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Perseveration in target cancellation tasks and in drawing by copy and from memory was investigated in 21 right-brain-damaged patients, seven with no evidence of left visuo-spatial neglect, and 14 with neglect. Eight such neglect patients showed perseveration in both cancellation and drawing tasks, although no correlation was found with the severity of neglect. Patients with perseveration were not disproportionately impaired in tasks assessing executive (fluency, Stroop colour-word interference, and Weigl's sorting test), and visuo-spatial short-term memory function. In the context of a two-component hypothesis, graphic perseveration (the first component) is a specific disorder that manifests in a variety of tasks, particularly those requiring serial graphic production. Unilateral spatial neglect (the second component) may trigger and facilitate the production of perseveration errors, with a contra-ipsilateral gradient of increasing severity.

Aim: It is important to assess aphasics' quality of life in order to plan a rehabilitation treatment. To date such a tool is still missing for Italian patients. This paper reports normative data of the Italian version of SAQOL-39, a British questionnaire aimed to assess aphasics' quality of life. It consists of 39 items, divided into 4 subdomains (Physical, Communication, Psychosocial and Energy)., Methods: Forty-two patients coming from 3 different Speech Therapy Services were enrolled. All patients completed speech therapy before examination. They were submitted to the Italian SAQOL-39 and 2 screening tests for aphasia: 1) Communication Assessment Scale according Goodglass and Kaplan; 2) Franchay Aphasia Screening Test (FAST). A receptive FAST score of 7 out of 15 was used as a cut-off score for SAQOL-39 administration., Results: The Italian SAQOL-39 showed good internal consistency (full scale Cronbach's alpha 0.939). Cronbach's alpha for every subdomains ranged from 0.950 (Communication) to 0.720 (Energy). Fluent aphasics gave significantly higher scores than nonfluent ones on full scale, and all out of Energy subdomains. Furthermore gravity of aphasia correlated with both full scale and Communication subdomain scores., Conclusions: In authors' opinion, the Italian SAQOL-39 shares many psychometric features with the English one. This questionnaire seems to be suitable for clinical practice.

Aim: In recent times there has been an increasing interest in assessing the quality of life (QOL) in stroke clinical trials. To our knowledge, an Italian tool suitable for this purpose is still missing. So we adapted to Italian language the Stroke and Aphasia Quality of Life Scale-39 (SAQOL-39), that is a British questionnaire recently validated with aphasic subjects. The aim of this paper is to validate our version of SAQOL-39., Methods: To determine the matching of our version, we requested a native English speaker to translate the Italian version into English. Twelve patients (7 male, 5 female; mean age 66.4 years) were submitted to our test. All subjects were interviewed twice by 2 raters, at 24 h of distance. Neither examinator knew results of the other interview. Statistical analysis was performed by determining Cronbach's a and the intraclass correlation coefficient (ICC)., Results: Comparing the original SAQOL-39 to the English translation of our Italian version, we found only a low percentage (10%) of minimal semantic variations. As for test-retest reliability, ICC for global score was 0.898 (ICC(2,39)). ICC range for SAQOL-39 subdomains was 0.816 to 0.969. Cronbach's a for full scale scores was 0.916 (subdomains ranged 0.767 to 0.976). Results seem good as for usefulness, reliability and acceptability of the Italian version of SAQOL-39, like the original version of this test., Conclusions: Our Italian version of SAQOL-39 seems suitable for clinical use. A multicentric study aiming to compare our data to original English ones is in progress.

In a first experiment, 11 neglect patients repeatedly bisected the elongated caricature of a basset hound with head on the right and tail on the left side with respect to the viewer. On the last (critical) trial, in which the figure was left-right reversed, the bisection error towards the ipsilesional side reversed its direction in three patients and significantly decreased in one patient. In a second experiment, 13 different neglect patients had to bisect the elongated caricature of the basset hound with head on the left and tail on the right side. On the last trial, the bisection error reversed its direction in three patients and significantly decreased in three patients. These results suggest that object-centred neglect (OCN) may affect newly established knowledge about the canonical orientation of a non-verbal visual stimulus.

This paper describes a case of Ollier's disease, an uncommon, nonhereditary skeletal disorder affecting enchondral ossification. The patient was referred to our Rehabilitation Unit after resection of scapular chondroma. He had previously been submitted to several surgical treatments for multiple enchondromatosis. Rehabilitation goals were increasing range of motion, relieving pain and training activities of daily living (ADL). After one month treatment, the patient reported pain relief and showed good improvement of articular function and better performances on ADL. According to our experience, it seems that rehabilitation could play a complementary role as regards surgical treatment of this complex pathology.

A patient who developed a unilateral opercular syndrome following a cerebrovascular accident is described. Computed tomography showed that the lesion did not affect the opercular cortex, but involved deep white matter and the head of the caudate nucleus of the left hemisphere. Persistent hypophonia and transient aphasia were associated. Comparison with previous cases is discussed.

The case of an Italian dysgraphic patient (S.E.), who showed a deficit of both written and oral spelling capacities, without significant differences between words and nonwords, is reported. The pattern of the patient's performance was identical on writing to dictation, delayed copying, and written naming. The most common category of errors was single-letter deletions, and errors were predominantly made in medial positions. Stimulus length appeared to be the single factor that most affected performance. This pattern is consistent with the hypothesis that S.E.'s spelling disorder results from selective damage of the Graphemic Buffer. The case is discussed in relation to current functional models of writing and is compared with similar cases reported previously.

Temporary memory disorders following closed head injuries are presented, with special remark on the cases of transient global amnesia (TGA) triggered by head trauma. The relationship with idiopathic forms of TGA is discussed.

A Multivariate Analysis of Covariance and Discriminant Analysis were carried out on complete WAIS profiles obtained from three groups of demented patients: Multi-Infarct Dementia patients, Senile Dementia of Alzheimer Type patients, and Alcoholic Dementia patients. A group of middle-aged Depressed patients was also included. WAIS did not differentiate among dementias, but Picture Completion and Block Design subtests proved to be effective in differentiating dementia from depression.