María Luisa Sarrate Capdevila

BACKGROUND: The identification of patients with an elevated risk of developing Alzheimer's disease (AD) dementia and eligible for the disease-modifying treatments (DMTs) in the earliest stages is one of the greatest challenges in the clinical practice. Plasma biomarkers has the potential to predict these issues, but further research is still needed to translate them to clinical practice. Here we evaluated the clinical applicability of plasma pTau181 as a predictive marker of AD pathology in a large real-world cohort of a memory clinic. METHODS: Three independent cohorts (modelling [n = 991, 59.7% female], testing [n = 642, 56.2% female] and validation [n = 441, 55.1% female]) of real-world patients with subjective cognitive decline (SCD), mild cognitive impairment (MCI), AD dementia, and other dementias were included. Paired cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) and plasma samples were used to measure AT(N) CSF biomarkers and plasma pTau181. FINDINGS: CSF and plasma pTau181 showed correlation in all phenotypes except in SCD and other dementias. Age significantly influenced the biomarker's performance. The general Aβ(+) vs Aβ(-) ROC curve showed an AUC = 0.77 [0.74-0.80], whereas the specific ROC curve of MCI due to AD vs non-AD MCI showed an AUC = 0.89 [0.85-0.93]. A cut-off value of 1.30 pg/ml of plasma pTau181 exhibited a sensitivity of 93.57% [88.72-96.52], specificity of 72.38% [62.51-79.01], VPP of 77.85% [70.61-83.54], and 8.30% false negatives in the subjects with MCI of the testing cohort. The HR of cox regression showed that patients with MCI up to this cut-off value exhibited a HR = 1.84 [1.05-3.22] higher risk to convert to AD dementia than patients with MCI below the cut-off value. INTERPRETATION: Plasma pTau181 has the potential to be used in the memory clinics as a screening biomarker of AD pathology in subjects with MCI, presenting a valuable prognostic utility in predicting the MCI conversion to AD dementia. In the context of a real-world population, a confirmatory test employing gold-standard procedures is still advisable. FUNDING: This study has been mainly funded by Ace Alzheimer Center Barcelona, Instituto de Salud Carlos III (ISCIII), Biomedical Research Networking Centre in Neurodegenerative Diseases (CIBERNED), Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation, Fundación ADEY, Fundación Echevarne and Grífols S.A.

El tiempo libre como espacio de ocio esta adquiriendo —en las ultimas decadas— una gran relevancia, en especial entre las naciones avanzadas, dada su directa influencia en el bienestar y crecimiento personal y social de sus ciudadanos, con independencia de las repercusiones economicas que genera. El potencial educativo que encierra esta orientado a conseguir que la persona aproveche su tiempo disponible para alcanzar su plena realizacion. La educacion del ocio, por las caracteristicas que la conforman, constituye un campo profesional propio de la educacion social, enmarcado en la educacion permanente. Ninos y jovenes que estan cambiando sus habitos de ocio han sido siempre los principales protagonistas, por lo que la escuela aparece como un escenario de singular interes, donde el ocio es un factor esencial de la educacion integral. La intervencion socioeducativa, el perfil y las funciones en el centro escolar de los educadores sociales constituyen dos factores con incidencia directa en la mejora del ocio y tiempo libre en los centros educativos.

INTRODUCTION: Optical coherence tomography angiography (OCT-A) is a novel tool that allows the detection of retinal vascular changes. We investigated the association of macular vessel density (VD) in the superficial plexus assessed by OCT-A with measures of cerebrovascular pathology and atrophy quantified by brain magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) in non-demented individuals. METHODS: Clinical, demographical, OCT-A, and brain MRI data from non-demented research participants were included. We analyzed the association of regional macular VD with brain vascular burden using the Fazekas scale assessed in a logistic regression analysis, and the volume of white matter hyperintensities (WMH) assessed in a multiple linear regression analysis. We also explored the associations of macular VD with hippocampal volume, ventricle volume and Alzheimer disease cortical signature (ADCS) thickness assessed in multiple linear regression analyses. All analyses were adjusted for age, sex, syndromic diagnosis and cardiovascular variables. RESULTS: The study cohort comprised 188 participants: 89 with subjective cognitive decline and 99 with mild cognitive impairment. No significant association of regional macular VD with the Fazekas categories (all, p > 0.111) and WMH volume (all, p > 0.051) were detected. VD in the nasal quadrant was associated to hippocampal volume (p = 0.007), but no other associations of macular VD with brain atrophy measures were detected (all, p > 0.05). DISCUSSION: Retinal vascular measures were not a proxy of cerebrovascular damage in non-demented individuals, while VD in the nasal quadrant was associated with hippocampal atrophy independently of the amyloid status.

Persistent asthma requires a daily controller medication. National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI) guidelines and Healthcare Effectiveness Data and Information Set (HEDIS) quality measures are used to identify persistent asthma, the former method used by clinicians, and the latter by managed care organizations (MCOs). This study aims to determine the degree of agreement between these criteria in classifying pediatric persistent asthma. Asthmatic patients aged 5-18 years old in a university pediatric practice who were continuously enrolled with one MCO from January 1, 2012 to December 31, 2013 (Cohort 1: 329 patients) and January 1, 2013 to December 31, 2014 (Cohort 2: 212 patients) were identified. Subjects with at least one asthma visit were included. Independence of NHLBI and HEDIS criteria was determined by the McNemar test. Agreement was determined by confusion matrix analysis and Cohen kappa statistic with continuity correction. Agreement in controller assignment was 82% in Cohort 1 and 88% in Cohort 2. Agreement was fair in Cohort 1 (Cohen kappa = 0.364; 95% confidence interval [CI] = 0.217-0.511) and moderate in Cohort 2 (Cohen kappa = 0.447; 95% CI = 0.247-0.646). The HEDIS misclassified persistent asthma by 16.4% (95% CI: 11.5-21.2%) and 11.8% (95% CI: 6.8-16.7%) in Cohorts 1 and 2, respectively. NHLBI and HEDIS criteria show fair to moderate agreement; however, the HEDIS consistently misclassified persistent asthma, suggesting that it is a poor measure of practice performance.

La educacion de adultos esta llamada a desempenar una funcion integradora dentro del marco de la educacion permanente, ya que el ser humano se halla en un proceso continuo de educacion y formacion que se extiende a lo largo de toda la vida. Las politicas europeas, respaldadas por organismos internacionales como la UNESCO, han dado lugar, en este campo, a la realizacion de propuestas generales de accion que pretenden mejorar la calidad y la eficacia de los sistemas educativos. En Espana, se aboga por un modelo de educacion de adultos basado en el principio de adaptacion de los curriculos y en una metodologia diferenciada. En este articulo, se presentan algunos retos a los que debe hacer frente la sociedad actual, asi como propuestas que habra que tener en cuenta si se quiere favorecer las actuaciones en este campo.