Dario Boschiero

BioTekna · research and development

This large cross-sectional, multi-center study evaluated the association of body composition measurements by a novel dual frequency bio-impedance device (BIA-ACC) with chronic stress/inflammation biomarkers and presence of Medically Unexplained Symptoms (MUS). Participants were adult Caucasians of both sexes and included 10416 lean subjects with no...

Background-objectives: We aimed at evaluating the efficiency of a newly developed, advanced Bioimpedance Analysis (BIA-ACC®) device as a screening tool for determining the degree of obesity and osteosarcopenia in postmenopausal women with normal or decreased bone density determined by Dual-Energy X-Ray absorptiometry (DEXA) in a representative sam...

Background This study was performed to evaluate the potential clinical usefulness of a new non-invasive electrodermal biofeedback device in reducing perceived pain levels and chronic systemic inflammation. Materials and methods This multicenter study was designed and coordinated by BioTekna, included 20 general practice medical centers, took place...

Osteosarcopenic obesity (OSO) syndrome describes the simultaneous deterioration of bone, muscle and excess fat, resulting in reduced functionality and systemic metabolic dysregulation. The key component contributing to this may be ectopic fat in the viscera, bone and muscle. OSO research to date is summarized, and the revised criteria for its ident...

Chronic stress and low-grade chronic inflammation (LGCI) are key underlying factors formany diseases, including bone and body composition impairments. Objectives of this narrativereview were to examine the mechanisms by which chronic stress and LGCI may influenceosteosarcopenic adiposity (OSA) syndrome, originally named as ostoesarcopenic obesity (...

Osteosarcopenic adiposity (OSA) syndrome, the coexistence of osteoporosis, sarcopenia, and adiposity (either excess or redistributed/infiltrated), has been studied globally in different populations and regions (mostly in East Asia, less in Europe and North America), resulting in varied prevalence. We aimed to determine the prevalence of OSA in a la...

Introduction: Patients often go to the physician with medically unexplained symptoms (MUS). MUS can be autonomic nervous system-related “unspecific” symptoms, such as palpitations, heart rhythm alterations, temperature dysregulation (hand, feet), anxiety, or depressive manifestations, fatigue, somnolence, nausea, hyperalgesia with varying pains and...

Background While obesity is recognisably associated with changes in heart rate variability (HRV), the association between skeletal muscle mass and HRV is less clear. Aims In this cross sectional study, we analysed the association of body fat (four parameters) and muscle mass (five parameters) with indicators of HRV activity. Subjects and methods...

The aim was to evaluate body composition and prevalence of osteosarcopenic adiposity (OSA) in nursing home residents (NHR) and to assess their nutritional status. This research builds on our pilot study (conducted prior COVID-19 pandemic) that revealed high OSA prevalence and poor nutritional status in NHR. The current study included newly recruite...

Fibroblast growth factor-21 (FGF21) acts on several brain regions, including the hypothalamic paraventricular nucleus, which is involved in the regulation of the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis. The purpose of this study was to investigate the interrelations between FGF21 and stress indices in girls, as well as in their caregivers. 78 gir...

In recent years, the increase of psychopathological disorders in the population has become a health emergency, leading to a great effort to understand psychological vulnerability mechanisms. In this scenario, the role of the autonomic nervous system (ANS) has become increasingly important. This study investigated the association between ANS, social...

Objective Chronic stress has been related to impaired body composition (bone, muscle, adipose tissue), and disturbed autonomic nervous system (ANS), the latter regulated by hypothalamic–pituitary–adrenal (HPA) axis. Our objective was to investigate the relationship between salivary cortisol, body composition and heart rate variability (HRV—highly i...

The aim of this study was to examine the associations between multiple indices of stress, inflammation and metabolism vs. body composition parameters in 121 (43 boys, 78 girls) children and adolescents, aged 5–15 y. Subjects were divided into two groups: normal weight (N) (N = 40, BMI z-score = −0.1923 ± 0.6), and overweight/obese (OB) (N = 81, BMI...

Background: Heart rate variability (HRV) is the physiological variation in the time interval between consecutive heartbeats. Extracellular water (ECW) is the aqueous compartment surrounding cells and has been used as an inflammation index. Medically unexplained symptoms (MUS) refer to persistent psychosomatic bodily complaints, and their presence...

Osteosarcopenic adiposity (OSA), also known as osteosarcopenic obesity (OSO) syndrome, is a condition with simultaneous deterioration of bone (osteopenia/osteoporosis) and muscle (sarcopenia/dynapenia) and increased presence of adipose tissue, either as an overt overweight/obesity and/or as redistributed fat and/or as infiltrated fat into bone and...

Objectives Elderly are at the highest risk for COVID-19 infections. The risk is heightened among NHR for several reasons, including unhealthy body composition and poor nutrition. Previously, we showed high prevalence of osteosarcopenic adiposity (OSA; concomitant osteoporosis, sarcopenia and adiposity) in NRH. Objective of this study was to assess...

300,000 volunteers aged 10 to 100 years were assessed how body composition changes with decade of age. Animation represents in the horizontal axis the percentage of muscle mass on the total body weight (SMI) and on the vertical axis the percentage of fat mass on the total body weight (FM%)

Exploration of photoplethysmography (PPG), a technique that can be translated to the clinic, has the potential to assess the autonomic nervous system (ANS) through heart rate variable (HRV) in pregnant individuals. This novel study explores the complexity of mental health of individuals in a clinical sample responding to a task in late pregnancy; f...

The population of older adults, especially those living in the nursing homes, is growing. The sedentary lifestyle and possible poor nutrition in nursing homes place residents (NHRs) at risk for body composition impairments, malnutrition, and, subsequently, numerous chronic diseases. The aim of this study was to assess body composition (including bo...

Objectives Post-operative pain is a common clinical problem after surgery, yet its predictors are inconsistent and unclear. This study examined whether pre-surgical vagal cardiac efferent nerve activity, indirectly indexed by heart rate variability (HRV), predicts patients' pain after epileptic surgery. Methods Using a prospective design, HRV was...

Adolescence is a developmental stage characterized by endocrine-induced physical and psychosocial changes in stress responsiveness. The stress-sensitive cortical and limbic brain regions, which continue to develop during adolescence and young adulthood, may be vulnerable to such changes, yet have not yet been extensively investigated. To examine th...

Stress induces obesity, while extreme obesity causes stress, anxiety, and even depression. Yet, knowledge on the underlying mechanism(s) has many gaps. To this end, we designed a feasibility study, focused on 18 bariatric patients recruited by the First Propaideutic Department of Surgery at the Hippokration University Hospital in Athens, Greece. Th...

Neonatal intensive care units (NICUs) greatly expand the use of technology. There is a need to accurately diagnose discomfort, pain, and complications, such as sepsis, mainly before they occur. While specific treatments are possible, they are often time-consuming, invasive, or painful, with detrimental effects for the development of the infant. In...

Background Water retention is a typical feature of acute inflammatory episodes, chiefly implemented by the sympathetic nervous system (SNS) and the hypothalamic–pituitary–adrenal (HPA) axis. This is an important compensatory mechanism counteracting expected water loss, e.g., due to sweating. Both the SNS and HPA axis are activated in polymyalgia rh...

Background and objective Major deficits in the autonomic nervous system function, detected by measuring heart rate variability (HRV), are reported in neonatal hypoxic-ischemic encephalopathy (HIE)). However, it is unknown if they will recover in the long-term. Because of the possible implications for the neurological outcome, this study aimed to ev...

Introduction Chronic stress and low-grade chronic inflammation (LGCI) influence body composition and are key underlying factors in health and disease. New syndrome, osteosarcopenic obesity (OSO), signifies the simultaneous impairment of bone, muscle, and adipose tissues and has been associated with poor diet and metabolic derangements. Hyperactivat...

Prediabetes in the form of impaired fasting glucose, impaired glucose tolerance, or both is considered as a preliminary stage for the onset of diabetes and diabetic complications. Hormonal fluctuations in adolescence are accompanied by body composition modifications, which are associated with insulin resistance and subclinical inflammation. Bioimpe...

Scarce data exist on the body composition of lean women with polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS) on treatment with metformin and oral contraceptives (OCs). Thirty-four lean (body mass index 18.5–24.9 kg/m2) women (17 with PCOS on metformin and OCs treatment for six months and 17 controls) aged 18–40 years were assessed for body composition parameters...

Objective: Retrospective studies of brown adipose tissue (BAT) function assessed by the uptake of fluorine-18-fludeoxyglucose using a positron emission tomography/ computed tomography scans primarily in cancer patients, indicate that BAT activity differs with sex and body mass index (BMI) in adult humans. The extent to which comparable findings are...

Recent studies have suggested that body composition is key to health and disease. First, fat tissue is a complex, essential, and highly active metabolic and endocrine organ that responds to afferent signals from traditional hormone systems and the central nervous system but also expresses and secretes factors with important endocrine, metabolic, an...

Purpose: To prospectively compare two different approaches for estimating the amount of intravenous contrast media (CM) needed for multiphasic MDCT of the liver in obese patients. Materials and methods: This single-center, HIPAA-compliant prospective study was approved by our Institutional Review Board. Ninety-six patients (55 men, 41 women), wi...

Background: Osteosarcopenic obesity was recently described as a variant phenotype of obesity, mainly observed in old age. This nested case-control study was performed to detect the differences in body composition between young, healthy overweight/obese and healthy lean populations of both genders. Our null hypothesis was that except for the fat ma...

The aim of the study is to investigate water compartments in patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA). Acute inflammatory episodes such as infection stimulate water retention, chiefly implemented by the sympathetic nervous system (SNS) and hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis. This is an important compensatory mechanism due to expected water lo...

Growth hormone is fundamental in skeletal growth during puberty, however detailed studies of body composition analyses in adolescents on growth hormone replacement therapy are scarce. In this case-control study, we aimed to investigate differences in body composition, based on the measurement of bio-impedance, between adolescents with idiopathic gr...

Limited data are available on the body composition of Polycystic Ovary Syndrome (PCOS) patients. In this case-control study, we aimed to elucidate the body composition differences between PCOS patients and their age- and weight- matched controls using Bio-Impedance (BIA) and BIA spectroscopy measures. Seventeen (17), lean PCOS patients and seventee...

Objective: The natural history of essential hypertension entails a sequence of neuro-endocrine alterations in the human body, which possibly result in body composition and compartment changes that can be detected using bio-impedance analyzers (BIA). Indeed, hypertension may be caused by chronically increased activity of the stress axis and/or renin...

Study Design: This is a cross-sectional, multi-center study conducted in Italy and coordinated by Biotekna® in Venice, Italy, between September 2009 and September 2012. Objectives: To evaluate the association of body composition measurements using a novel, advanced bio-impedance device with chronic stress/inflammatory biomarkers in a large Caucasia...