Relationships between exploratory eye movement dysfunction and clinical symptoms in schizophrenia

Aim: Many psychophysiological tests have been widely researched in the search for a biological marker of schizophrenia. The exploratory eye movement (EEM) test involves the monitoring of eye movements while subjects freely view geometric figures. Suzuki et al. (2009) performed discriminant analysis between schizophrenia and non‐schizophrenia subjects using EEM test data; consequently, clinically diagnosed schizophrenia patients were identified as having schizophrenia with high probability (73.3%). The aim of the present study was to investigate the characteristics of schizophrenia patients who were identified as having schizophrenia on EEM discriminant analysis (SPDSE) or schizophrenia patients who were identified as not having schizophrenia on EEM discriminant analysis (SPDNSE). Methods: The data for the 251 schizophrenia subjects used in the previous discriminant‐analytic study were analyzed, and the demographic or symptomatic characteristics of SPDSE and SPDNSE were investigated. As for the symptomatic features, a factor analysis of the Brief Psychiatric Rating Scale (BPRS) rating from the schizophrenia subjects was carried out. Results: Five factors were found for schizophrenia symptoms: excitement/hostility; negative symptoms; depression/anxiety; positive symptoms; and disorganization. SPDSE had significantly higher factor scores for excitement/hostility, negative symptoms and disorganization than SPDNSE. Furthermore, the BPRS total score for the SPDSE was significantly higher than that for the SPDNSE. Conclusion: SPDSE may be a disease subtype of schizophrenia with severe symptoms related to excitement/hostility, negative symptoms and disorganization, and EEM parameters may detect this subtype. Therefore, the EEM test may be one of the contributors to the simplification of the heterogeneity of schizophrenia.     

Low-carbohydrate diet by staple change attenuates postprandial GIP and CPR levels in type 2 diabetes patients

AimsThe aim of this study is to investigate the effects of a low-carbohydrate staple food (i.e., low-carbohydrate bread) on glucose and lipid metabolism and pancreatic and enteroendocrine hormone secretion in comparison with meals containing normal-carbohydrate bread, without consideration of the carbohydrate content of the side dishes.MethodsT2DM patients (n = 41) were provided meals containing low-carbohydrate bread (LB) together with side dishes or normal-carbohydrate bread (NB) together with side dishes every other day as a breakfast. Blood glucose levels were evaluated by using a continuous glucose monitoring system; blood samples were collected before and 1 and 2 h after the breakfast.ResultsPostprandial blood glucose levels, plasma insulin, plasma glucose-dependent insulinotropic polypeptide (GIP) and plasma triglyceride were significantly lower and plasma glucagon levels were significantly higher in LB compared with those in NB. Plasma glucagon-like peptide-1 (GLP-1) levels did not differ in the LB and NB groups.ConclusionsThese results indicate that changing only the carbohydrate content of the staple food has benefits on glucose and lipid metabolism in T2DM patients concomitant with the decrease of insulin and GIP secretion, which ameliorate body weight gain and insulin resistance.     

Cortical thickness,gray matter volume,and white matter anisotropy and diffusivity in schizophrenia

Introduction  

The study was conducted to evaluate simultaneously gray matter changes and white matter changes in patients with schizophrenia.     

Immunohistochemical analysis on aquaporin-1 and aquaporin-3 in skin wounds from the aspects of wound age determination

International Journal of Legal Medicine - Immunohistochemical investigation of aquaporin (AQP)1 and AQP3 was performed in human skin wounds obtained from forensic autopsy cases. A total of 55 human...     

A method for measuring specific IgE in sera by direct ELISA without interference by IgG competition or IgG autoantibodies to IgE

BACKGROUND: In measuring specific IgE levels in sera by direct ELISA, competition with coexisting IgG often impedes an exact IgE determination; additionally, IgG autoantibodies to IgE (IgG-IgE) in sera affect the assay. In this paper, we attempt to determine accurate specific IgE levels by selective removal of IgG with a protein G-immobilized gel (PG) and by acid treatment of the PG to compensate for the unintended removal of IgE, probably due to the PG binding IgG-IgE. METHODS: IgG in sera was removed using PG at pH 7.0. Then, the PG was treated with citrate buffer at pH 3.0 for 5 min to liberate IgE from IgG-IgE complexes, after IgG-binding sites on the PG were saturated with bovine IgG, since PG came to bind IgE at acidic pHs. IgE levels were then measured by ELISA. RESULTS: The PG treatment of sera removed the effect of inhibitory competition by coexisting IgG, especially at higher concentrations of sera, to improve specific IgE detection by direct ELISA. However, PG treatment alone sometimes reduced IgE levels (39% of sera tested), even though PG does not bind IgE at pH 7.0, which indicated the presence of IgG-IgE complexes. The reduction in IgE returned almost to their original levels in the sera by acid treatment of the PG. By combining the PG treatment with acid treatment, specific IgE measurement in sera was improved significantly (p < 0.01, Wilcoxon signed rank test). CONCLUSION: Measurement of specific IgE in sera by direct ELISA was improved by using the PG and acid treatment technique.     

Long-term prognosis of AL and AA renal amyloidosis: a Japanese single-center experience

Background

Few studies have been conducted on the long-term prognosis of patients with amyloid light chain (AL) and amyloid A (AA) renal amyloidosis in the same cohort.

Methods

We retrospectively examined 68 patients with biopsy-proven renal amyloidosis (38 AL and 30 AA). Clinicopathological findings at the diagnosis and follow-up data were evaluated in each patient. We analyzed the relationship between clinicopathological parameters and survival data.

Results

Significant differences were observed in several clinicopathological features, such as proteinuria levels, between the AL and AA groups. Among all patients, 84.2 % of the AL group and 93.3 % of the AA group received treatments for the underlying diseases of amyloidosis. During the follow-up period (median 18 months in AL and 61 months in AA), 36.8 % of the AL group and 36.7 % of the AA group developed end-stage renal failure requiring dialysis, while 71.1 % of the AL group and 56.7 % of the AA group died. Patient and renal survivals were significantly longer in the AA group than in the AL group. eGFR of >60 mL/min/1.73 m² at biopsy and an early histological stage of glomerular amyloid deposition were identified as low-risk factors. A multivariate analysis showed that cardiac amyloidosis and steroid therapy significantly influenced patient and renal survivals.

Conclusions

Our results showed that heart involvement was the major predictor of poor outcomes in renal amyloidosis, and that the prognosis of AA renal amyloidosis was markedly better than that in previously reported cohorts. Therapeutic advances in inflammatory diseases are expected to improve the prognosis of AA amyloidosis.