Myelin basic protein in CSF and blood. Relationship between its presence and the occurrence of a destructive process in the brains of encephalitic patients

Serum and CSF levels of myelin basic protein (MBP) were measured in 50 patients with encephalitis of various origins and severity. In nearly 50%, the CSF samples were found to display immunoreactivity of MBP. Positivity was found to be correlated with the severity of the clinical signs. More precisely, it corresponded to cases with suspected extensive brain destruction. No relationship could be observed with the cause of disease. Positive tests of sera were infrequent, even from patients whose CSF was rich in MBP. Longitudinal studies performed on 20 patients who were serially investigated during periods ranging from three weeks to 18 months demonstrated that after an attack, MBP liberation into the CSF persists for one to three weeks. The MBP assay should serve as an index for destruction of nervous tissue.     

Pneumococcal serotyping. Multicentric inventory in hospital. Years 1977-1978 (author's transl)]

For a period of 17 months, 670 pneumococci, mostly isolated in the Paris area, have been typed with contercurrent-immunoelectrophoresis ; 338 of them come from cases of pneumonia, bacteremia, meningitis and acute otitis media. An important regrouping of the most frequent serotypes among the 83 known serotypes makes possible a vaccinal prophylaxis. The tetradecavalent vaccine which is now for sale in USA gives, in the four main pathologies of this enquiry, a coverage superior to 80 percent. Choosing the 14 most frequent serotypes of the four main pathologies of their data the authors propose the following vaccinal formula : 1, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 10, 12, 14, 15, 18, 19, 23.     

Que faut-il penser de l'operation combinee cataracte-glaucome?

Résumé L'opération d'une cataracte après les opérations fistulisantes est chose fréquente.Elle nécessite donc une deuxième intervention chirurgicale après celle du glaucome pour permettre une récupération visuelle.Cette seconde opération a souvent pour résultat l'aplatissement de la cicatrice filtrante.Pour y parer, un certain nombre d'auteurs ont envisagé de réunir dans un même temps l'extraction de la cataracte et l'opération du glaucome.Les résultats définitifs au point de vue tensionnel et visuel sont à peu près les mêmes que ceux de l'opération en deux temps. L'opération combinée cataracteglaucome a seulement l'avantage de supprimer un temps opératoire et parait particulièrement indiquée chez les sujets âgés ayant déjà une cataracte en évolution.

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Summary A cataract operation is very frequent after fistulising operations.It needs a second surgical intervention after that of glaucoma to make a visuel recovery possible. This second operation often gets, as a result, flattening of the filtering scar. To avoid it, several authors have considered to join in the same time the cataract extraction and glaucoma operation.The final tensionnal and visual results are approximately the same for the combined operation as for the successive two operations. The joined cataractglaucoma operation has the advantage to suppress one operation and seems especially recommendable for old people, already getting an evolution of cataract.

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Zusammenfassung Es wurden verschiedene Verfahren ausgearbeitet, um zur gleichen Zeit eine gegen Glaukom gerichtete Augendruckverminderung sowie die Katarakt-Extraktion vorzunehmen.Praktisch sind die Ergebnisse hinsichtlich Augendruck und Sehkraft gleich, ob man zweizeitig oder kombiniert operiert.Das Interesse der kombinierten Operation besteht darin, daß sie eine Operation erspart, was bei alten Patienten ein unbestrittener Vorteil ist.

     

Inhibition of rat mast cell degranulation by verapamil

Calcium antagonists, e.g. verapamil, prevent exercise-induced asthma. This protective effect may proceed from inhibition of contraction of bronchial smooth muscle, release of mediators by primary effector cells, e.g. mast cells, or both. Therefore, we studied the inhibitory effect of increasing concentrations of verapamil on both in vitro antigen-induced degranulation and ionophore A23187-induced release of labelled serotonin by rat peritoneal mast cells. There was a dose-dependent inhibition by verapamil of both ovalbumin-induced degranulation of mast cells passively sensitized by incubation with mice IgE-rich serum and ionophore-induced release of tritiated serotonin by mast cells previously incubated with (3H)-5HT; the 50% inhibiting concentration was 1.4 X 10(-4) mol I-1 and 5.2 X 10(-5) mol I-1, respectively. An attractive explanation of our results is that verapamil inhibits the antigen-induced release of mediators by mast cells through its calcium antagonist effect. Our results also suggest that the preventing effect of calcium antagonists on asthma may be multi-factorial since other authors have clearly shown that these drugs inhibit contraction of guinea-pig tracheal smooth muscle in vitro.     

Area V4 in Cebus monkey: extent and visuotopic organization

We used electrophysiological mapping and myeloarchitectural criteria in order to define the location, extent and visual topography of the fourth visual area (V4) in anesthetized and paralyzed Cebus monkey. Based on these criteria, the borders of V4 with surrounding areas were defined both on the dorsal and ventral cortical surfaces. In addition, to better visualize the visuotopic organization and to evaluate its regularity, we constructed bidimensional maps and projected the recording sites onto them. Area V4 has an almost complete representation of the binocular visual field with the lower visual field represented dorsally (V4d) and the upper field ventrally (V4v). We found this representation to be more extensive than those previously described. The representation of the central portion of the visual field is largely expanded in comparison with that of the periphery. This emphasis in central vision could be related with the involvement of V4 in the ventral stream of visual information processing. Receptive field size increases with increasing eccentricity, while cortical magnification factor decreases. The cortical magnification factor measured along isopolar lines is, on average, 1.5-2.0 times greater than that measured along the isoeccentric lines, suggesting the existence of a small anisotropy in central and peripheral V4.      

Le semi-lunaire,maillon vulnérable de la chaîne articulaire du poignet

Sans résumé     

Simultaneous evaluation of the catecholamine pathway and three opioid peptide-producing systems in human pheochromocytomas

Tyrosine hydroxylase (TH) and dopamine beta-hydroxylase (DBH) activities, dopamine (DA), noradrenaline (NA), adrenaline (A), met 5-enkephalin (Met-Enk), leu5-enkephalin (Leu-Enk), dynorphin (Dyn) and beta-endorphin (beta-end) were measured simultaneously in ten human pheochromocytomas = 1 - TH activity was highly variable, from 22 to 2220 U/g tissue. 2 - DBH activity, in contrast, was rather constant, from 96 to 582 U/g. 3 - Catecholamines (A and NA) concentrations showed only small variations. 4 - The four opioid peptides were detected in all cases and exhibited a wide range of tissue concentrations (Enk much greater than Dyn greater than beta-end). 5 - Met-Enk and Leu-Enk concentrations were highly correlated; no correlation was observed with the other opioid peptides. 6 - A very strong correlation was observed between enkephalins concentrations and both catecholamines concentrations and DBH activities. These results are discussed in term of the significance of the co-localization of these various biologically active substances, principally with regard to the possible regulation of catecholamine synthesis by opioid peptides and conversely.