Manic episode with psychotic symptoms induced by subthalamic nucleus stimulation in a patient with Parkinson's disease.

Deep brain stimulation of the subthalamic nucleus (STN-DBS) is an established therapy for Parkinson's disease (PD). A manic episode with psychotic symptoms induced by STN-DBS occurred in a previously psychiatrically healthy patient, focusing on the role of STN-DBS in influencing not only motor but also emotional behaviour.     

Brain perfusion territory imaging applying oblique-plane arterial spin labeling with a standard send/receive head coil.

A new method for the selective spin labeling of left- or right-sided supplying arteries of the brain without the need for additional RF coils is demonstrated. A clinical 1.5 T scanner was used. The spatial selectivity of the labeling process is based on the limited coverage of the excitation field of a standard send/receive head coil together with an oblique positioning of the labeling plane. A computer simulation was used to optimize key labeling parameters under the condition of laminar flow. The validity of the computer model results was confirmed by MRI measurements with a flow model. For human studies, a double-inversion continuous arterial spin labeling (CASL) sequence was modified to allow for arbitrary positioning of the labeling plane. The obtained perfusion-weighted images showed a clear delineation of the perfusion territories of the selected arteries in the anterior circulation of the brain and good gray/white matter contrast.     

Nonlinear excitation profiles for three-dimensional inflow MR angiography

An RF excitation pulse for three-dimensional (3D) time-of-flight (TOP) MR angiography (MRA) with a nonlinear excitation profile was numerically calculated under the condition of uniform vessel signal across the excitation volume (slab), and the superiority of the optform pulse as compared with conventional RF pulses and TONE pulses was demonstrated. For this purpose we acquired MRA of the lower leg and of the carotid and vertebral arteries in a 30-year-old healthy volunteer. Although the flow velocity ranges in these two anatomic locations are different by about a factor of 10, in both cases the corresponding optform pulse provided the best signal homogeneity at the highest level.     

Protection of the ischemic myocardium from reperfusion injury by prostaglandin E1 inhibition of ischemia-induced neutrophil activation

Summary This study investigates the action of intravenous PGE₁ on myocardial reperfusion injury and the possible involvement of antineutrophil activities. Cats were subjected to 3 h of temporary ligation of the left anterior descending coronary artery, followed by 2 h of reperfusion. Animals were treated with PGE₁ (5 g/kg x min) or vehicle (saline solution), starting 0.5 h after coronary artery occlusion. Vehicle-treated cats exhibited a significant loss of cardiac creatine phosphokinase specific activity at 5 h, accompanied by a significant ischemia-induced rise in the ST segment of the ECG and development of a Q wave after starting reperfusion. All of these alterations were largely prevented by PGE₁ treatment. PGE₁ exerted some blood-pressurelowering activity at 5 h (P > 0.05) but did not reduce myocardial contractile force and oxygen consumption. PGE₁ modestly antagonized ischemia-induced formation of platelet aggregates. However, PGE₁ prevented the rise in peripheral white blood cell count during ischemia and reperfusion and inhibited the generation of reactive oxygen species (myeloperoxidase assay) from zymosan-stimulated whole blood ex vivo. The ratio of generation of reactive oxygen species/white blood count remained unchanged. It is concluded that PGE₁ protects the ischemic myocardium from acute reperfusion injury and that this effect involves an action of the compound on neutrophils, probably by improved myocardial tissue preservation, resulting in reduced formation of chemotactic products and, consequently, less local neutrophil accumulation and release of noxious metabolites.Parts of these results have been presented to the 29th Spring meeting of the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Pharmakologie und Toxikologie, Mainz, 1988 Send offprint requests to K. Schrör at the above address     

Cytomegalovirus seropositivity and serum total cholesterol levels in young patients

Atherosclerosis is a chronic inflammatory disease of arteries, associated with multiple genetic and environmental factors, including hypertension, diabetes mellitus, cigarette smoking, modified and elevated LDL cholesterol, elevated plasma homocysteine, and infectious microorganisms such as Chlamydia pneumoniae and cytomegalovirus (CMV). CMV has been implicated in atherogenesis by epidemiological studies, animal research, and molecular analyses that have demonstrated CMV nucleic acids within human atherosclerotic lesions. Studies have suggested that CMV infection may alter lipid metabolism and lead to accumulation of cholesterol within atheromatous plaques. Few studies have examined the relationship between CMV infection and serum cholesterol levels in younger individuals when much of atherogenesis occurs. To test if CMV-seropositivity is associated with high levels of serum total cholesterol in relatively young patients, CMV IgG levels and total cholesterol concentrations were analyzed in serums from 172 patients, age < 50 yr. Based on univariate analysis of variance, serum total cholesterol was significantly correlated to age and to CMV-seropositivity when gender was a cofactor, but not to gender or CMV-seropositivity alone. In 39 CMV-seropositive women, serum total cholesterol concentration averaged 218 +/- 50 mg/dL (mean +/- SD), which was significantly higher than in 53 CMV-seronegative women (194 +/- 39 mg/dL, p < 0.02). No significant difference was observed between the serum total cholesterol concentrations in 26 CMV-seropositive men and 51 CMV-seronegative men (198 +/- 42 mg/dL versus 212 +/- 48 mg/dl, respectively). Thus, this study provides evidence that CMV-seropositivity is associated with higher serum total cholesterol levels in female patients under 50 yr of age, but not in male patients of comparable age.     

Assay for the specificity of monoclonal antibodies in crossed immunoelectrophoresis

A method is described based on crossed immunoelectrophoresis of a complex antigen mixture in agarose gel followed by incubation of the gel with the monoclonal antibody. The bound monoclonal antibody is detected by the use of a secondary enzyme-labelled antibody.Using this technique we have been able to identify the precipitate arc in crossed immunoelectrophoresis of major histocompatibility complex (MHC) class I molecules in a mixture of all detergent solubilized cell membrane molecules by means of a monoclonal antibody, the specificity of which was known independently to be against MHC class I molecules. In other experiments using the same technique we demonstrated the reaction of a monoclonal antibody specific for chicken Ig light chains.     

A recent polyploidy superimposed on older large-scale duplications in the Arabidopsis genome

The Arabidopsis genome contains numerous large duplicated chromosomal segments, but the different approaches used in previous analyses led to different interpretations regarding the number and timing of ancestral large-scale duplication events. Here, using more appropriate methodology and a more recent version of the genome sequence annotation, we investigate the scale and timing of segmental duplications in Arabidopsis. We used protein sequence similarity searches to detect duplicated blocks in the genome, used the level of synonymous substitution between duplicated genes to estimate the relative ages of the blocks containing them, and analyzed the degree of overlap between adjacent duplicated blocks. We conclude that the Arabidopsis lineage underwent at least two distinct episodes of duplication. One was a polyploidy that occurred much more recently than estimated previously, before the Arabidopsis/Brassica rapa split and probably during the early emergence of the crucifer family (24-40 Mya). An older set of duplicated blocks was formed after the monocot/dicot divergence, and the relatively low level of overlap among these blocks indicates that at least some of them are remnants of a larger duplication such as a polyploidy or aneuploidy.