Prognosis of epilepsy

It has been a widely accepted view that epilepsy is usually a chronic condition in which the prognosis is generally poor and any remissions that do occur are usually temporary. In this article recent studies challenging this view will be considered, other aspects of the long-term prognosis for seizure control in epilepsy reviewed, and the mortality rates and causes of premature death in epilepsy outlined.     

Clinical evaluation of norfloxacin in gonococcal urethritis

Norfloxacin, a new quinolinecarboxylic acid derivative, was administered to 30 male patients with gonococcal urethritis at a daily dose of 600 mg for 7-21 days. The clinical response was evaluated after administration of 7 days as excellent; Negative culture of N. gonorrhoeae. WBC less than 3/hpf in first voided urine sediment, good; Negative culture, WBC greater than or equal to 3/hpf, and poor; Positive culture. The result was excellent in 14 cases and good in 16 cases. No subjective side effects were observed. The minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) distribution against the clinically isolated 30 strains of N. gonorrhoeae ranged from 0.0096 micrograms/ml to 0.34 micrograms/ml. Seven of thirty strains were resistant to ABPC. The MIC of these 7 strains ranged from 0.018 micrograms/ml to 0.18 micrograms/ml. Seven cases with ABPC resistant strains had a similar clinical response to other cases. Twelve patients (40%) developed post gonococcal urethritis for 7-14 days after treatment. Clinical observation of this series suggests that a 7 day therapy of Norfloxacin for the patients with gonococcal urethritis is sufficiently effective and that treatment should be changed to other antibacterial agents in the case of post gonococcal urethritis, since continuous administration for more than 7 days of Norfloxacin is not so effective.     

Peripheral neuropathies during treatment with cisplatin: clinical and electrophysiologic study of 11 cases

Eleven patients with bronchial epidermoid carcinoma and undergoing treatment with cis-D.D.P. (II) were kept under electrophysiological and clinical surveillance. No other neurotoxic medication was added. The total dose of cis-D.D.P. was 300 mg/m2 over a period of three months: namely, three courses of 100 mg/m2 distributed over 5 days. Following the pretreatment check-up, the patients were divided into two groups: those without any electrophysiological abnormality (group A), and those without clinical abnormality but with a delayed latency H of the Hoffmann Reflex (group B). Patients in group A showed a slowing down of the motor nerve conduction velocity of the Median and Peroneal Nerves after a course of 100 mg, without accompanying worsening of the conduction velocity after 300 mg/m2, and prolongation of the distal latency of the sensory Median Nerve after 300 mg/m2; in group B, no significant change of electrophysiological clinical features were noted. In the two groups a non-significant reduction in amplitude of evoked responses were noted. These findings are more consistent with an axonal injury than with functional myelin injury. The authors review the existing literature and discuss the physiopathologic mechanisms of cis-D.D.P. peripheral neuropathies.     

Repeated testing attenuates conditioned place preference with cocaine

Cocaine-treated rats acquired a preference for cocaine-associated contextual stimuli (CS) relative to saline-injected control rats. However, when animals were given repeated tests for conditioned place preference intermittent between conditioning trials, they displayed an attenuation in strength of conditioning. This attenuation was not due to pharmacologic tolerance (Experiment 1), but rather reflected a disruption in learning due to exposure to the CS alone (Experiment 2). Like other examples of classical conditioning, the strength of the conditioned response (CR) as assessed by the conditioned place preference model may be influenced by partial reinforcement.     

Treatment of asthma with an extempore combination of a bronchodilator, salbutamol, and a new antihistamine drug, oxatomide

Forty patients suffering from asthmatic conditions, often accompanied by emphysema, were treated either with an extempore combination of salbutamol syrup plus 30-mg oxatomide tablets or with 30-mg oxatomide tablets alone for purposes of comparison. Greater efficacy was obtained with the combination, which produced positive results in terms of improved respiratory status, remission of clinical symptoms and reduced anti-asthma drug requirements in 90% of the cases treated, as against only 55% of satisfactory results obtained with oxatomide alone. The combination was very well tolerated with no incidence of adverse reactions, while the treatment with oxatomide alone, though on the whole well tolerated, gave rise to mild drowsiness in four cases.     

Improvement in men inpatients in an alcoholism rehabilitation unit: a week-by-week comparison

The Brief Symptom Inventory (BSI), a 53-item psychiatric symptom checklist, was administered to 57 alcoholic inpatients on days 2, 10, 18 and 26 of their 28-day stay in an alcoholism rehabilitation unit at a Veterans Administration hospital. The results of the test show a steady decline in the patients' psychiatric symptomatology from week 1 to week 4 with the most dramatic improvement evidenced between weeks 1 and 2.     

Association between human IgM autoantibodies and kappa chain allotypes

The relationship between the immunoglobulin kappa light chain allotypes and autoantibodies was studied in a series of seven human monoclonal kappa-bearing IgM antibodies with Rheumatoid Factor (RF) activity, two IgM anti-low density lipoprotein (LDL) antibodies, and one IgM anti-intermediate filament (IF) antibody. Residues at amino acid positions 153 and 191 related to the Km allotypes in human kappa chains were determined by an HPLC tryptic fingerprint and corroborated by amino acid sequence analysis. All the autoantibodies shared similar variable regions derived from the V kappa IIIb gene(s). The seven RF and the anti-IF were associated with the Km(3) constant region allotype whereas the two anti-LDL were associated with the Km(1,2) allotype. Thus, monoclonal autoantibodies showed the same Km allotypic distribution as the normal population. However, although the number of samples is small, it seems likely that a preferential association may exist between particular V kappa genes and Km alleles in the generation of autoantibodies with different specificities.