Epidemiology of rabies virus variants. Differentiation using monoclonal antibodies and discriminant analysis

Rabies virus was isolated by cell culture from the brains of 104 confirmed rabies cases diagnosed by the fluorescent-antibody staining technique in the United States during 1974-1984. Eighty-seven isolates were obtained from wild-life species, 10 from humans, and seven from domestic animals. These isolates were tested in virus neutralization and immunofluorescence assays using a panel of 34 monoclonal antibodies specific for rabies virus nucleocapsid protein, 44 monoclonal antibodies specific for rabies virus glycoprotein, and two monoclonal antibodies specific for rabies virus nucleocapsid-associated phosphoprotein. Using discriminant analysis, a distinctly different reactivity pattern was revealed between virus isolates from terrestrial (raccoon, skunk) and nonterrestrial (bat) reservoir hosts. The usefulness of this approach for studying the epidemiology of rabies and for predicting the source of infection when this information is unknown is discussed.     

Successful management of hepatic abscesses by percutaneous catheter drainage in chronic granulomatous disease

Chronic granulomatous disease (CGD) is a disorder of polymorphonuclear leukocytes that can cause multiple recurrent hepatic abscesses in 40% of those patients with the disorder. The mortality rate from this complication of CGD is estimated at 27%. Treatment has consisted of extensive surgical debridement and drainage and prolonged antibiotic therapy; however, this approach is accompanied by high morbidity and the frequent need for reoperation. Successful percutaneous drainage of multiple hepatic abscesses in a patient who had previously undergone 10 operative procedures to manage hepatic abscesses is reported. With the development of imaging and percutaneous drainage techniques, as well as the recurrent nature of this problem, percutaneous management should be given consideration in appropriate patients with CGD with hepatic abscesses.     

Endogenous inhibitory system in pain

Electrical stimulation of several brain sites produces profound analgesia in humans, and inhibits nocifensor reflexes in animal studies. Responses of the dorsal horn nociceptive neurons evoked by stimulation onto the receptive fields are also inhibited by brain stimulation. These brain sites are Periaqueductal Gray Matter (PAG), Nucleus Raphe Magnus (NRM), Nucleus Reticularis magnocellularis (NRmc), Locus Coeruleus (LC), Lateral Hypothalamus, and others. We have explained in a general way the mechanism of these stimulation produced analgesia. The mechanism of PAG stimulation analgesia is partly due to an activation of serotonin containing neurons which descend from NRM to the spinal dorsal horn and activated by PAG stimulation. Activation of NRM neurons may produce inhibition of the nociceptive neurons of the dorsal horn by the mechanism of direct postsynaptic inhibition. Currently there is no evidence to support the theory of presynaptic inhibition. Endogenous opioid peptides do not play an important role in PAG stimulation analgesia. On the other hand, the mechanism of NRmc or LC stimulation analgesia may be due to an activation of noradrenaline containing neurons which similarly inhibit the dorsal horn nociceptive neurons in the spinal cord. At present, it still remains unknown whether endogenous opioid peptides play an important role in this type of analgesia.     

Localization of epileptogenic foci using a simple reference-subtraction montage to document small interchannel time differences

We present a modified EEG montage that detects small interchannel time differences and assists in localizing the epileptogenic focus. Regions with apparently synchronous epileptic discharges are displayed simultaneously in referential and subtraction derivations. The subtraction derivation is a bipolar configuration of two regions of interest that are not necessarily adjacent. The referential derivation reveals the polarity, voltage, and morphology of the two discharges, and the subtraction derivation detects asynchrony; the combined reference-subtraction derivation thus indicates the region that is activated first.     

Neuroradiological analysis of small infarcts in deep subcortical structure detected by CT

We studied angiographic findings of 56 patients who were diagnosed as lacunar infarcts in the basal ganglia or deep subcortical white matter based on clinical symptomatology and brain computed tomography. In 26 patients with CT lesions less than 15 mm in diameter, only eight (31%) showed minor angiographic findings. In 30 patients with lesion of 15 mm or more, however, 22 (73%) had abnormal angiographic findings. Fourteen of the 22 patients had minor irregularities, three had 25-75% stenosis, five had 75% less than stenosis at the bifurcation of the common carotid artery or the horizontal portion of the middle cerebral artery. Our findings support the notion that a small lesion on CT can result from an occlusion of the perforating artery itself and a larger lesion is much related to the major vessel or heart diseases, i.e., emboli from the parent artery or heart, obstruction of perforators at their origin by an atheromatous plaque of the horizontal portion of the middle cerebral artery, or terminal zone infarct due to hemodynamically significant stenotic lesion. In patients with a larger deep infarct on CT, further investigation of the arteries in the carotid-axis and heart is important for determination of therapeutic indication.     

Silent period induced by cutaneous stimulation.

An electrical stimulus applied to a cutaneous nerve during isometric muscle contraction causes a suppression of EMG activity (silent period) followed by a rebound. The extent of inhibition is related to the stimulus intensity as the silent period is more evident when stimulation is perceived as painful. The silent period is present in different limb and cranial muscles after stimulation of the same cutaneous nerve and in the same muscle after stimulation of distant cutaneous nerves. It also occurs synchronously in antagonist muscles. Within the silent period induced after cutaneous stimulation the maximal inhibition on the opponens pollicis motor neuron pool, as tested by the motor response evoked after transcranial cortical stimulation, occurs between 50 and 70 msec. Using the double stimulus technique to study the recovery cycle, the silent period is present at interstimulus intervals as low as 100 msec, and does not habituate with trains of stimuli at frequencies up to 5 Hz. Our results suggest that motor neuron inhibition from nociceptive stimulation may be mediated by Renshaw cells directly activated by high threshold cutaneous afferents.     

Neoplastic meningitis.

Neoplastic meningitis appears to be increasing in frequency with improvements in the treatment of many cancers. It is most often recognized in patients with leukemia, breast cancer, lymphomas, and small-cell cancer of the lung, although it may be seen with virtually any malignancy. Treatment should include intrathecal chemotherapy, radiation therapy to symptomatic areas of the CNS, and optimal therapy of the systemic cancer. New efforts are underway to decrease the toxicity and improve the efficacy of antineoplastic therapy for this devastating complication of cancer.     

Ubiquitin in motor neuron disease: study at the light and electron microscope.

Several neurodegenerative diseases, including motor neuron disease (MND), are characterized by formation of abnormal cytoskeleton-derived inclusions which contain ubiquitin (Ubq). We have studied the distribution of Ubq in 26 cases of MND with light and electron microscopic immunocytochemistry. Ubiquitin-positive inclusions were found in neurons of anterior horns in most cases of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) but were not present in other forms of MND. Ubiquitin immunoreactivity was observed in 10-15 nm intraneuronal filaments, which were not stained by antibodies to neurofilaments, and on dense bodies of dystrophic neurites throughout the neuropil of anterior horns and pyramidal tracts. Data analysis showed a trend toward lower percentage of Ubq-positive neurons in cases with longer duration of illness or lower number of neurons. A high percentage of Ubq-positive inclusions occurred in cases with an aggressive clinical course, suggesting that ubiquitination takes place at early stages of the disease.