Trephine craniotomy in neurosurgery]

For three years, we have performed craniotomy with a 5 cm diameter trephine through a linear incision. 53 craniotomies were done in 49 patients. This simple and time-saving method produced little bleeding and slight injury to the brain. The technique allowed the surgeon to spend most of his time at the management of lesion. Healing of wound was rapid and brain edema was minimal.     

尿毒症患者的血小板聚集功能变化及血液透析的影响

本文应用 ADP、肾上腺素及复合诱聚剂对30例慢性肾功能不全(尿毒症期)病人的血小板聚集功能进行了检测,其中5例在血液透析前后分别测定。结果表明尿毒症患者血小板聚集功能障碍,血液透析有助于改善血小板功能。通过相关性检验,发现尿毒症病人的血小板聚集率与血肌酐值呈负相关性,其意义尚需进一步探讨。     

A case of congenital supratentorial tumor: Atypical teratoid/rhabdoid tumor or primitive neuroectodermal tumor?

Two embryonal CNS tumors, atypical teratoid/rabdoid tumor (AT/RT) and primitive neuroectodermal tumor (PNET), may be confused with each other and misdiagnosed. Here we report an infant with a congenital supratentorial tumor, which was detected by fetal MRI at 37 weeks gestation. On routine histological examination, the tumor was composed mainly of small undifferentiated cells, among which many rhabdoid cells and occasional sickle‐shaped embracing cells were observed. No mesenchymal or epithelial areas were evident. Our impression was that the tumor was an atypical example of AT/RT. Immunohistochemically, almost all the tumor cells were strongly positive for vimentin. However, epithelial membrane antigen was notably negative, and most of the tumor cell nuclei were clearly positive for INI1. In addition, many tumor cells were positive for neurofilament protein. There were also occasional small areas containing many tumor cells positive for glial fibrillary acidic protein. Finally, a diagnosis of PNET, with a rhabdoid phenotype and expression of neuronal and glial markers, was made. In the present case, application of INI1 immunostaining was very helpful for distinguishing PNET from AT/RT.     

Impaired motor imagery in patients with essential tremor: a case control study.

Motor imagery (MI), which refers to the process of mental representation of movements, has not been studied in patients with essential tremor (ET). We investigated the presence of impaired MI in ET patients compared with healthy controls. A group of drug-naive and nondemented ET patients and age-matched controls were studied using transcranial magnetic stimulation, while they were specifically instructed to try and imagine themselves performing two motor tasks. The various clinical and electrophysiological variables were evaluated and compared. Repeated measures ANOVA demonstrated a significant difference between ET patients and controls with respect to mean motor-evoked potential (MEP) amplitudes (F(1,38) = 31.92, P < 0.005) during MI. The process of MI effectively facilitated MEP amplitude in controls but not in ET patients, regardless of side of stimulation or motor tasks. We provide evidence to demonstrate impairment of MI in a group of ET patients compared with healthy controls. The basis for this novel finding is unclear, and further studies are warranted to determine whether it is related to cerebellar or motor cortical dysfunction.     

Leukaemia Inhibitory Factor or Related Factors Promote the Differentiation of Neuronal and Astrocytic Precursors within the Developing Murine Spinal Cord

Previously we have shown that leukaemia inhibitory factor (LIF) potentiates the development of murine spinal cord neurons in vitro , suggesting that it, or related factors, may play an important regulatory role in neuronal development. We have further investigated this role and show here that the generation of neurons in cultures of embryonic day 10 spinal cord cells is inhibited by antibodies to the β subunit of the LIF receptor. Since there are more undifferentiated precursors in antibody-treated cultures than in control and LIF-treated cultures, it is concluded that the primary action of LIF, or related molecules, is to promote neuronal differentiation, not precursor survival. In addition, the failure of LIF to support neuronal survival in the period immediately following differentiation suggests that the increased numbers of neurons generated with LIF are not attributable to its neurotrophic action. By selecting neuronal precursors on the basis of their inability to express class I major histocompatibility complex molecules, it was shown that LIF acted directly upon these cells and not via an intermediary cell. LIF also appears to be involved in regulating the differentiation of astrocytes, since it increases the number of glial fibrillary protein (GFAP)-positive cells present in the cultures and since the spontaneous production of GFAP-positive cells is blocked by antibodies to the LIF β receptor. These findings suggest that LIF or related factors promote the differentiation of neural precursors in the spinal cord, but that they are not involved in preferentially promoting precursors down a specific differentiation pathway.     

Impaired Glucose Tolerance in Pregnancy - Is It of Consequence?

Summary: This study was done to determine if impaired glucose tolerance in pregnancy was associated with increased maternal and neonatal morbidity and if so, whether the increased morbidity was due to the confounding factors of increased maternal age and maternal obesity. It was a retrospective analysis to compare 944 women with impaired glucose tolerance (IGT) in pregnancy with 10,065 women without abnormal glucose tolerance. The incidence of impaired glucose tolerance in pregnancy was 8.6% in this study. Even when maternal age and obesity were excluded, the IGT group had significantly higher risks of labour induction (relative risk, RR, 1.15); Caesarean section (RR: overall 1.43, elective 1.72, emergency 1.31); Caesarean section for dystocia/no progress (RR 1.60); macrosomia (RR 1.69,1.76,1.61 for birth-weight =97th, 95th, 90th percentiles respectively) and shoulder dystocia (RR 2.84) when compared to the nondiabetics (NDM). The risks of hypertensive disease (RR 1.22) and Caesarean section for fetal distress/thick meconium-stained liquor (RR 1.53) were also higher in the IGT group but these increases were not statistically significant when maternal age and obesity were excluded. There was no significant difference in the rates of low Apgar scores at 1 and 5 minutes between the 2 groups.