Annibale Antonioni

University of Ferrara | UNIFE · Department of Morphology, Surgery and Experimental Medicine

Objective As highlighted by the COVID-19 pandemic, identifying strategies for home-based patient management is crucial. As pain is highly prevalent and imposes significant burdens, interest in its remote management is steadily increasing. Transcranial Direct Current Stimulation (tDCS) seems promising in this context. Methods This systematic review...

Background: After stroke, patients must learn to use residual motor function correctly. Consistently, motor learning is crucial in stroke motor recovery. We assessed motor performance, practice-dependent on-line motor learning, and factors potentially affecting them in stroke patients. Methods: This is a cross-sectional observational study. Twenty-...

Mirror neurons show activity during both the execution (AE) and observation of actions (AO). The Mirror Neuron System (MNS) could be involved during motor imagery (MI) as well. Extensive research suggests that the cerebellum is interconnected with the MNS and may be critically involved in its activities. We gathered evidence on the cerebellum's rol...

Paired associative stimulation (PAS) is a non-invasive brain stimulation technique combining transcranial magnetic stimulation and peripheral nerve stimulation. PAS allows connections between cortical areas and peripheral nerves (C/P PAS) or between cortical regions (C/C PAS) to be strengthened or weakened by spike-timing-dependent neural plasticit...

Usually, positive neurological symptoms are considered as the consequence of a mere, afinalistic and abnormal increase in function of specific brain areas. However, according to the Theory of Active Inference, which argues that action and perception constitute a loop that updates expectations according to a Bayesian model, the brain is rather an ex...

Citation: Antonioni, A.; Baroni, A.; Milani, G.; Cordioli, I.; Straudi, S. Role of Smartphone Applications in the Assessment and Management of Fatigue in Patients with Multiple Sclerosis: A Scoping Review. Sclerosis 2024, 2, 42-64. https://doi. Abstract: Fatigue is a common symptom in Multiple Sclerosis (MS), and its assessment depends entirely on...

Myasthenia gravis (MG) is the most common neuromuscular junction disorder. We evaluated the MG incidence rate in the province of Ferrara, Northern Italy, over two time frames (2008-2018 and 2019-2022, i.e., the COVID-19 pandemic) and considered early-onset (EOMG), late-onset (LOMG), and thymoma-and non-thymoma-associated MG. Moreover, in the second...

Disorders of consciousness (DoC) due to severe traumatic brain injury (TBI) are associated with severe disability and an alteration of cortical activation, angiogenesis, and inflammation, which are crucial elements for behavioural recovery. This exploratory study aimed to evaluate anti-inflammatory and cortical responses after transcranial direct c...

The identification of biomarkers for the early diagnosis of Alzheimer’s disease (AD) is a crucial goal of the current research. Blood biomarkers are less invasive, easier to obtain and achievable by a cheaper means than those on cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) and significantly more economic than functional neuroimaging investigations; thus, a great inte...

Abstract: Cerebral venous thrombosis (CVT) is a rare cause of stroke, particularly in young adults. Several known thrombophilic conditions may lead to an increased CVT risk. Interestingly, few cases in the literature have reported an association between CVT and thyrotoxicosis. Here, we describe the case of a young woman with CVT and concomitant thy...

Background. Stroke is a leading cause of death and disability worldwide and there is a very short period of increased synaptic plasticity, fundamental in motor recovery. Thus, it is crucial to acquire data to guide the rehabilitation treatment. Promising results have been achieved with kinematics and neurophysiological data, but currently, few stud...

Frontotemporal dementia (FTD) is a neurodegenerative disease of growing interest, since it accounts for up to 10% of middle-age-onset dementias and entails a social, economic, and emotional burden for the patients and caregivers. It is characterised by a (at least initially) selective degeneration of the frontal and/or temporal lobe, generally lead...

The etiopathogenesis of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) is still largely unknown, but likely depends on gene–environment interactions. Among the putative sources of environmental exposure are air pollutants and especially heavy metals. We aimed to investigate the relationship between ALS density and the concentration of air pollution heavy meta...

Current clinical practice does not leverage electroencephalography (EEG) measurements in stroke patients, despite its potential to contribute to post-stroke recovery predictions. We review the literature on the effectiveness of various quantitative and qualitative EEG-based measures after stroke as a tool to predict upper limb motor outcome, in rel...

Osmotic demyelination syndrome (ODS) is caused by damage to the pons myelin sheath and nerve cells. Although the pathophysiological mechanism responsible for the damage is not yet fully understood, it is currently believed that osmotic-type changes (especially if they are massive and too rapid) cause oedema that leads to compression and, subsequent...

The Heidenhain Variant of Creutzfeldt–Jakob disease (CJD) is an uncommon early clinical syndrome of the otherwise regular sporadic CJD, which belongs to the group of prion diseases caused by a transmissible agent, the misfolded form of the prion protein. The most characteristic symptoms of CJD are rapidly progressive cognitive impairment, typical m...

Alzheimer’s disease (AD) is the most common cause of dementia worldwide. The clinical spectrum of suspected AD has been extended from mild cognitive impairment (MCI) to preclinical AD which includes people who have typical cognitive function but harbor the underlying biological features of AD. We report the first case of an Italian patient affected...

Importance: the effectiveness of acupunture as a therapeutic support in pharmacological prophilaxis for migraine and tension-type headache. Objective: to define the role of acupuncture in the treatment and pro-phylaxis of various types of migraine by measuring the effects it produces in preventing the disease, reducing symptoms and their prolongati...

Background: A significant proportion of patients with coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) suffer from delirium during hospitalization. This single-center observational study investigates the occurrence of delirium, the associated risk factors and its impact on in-hospital mortality in an Italian cohort of COVID 19 inpatients. Methods: Data were co...

Hirayama Disease (HD) is a rare clinical condition that usually affects young people with preference for Asian males. It appears with unilateral distal amyotrophy or asymmetric bilateral amyotrophy of an upper limb which is to refer to an involvement of the spinal metamers C7-C8-T1. A clinical case of a female patient of Albanian nationality is des...

Here, we report the case of a 63-year-old woman affected by abnormal, excessive, and involuntary reactions to harmless and unexpected sensory stimuli, compatible with the diagnosis of hyperekplexia. It is a pathology that involves the glycinergic system on a hereditary basis, and even if genetic proof compatible with the diagnosis is not present in...