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Background: Chronic airway diseases are prevalent and costly conditions. Interdisciplinary rehabilitation programs that include Acceptance and Commitment-based (ACT) components could be important to tackle the vicious circle linking progression of the disease, inactivity, and psychopathological symptoms. Methods: A retrospective evaluation of routinely collected data of an interdisciplinary rehabilitation program was performed. The program included group sessions including patient education, breathing exercise, occupational therapy and an ACT-based psychological treatment, and individual sessions of physical therapy. Demographic data, clinical characteristics of the patients and the values of outcome variables (health status, quality of life, anxiety, and depression) before treatment, at discharge, at 3 months, and at 6 months were extracted from medical records. Multiple imputation was employed to address missing data. Linear mixed models were employed to assess changes over time. Multivariable logistic regression was performed to assess predictors of a minimum clinically important change of health status from baseline to the 6-months follow-up. Results: Data from 31 patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) and 12 patients with bronchiectasis were extracted. Health status improved from baseline to discharge to the 3 months follow-up, but not to the 6 months follow-up. Anxiety and depression improved across all the time points. Quality of life did not improve over time. Having a worse health status at baseline and fewer depressive symptoms were significantly associated with achieving a minimum clinically important change of health status at 6 months. The effects of the interdisciplinary program were not different for patients with COPD or with bronchiectasis. Discussion: Interdisciplinary programs including ACT-based components are promising treatments for the rehabilitation of patients with chronic airway diseases. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The precise delineation of brain cancer is a crucial task during surgery. There are several techniques employed during surgical procedures to guide neurosurgeons in the tumor resection. However, hyperspectral imaging (HSI) is a promising non-invasive and non-ionizing imaging technique that could improve and complement the currently used methods. The HypErspectraL Imaging Cancer Detection (HELICoiD) European project has addressed the development of a methodology for tumor tissue detection and delineation exploiting HSI techniques. In this approach, the K-means algorithm emerged in the delimitation of tumor borders, which is of crucial importance. The main drawback is the computational complexity of this algorithm. This paper describes the development of the K-means clustering algorithm on different parallel architectures, in order to provide real-time processing during surgical procedures. This algorithm will generate an unsupervised segmentation map that, combined with a supervised classification map, will offer guidance to the neurosurgeon during the tumor resection task. We present parallel K-means clustering based on OpenMP, CUDA and OpenCL paradigms. These algorithms have been validated through an in-vivo hyperspectral human brain image database. Experimental results show that the CUDA version can achieve a speed-up of ~ 150 × with respect to a sequential processing. The remarkable result obtained in this paper makes possible the development of a real-time classification system. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Electroencephalography (EEG) is pivotal in the clinical assessment of epilepsy, and sleep is known to improve the diagnostic yield of its recording. Sleep-EEG recording is generally reached by either partial deprivation or by administration of sleep-inducing agents, although it is still not achieved in a considerable percentage of patients. We conducted a double-blind placebo-controlled study, involving a hundred patients between 1 and 6 years old, randomized into two groups: Group 1 received liposomal melatonin (melatosome) whereas Group 2 received a placebo. Sleep latency (SL), defined as the time span between the onset of a well-established posterior dominant rhythm, considered as a frequency of 3 to 4 Hz, increasing to 4-5 Hz by the age of 6 months, to 5-7 Hz by 12 months, and finally to 8 Hz by 3 years, and the first EEG sleep figures detected, were measured for each patient. A significant difference in SL was observed (10.8 ± 5 vs. 18.1 ± 13.4 min, p -value = 0.002). Within each group, no differences in sleep latency were detected between genders. Furthermore, no difference in EEG abnormality detection was observed between the two groups. Our study confirmed the efficacy and safety of melatonin administration in sleep induction. Nonetheless, liposomal melatonin presents a greater bioavailability, ensuring a faster effect and allowing lower dosages. Such results, never before reported in the literature, suggest that the routine employment of melatonin might improve clinical practice in neurophysiology, reducing unsuccessful recordings.

Objective: To determine whether neurophysiologic findings correlate to clinical respiratory signs or spirometric abnormalities in patients with hereditary motor and sensory neuropathy type 1 (Charcot-Marie-Tooth disease)., Design: A total of 11 patients with hereditary motor and sensory neuropathy type 1A, genetically identified, (age range, 10-58 yr) were included and studied by physical pulmonary examination, chest radiography, respiratory function tests, and bilateral transcutaneous phrenic nerve conduction., Results: No patient complained of respiratory symptoms or revealed abnormal spirometric or maximal respiratory pressure data, despite a phrenic nerve conduction significantly slower (P < 0.0001; median conduction time, 18.6 msec; 95th percentile, 31.97 msec) than that recorded in the control group of healthy subjects (median, 6.05 msec; 95th percentile, 8.82 msec); the amplitudes of compound muscle action potentials were not statistically different from the controls., Conclusions: Our study confirms a dramatic phrenic nerve involvement in absence of clinical and laboratory evidence of diaphragmatic weakness; further studies and an adequate follow-up are necessary to discover whether the disease progress might encompass respiratory dysfunction at later stages.