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Backround: Use of indwelling urinary catheter (IUC) in older adults has negative consequences, including delirium. Aim: This analysis, from the "Delirium Day 2015", a nationwide multicenter prevalence study, aim to evaluate the association of IUC with delirium in hospitalized and Nursing Homes (NHs) patients. Methods: Patients underwent a comprehensive geriatric assessment, including the presence of IUC; inclusion criteria were age > 65 years, being Italian speaker and providing informed consent; exclusion criteria were coma, aphasia, end-of-life status. Delirium was assessed using the 4AT test (score >= 4: possible delirium; scores 1-3: possible cognitive impairment). Results: Among 1867 hospitalized patients (mean age 82.0 ± 7.5 years, 58% female), 539 (28.9%) had IUC, 429 (22.9%) delirium and 675 (36.1%) cognitive impairment. IUC was significantly associated with cognitive impairment (OR 1.60, 95% CI 1.19-2.16) and delirium (2.45, 95% CI 1.73-3.47), this latter being significant also in the subset of patients without dementia (OR 2.28, 95% CI 1.52-3.43). Inattention and impaired alertness were also independently associated with IUC. Among 1454 NHs residents (mean age 84.4 ± 7.4 years, 70.% female), 63 (4.3%) had IUC, 535 (36.8%) a 4AT score >= 4, and 653 (44.9%) a 4AT score 1-3. The multivariate logistic regression analysis did not show a significant association between 4AT test or its specific items with IUC, neither in the subset of patients without dementia. Discussion: We confirmed a significant association between IUC and delirium in hospitalized patients but not in NHs residents. Conclusion: Environmental and clinical factors of acute setting might contribute to IUC-associated delirium occurrence.

Homologous recombination is a conserved DNA repair process mandatory for chromosome segregation during meiosis. RPA, a ubiquitous complex essential to recombination, is thought to play a similar role during mitotic and meiotic recombination. MEIOB, a meiosis-specific factor with unknown molecular function, ressembles a RPA subunit. Here we usein vivoapproaches to show that in mouse spermatocytes, DMC1 and RAD51 appear to be normally loaded in the absence of MEIOB but are prematurely lost from unrepaired recombination sites. This loss correlates with an accumulation of the BLM helicase on meiotic chromosomes. We also show that MEIOB alters the immunodetection of RPA subunits at meiotic recombination sites. Using electron microscopy and purified proteins, we demonstrate that the MEIOB-SPATA22 complex associates with and modifies the conformation of RPA-coated ssDNA. Finally, we identify structural homology between MEIOB, SPATA22 and RPA subunits, and show that MEIOB and SPATA22 interact through C-terminal OB-fold containing domains (OBCDs) like RPA subunits. Moreover, MEIOB and SPATA22 cooperate to interact with RPA through their OBCDs. Our results suggest that MEIOB, SPATA22 and RPA work together to ensure proper processing of meiotic recombination intermediates.

Objectives: We aimed at testing the reading performance in a sample of patients with neurodegenerative impairment. Materials: We used two reading tasks of words and nonwords, and of words with unpredictable stress position, a repetition task of words and nonwords, and two lexical decision tasks (written and oral modalities). Methods: We tested patients with Alzheimer's disease (AD, n=19), Primary Progressive Aphasia (PPA, n=6, three logopenic variants, one semantic variant and one pure anomic) and Posterior Cortical Atrophy (PCA, n=4). We also tested 34 healthy participants as a control group. Results: In oral lexical decision AD patients had significantly lower performance than those with PCA, whereas the opposite pattern was found in written lexical decision. Reading of nonwords was more impaired than reading of words in both AD and PPA patients. Multiple single case analysis identified phonological dyslexia in 50% of PCA cases, in a much lower percentage in patients with AD (15.8%) and PPA (16.7%). In one AD patient the reading disorder was classified as surface dyslexia. Discussion: No specific patterns of reading performance emerged as predictors of different neurodegenerative impairments. In general, in written lexical decision PCA patients show a worse performance as compared to that obtained in the other two groups. On the contrary, worse performance in the oral modality may orient towards a diagnosis of AD. Conclusions: Various forms of neurodegenerative disease occur with different cognitive profiles, and reading processes are not an exception to this rule. References: Brambati, S. M., Ogar, J., Neuhaus, J., Miller, B. L., & Gorno-Tempini, M. L. (2009). Reading disorders in primary progressive aphasia: a behavioral and neuroimaging study. Neuropsychologia, 47, 1893-1900. Brambati, S. M., Ogar, J., Neuhaus, J., Miller, B. L., & Gorno-Tempini, M. L. (2009). Reading disorders in primary progressive aphasia: a behavioral and neuroimaging study. Neuropsychologia, 47(8), 1893-1900. Henry, M. L., Beeson, P. M., Alexander, G. E., & Rapcsak, S. Z. (2012). Written language impairments in primary progressive aphasia: a reflection of damage to central semantic and phonological processes. Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience, 24, 261-275. Strain, E., Patterson, K., Graham, N., & Hodges, J. R. (1998). Word reading in Alzheimer's disease: cross-sectional and longitudinal analyses of response time and accuracy data. Neuropsychologia, 36, 155-171.