Fondazione Santa Lucia

Guillain-Barré Syndrome is an immune-mediated polyradiculoneuropathy, with around 100,000 new cases reported worldwide annually.
The aim of this double-blind randomized controlled trial with a SHAM control group is to evaluate the effects of robot-assisted therapy, integrated with conventional therapy, on upper limb motor recovery in patients with GBS.

The present study aims to investigate the effectiveness of oral supplementation with a nutraceutical containing Collagen, Hyaluronic Acid, Vitamin C, and Manganese in functional outcome and pain reduction in cases of shoulder rotator cuff tendinopathy compared to a cycle of intra-articular hyaluronic acid injections.
The project involves the recruitment of 50 adult individuals presenting with shoulder pain and instrumental evidence of rotator cuff tendinopathy. All participants will receive one intra-articular injection of 1 ml of triamcinolone acetonide 40 mg. After the injection, participants will be divided into two groups according to Good Clinical Practice guidelines. One group will begin taking one vial per day for 56 days of an oral supplement containing Hyaluronic Acid, Collagen, Vitamin C, and Manganese (HA-COL) (Tendogenial®, B2Pharma) starting from the day following enrollment (Group 1). The other group will undergo a cycle of 3 intra-articular injections with hyaluronic acid (HA) (Hyalotend®, Fidia) (Group 2).
The hypothesis is that oral supplementation with HA-COL may have the same efficacy as intra-articular hyaluronic acid treatment in reducing pain and improving shoulder functionality.
Functional assessments will be conducted by a clinician unaware of the participants' group assignment. The following assessment scales will be used:
Numeric Rating Scale (NRS) for pain (from 0 to 10), evaluating 3 aspects of pain: 1) pain at rest, 2) nocturnal pain, 3) pain during movement.
Shoulder Disability Questionnaire (SDQ) for functionality.
Assessments will be conducted at the following time points:
T0) Before the administration of corticosteroid intra-articular injection (baseline).
T1) Seven days after the start of HA-COL intake for Group 1 and before the first intra-articular HA injection for Group 2 (T1, seven days from T0).
T2) At mid-cycle of oral HA-COL supplementation for Group 1 (28 days of intake) and seven days after the last HA injection for Group 2 (T2, 21 days from T1).
T3) Follow-up at 28 days from T2, at the end of the 56-day oral treatment cycle for Group 1, and 28 days after the last injection for Group 2 (T3, 56 days from T0).

Older adults with subjective cognitive decline (SCD) are at high risk of developing dementia and frequently experience subclinical symptoms (e.g., anxiety, depression) which are themselves associated with dementia and cognitive decline risk. To date, the lack of effective disease-modifying treatments, along with the reliable identification of modifiable lifestyle risk factors (e.g., cognitive activity, dietary habits, physical exercise), have led to growing interest to invest in non-pharmacological interventions that may reduce the prevalence and incidence of dementia and cognitive decline in older adults. In this framework, the aim of this project is to evaluate the efficacy of an Immersive Virtual Reality (IVR) and telemedicine-based multi-component intervention, combining cognitive training and a health and lifestyle education program, for preventing cognitive decline and dementia in at-risk individuals (i.e., SCD). For this purpose, a randomized, double-blinded controlled trial (RCT) will be conducted on seventy-five eligible individuals with SCD, who will be randomly assigned to one of three conditions: (a) multi-component intervention (MC-I), including SCD-tailored cognitive IVR training plus a health and lifestyle education program, (b) cognitive-only intervention (CO-I), including the SCD-tailored cognitive IVR training plus an active control for the education program, and (c) active control intervention (AC-I) for both cognitive training and education program. Intervention will be provided in 20 at-home sessions (4 sessions/week, each lasting about 30 minutes) over a period of 5 weeks. Outcome measures include clinical, neuropsychological, behavioural and neuroimaging data that will be collected before and immediately after intervention in order to detect potentially intervention-induced changes in objective cognitive functioning (primary outcome), subjective cognitive functioning, mood, quality of life and brain connectivity (secondary outcome). Users' compliance with IVR and telemedicine approach will be also evaluated, as well as individuals' factors affecting training efficacy.