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Background Patients with Parkinson's disease (PD) suffer from postural disorders. This study aims at investigating the short- and medium-term effects of a shirt with appropriate tie-rods that allows to correct the posture of the trunk. Methods This is a longitudinal clinical study in which a pressure platform was used to assess the static and dynamic baropodometry and the static stabilometry of 20 patients with PD (70.95 ± 8.39 years old; 13 males, time from the onset of symptoms: 6.95 ± 4.04 years, Unified Parkinson's Disease Rating Scale score: UPDRS = 7.25 ± 6.26) without and with a shirt, specifically designed for improving posture, at baseline and after one month of wearing. Results The results showed a significant improvement in symmetry of loads (p = 0.015) and an enlargement of the foot contact surface (p = 0.038). A significant correlation was found between the change in forefoot load and time spent daily in wearing the shirt (R = 0.575, p = 0.008), with an optimal value identified at 8 h per day. Conclusion The use of a postural shirt in patients with PD symmetrized the postural load and enlarged the foot contact surface improving their balance.

Food-protein-induced enterocolitis syndrome (FPIES)was notrecognized as a specific disorder until the 1970s(1). While the European Academy of Allergy and Clinical Immunology (EAACI) Guidelines addressed FPIES in 2014(2),it was only in 2017 that the first international consensus guidelines foritsdiagnosis and treatment werepublished (3). Acute FPIES usually presents with repetitive vomiting, diarrhea associated with pallor, lethargy, dehydration, hypotension and even shock in most severe cases.

Infections represent a serious health problem in neonates. Invasive Candida infections (ICIs) are still a leading cause of mortality and morbidity in neonatal intensive care units (NICUs). Infants hospitalized in NICUs are at high risk of ICIs, because of several risk factors: broad spectrum antibiotic treatments, central catheters and other invasive devices, fungal colonization, and impaired immune responses. In this review we summarize 19 published studies which provide the prevalence of previous surgery in neonates with invasive Candida infections. We also provide an overview of risk factors for ICIs after major surgery, fungal colonization, and innate defense mechanisms against fungi, as well as the roles of different Candida spp., the epidemiology and costs of ICIs, diagnosis of ICIs, and antifungal prophylaxis and treatment.

Introduction: Robot-assisted therapy is an emerging approach that performs highly repetitive, intensive, task oriented and quantifiable neuro-rehabilitation. In the last decades, it has been increasingly used in a wide range of neurological central nervous system conditions implying an upper limb paresis. Results from the studies are controversial, for the many types of robots and their features often not accompanied by specific clinical indications about the target functions, fundamental for the individualized neurorehabilitation program. Areas covered: This article reviews the state of the art and perspectives of robotics in post-stroke rehabilitation for upper limb recovery. Classifications and features of robots have been reported in accordance with technological and clinical contents, together with the definition of determinants specific for each patient, that could modify the efficacy of robotic treatments. The possibility of combining robotic intervention with other therapies has also been discussed. Expert commentary: The recent wide diffusion of robots in neurorehabilitation has generated a confusion due to the commingling of technical and clinical aspects not previously clarified. Our critical review provides a possible hypothesis about how to match a robot with subject’s upper limb functional abilities, but also highlights the need of organizing a clinical consensus conference about the robotic therapy.

Influenza vaccine is considered the most effective way to prevent influenza. Nonetheless, every year vaccine coverage is lower than recommended in the pediatric population. Many factors are supposed to contribute to this phenomenon such as the uncertainty about the indication for vaccination, and the suboptimal vaccine-effectiveness in pediatric age, especially in the youngest children. In this review we discuss the effectiveness, indications, and limits of influenza vaccination in the pediatric population based on the most recent evidences.

The quantitative analysis of human movement provides a deep understanding of the pathophysiological mechanisms underlying locomotion. The traditional marker-based stereo-photogrammetric systems and clinical protocols for motion analysis, although very accurate, have a number of disadvantages that limit their use to large clinical facilities. Among the disadvantages is the use of markers on the body, which can make the patient uneasy, especially children with cerebral palsy. To overcome the limitations of the marker-based stereophotogrammetry and to guarantee accuracy, reproducibility and usability of the measurement, a new markerless protocol is introduced, which, estimates the lower limb sagittal joint kinematics from RGB video images combined with measurements from an infrared depth (D) sensor. The validity of the markerless protocol is demonstrated by comparing the estimates obtained, with those resulting from the application of a common protocol applied to marker-based measurements. The joint kinematics patterns obtained from the ML protocol and the one of reference showed a good agreement after removing the angular offsets with RMSD values between 3.5 and 5 degrees for all joints and R values between 0.8 and 1. The interpretation of the differences found in this study should be treated carefully since they are the results not only of different measurement systems but also of different protocols (2D vs 3D). The proposed protocol for the estimation of the 2D joint kinematics of the lower limbs from RGB-D sensor data is a promising low-cost and simple solution for monitoring children with cerebral palsy.

The syndrome of immune dysregulation, polyendocrinopathy, enteropathy, X linked (IPEX) is a rare disorder caused by mutations in the FOXP3 gene. Diarrhea, diabetes and dermatitis are the hallmark of the disease, with a typical onset within the first months of life. We describe the case of a twelve-year old male affected by a very late-onset IPEX with intractable enteropathy, which markedly improved after starting Sirolimus as second-line treatment. This case suggests that IPEX should always be considered in the differential diagnosis of watery intractable diarrhea, despite its unusual onset.