitively impaired patients and needed a second-order term to be approximated (p < .03, F = 14.02). B was explained neither by depression nor fatigue. We proposed for the first time a method to quantify cognitive fatigue via a second-order least square fit model, easily usable in the clinical practice. By using this novel approach, cognitive fatigability results to be a free-standing phenomenon that is more evident in cognitively preserved than in cognitive impaired patients.

Effect of dalfampridine on information processing speed impairment in multiple sclerosis.

OBJECTIVE: To test a possible benefit of dalfampridine on information processing speed (IPS), a key function for cognitive impairment (CogIm) in multiple sclerosis (MS). METHODS: In this randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial, we included patients with a score on the Symbol Digit Modalities Test (SDMT) under the 10th percentile of the reference value. Patients were randomized in a 2:1 ratio to receive dalfampridine 10 mg or placebo twice daily for 12 weeks. They underwent a comprehensive neuropsychological evaluation at screening (T0), at the end of treatment (T1), and after a 4-week follow-up (T2). The primary endpoint was improvement in SDMT. RESULTS: Out of 208 patients screened, 120 were randomized to receive either dalfampridine (n = 80) or placebo (n = 40). At T1, the dalfampridine group presented an increase of SDMT scores vs placebo group (mean change 9.9 [95% confidence interval (CI) 8.5-11.4] vs 5.2 [95% CI 2.8-7.6], p = 0.0018; d = 0.60 for raw score; and 0.8 [95% CI 0.6-1] vs 0.3 [95% CI 0.0-0.5], p = 0.0013; d = 0.61 for z scores; by linear mixed model with robust standard error). The improvement was not sustained at T2. A beneficial effect of dalfampridine was observed in the Paced Auditory Serial Addition Test and in cognitive fatigue. CONCLUSION: Dalfampridine could be considered as an effective treatment option for IPS impairment in MS. TRIAL REGISTRATION: 2013-002558-64 EU Clinical Trials Register. CLASSIFICATION OF EVIDENCE: This study provides Class I evidence that for patients with MS with low scores on the SDMT, dalfampridine improves IPS.

Task-dependent deterioration of balance underpinning cognitive-postural interference in MS.

OBJECTIVE: To investigate which concurrent cognitive task (if any) had the most detrimental effect on balance control of patients with multiple sclerosis (MS). METHODS: In a dual-task experiment, we evaluated the reciprocal effect of simultaneously performing a postural and a cognitive task on balance and cognition in 52 patients and 26 sex- and age-matched controls. Balance was assessed by static posturography, while cognition was scored as number of correct items at 3 different neuropsychological tests, i.e., the Symbol Digit Modalities Test (SDMT), word list generation (WLG), and Stroop Color-Word Test (SCWT). RESULTS: In both single and dual-task conditions, the patients had larger postural sway and worse scores at SDMT, WLG, and SCWT than the controls (p < 0.05). Test-retest reliability was excellent for all dual-task metrics (85%-94%). By means of 2-way analyses of the variance, we found significant main effects of dual task on balance, regardless of the concurrent cognitive task (p < 0.001). There was no main effect of dual task on cognitive performance across all the 3 task conditions (p ≥ 0.1). We observed a significant condition-by-group interaction effect on balance only when the SCWT was administered as concurrent task (p = 0.01), indicating a greater dual-task cost of balance for the patients than controls (53% vs 28%, p = 0.04). CONCLUSIONS: We suggest that tasks exploring executive functions involved in discriminating conflicting stimuli may be the most suitable to unmask the cognitive-postural interference phenomenon in patients with MS. This may support the hypothesis that MS-related damage constrains brain networks to subserve both postural control and executive functions.

"The Memory of Beauty" Survives Alzheimer's Disease (but Cannot Help Memory).

The aesthetic experience, in particular the experience of beauty in the visual arts, should have neural correlates in the human brain. Neuroesthetics is principally implemented by functional studies in normal subjects, but the neuropsychology of the aesthetic experience, that is, the impact of brain damage on the appreciation of works of art, is a neglected field. Here, 16 mild to moderate Alzheimer's disease patients and 15 caregivers expressed their preference on 16 works of art (eight representational and eight abstract) during programmed visits to an art gallery. A week later, all subjects expressed a preference rate on reproductions of the same works presented in the gallery. Both patients and caregivers were consistent in assigning preference ratings, and in patients consistency was independent of the ability to recognize the works on which the preference rate had been given in an explicit memory task. Caregivers performed at ceiling in the memory task. Both patients and caregivers assigned higher preference ratings for representational than for abstract works and preference consistency was comparable in representational and abstract works. Furthermore, in the memory task, patients did not recognize better artworks they had assigned higher preference ratings to, suggesting that emotional stimuli (as presumably visual works of art are) cannot enhance declarative memory in this pathology. Our data, which were gathered in an ecological context and with real-world stimuli, confirm previous findings on the stability of aesthetic preference in patients with Alzheimer's disease and on the independence of aesthetic preference from cognitive abilities such as memory.