Publications by authors named "Maurizio Ranieri"

Introduction: The vestibular system is crucial for balance, spatial orientation, and gaze stabilization. Bilateral vestibulopathy (BV) severely impairs these functions, often co-occurring with severe to profound hearing loss. Combined cochleo-vestibular implants have the potential to rehabilitate these dual sensory impairments.

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Vestibular deficits often lead to unsteady gait, affecting quality of life and increasing fall risk. This study aimed to identify gait impairments in chronic vestibulopathy. Ten patients with bilateral vestibulopathy (BV), 10 patients with chronic unilateral vestibulopathy (UV), and 10 healthy participants (HS) participated.

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Article Synopsis
  • Osteoporosis leads to significant bone mass loss, contributing to acute and chronic pain, necessitating a deeper understanding of its biochemical and neurophysiological mechanisms.
  • A systematic review of studies from 2018 to 2024 revealed key findings on the miR-92a-3p/PTEN/AKT pathway and the importance of muscle-bone interactions, emphasizing mechanotransduction for bone health.
  • Effective pain management strategies identified include physical therapies, cognitive behavioral therapy, and pharmacological options, highlighting the potential for integrated treatment approaches to improve pain relief and functional outcomes for patients.
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Background: Work-related stress among healthcare employees can lead to burnout, worsened mood, and job dissatisfaction. Although physical activity is known to enhance mood and mental health, its impact on job satisfaction and emotional well-being in healthcare workers is under-researched. This study aimed to explore the associations between leisure-time physical activity (LTPA), job satisfaction, and emotional state and to investigate the mediating role of job satisfaction in the effect of LTPA on the emotional state of healthcare workers.

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Background: Klippel-Feil disease is a condition characterized by a defect in the spine, consisting of the fusion or non-separation of two or more vertebrae of the cervical tract. It affects 1 in every 50,000 newborns, and the pathogenesis remains unknown to date, although the role of certain genes that are involved in segmentation processes is being studied. A single case of a genetic Myosin Heavy Chain 3 () mutation is described here.

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Occupational health is a major problem in modern work environments. Physical activity breaks (PABs), short exercise periods delivered during working hours, incorporating exergames or outdoor activities, have emerged as a novel approach that could be used to improve work efficiency and workplace wellbeing. Therefore, this study aimed to investigate the impact of PABs on attention levels and executive functions in healthcare workers.

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Stiff-person syndrome is rare and disabling autoimmune condition that most frequently affects women, with no real predisposition by race. Diagnosis is often arduous, which is why patients concomitantly suffer from anxiety and depression. To date, drug therapy is based on the use of benzodiazepines, barbiturates, and baclofen.

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Chronic imbalance is a frequent and limiting symptom of patients with chronic unilateral and bilateral vestibulopathy. A full-body kinematic analysis of the movement of patients with vestibulopathy would provide a better understanding of the impact of the pathology on dynamic tasks such as walking. Therefore, this study aimed to investigate the global body movement during walking, its variability (assessed with the GaitSD), and the strategies to stabilise the head (assessed with the head Anchoring Index).

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Objectives: The aim of this study was to investigate the mechanism of falls in male elite wheelchair basketball (WB) players and to analyse the falls characteristics considering their classification score which ranges from 1.0 to 4.5 and it is related to their functional capacity and particularly to their volume of action.

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Chronic imbalance is a major complaint of patients suffering from bilateral vestibulopathy (BV) and is often reported by patients with chronic unilateral vestibulopathy (UV), leading to increased risk of falling. We used the Central SensoriMotor Integration (CSMI) test, which evaluates sensory integration, time delay, and motor activation contributions to standing balance control, to determine whether CSMI measures could distinguish between healthy control (HC), UV, and BV subjects and to characterize vestibular, proprioceptive, and visual contributions expressed as sensory weights. We also hypothesized that sensory weight values would be associated with the results of vestibular assessments (vestibulo ocular reflex tests and Dizziness Handicap Inventory scores).

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: Mild-to-moderate knee osteoarthritis (KOA) can be successfully treated using intra-articular hyaluronic acid (IA-HA). The medial infrapatellar (MIP) approach and lateral infrapatellar (LIP) approach are two of the most used techniques for performing IA-HA, but it is still not clear which one is preferable. : The study aims to find the best knee injection technique between MIP and LIP approaches.

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Ultrasound-guided perineural hydrodissection (HD) is a novel technique that has been found to be effective in providing mechanical release of perineural adhesions and decompression of the nerve, reducing inflammation and edema and restoring its physiological function. It has a significant impact on chronic neuropathic pain (20 ± 4 weeks with VAS < 5 or VAS diminished by 2 points after the procedure). Carpal tunnel syndrome (CTS) is a common entrapment mononeuropathy, and its distribution is typically innervated by the median nerve.

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Background: Mesotherapy is a procedure or a process of injecting drugs into the skin. This technique can help decrease the total drug dose due to its drug-sparing effect on the systemic route and can be utilized to treat nonspecific neck pain that occurs in the lateral and posterior neck.

Methods: Ten patients with bilateral cervicobrachial pain were recruited and evaluated at T0 before treatments, T1 at the end of the treatment (42 days after T0), and T2 (72 days after T0).

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Background: Cerebral Palsy (CP) is a group of permanent, but not unchanging, disorders of movement and/or posture and motor function, which are due to a non-progressive interference, lesion, or abnormality of the developing/immature brain. One clinical presentation is muscle spasticity, which leads to a significant impact on the individual's functionality and quality of life. Spasticity treatment is multidisciplinary and includes pharmacological and physical intervention; intrathecal baclofen shows a positive effect in severe spasticity and suboptimal response to oral drugs, while local injection of Botulinum toxin type A (BTXA) improves muscle tone, motion and pain.

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Introduction: Transurethral resection of the prostate (TURP) is the gold-standard for the treatment of benign prostate enlargement (BPE) associated with lower urinary tract symptoms (LUTS), after failure of conservative therapy. At present, only resection-rate (grams of prostate resected over time) is regarded as an efficiency parameter to evaluate the skill of the operator and to assess the outcome of the procedure.

Materials And Methods: Five surgeons performed TURP using a Gyrus-type bipolar system in 123 patients with BPE/LUTS who came to our observation from June 2016 to December 2019.

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Article Synopsis
  • Traumatic spinal cord injury (SCI) can cause significant mobility issues, such as paraplegia and spastic conditions, leading to interest in adapted sports like go-karting for affected individuals.
  • A 50-year-old male with spastic paraplegia participated in go-kart sessions and reported reduced muscle spasticity, assessed using the Modified Ashworth Scale and MyotonPro at various intervals.
  • The study concluded that go-karting may provide benefits akin to whole-body vibration therapy, potentially aiding in spasticity reduction through neuroendocrine responses.
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Background: Intermittent self-catheterization (CISC) is the preferred treatment for patients with bladder dysfunction due to spinal cord injuries or multiple sclerosis (MS). However, the learning phase plays a crucial role in the still frequent drop-out.

Aim: To examine whether the timing of training affects the treatment compliance and the prevalence of urinary tract infections in patients with neurogenic urinary retention.

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Background: Hemp seed oil and terpenes are emerging as a dietary supplement and complementary therapy for patients suffering from knee osteoarthritis (KOA). However, the mechanisms and effects induced by these molecules on inflammatory cytokines are not yet fully understood. The aim of this study was to evaluate the changes in the cytokine IL-1β, IL-1α, IL-2, IL-6, and TNF-α levels from two oral hemp seed oil-based dietary supplements, of which only one included the addition of terpenes, in a population of KOA patients.

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Introduction: Vestibular deficits are considered rare in children, but the lack of systematic screening leads to underdiagnosis. It has been demonstrated that chronic vestibular dysfunction impacts the normal psychomotor development of children. Early identification is needed to allow for clinical management, ensuring better global development.

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Background: Wheelchair basketball (WB) represents a great physical activity, rehabilitation, and integration opportunity for people with disability. Straps are wheelchair accessories used to ensure safeness and stability. Nevertheless, some athletes report feeling limited in movements because of these restraint devices.

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Nutraceuticals are gaining more and more importance as a knee osteoarthritis (KOA) complementary treatment. Among nutraceuticals, hemp seed oil and terpenes are proving to be very useful as therapeutic support for many chronic diseases, but there are still few studies regarding their effectiveness for treating KOA, both in combination and separately. The aim of this study is thus to compare the effect of two dietary supplements, both containing hemp seed oil, but of which only one also contains terpenes, in relieving pain and improving joint function in patients suffering from KOA.

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Shoulder pain (SP) is a common clinical complaint among wheelchair basketball (WB) players, since their shoulders are exposed to intense overload and overhead movements. The supraspinatus tendon is the most exposed to WB-related injuries and it is primarily responsible for SP in WB athletes. In these cases, SP rehabilitation remains the main treatment, but there is still a lack of specific protocols which should be customized to WB players' peculiarities and to the supraspinatus muscle activity monitor, and the improvement of rehabilitation outcomes is slow.

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Wheelchair basketball (WB) involves sports gestures that expose the shoulder to high biomechanical stress and frequently lead to shoulder pain (SP). Due to their physical peculiarities and sporting performance, these athletes require specific rehabilitation programs that are as fast, personalized and effective as possible. However, there are few studies specifically dedicated to these purposes.

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