International multicenter pilot study of the first comprehensive self-completed nonmotor symptoms questionnaire for Parkinson's disease: the NMSQuest study.

Nonmotor symptoms (NMS) of Parkinson's disease (PD) are not well recognized in clinical practice, either in primary or in secondary care, and are frequently missed during routine consultations. There is no single instrument (questionnaire or scale) that enables a comprehensive assessment of the range of NMS in PD both for the identification of problems and for the measurement of outcome. Against this background, a multidisciplinary group of experts, including patient group representatives, has developed an NMS screening questionnaire comprising 30 items. This instrument does not provide an overall score of disability and is not a graded or rating instrument. Instead, it is a screening tool designed to draw attention to the presence of NMS and initiate further investigation. In this article, we present the results from an international pilot study assessing feasibility, validity, and acceptability of a nonmotor questionnaire (NMSQuest). Data from 123 PD patients and 96 controls were analyzed. NMS were highly significantly more prevalent in PD compared to controls (PD NMS, median = 9.0, mean = 9.5 vs. control NMS, median = 5.5, mean = 4.0; Mann-Whitney, Kruskal-Wallis, and t test, P < 0.0001), with PD patients reporting at least 10 different NMS on average per patient. In PD, NMS were highly significantly more prevalent across all disease stages and the number of symptoms correlated significantly with advancing disease and duration of disease. Furthermore, frequently, problems such as diplopia, dribbling, apathy, blues, taste and smell problems were never previously disclosed to the health professionals.     

雌激素及其受体对心血管系统保护作用实验研究进展

雌激素对心血管系统具有重要的保护作用。雌激素及其受体主要通过调节血管舒张功能、抑制血管平滑肌细胞增殖和迁移以及影响肾素 -血管紧张素等介导这一保护作用。但临床上雌激素替代治疗尚未得到肯定 ,需进一步研究     

辽宁省城乡居民脑卒中疾病负担分析

目的探讨辽宁省城乡居民脑卒中疾病负担的水平及其分布特征、方法根据辽宁省2003年城乡居民脑卒中患病率和死亡率资料,采用全球疾病负担(GBD)分析方法计算脑卒中的伤残调整寿命年(DALY)。结果2003年辽宁省每千人因脑卒中损失17．2个健康生命年,脑卒中引起的DALY损失农村高于城市(18．8∶14．1),男性高于女性(20．2∶14．1)。结论辽宁省脑卒中每千人DALY是GBD2000对中国估计的1．6倍,农村和男性是脑卒中防治的重点。     

心理咨询门诊与普通专科门诊抽样对照分析

目的调查本院心理咨询门诊与普通专科门诊就诊疾病谱的差异,了解两者在精神分裂症治疗上的差异以及对预后的影响。方法以1/20抽取1995～2002年间的门诊病例进行统计分析,其中心理咨询门诊病例79份,普通专科门诊病例143份。自行设计表格对就诊者的性别、年龄、初诊诊断和服药、住院情况进行统计,比较两者就诊疾病谱的差异,以及两者在精神分裂症治疗上的差异和对预后的影响。结果(1)心理咨询门诊就诊者以心境障碍和神经症为主(分别达25%和27%),普通专科门诊以精神分裂症为主(48%,t=14．66,P＜0．005)；(2)在精神分裂症的治疗上,心理咨询门诊第二代抗精神病药(SGAs)的应用率较高(50%vs 14%,P＜0．005),两处就诊者的预后也存在差异。结论心理咨询门诊与普通专科门诊在初诊中存在一定的分工；两者对精神分裂症治疗存在差异,这种差异可能直接导致精神分裂症的预后,我国有待建立规范的精神分裂症治疗指南；全社会对非重性精神疾病的重视程度仍有待加强。     

The Parkinson-Control study: a 1-year randomized, double-blind trial comparing piribedil (150 mg/day) with bromocriptine (25 mg/day) in early combination with levodopa in Parkinson's disease.

Dopamine agonists have been recommended as early treatment for Parkinson's disease (PD), alone or combined with levodopa. Piribedil is a non-ergot selective D(2)/D(3) agonist with alpha(2) antagonist properties shown to be effective in the treatment of PD. This 12-month international, randomized, double-blind trial aimed to assess the efficacy of piribedil 150 mg versus bromocriptine 25 mg, in early combination with levodopa in Stage I to III PD patients. Motor efficacy was assessed using the Unified Parkinson's Disease Rating Scale (UPDRS III, Items 18-31) as improvement from baseline. Response rate was defined as a 30% improvement. Among the 425 randomly assigned patients, 178 were also included in a substudy on cognitive follow-up evaluated by a dysexecutive syndrome oriented battery. A relevant improvement in UPDRS III over the 12-month study duration was observed both in the piribedil and bromocriptine groups (-7.9 +/- 9.7 points from baseline versus -8.0 +/- 9.5; not significant [n.s.]) with a response rate of 58.4% and 55.3% (n.s.), respectively. Piribedil and bromocriptine resulted in similar improvement on all UPDRS III subscores. Piribedil patients required less levodopa dose increase than those on bromocriptine. Cognitive performance remained generally unchanged in both groups, with a significant effect of piribedil limited to the Wisconsin Card Sorting Test. An overall good tolerability of piribedil was observed. Early combination of piribedil 150 mg with levodopa resulted in significant long-term improvement of all motor symptoms in PD patients insufficiently controlled by levodopa alone. Taking into account both efficacy and acceptability in the long-term, piribedil proved in this bromocriptine controlled study to be an effective and safe treatment for PD.     

测定血浆心钠素对小儿心功能不全的诊断意义

采用放射免疫法测定60例心血管病患儿的血浆心钠素,结果,在心功能不全,先天性心脏病、心肌炎者,明显高于正常组;心功能不全组明显高于非心功能不全组。非心功能不全的心血管疾患(如:先天性心脏病、心肌炎)之间无显著差异。说明血浆心钠素测定可作为心功能不全判断指标,并可指导治疗。     

Amputation in elderly and high-risk vascular patients

Fifty-eight patients underwent lower limb amputation for arterial disease over a 30-month period. Mean age of the patients was 72 years. Cardiopulmonary and metabolic risk factors were present in the majority of the patients. Postoperative one-year and three-year mortality rates were 24, 40, and 76%, respectively. Contralateral amputation was required in one-third of the patients after a mean period of eight months. Only younger and healthier patients returned to a meaningful social life after appropriate prosthetic fitting. In view of the high mortality and morbidity rates, above-knee amputation seems a better choice than below-knee amputation in these elderly and high-risk patients.     

The lateral ganglionic eminence is the origin of cells committed to striatal phenotypes: neural transplantation and developmental evidence

In order to determine whether the lateral ganglionic eminence (LGE) of the fetal telencephalon is the primary source of striatal precursors in striatal transplants and tissue cultures, cells derived exclusively from the LGE of fetal rat brains were transplanted into the quinolinic-acid-lesioned striatum of adult rats. After 2–3 months they produced grafts that were almost entirely AChE-positive as well as DARPP-32-, TH-, and calbindin-immunoreactive. The grafts were integrated into the host striatum so that host corticofugal fiber tracts interdigitated with graft tissues similar to the way they penetrate the gray matter of the normal striatum. Fast Blue dye injected into the ipsilateral globus pallidus of LGE grafted produced retrogradely labeled neurons within the grafts, but Fluorogold dye injected into the ipsilateral substantia nigra did not. In a separate experiment using DARPP-32-immunohistochemistry as a striatal marker, fetal (E16) and neonatal (P2) rat brains showed DARPP-32 immunoreactivity in the LGE but not in the adjacent medial ganglionic eminence (MGE). In summary, both fetal LGE cells and LGE grafts express specific striatal markers, and LGE grafts integrate into the host striatum and innervate the major striatal efferent target within the host brain. These data suggest that the LGE is the origin of cells committed to striatal phenotypes in the developing brain.     

Hydroxyethyl starch induced acquired von Willebrand's disease

Hydroxyethyl starch (HES) (Hespan, DPont) is a widely used synthetic volume expander which in standard doses of up to 1.51 in 24 h has no significant effect on coagulation (Munsch et al. 1988). However, the data sheet states that in large volumes HES may alter the coagulation mechanism. We now report a case of HES induced acquired von Willebrand's disease (vWD) in which severe bleeding occurred.