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Early post-stroke prognosis is important for guiding treatment and rehabilitation strategies in order to improve recovery and minimize disability. Several demographic, clinical and neuroimaging factors were associated with functional outcome. Early prediction of post-stroke outcome is still challenging since there is large inter-subject variability. Thus, biomarkers that can add prognostic information are still needed. This pilot study aimed to investigate the correlation between early stroke-related EEG changes, measured on bedside with wireless EEG device and short-term functional outcome, measured with 7-day National Institutes of Health Stroke Scale (NIHSS), in thrombolysis treated ischemic stroke patients. Delta/alpha power ratio (ρ=0.67, p=0.031) and relative delta power (ρ=0.66, p=0.037) correlated directly with 7-day NIHSS, while relative alpha power (ρ =-0.69, p=0.028) correlated inversely with 7-day NIHSS. In conclusion, in this preliminary study we assessed the correlation between EEG spectral parameters obtained in the pre-treatment hyper-acute phase and short-term functional outcome. These preliminary results highlight the value of hyper-acute EEG as a possible complementary tool in the evaluation of stroke severity and its potential role in the prediction of stroke-related outcome.

Handwriting is a human activity that may be affected by the modality used as input of the information to be written, mainly copying or dictation. Many processes at different levels are involved to produce motor planning and graphomotor automation of handwriting. In order to quantify possible kinematic differences due to the influence of auditory or visual input modalities to these processes, three different tests were proposed to a sample of 101 young students and several kinematics parameters measuring handwriting characteristics were evaluated. The tests required to copy as accurate (CA) and as fast (CF) as possible an Italian sentence and to write the same sentence under dictation (DF). All parameters showed significant differences between each pair of the three tests. The best performance was obtained in the CF test followed by the DF and CA tests; in the latter the greater accuracy required to produce writing yielded lower velocity and automation as well as a longer motor planning time. On the other hand, the dictation response was more similar to that of CF than CA showing a larger planning time, probably due to a different time necessary to correctly identify the words to reproduce. The combination of the two tests could be useful to study the impairment of either visual or auditory input.

The purpose of this study was to evaluate the differences in the circadian variations of blood pressure (BP) and heart rate (HR) among three subject groups (hypertensive, normal/high normal and optimal blood pressure). The ambulatory BP and HR of 385 subjects, without clinical evidence of hypertension-related complications, were acquired using a Holter Blood Pressure Monitor and their circadian patterns were analyzed. Systolic, Diastolic and Mean BP showed four different well-defined trends in specific time intervals of the day, similar for the three BP measures and among the three subject groups. Both BP and HR signals presented a decrease between 10:00 and 14:30 and from 19:00 to 2:00 and an increase from 5:00 to 10:00. Between 14:30 and 19:00, BP and HR presented an opposite relationship with decreasing HR and increasing BP, not yet reported in the literature. The behaviors of BP and HR were well approximated in each of the four periods by linear trends in all the three subject groups. On the contrary, in the period between 2:00 and 5:00 both BP and HR showed a quite constant trend. Results support the hypothesis of an independent vagal control during 24-h in respect of HR and BP mean levels, the latter depending on the specific subject group. Moreover, linear approximation in the identified four intervals could be used to quantify the circadian changes for all kind of subjects.

Graphomotor skills development can be studied in different way; recently the use of digital tablets allowed a more accurate system for examining kinematic characteristics of writing movement. Although the importance of study of pre-writing skills is known, in the literature the investigations are limited to the first years of primary school. The aim of this study is the evaluation of the evolution of graphomotor skills with schooling. In order to achieve this goal, the drawing of sequence of simple shapes as well as of continuous shapes produced by 257 children from 1st to 8th grade were acquired by using a digital tablet and a series of kinematic parameters (like horizontal, vertical and curvilinear velocities, number of strokes/cm, pen lift duration, etc.) was extracted from the handwriting. Results showed dependence of the performance on the specific test used (small improvements corresponding to greater complexity) with a general increase in velocity and reduction in stroke number per cm, caused by a less fragmentation of trace and greater automation of the movement with schooling. The kinematic analysis of pre-writing patterns allows an early stimation of preschool drawing abilities and the monitoring of handwriting skills evolution with schooling.

Different studies concerning gender differences in motor performance of handwriting movements have been carried out in an age range up to 17 years. In this preliminary study, we investigated the influence of gender on handwriting in a sample of young subjects (21-28 years old) in order to examine the possible differences in handwriting process due to gender in this specific age range. The relationship between gender and some kinematic aspects of handwriting was studied by analyzing the script of 84 (42 females and 42 males) university students, randomly recruited at University of Trieste that performed a copying task acquired by a digital tablet and analyzed by a suitable proprietary software. Significant differences between genders were observed in the number of strokes/s and strokes/cm, in the stroke length and duration as well as in the horizontal peak velocity of strokes and pen lift duration. The differences support the hypothesis that females, in this specific age range, write in a less fragmented way, with higher velocity and shorter motor planning time that male peers. In conclusion, although the limited number of candidates, the study confirms that many kinematic parameters can be profitably used to quantify objectively differences between genders in handwriting process

Bone tissue damages can derive from diseases such as osteogenesis imperfecta, osteoarthritis, osteomyelitis, and osteoporosis, or from traumatic injury, orthopaedic surgeries and primary tumour resection (Porter et al. 2009 Biotechnol Progress). In particular, non-critical bone defects and voids represent a hot spot for mechanical stresses that can cause fractures, thus it is necessary to accelerate their healing (Jawad et al. 2013 J Orthop Res). Moreover, spinal fusion, maxillary sinus floor elevation, guided bone regeneration, represent other clinical cases in which it is necessary to provide substitutes for bone tissue regeneration. (Mardas et al. 2010 Clin Oral Impl Res) The use of synthetic bone substitutes reduces surgical procedures and the risk of infection or immunogenicity, and decreases the risk of disease transmission (Mottaghitalab et al 2015 J Control Rel; Porter et al. 2009 Biotechnol Progress). Moreover, synthetic scaffolds can be loaded with bioactive molecules or cells before implantation. Polysaccharides offer the opportunity to prepare biocompatible bone substitutes with specific morphological and biological characteristics, such as high interconnectivity and enhanced cell adhesion, which could mimic properly the bone tissue and support and enhance bone healing (Woodruff et al. 2010 Prog Polym Sci; Ward et al. 2010 Oral Dis) In this work, tridimensional scaffolds based on alginate, hydroxyapatite (HAp) and derivatives of chitosan were prepared and characterized. The scaffolds were obtained through freeze casting of alginate/HAp hydrogels. Morphological characterization, obtained by means of micro-computed tomography, revealed that scaffold porosity and interconnectivity are compatible with the requirements for the bone tissue regeneration (Turco et al. 2009 Biomacromolecules). Moreover, the physical-chemical stability displayed by the scaffolds makes them suitable for supporting cell adhesion, colonization and growth. Another important aspect hereby taken in account was the introduction of the chitosan derivatives that showed bioactive properties such as increased osteoblasts proliferation and ALP activity, and increased bone-implant contact in the case of thermosets functionalized with this polysaccharide (Marsich et al. 2013 Acta Biomater). The scaffolds presented in this work were successfully used for the growth and the differentiation of human derived dentin pulp stem cells (hDPSCs). Flow cyotofluorimetry proved that hDPSCs harvested in our laboratory can be maintained in culture with an undifferentiated phenotype and that can be differentiated in osteoblasts under proper stimuli, as demonstrated by enzymatic and biochemical assays. Overall, the combination of hDPSCs and polysaccharide based bioactive scaffolds, represents an effective strategy for the preparation of osteoconductive and osteoinductive cell-loaded biomaterials for the treatment of bone defects and for the clinical practice in oral surgery.

Tremor is considered one of the most common disturbances of movement especially in Parkinson’s disease (PD). To date there is not a unique methodology, test or parameter for the measurement of tremor. The objective of this study was to identify a set of tests and of kinematic parameters differentiating the writing of a PD subject from a normal, exploiting the tremor. To this aim, the writing movements of 22 PD patients and of 17 control subjects were analyzed. Each subject was asked to perform three tests: five horizontal straight lines (HSL), Archimedes’ Spiral (AS) and overlapping circles (C). The results showed that significant differences between subjects with Parkinson's disease and controls are recognizable, in all tests, especially in AS and C tests, requiring greater attention and coordination to perform a fast movement within a delimited space. Furthermore, some kinematic parameters measuring curvilinear velocity (on the whole trace as well as within a stroke) and trace fragmentation (stroke length and duration and #stroke/cm) were capable of differentiating significantly the two groups. In conclusion, kinematic analysis can be successfully used in the study of tremors and combined with suitable curvilinear tests can differentiate PD patients from normal subjects.