Network


Latest external collaboration on country level. Dive into details by clicking on the dots.

Hotspot


Dive into the research topics where Angelo Bianchetti is active.

Publication


Featured researches published by Angelo Bianchetti.


Neurology | 1999

Hippocampal and entorhinal cortex atrophy in frontotemporal dementia and Alzheimer’s disease

G.B. Frisoni; Mikko P. Laakso; Alberto Beltramello; Cristina Geroldi; Angelo Bianchetti; Hilkka Soininen; M. Trabucchi

Objective: To describe atrophic changes of the hippocampus and entorhinal cortex in frontotemporal dementia (FTD) and compare them with those of AD. Background: The medial temporal lobe shows atrophic changes early in the course of AD, but whether these changes are specific to AD or occur in other degenerative dementias, and to what extent, is unclear. Methods: The authors measured the volumes of the left and right hippocampus and entorhinal cortex from MR images (1.5 T, 2-mm–thick slices) in 12 patients with FTD, 30 with AD, and 30 elderly control subjects. Results: In FTD patients, the left and right hippocampus (16% and 21% tissue loss) and the entorhinal cortex (28% and 27% loss) were more atrophic than the control subjects. Atrophy of the hippocampus in FTD was less severe than in AD, but atrophy of the entorhinal cortex was equally severe. Greater hippocampal and entorhinal cortex atrophy was present in the most severe patients in both groups (as high as a 49% tissue loss). The sensitivity of the hippocampus and the entorhinal cortex to discriminate FTD patients from control subjects was low (49% and 52%, respectively; specificity set at 90%), whereas hippocampal volumes could better differentiate AD patients from control subjects (80% sensitivity). Conclusions: At variance with AD, detectable in vivo atrophy of the hippocampus might not be an early event in FTD. Differential patterns of atrophy might help in the diagnostic process of the degenerative dementias.


Dementia and Geriatric Cognitive Disorders | 1999

Behavioral Syndromes in Alzheimer’s Disease: Description and Correlates

Giovanni B. Frisoni; Luca Rozzini; Alessandra Gozzetti; Giuliano Binetti; Orazio Zanetti; Angelo Bianchetti; Marco Trabucchi; Jeffrey L. Cummings

Introduction: Behavioral disturbances in patients with Alzheimer’s disease (AD) are ill-defined conditions. We hypothesize that the many behavioral disturbances hitherto described and studied might be grouped into few syndromes with separate determinants and correlates. Patients and Methods: 162 consecutive patients with probable AD admitted to a dementia unit were assessed by the UCLA Neuropsychiatric Inventory (NPI). Results: Factor analysis was carried out on NPI subscales, leading to three syndromes: ‘mood’, ‘psychotic’ and ‘frontal’. Patients with the ‘psychotic’ syndrome were older, had older age at dementia onset, had poorer cognition, were more often males, and had faster rate of dementia progression. Patients with the ‘frontal’ syndrome had higher education, longer disease duration, and slower rate of progression. Discussion: Some combinations of behavioral disturbances occur more frequently together and might represent separate behavioral syndromes. Different clinical correlates of the syndromes suggest separate etiologies.


Journal of Neurology, Neurosurgery, and Psychiatry | 1996

Executive dysfunction in early Alzheimer's disease.

Giuliano Binetti; E Magni; Alessandro Padovani; S. F. Cappa; Angelo Bianchetti; Marco Trabucchi

Twenty five patients with probable mild Alzheimers disease were assessed for deficits in executive functioning and the impact of these deficits on performance in other neuropsychological domains. The Wisconsin card sorting test, the release from proactive interference paradigm, the verbal fluency test, and the Stroop test were adopted to classify patients with (AD+) and without (AD-) executive deficits. Seven of the patients showed an impairment in executive function (AD+), defined as a performance below the cut off score in at least two of these tests. There were no significant differences in clinical assessments, demographic features, or other cognitive functions between patients. Executive dysfunction may be an early additional feature in a subgroup of patients with mild Alzheimers disease. Impairment on frontal lobe tests does not seem to be related to the severity or duration of disease, or to a different pattern of impairment in other cognitive domains.


Journal of the American Geriatrics Society | 1999

Contrasting Results Between Caregiver's Report and Direct Assessment of Activities of Daily Living in Patients Affected by Mild and Very Mild Dementia: The Contribution of the Caregiver's Personal Characteristics

Orazio Zanetti; Cristina Geroldi; Giovanni B. Frisoni; Angelo Bianchetti; Marco Trabucchi

OBJECTIVE: To determine the level of agreement between the primary caregivers report on patient activities of daily living (ADLs) and ADLs assessed directly in a sample of patients affected by very mild and mild dementia and to assess whether this agreement is influenced by the caregivers depressive symptoms and burden.


Biological Psychiatry | 2000

Hippocampus and entorhinal cortex in frontotemporal dementia and Alzheimer's disease: a morphometric MRI study.

Mikko P. Laakso; Giovanni B. Frisoni; Mervi Könönen; Mia Mikkonen; Alberto Beltramello; Claudia Geroldi; Angelo Bianchetti; Marco Trabucchi; Hilkka Soininen; Hannu J. Aronen

BACKGROUND Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) of hippocampal atrophy is a sensitive but not specific method to support the clinical diagnosis of early Alzheimers disease (AD). We recently described our findings that atrophy of the entorhinal cortex (ERC) in frontotemporal dementia (FTD) is equal to that found in AD but that hippocampal atrophy in FTD is less than that found in AD. The MRI volumes of these structures provide a topographic representation of the region of interest. We hypothesized that two different dementias with distinct histopathologic and clinical features might, in addition to quantitative patterns, display topographically different patterns of atrophy. METHODS We adopted a morphometric approach to monitor the pattern of atrophy of the hippocampus and the ERC by computing two-dimensional profiles from MRI volumes of the structures in control subjects and patients with FTD and AD. RESULTS Compared with control subjects, atrophy of the hippocampus in patients with AD was diffuse. In patients with FTD, atrophy of the hippocampus was localized predominantly in the anterior hippocampus, suggesting a different pattern of hippocampal atrophy in FTD compared with AD. The amount and pattern of atrophy of the entorhinal cortex was virtually equal in both demented groups. CONCLUSIONS This study provides novel data on the nature of medial temporal lobe atrophy in FTD. Morphometric MRI may be a useful technique for characterizing different patterns of atrophy in primary degenerative dementias in vivo.


Acta Neurologica Scandinavica | 1997

Procedural memory stimulation in Alzheimer's disease: impact of a training programme

O. Zanetti; G. Binetti; E. Magni; L. Rozzini; Angelo Bianchetti; M. Trabucchi

The study evaluates the efficacy of a procedural memory stimulation programme in mild and mild‐moderate Alzheimers disease (AD). Twenty basic and instrumental activities of daily living have been selected, and divided into two groups, comparable for difficulty. Ten normal elderly subjects (age 68.0±4.8 years; MMSE score: 28.7±0.9; education: 7.6±3.5 years) were asked to perform the two groups of daily activities and the time required to perform the tasks of each group was recorded and used as a reference. Ten mild and mild‐moderate AD patients (age 77.2±5.3 years; MMSE score: 19.8±3.5; education: 7.3±4.7 years) without major behavioural disturbances constituted the experimental group. Patients were evaluated in all 20 daily activities and the time employed was recorded at baseline and after a 3‐week training (1 h/d, 5 d/week) period. Five patients were trained during the 3 weeks on half of the 20 daily activities and the other five patients were trained on the remainder. This procedure was adopted in order to detect separately the improvement in “trained” and “not trained” activities, allowing to control better the effects of the intervention. The assessment of the functional impact of the training was directly measured, through the variation of time employed to perform tasks before and after training. After 3 weeks of training a significant improvement was observed for the trained activities, from 3.6 to 1.9 standard deviations below the performance of the normal elderly controls (P<0.05). AD patients improved also in not‐trained activities from 3.5 to 2.7 standard deviations below the controls’performance (P<0.05). The rehabilitation of activities of daily living through developing procedural memory strategies may be effective in mild and mild‐moderate AD patients.


Journal of the American Geriatrics Society | 1993

Physical Performance Test and Activities of Daily Living Scales in the Assessment of Health Status in Elderly People

Renzo Rozzini; Giovanni B. Frisoni; Angelo Bianchetti; Orazio Zanetti; Marco Trabucchi

Objective: To compare the ability of Basic Activities of Daily Living (BADL), Instrumental Activities of Daily Living (IADL), and the Physical Performance Test (PPT) to detect health status impairments.


Neurology | 1999

APOE-ε4 is associated with less frontal and more medial temporal lobe atrophy in AD

Cristina Geroldi; Maija Pihlajamäki; Mikko P. Laakso; Charles DeCarli; Alberto Beltramello; Angelo Bianchetti; Hilkka Soininen; Marco Trabucchi; Giovanni B. Frisoni

Objective: To test the hypothesis that the ε4 allele of APOE is associated with a region-specific pattern of brain atrophy in AD. Methods: Volumes of the hippocampi, entorhinal cortices, and anterior temporal and frontal lobes were measured in 28 mild to moderate AD patients and 30 controls using MRI. Within the AD group, 14 patients were noncarriers (−/−), 9 were heterozygous (ε4/−), and 5 were homozygous (ε4/4) for the ε4 allele. Dementia severity was similar across the three AD groups. Results: Smaller volumes were found with increasing dose of the ε4 allele in the hippocampus, entorhinal cortex, and anterior temporal lobes in AD patients. When compared with controls, the volume loss in the right and left temporal regions ranged from −15.3 to −22.7% in the −/− AD group, from −26.2 to −36.0% in the ε4/− group, and from −24.0 to −48.0% in the ε4/4 group (p < 0.0005). In contrast, larger volumes were found in the frontal lobes with increasing ε4 gene dose. When compared with controls, volume differences of the right frontal lobe were −11.8% in the −/− AD group, −8.5 in the ε4/− group, and −1.4% in the ε4/4 group (p = 0.03). Conclusions: We found smaller volumes in the temporal lobe regions but larger volumes in the frontal lobes with increasing APOE-ε4 gene dose in AD patients. These data suggest a region-specific biological effect of the ε4 allele in the brains of AD patients.


International Journal of Geriatric Psychiatry | 1998

Depressive symptoms of Alzheimer caregivers are mainly due to personal rather than patient factors

Orazio Zanetti; Giovanni B. Frisoni; Angelo Bianchetti; Giancarlo Tamanza; Vittorio Cigoli; Marco Trabucchi

Objectives. To investigate the predictors of caregivers depressive symptoms in a sample of community‐dwelling Alzheimers patients.


Neurology | 1993

Cytosol protein kinase C downregulation in fibroblasts from Alzheimer's disease patients

Stefano Govoni; S. Bergamaschi; Marco Racchi; F. Battaini; Giuliano Binetti; Angelo Bianchetti; M. Trabucchi

We attempted to determine whether changes in protein kinase C (PKC) activity in Alzheimers disease (AD) brains are also present in cultured skin fibroblasts from living patients. Biopsies collected from shoulder skin were transferred to culture plates with an appropriate growth medium, and histone-directed PKC activity as well as phorbol ester binding were individually determined in soluble and particulate fractions prepared from AD and non-AD fibroblast cell lines. Binding experiments indicated that PKC was unevenly distributed between cytosol (78%) and particulate (22%). The Bmax values for phorbol ester binding in soluble and particulate fractions were similar in AD and non-AD patients. Kd values in the cytosol were 94% higher in AD patients, indicating lower affinity of the enzyme for the ligand. Accordingly, the soluble PKC activity was 30% lower in AD patients. The data suggest that the changes in PKC phosphorylating activity represent a diffuse cellular defect in AD and are not confined to the brain. The alterations of the enzyme may participate in the disregulation in processing of β-amyloid precursor protein in AD.

Collaboration


Dive into the Angelo Bianchetti's collaboration.

Top Co-Authors

Avatar

Marco Trabucchi

University of Rome Tor Vergata

View shared research outputs
Top Co-Authors

Avatar
Top Co-Authors

Avatar
Top Co-Authors

Avatar
Top Co-Authors

Avatar
Top Co-Authors

Avatar
Top Co-Authors

Avatar
Top Co-Authors

Avatar
Top Co-Authors

Avatar

Giuseppe Bellelli

University of Milano-Bicocca

View shared research outputs
Top Co-Authors

Avatar
Researchain Logo
Decentralizing Knowledge