Cervical tuberculosis in early childhood

CASE HISTORY: We present a case of spinal tuberculosis in a 4-year-old girl that grounds severe vertebral destruction involving four cervical vertebrae and a large abscess with retropharyngeal expansion. Presenting symptoms were neck and right arm pain, torticollis and weakness of the right arm. We drained the abscess and removed the infected bone and reconstructed the cervical spine with a fibular allograft. The neurological deficits were recovered and the torticollis was straightened up. CONCLUSION: We emphasize the value of early diagnosis of spinal tuberculosis and early radical surgery with spinal reconstruction.     

Modification of the pigment screening of the frog retina following administration of neuroactive drugs

Pigment screening (PS) occurs in the retina of lower vertebrates and consists of the bidirectional migration (vitreally or sclerally) of melanin granules into processes of the pigment epithelium that extend between photoreceptors, in response to changes in the illumination conditions. We have studied the effect of some neuroactive drugs on the PS of frogs maintained under cyclic lighting conditions or dark-adapted.The drugs, administered intravenously were: lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD), meascaline, d-amphetamine, the LSD analogue lisuride and the LSD derivative 2-bromolysergic acid (BOL). All the drugs used — with the exception of mescaline — modify the bidirectional migration of the pigment induced by the two illumination conditions in a different way. This suggests that in general these substances interact in some way with those processes which normally produce the well-defined PS pattern.It has been possible to discriminate two opposite effects on the retinal PS induced by two chemically related substances (LSD and lisuride) only one of which (LSD) has potent hallucinogenic properties.     

Intracranial aneurysm in childhood and interrupted aortic arch

Background

Intracranial aneurysms are very rare in children. Headache and nausea/vomiting are the most prominent clinical findings. The only effective treatment is obliteration of aneurysm by surgical or endovascular techniques. Interrupted aortic arch is also a rare, congenital cardiovascular malformation characterized by the lack of continuity between the ascending and descending thoracic aorta. Aortic interruption is an uncommon cause of intracranial aneurysm. The course of disease is lethal unless effective collateral flow develops. Long-term survival may be possible with surgical repair.

Method

We report on a 17-year-old boy affected with interrupted aortic arch disease and associated multiple intracranial aneurysms. Both aneurysms clipped successfully. After patient had recovered, he referred to cardiovascular surgery for further treatment.

Conclusion

Surgical or endovascular obliteration remains the main therapy for intracranial aneurysms. Accompanying systemic diseases such as interrupted aortic arch challenge the management of both diseases.     

Severe closed head injury associated with nonfracture and nonrotated atlantoaxial dislocation

This case of severe closed head injury associated with nonfracture and nonrotated atlantoaxial dislocation is reported to argue the necessity of obtaining a routine cervical CT scan for unconscious patients admitted to emergency units after severe head injury.Presented at the XIX Annual Meeting of the International Society for Pediatric Neurosurgery, Seoul 1991     

Platelet monoamine oxidase activity in schizophrenia: Relationship to family history of the illness and neuroleptic treatment

Platelet monoamine oxidase (MAO) activity was determined in a large population of drug-free and haloperidol-treated schizophrenic patients and healthy controls and, in a second study, in a sample of schizophrenics after a wash-out period and at different times during treatment with haloperidol. Enzyme activity was significantly decreased in both acute and chronic haloperidol-treated schizophrenics, but not in drug-free schizophrenics, compared with normal controls. No significant difference was observed between drug-free schizophrenics with a family history of the illness and those without such history, and between healthy relatives of schizophrenic patients and normal controls without a family history of schizophrenia.MAO activity was significantly reduced after 14 and 21 days of haloperidol treatment, and such reduction did not correlate with response to treatment. These data strongly support the idea that neuroleptic intake may, at least in part, explain low MAO values repeatedly reported in schizophrenics.     

Perceived parental rearing behaviour and psychopathology in epileptic patients: a controlled study

Memories of parental rearing behaviour were assessed by the EMBU in 61 epileptics and 151 healthy controls. The occurrence of the first crisis during the childhood was an inclusion criterion for patients. Epileptics, as compared with controls, rated their fathers and mothers as less stimulating, their fathers as less performance oriented and affectionate, and their mothers as more tolerant. Moreover, the score on the subscale 'favouring subject' for both fathers and mothers was higher in epileptics. As patients with and without interictal psychopathological features were compared, the scores on the subscales 'overprotective' and 'favouring subject' for mothers and 'abusive' and 'depriving' for fathers were higher in the former subgroup, whereas that on the subscale 'performance oriented' for fathers was higher in the latter. No significant difference was observed among patients suffering from the various subtypes of epilepsy. These results are consistent with the idea that parents of epileptics tend to encourage passivity in their children, have low expectations as regards their ability to operate effectively, and treat them in a more indulgent way because of their disability. Furthermore, they are in line with the reported association between maternal overprotectiveness and problem behaviour in epileptics.