From neural signatures of emotional modulation to social cognition: individual differences in healthy volunteers and psychiatric participants

It is commonly assumed that early emotional signals provide relevant information for social cognition tasks. The goal of this study was to test the association between (a) cortical markers of face emotional processing and (b) social-cognitive measures, and also to build a model which can predict this association (a and b) in healthy volunteers as well as in different groups of psychiatric patients. Thus, we investigated the early cortical processing of emotional stimuli (N170, using a face and word valence task) and their relationship with the social-cognitive profiles (SCPs, indexed by measures of theory of mind, fluid intelligence, speed processing and executive functions). Group comparisons and individual differences were assessed among schizophrenia (SCZ) patients and their relatives, individuals with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), individuals with euthymic bipolar disorder (BD) and healthy participants (educational level, handedness, age and gender matched). Our results provide evidence of emotional N170 impairments in the affected groups (SCZ and relatives, ADHD and BD) as well as subtle group differences. Importantly, cortical processing of emotional stimuli predicted the SCP, as evidenced by a structural equation model analysis. This is the first study to report an association model of brain markers of emotional processing and SCP.     

Characterization of "Yaa Chud" Medicine on the Thailand-Myanmar border: selecting for drug-resistant malaria and threatening public health

Multidrug-resistant Plasmodium falciparum malaria is a severe public health problem on the Thailand-Myanmar border. Many villagers buy packets of 4-5 mixed medicines ("yaa chud") from shops without medical assessment as their first-line malaria treatment. In 2000-2001 a local researcher purchased 50 yaa chud from 44 shops around Mae Sot, Thailand and Myawaddy, Myanmar (Burma), for his wife who was said to be pregnant with fever and drowsiness. The tablets/capsules were provisionally identified by appearance and active ingredients determined in a subset by using mass and atomic spectrometry. The most frequently detected active ingredients were acetaminophen (22%), chlorpheniramine (13.4%), chloroquine (12.6%), tetracycline/doxycycline (11.4%), and quinine (5.1%). Only seven bags contained potentially curative medicine for malaria. A total of 82% of the bags contained medicines contraindicated in pregnancy. Inappropriate, ineffective antimalarial drugs on the Thailand-Myanmar border are likely to increase malaria morbidity, mortality and health costs and engender the emergence and spread of antimalarial drug resistance.     

The patterns of use and factors associated with the patient admission of hospital emergencies for asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease

The aim of this study was to describe the epidemiological characteristics of emergencies caused by asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) at the Hospital Clínico Universitario of Valencia (Spain) and to analyze factors related to hospital admissions for the same causes. Emergency room medical records for 1993 to 1995 of patients older than 14 years of age were examined to identify those due to asthma or COPD, according to established protocol. Demographic variables were described, followed by Poisson regression analysis of time and seasonal factors affecting emergencies. Factors related to hospital admission were analyzed by logistic regression, taking into account age group, sex, place of residence, and the year, month, day and hour of emergency room arrival. Asthma patients amounted to 1% of emergencies, while COPD patients accounted for 2%. The admission rate for women with asthma was higher than for men (F/M ratio = 0.78), whereas the rate for men with COPD was higher than for women (F/M ratio = 3.14). The largest age groups with asthma emergencies included young people aged 15 to 24 years old and those over 60. Hospital admissions or transfers to other hospitals were ordered for 17.4% of asthma patients and 38.8% of COPD patients. Nearly a third of COPD patients and a fifth of asthma patients were readmitted within the ten days following the first emergency. Clear temporal patterns of COPD emergency were observed for month (most occurring in winter), day of the week (most on Monday) and hour of the day (most during daytime hours, with fewer at midday). The time patterns were less evident for asthma emergencies, although the likelihood of admission because of asthma varied by month and day of the week. Emergency room records may be useful for studying the patterns of respiratory disease presentation. Other possible uses are epidemiologic monitoring and evaluation of health care quality.     

Antioxidant effects and anti-elastase activity of the calcium antagonist nicardipine on activated human and rabbit neutrophils--a potential antiatherosclerotic property of calcium antagonists?

Activated neutrophils which produce certain proteases, such as elastase and reactive oxygen species (ROS) are involved in oxidative stress and inflammation. In the present study, we have shown that nicardipine, a calcium channel blocker, affects the release of elastase and superoxide anion radicals (O₂ ^–) in vitro during human and rabbit neutrophil respiratory bursts. The drug inhibited the release of elastase and O₂ ^– by fMLP (N-formyl-methionylleucin-phenylalaninin), calcium ionophore (A23187) and PMA (phorbol-myristate-acetate)-stimulated human and rabbit neutrophils. Besides the release of elastase, strongly inhibited in the fMLP and A23187 stimulated systems, nicardipine affected elastase and O₂ ^– in a dose-dependent manner. The corresponding 50% inhibitory concentration (IC₅₀) of nicardipine for elastase, released in PMA-stimulated human and rabbit neutrophils, was 15.95 ± 0.17 M and 18.06 ± 0.08 M, respectively, whereas for O₂ ^–, the IC₅₀ of nicardipine in PMA, fMLP and A23187-stimulated human and rabbit neutrophils was 55.41 ± 0.09 M and 58.43 ± 0.03 M, 45.21 ± 0.13 M and 37.19 ± 0.53 M, 33.54 ± 0.09 M and 30.54 ± 0.29, respectively. The mechanisms underlying the inhibition of elastase and superoxide anion radicals by nicardipine appear related to an inhibiting effect on the mobilisation of cytosolic calcium and on activation of protein kinase C (PKC). These antioxidant and anti-elastasic activities contribute to the properties of nicardipine, as positive side effects of its antihypertensive activity and may be useful to prevent inflammatory disorders (tissue damage, oxidative injury) involved in the pathogenesis of hypertension.