Linear parameters of normal and abnormal cava septi pellucidi: a post-mortem study

Anatomical variations in the dimensions of different brain structures have been correlated with clinical syndromes. This study on the parameters of normal and abnormal cavum septi pellucidi (CSP) can be of clinical significance. We obtained 479 brains from autopsied persons (310 males and 169 females, 377 normal or asymptomatic and 102 abnormal or symptomatic persons, aged 22-89 years) and observed that 110 brains (75 males and 35 females) had CSP. These cava were classified into two groups depending on the past medical histories of the autopsied person: 40 asymptomatic and 70 symptomatic cava. We have defined symptomatic cava as those in autopsied persons who had known past medical history of psychiatric or neurological disease. Asymptomatic cava were in autopsied persons who had no known past medical history of psychiatric or neurological disease. The CSP parameters (length, width, depth) of the symptomatic and asymptomatic groups were measured and were statistically analyzed. Analysis showed that the cava in the symptomatic group were significantly longer and wider. Discriminant function analysis was used to derive a mathematical formula to classify CSP into an asymptomatic or symptomatic group based on length and width measurements of the cavum.     

Results of the first international round robin for the quantification of urinary and plasma hepcidin assays: need for standardization

The recently discovered iron regulatory peptide hormone hepcidin holds promise as a novel biomarker in iron metabolism disorders. To date, various mass spectrometry and immunochemical methods have been developed for its quantification in plasma and urine. Differences in methodology and analytical performance hinder the comparability of data. As a first step towards method harmonization, several hepcidin assays were compared. Worldwide eight laboratories participated in a urinary and plasma round robin in which hepcidin was analyzed. For both urine and plasma: (i) the absolute hepcidin concentrations differed widely between methods, (ii) the between-sample variation and the analytical variation of the methods are similar. Importantly, the analytical variation as percentage of the total variance is low for all methods, indicating their suitability to distinguish hepcidin levels of different samples. Spearman correlations between methods were generally high. The round robin results inform the scientific and medical community on the status and agreement of the current hepcidin methods. Ongoing initiatives should facilitate standardization by exchanging calibrators and representative samples.     

Effects of beta-adrenoceptor blockade on the phenotypic characteristics of thymocytes and peripheral blood lymphocytes

The study revealed that beta-adrenoceptor blockade with propranolol (0.40 mg/100 g/day, s.c.) in adult male DA rats: (i) increased the thymocyte proliferation and apoptosis, (ii) caused disturbances in kinetics of T cell differentiation leading to distinguishable changes in relative proportion of thymocytes at distinct maturational steps and to an expansion of the most mature single positive (CD4+, CD8+) thymocyte pool, (iii) affected the relative proportion of neither CD4+ nor CD8+ peripheral blood lymphocytes (PBL), and (iv) augmented the relative number of CD8+CD25+ cells. Thus, the results suggest the role of beta-adrenoceptors in fine-tuning of T cell maturation, and, possibly, distribution and activation of distinct PBL subsets.     

Serial position learning effects in patients with aneurysms of the anterior communicating artery

Ruptured and repaired Anterior Communicating Artery (ACoA) aneurysm can result in devastating impairments involving memory, executive function, confabulation, and personality changes. This study tested serial position learning effects (SPEs) in patients following repaired and ruptured ACoA aneurysm, using results on the Rey Auditory Verbal Learning Test (RAVLT). Thirty patients with ruptured aneurysms of the ACoA and 31 matched controls were included in the study. The primacy-recency effects were maintained during five learning trials in ACoA group, albeit at an overall lower level than in the controls. There was no difference in primacy-recency relation across five learning trials in ACoA group. On the delayed recall trial the patient group demonstrated neither a primacy, nor a recency phenomenon, reflecting a lack of recall of any parts of the word list. This kind of primacy-recency profile across learning trials in ACoA group has no similarity with SPE results in frontal lesion groups, or with SPE distributions in other amnesic disorders, despite the fact that memory and executive deficits were evident in our ACoA group.     

Surgical management of cerebral metastases from melanoma: outcome in 147 patients treated at a single institution over two decades

OBJECT: The aim of this study was to review the outcome of patients who underwent surgery for treatment of cerebral metastatic melanoma. METHODS: A retrospective analysis was performed in 147 patients with cerebral metastases from melanoma who were treated surgically at a single institution between 1979 and 1999. Almost all patients underwent postoperative wholebrain radiation therapy. The mean patient age was 53 years (range 17-76 years); 69% of patients were male. A single cerebral metastasis was identified in 84% of patients, although 56% had synchronous extracranial metastases. The 30-day postoperative mortality rate was 2% and neurological symptoms resolved or improved in 78% of patients. Recurrence of intracerebral disease was seen in 55% of patients and 26% died of intracerebral metastases. Twenty-four patients underwent reoperation for recurrent cerebral disease. The median survival duration from the time of surgery for all patients was 8.5 months; the 3- and 5-year survival rates were 9% and 5%, respectively. Factors that significantly influenced survival on univariate analysis were the number of cerebral metastases (p = 0.015), a macroscopically complete excision (p < 0.05), and reoperation for recurrence (p = 0.02). The presence of extracranial metastases did not significantly influence survival. On multivariate analysis only the number of cerebral metastases significantly affected survival (p = 0.04). CONCLUSIONS: For the majority of patients with cerebral metastases from melanoma, surgery with adjuvant radiation therapy is a treatment option that improves neurological symptoms and produces minimal morbidity. Long-term survival (> 3 years) most likely occurs in patients with a single cerebral metastasis and no demonstrable extracranial disease. Reoperation for recurrent cerebral disease may be appropriate in selected cases.     

Development,basic characteristics and empirical norms of the DSQ-40 psychological test

Psychological defence mechanisms represent relatively stable aspect of personality, while character and frequency of defence mechanisms which a person uses, points to the character structure of personality. Measuring psychological defence mechanisms is very difficult and very unreliable, so that only several instruments have been developed for the estimation of such characteristics. The most notable instrument of this kind in the world is DSQ-40 (Defense Style Questionnaire), which has lately been more often used in our country. As DSQ-40 is still not widely known in our environment, the aim of this study was to represent the onset and the development of this test, its basic characteristics and empirical norms acquired on our population. Examination included two examined groups in military population of male sex only: soldiers of adolescent age (n = 400) and officers of the adult age (n = 165). Statistical analysis and the comparison of the results with corresponding standards obtained in foreign researches showed that defence style and structure of psychological defence mechanisms were connected with socio-demographic and cultural characteristics of examinees. It was concluded that norms of the test DSQ-40 must be adjusted to the concrete population, which hasn't diminished its practical values and employment in diagnostic and selection purposes.