A digital teleneuropsychology platform for the diagnosis of mild cognitive impairment: from concept to certification as a medical device.

BACKGROUND: Innovative digital solutions are shaping a new concept of dementia care, opening additional venues for prevention, diagnosis, monitoring and treatment. Hereby, we report the development of a tablet-based teleneuropsychology platform (Tenèpsia®), from concept to certification as Medical Device (MD) Class IIA, as per new MD regulation 745/2017. METHODS: The platform was designed for the remote cognitive evaluation and created thanks to the effort of a collaborative working group including experts from three Italian scientific societies and Biogen Italia S.r.l. (hereafter "Biogen"), and developers from Xenia Reply and Inside AI. The development strategy was guided by converting traditional paper-and-pencil tests into digital versions while maintaining comparable neuropsychological features and optimizing patient accessibility and user experience. The experts focused on the choice and adaptation of traditional neuropsychology measures for a 45-min teleneuropsychology assessment. RESULTS: The developers created a web and a mobile interface, respectively, for the professional (neuropsychologist) and non-professional (patient and caregiver) use. Recording of voice, drawing and typing information was enabled. Instant dashboards provide a quick overview of the patient's condition. Simulation activities were performed to obtain MD certification, valid across Europe. CONCLUSION: Neuropsychology services will benefit from the implementation in clinics of harmonized digital tools with adequate scientific and technological standards. The use of digital cognitive testing for the diagnosis of mild cognitive impairment is expected to enhance patient and clinician outcomes through simplified, digital objective data collection, sparing of time and resources, with a positive impact on healthcare costs and access to treatments, reducing inequalities and delays in diagnosis and cure.

Diagnosis and management of nail pigmentations.

Longitudinal pigmentation of the nail is very common. The differential diagnosis varies from subungual hematoma, to a fungal infection, to a melanocytic lesion (lentigo, nevus melanoma, etc.) to others. Often, dermatologists do not feel at ease with these pathologies and management is often not clear. In many cases, a biopsy is not helpful because an inadequate technique was chosen. The use of noninvasive techniques such as dermoscopy has been described to be useful for the preoperative evaluation and the management decision. Using these technique, one will be able to reduce the number of unnecessary surgeries and to choose the most adequate biopsy technique. In this article, we will review the management, including diagnosis as well as differential diagnosis of nail pigmentations and propose a new algorithm for the non invasive diagnosis of nail pigmentation.

Case of skin necrosis due to arginine monohydrochloride extravasation.

A 10-month-old child presented with an ulcerated lesion on his right arm. The lesion was caused by arginine monohydrochloride extravasation during growth hormone testing, performed 2 months before. On physical examination, there was a 3 cm x 4 cm oval sore, with a thick fibrous base and turgid, violaceous, raised edges on the dorsal aspect of the child's right hand and wrist. Conservative management with local medications led to complete resolution within 2 months.

[Merkel cell carcinoma: a report of two cases]. / Carcinoma a cellule di due osservazioni.

The Authors report two cases of Merkel cell carcinoma and describe their diagnostic and therapeutic difficulties in the management of these tumours. The main therapeutic problem consists in establishing the size of the excision margins in relation to the neoplastic aggressiveness. The first case was characterised by major lymphophilia and by a tendency to relapse. Radical excision was achieved by low invasive surgery using a radioguided technique to search for microscopic disease. The radioguided technique takes the place of the intra-operative anatomo-pathological examination. After adjuvant ra- diotherapy and chemotherapy the patienthas remained in remission for three years. The second case is characterized by a rapid haematic diffusion with metastasis and exitus after one year. Radiotherapy and chemotherapy were ineffective. In this case surgery was limited to a bioptic approach since extirpative surgery would have been inappropriate. Our experience shows the wide biological variability of Merkel cell carcinoma and the importance of eclectic treatment to avoid ineffective extirpative surgery.

Halo nevus, rather than vitiligo, is a typical dermatologic finding of turner's syndrome: clinical, genetic, and immunogenetic study in 72 patients.

Turner's syndrome (TS) is a genetic disorder caused by numeric and/or structural abnormalities of the X chromosome; it is characterized by short stature, gonadal dysgenesis, and frequently by webbed neck, cubitus valgus, and lymphedema at birth. TS has been associated with several cutaneous abnormalities including an increased frequency of pigmented nevi, but few reports consider nevi in detail. Halo nevus (HN) is clinically defined as a melanocytic nevus surrounded by a halo of depigmentation. Vitiligo, a dermatologic disorder characterized by the presence of depigmented patches on the skin, has been described in the list of cutaneous findings associated with TS. The aim of this study was to determine the prevalence of HN and vitiligo in TS and to evaluate if a correlation between major histocompatibility complex genes, karyotype, autoimmunity, therapies, and the presence of HN exists. Of the 72 patients with TS examined, 13 had HN, a prevalence of 18.05%, which was significantly higher than in our control group (1%; P=.000001). On the contrary, only 2 patients with TS (2.77%, P=not significant) had vitiligo. By comparing the distribution of HLA class I alleles between patients with TS who did (13 of 72) and did not (59 of 72) have HN, we observed a significantly higher frequency of HLA-Cw6 in patients with TS and HN than in those without HN (26.92% vs 6.78%, respectively; P=.0067; odds ratio=5.06). The study of HLA class II genomic polymorphisms showed that the DRB1(*)0701 and DQB1*02 alleles for patients with TS and HN were overrepresented when compared with those without HN (34.61% vs 11.86%, respectively, P=.0078, odds ratio=3.93; and 34.61% vs 19.49%, respectively, P=.1386, odds ratio=2.19). In conclusion, this study is the first to demonstrate an increased prevalence of HN for patients with TS. Furthermore, the data suggest that a HN putative susceptibility gene in TS is located close to the HLA-C locus.