Papers by Gabriele Farina
Diagram of the studied populations. (PPTX 61Â kb)
The American Journal of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene, 2021
A 3-year analysis released in August 2021 by the WHO indicated that more than 700 healthcare work... more A 3-year analysis released in August 2021 by the WHO indicated that more than 700 healthcare workers and patients have died (2,000 injured) as a result of attacks against health facilities since 2017. The COVID-19 pandemic has made the risks even worse for doctors, nurses, and support staff, unfortunately. According to the latest figures from the International Committee of the Red Cross, 848 COVID-19-related violent incidents were recorded in 2020, and this is likely an underrepresentation of a much more widespread phenomenon. In response to rises in COVID-19-related attacks against healthcare, some countries have taken action. In Algeria, for instance, the penal code was amended to increase protection for healthcare workers against attacks and to punish individuals who damage health facilities. In the United Kingdom, the police, crime, sentencing, and courts bill proposed increased the maximum penalty from 12 months to 2 years in prison for anyone who assaults an emergency worker. ...
International Journal of Gynecology & Obstetrics, 2020
Multiple Sclerosis and Related Disorders, 2020
Changing therapeutic strategies and persistence to disease-modifying treatments in a population o... more Changing therapeutic strategies and persistence to disease-modifying treatments in a population of Multiple Sclerosis patients from Veneto region, Italy, Multiple Sclerosis and Related Disorders (2020), doi:
Sensors, 2022
Background: Freezing of Gait (FOG) is one of the most disabling motor complications of Parkinson’... more Background: Freezing of Gait (FOG) is one of the most disabling motor complications of Parkinson’s disease, and consists of an episodic inability to move forward, despite the intention to walk. FOG increases the risk of falls and reduces the quality of life of patients and their caregivers. The phenomenon is difficult to appreciate during outpatients visits; hence, its automatic recognition is of great clinical importance. Many types of sensors and different locations on the body have been proposed. However, the advantages of a multi-sensor configuration with respect to a single-sensor one are not clear, whereas this latter would be advisable for use in a non-supervised environment. Methods: In this study, we used a multi-modal dataset and machine learning algorithms to perform different classifications between FOG and non-FOG periods. Moreover, we explored the relevance of features in the time and frequency domains extracted from inertial sensors, electroencephalogram and skin cond...
The Journal of Infection in Developing Countries, 2021
Journal of Global Health, 2021
Disaster Medicine and Public Health Preparedness, 2020
Journal of Global Health, 2021
Journal of Global Health, 2021
Journal of Neurology, Neurosurgery & Psychiatry, 2017
Among disease-modifying treatments for multiple sclerosis, natalizumab (NTZ) is highly effective,... more Among disease-modifying treatments for multiple sclerosis, natalizumab (NTZ) is highly effective, well tolerated and generally safe. Major concerns regard the risk of developing progressive multifocal leukoencephalopathy (PML), and the occurrence of rebounds or disease activity after its discontinuation. The aim of this study was to explore the efficacy of dimethyl fumarate (DMF) in preventing disease reactivation after NTZ discontinuation. Thirty-nine patients with relapsing remitting multiple sclerosis, at high risk of PML, were switched from NTZ to DMF and underwent neurological and 3T MRI monitoring for 2 years. Clinical and MRI data regarding the 2-year period preceding NTZ treatment, the 2 years of NTZ treatment and the 2 years of DMF were collected. During the DMF phase, among the 39 patients, one or more relapses occurred in five patients (12.8%), increased disability progression in 4 (10.3%) and MRI activity in 8 (20.5%). Post-NTZ rebound effect was observed only in one patient. Overall, only two dropouts (one rebound activity and one gastrointestinal side effect) were registered and almost 80% of the patients have still no evidence of disease activity at the end of DMF treatment. The multiple linear regression model revealed that the number of relapses and MRI parameters before DMF treatment were good predictors of disease activity during treatment with DMF. DMF appeared generally safe and no carryover PML among investigated cases was observed. Although DMF did not eliminate the possibility of disease reactivation, it seems anyway a promising drug for those patients who shall discontinue NTZ. The clinical and radiological activity preceding the DMF treatment might be used as a prognostic marker of therapy response.
Journal of neuroinflammation, Feb 21, 2017
Although IgG oligoclonal bands (OCBs) in the cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) are a frequent phenomenon ... more Although IgG oligoclonal bands (OCBs) in the cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) are a frequent phenomenon in multiple sclerosis (MS) patients, their relationship with grey matter lesions, intrathecal/meningeal inflammation and clinical evolution has not been clarified yet. The aim of our study was to assess the relationship between the OCBs, the inflammatory/neurodegenerative CSF profile at diagnosis, the cortical lesion load and the clinical evolution after 10 years. This is a 10-year observational, cross-sectional study based on a combined MRI, cognitive and CSF profiling of the examined patients. Forty consecutive OCB-negative (OCB-) and 50 OCB-positive (OCB+) MS patients were included in this study. Both groups had mean disease duration of 10 years and were age and gender matched. Each patient underwent neurological and neuropsychological evaluation and 3-T MRI. Analysis of the presence and levels of 28 inflammatory mediators was performed in the CSF obtained from 10 OCB- MS, 11 OCB+ MS ...
PLOS ONE, 2015
Background Both gray-matter (GM) atrophy and lesions occur from the earliest stages of Multiple S... more Background Both gray-matter (GM) atrophy and lesions occur from the earliest stages of Multiple Sclerosis (MS) and are one of the major determinants of long-term clinical outcomes. Nevertheless, the relationship between focal and diffuse GM damage has not been clarified yet. Here we investigate the regional distribution and temporal evolution of cortical thinning and how it is influenced by the local appearance of new GM lesions at different stages of the disease in different populations of MS patients. Methods We studied twenty MS patients with clinically isolated syndrome (CIS), 27 with early relapsing-remitting MS (RRMS, disease duration <5 years), 29 with late RRMS (disease duration ! 5 years) and 20 with secondary-progressive MS (SPMS). The distribution and evolution of regional cortical thickness and GM lesions were assessed during 5-year follow-up. Results The results showed that new lesions appeared more frequently in hippocampus and parahippocampal gyri (9.1%), insula (8.9%), cingulate cortex (8.3%), superior frontal gyrus (8.1%), and cerebellum (6.5%). The aforementioned regions showed the greatest reduction in thickness/volume, although (several) differences were observed across subgroups. The correlation between the appearance of new cortical lesions and cortical thinning was stronger in CIS (r 2 = 50.0, p<0.001
The New England journal of medicine, Apr 27, 2017
Background Genomewide association studies of autoimmune diseases have mapped hundreds of suscepti... more Background Genomewide association studies of autoimmune diseases have mapped hundreds of susceptibility regions in the genome. However, only for a few association signals has the causal gene been identified, and for even fewer have the causal variant and underlying mechanism been defined. Coincident associations of DNA variants affecting both the risk of autoimmune disease and quantitative immune variables provide an informative route to explore disease mechanisms and drug-targetable pathways. Methods Using case-control samples from Sardinia, Italy, we performed a genomewide association study in multiple sclerosis followed by TNFSF13B locus-specific association testing in systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE). Extensive phenotyping of quantitative immune variables, sequence-based fine mapping, cross-population and cross-phenotype analyses, and gene-expression studies were used to identify the causal variant and elucidate its mechanism of action. Signatures of positive selection were al...
Multiple sclerosis (Houndmills, Basingstoke, England), 2015
Recent studies identified > 100 non-HLA (human leukocyte antigen) multiple sclerosis (MS) susc... more Recent studies identified > 100 non-HLA (human leukocyte antigen) multiple sclerosis (MS) susceptibility variants in Northern European populations, but their role in Southern Europeans is largely unexplored. We aimed to investigate the cumulative impact of those variants in two Mediterranean populations: Continental Italians and Sardinians. We calculated four weighted Genetic Risk Scores (wGRS), using up to 102 non-HLA MS risk variants and 5 HLA MS susceptibility markers in 1691 patients and 2194 controls from continental Italy; and 2861 patients and 3034 controls from Sardinia. We then assessed the differences between populations using Nagelkerke's R(2) and the area under the Receiver Operating Characteristic (ROC) curves. As expected, the genetic burden (mean wGRS value) was significantly higher in MS patients than in controls, in both populations. Of note, the burden was significantly higher in Sardinians. Conversely, the proportion of variability explained and the predict...
Nature Genetics, 2010
A genome-wide association scan of ~6.6 million genotyped or imputed variants in 882 Sardinian ind... more A genome-wide association scan of ~6.6 million genotyped or imputed variants in 882 Sardinian individuals with multiple sclerosis (cases) and 872 controls suggested association of CBLB gene variants with disease, which was confirmed in 1,775 cases and 2,005 controls (rs9657904, overall P = 1.60 × 10 −10 , OR = 1.40). CBLB encodes a negative regulator of adaptive immune responses, and mice lacking the ortholog are prone to experimental autoimmune encephalomyelitis, the animal model of multiple sclerosis.
PLOS ONE, 2015
Both gray-matter (GM) atrophy and lesions occur from the earliest stages of Multiple Sclerosis (M... more Both gray-matter (GM) atrophy and lesions occur from the earliest stages of Multiple Sclerosis (MS) and are one of the major determinants of long-term clinical outcomes. Nevertheless, the relationship between focal and diffuse GM damage has not been clarified yet. Here we investigate the regional distribution and temporal evolution of cortical thinning and how it is influenced by the local appearance of new GM lesions at different stages of the disease in different populations of MS patients. We studied twenty MS patients with clinically isolated syndrome (CIS), 27 with early relapsing-remitting MS (RRMS, disease duration &amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;5 years), 29 with late RRMS (disease duration ≥ 5 years) and 20 with secondary-progressive MS (SPMS). The distribution and evolution of regional cortical thickness and GM lesions were assessed during 5-year follow-up. The results showed that new lesions appeared more frequently in hippocampus and parahippocampal gyri (9.1%), insula (8.9%), cingulate cortex (8.3%), superior frontal gyrus (8.1%), and cerebellum (6.5%). The aforementioned regions showed the greatest reduction in thickness/volume, although (several) differences were observed across subgroups. The correlation between the appearance of new cortical lesions and cortical thinning was stronger in CIS (r2 = 50.0, p&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;0.001) and in early RRMS (r2 = 52.3, p&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;0.001), compared to late RRMS (r2 = 25.5, p&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;0.001) and SPMS (r2 = 6.3, p = 0.133). We conclude that GM atrophy and lesions appear to be different signatures of cortical disease in MS having in common overlapping spatio-temporal distribution patterns. However, the correlation between focal and diffuse damage is only moderate and more evident in the early phase of the disease.
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Papers by Gabriele Farina