Disseminated intracerebral alveolar echinococcosis: CT and MRI

Cerebral alveolar echinococcosis is rare and has a poor prognosis. We report an unusual case presenting with disseminated intracranial lesions secondary to primary hepatic infection. Received: 2 May 1996 Accepted: 23 August 1996     

Coronary stenting for coronary artery narrowing in a heart transplant recipient

Transplant atherosclerotic coronary disease remains the leading cause of death in heart transplant recipients. We report the first case of coronary stent implantation in a heart graft for epicardial focal stenosis. Due to the lower rate of restenosis after stenting in the native coronary artery, we suggest that coronary stenting be considered an acceptable, first intention therapeutic option instead of angioplasty alone whenever possible.     

Experience with thoracoscopic pleurodesis in the treatment of idiopathic spontaneous pneumothorax

Between January 1987 and December 1988 thoracoscopic pleurodesis has been used as a standard treatment for idiopathic spontaneous pneumothorax. Bullae were electrocoagulated, and visceral and parietal pleurae were cauterized. Chemical pleurodesis with 50% glucose-solution was added. 34 procedures were performed on 32 patients. The average hospital stay was 8 +/- 2 days. One patient suffered from postoperative Horner-syndrome. No other complications occurred. Patients were re-evaluated 11 +/- 8 months after the operation. Recurrence was found in four patients within 30 days. These patients underwent pleurectomy. Another patient had recurrence after two months. He was again and successfully treated by thoracoscopic pleurodesis. Our data show improvement of the results as compared with simple chemical pleurodesis.     

Central benzodiazepine receptors in human brain: estimation of regional Bmax and KD values with positron emission tomography.

Studies of central benzodiazepine receptors in the human brain in vivo are now possible using positron emission tomography (PET) and [11C]flumazenil. With the aim of measuring Bmax and Kd in brain regions, we used a two-injection [11C]flumazenil (at high and low specific radioactivity, respectively) pseudo-equilibrium paradigm to evaluate, in seven unmedicated healthy volunteers, the relative merits of three 'reference' structures (pons, hemispheric white matter and corpus callosum) in which the free radioligand concentration in brain tissue was estimated 15-40 min after i.v. injection of the radioligand. By means of high-resolution PET, the Bmax and Kd were calculated for each subject in 18 gray matter structures, based on a two-point Scatchard plot. We found that the use of the corpus callosum as reference often resulted in spurious Bmax and Kd values. The pons was the best reference structure because it provided satisfactory Bmax values (closest to in vitro data) and most consistent Kd values, and was the region easiest to sample on PET images. The pattern of regional Bmax was consistent with that expected from in vitro studies, with values highest in the cerebral cortex, intermediate in the cerebellum, and lowest in the striatum and the thalamus. The Kd values were uniform among regions and were consistent with earlier in vitro and in vivo data. This work documents the feasibility of estimating Bmax and Kd of central benzodiazepine receptors in multiple brain regions for clinical research.     

Linear relationship between the maintenance of hippocampal long-term potentiation and retention of an associative memory.

The hypothesis that the maintenance or decay of an associative memory trace after an extended retention interval is a function of the residual strength of the synapses originally strengthened during learning was examined in a classical conditioning paradigm in which high-frequency stimulation of a hippocampal input--the medial perforant path--served as a conditioned stimulus. Rats received perforant path stimulus-foot shock pairings while engaged in a previously acquired food-motivated lever-pressing task. Conditioned suppression of lever pressing was the behavioral measure of learning and retention of the association. Stimulus trains to the perforant path at an intensity above the threshold for eliciting a population spike induced long-term potentiation of synaptic transmission in the dentate gyrus. Synaptic potentials recorded extracellularly in the dentate gyrus were subsequently monitored for 31 days to examine quantitatively the decay of synaptic potentiation, a period after which retention of the learned association was assessed. All rats learned the association to a similar extent and displayed equivalent amounts of long-term potentiation by the end of conditioning. A slowly decaying function of synaptic potentiation was observed in remembering rats, i.e., rats with high retention performance after the 31-day learning-to-retention interval, while forgetting was associated with a rapid decay of long-term potentiation. Behavioral performance at the long-term memory test was linearly correlated with the amplitude of long-term potentiation maintained just prior to the retention test. The results favor the hypothesis that long-term associative memory depends, at least in part, on the maintenance of elevated synaptic strengths in the pathway activated during learning and suggest a role for the lasting component of long-term potentiation in the maintenance of memory.     

The prognostic value of evoked responses from primary somatosensory and auditory cortex in comatose patients.

OBJECTIVE: To evaluate somatosensory and auditory primary cortices using somatosensory evoked potentials (SEPs) and middle latency auditory evoked potentials (MLAEPs) in the prognosis of return to consciousness in comatose patients. METHODS: SEPs and MLAEPs were recorded in 131 severe comatose patients. Latencies and amplitudes were measured. Coma had been caused by transient cardiac arrest (n=49), traumatic brain injury (n=22), stroke (n=45), complications of neurosurgery (n=12) and encephalitis (n=3). One month after the onset of coma patients were classified as awake, still comatose or dead. Three months after (M3), they were classified into one of the 5 categories of the Glasgow outcome scale (GOS). RESULTS: At M3, 41.2% were dead, 47.3% were conscious (GOS 3-5) and 11.5% had not recovered consciousness. None of the patients in whom somatosensory N20 and auditory Pa were absent did return to consciousness and in the post-anoxic group, reduced cortical amplitude too was always associated with bad outcome. Conversely, N20 and Pa were present, respectively, in 33/69 and 34/69 patients who did not recover. CONCLUSIONS: The prognostic value of SEPs and MLAEPs in comatose patients depends on the cause of coma. Measurement of response amplitudes is informative. Abolition of cortical SEPs and/or cortical MLAEPs precludes post-anoxic comatose patients from returning to consciousness (100% specificity). In any case, the presence of short latency cortical somatosensory or auditory components is not a guarantee for return to consciousness. Late components should then be recorded.     

Purification and characterization of a kinase specific for the serine- and arginine-rich pre-mRNA splicing factors.

Members of the SR family of pre-mRNA splicing factors are phosphoproteins that share a phosphoepitope specifically recognized by monoclonal antibody (mAb) 104. Recent studies have indicated that phosphorylation may regulate the activity and the intracellular localization of these splicing factors. Here, we report the purification and kinetic properties of SR protein kinase 1 (SRPK1), a kinase specific for SR family members. We demonstrate that the kinase specifically recognizes the SR domain, which contains serine/arginine repeats. Previous studies have shown that dephosphorylated SR proteins did not react with mAb 104 and migrated faster in SDS gels than SR proteins from mammalian cells. We show that SRPK1 restores both mobility and mAB 104 reactivity to a SR protein SF2/ASF (splicing factor 2/alternative splicing factor) produced in bacteria, suggesting that SRPK1 is responsible for the generation of the mAb 104-specific phosphoepitope in vivo. Finally, we have correlated the effects of mutagenesis in the SR domain of SF2/ASF on splicing with those on phosphorylation of the protein by SRPK1, suggesting that phosphorylation of SR proteins is required for splicing.     

Evidence for a direct stimulatory effect of cibenzoline on insulin secretion in rats.

The effect of cibenzoline succinate, a new antiarrhythmic agent, was studied on insulin secretion in rats. Experiments were performed both in vivo and in vitro using two preparations: the isolated perfused pancreas and isolated islets. In anaesthetized rats, cibenzoline was able to increase plasma insulin levels and to reduce glycaemia. These effects were observed at 1 mg/kg i.v. in fed rats and at 3 mg/kg i.v. in fasted rats. In the isolated pancreas perfused in the presence of a slightly stimulating glucose concentration (8.3 mM), cibenzoline (2 and 6 microM) elicited a progressive and sustained insulin response in a concentration-dependent manner. In the presence of a non-stimulating glucose concentration (4.2 mM), cibenzoline was ineffective at 2 microM and slightly increased basal insulin release at 6 microM. In isolated islets incubated with 8.3 mM glucose, cibenzoline (6 and 20 microM) caused a concentration-dependent stimulation of insulin release. It is concluded that cibenzoline stimulates insulin secretion by a direct action on pancreatic B cells in rats.