先天性心脏病导管介入治疗对小儿生长发育和内分泌功能的影响

目的　了解先天性心脏病 (CHD)导管介入治疗对患儿生长发育和内分泌功能的影响。方法　测定 4 2例CHD患儿导管介入治疗前后的身高、体重和三碘甲状腺原氨酸 (T3)、甲状腺素 (T4 )、促甲状腺素 (TSH)、生长激素(HGH)。结果　治疗前后身高、体重的增长速度明显改善 ,而T3、T4、TSH、HGH无明显改变。结论　导管介入治疗能明显改善先心病患儿生长发育而不会影响患儿的内分泌功能     

西部区域经济跨越式发展的动力建构和路径选择

跨越式发展是经济发展相对落后地区在借鉴和吸收先进国家和地区成功经验和优秀成果的基础上 ,通过技术和生产力的跨越、管理和制度的创新、产业结构的优化升级、经济运行质量的提升、速度和效益的并进 ,不平衡推进和超常规增长 ,最终实现经济整体跃升的一种新的发展模式。在国家宏观政策和市场机制的双重作用下 ,充分利用各种有利条件 ,努力实现区域经济跨越式发展已成为西部地区的必然选择。积极推进区域制度创新、技术创新和文化创新 ,构建西部区域经济跨越式发展的动力系统 ,既是西部区域经济跨越式发展的必由之路 ,也是西部地区当前面临的主要任务。在路径选择上必须把发挥比较优势和发挥后发优势有机结合起来 ,使二者相得益彰 ,从而走出一条具有西部特色的跨越式发展之路。     

Risperidone exerts potent anti-aggressive effects in a developmentally immature animal model of escalated aggression.

BACKGROUND: Risperidone has been shown to be clinically effective for the treatment of aggressive behavior in children, yet no information is available regarding whether risperidone exhibits aggression-specific suppression in preclinical studies that use validated developmentally immature animal models of escalated aggression. Previously, we have shown that exposure to low doses of the psychostimulant cocaine-hydrochloride (.5 mg/kg intraperitoneally) during the majority of pubertal development (postnatal days [P]27-57) generates animals that exhibit a high level of offensive aggression. This study examined whether risperidone exerts selective aggression-suppressing effects by using this pharmacologic animal model of highly escalated offensive aggression. METHODS: Experimental hamsters were tested for offensive aggression after the acute administration of risperidone (.05-1.0 mg/kg, intraperitoneally). RESULTS: Risperidone dose-dependently reduced the highly aggressive phenotype, with a significant reduction observed at .1-.2 mg/kg for most aggressive responses measured. Experimental animals treated with higher doses of risperidone (.3-1.0 mg/kg) showed significant reductions in aggression and social interest toward intruders, indicating more general behavioral inhibition. CONCLUSIONS: These studies provide evidence that risperidone exerts specific aggression-suppressing effects in a developmentally immature animal model of escalated aggression.     

Maturation of executive function in autism.

BACKGROUND: Executive dysfunction has been reported at different ages in autism. It is not clear however, when this impairment emerges or how its expression is affected by development. METHODS: 61 non-mentally retarded autism participants (AUT) and 61 age, gender, and IQ matched typically developing participants (CON) were assessed with two oculomotor executive function tasks, the oculomotor delayed response task (ODR) and the antisaccade task (AS), as well as a visually-guided saccade sensorimotor task (VGS). RESULTS: The AUT group demonstrated impairments in response inhibition and spatial working memory at all ages tested. Developmental improvements in speed of sensorimotor processing and voluntary response inhibition were similar in both groups indicating sparing of some attentional control of behavior. Developmental progression in the speed of initiating a cognitive plan and maintaining information on line over time, however, was impaired in the AUT group indicating abnormal development of working memory. CONCLUSIONS: These results indicate that while executive dysfunction is present throughout development, there is evidence for both typical and atypical developmental progression of executive functions in autism. The plasticity suggested by the developmental improvements may have implications regarding appropriate developmental epochs and types of interventions aimed at enhancing cognitive capacities in individuals with autism.     

Leukaemia Inhibitory Factor or Related Factors Promote the Differentiation of Neuronal and Astrocytic Precursors within the Developing Murine Spinal Cord

Previously we have shown that leukaemia inhibitory factor (LIF) potentiates the development of murine spinal cord neurons in vitro , suggesting that it, or related factors, may play an important regulatory role in neuronal development. We have further investigated this role and show here that the generation of neurons in cultures of embryonic day 10 spinal cord cells is inhibited by antibodies to the β subunit of the LIF receptor. Since there are more undifferentiated precursors in antibody-treated cultures than in control and LIF-treated cultures, it is concluded that the primary action of LIF, or related molecules, is to promote neuronal differentiation, not precursor survival. In addition, the failure of LIF to support neuronal survival in the period immediately following differentiation suggests that the increased numbers of neurons generated with LIF are not attributable to its neurotrophic action. By selecting neuronal precursors on the basis of their inability to express class I major histocompatibility complex molecules, it was shown that LIF acted directly upon these cells and not via an intermediary cell. LIF also appears to be involved in regulating the differentiation of astrocytes, since it increases the number of glial fibrillary protein (GFAP)-positive cells present in the cultures and since the spontaneous production of GFAP-positive cells is blocked by antibodies to the LIF β receptor. These findings suggest that LIF or related factors promote the differentiation of neural precursors in the spinal cord, but that they are not involved in preferentially promoting precursors down a specific differentiation pathway.     

Expressed-emotion development and course of schizophrenic illness: considerations based on results of a CFI replication

This study examines the correlation between development of expressed emotion (EE) in relatives and course of illness of 99 DSM-III schizophrenic patients. Patients whose relatives were high EE at baseline and at the 2nd CFI approximately 20 months later had a poor prognosis at the very outset of the study and an unfavourable course of illness. They had a higher rehospitalisation rate, more symptoms, lower psychosocial assessment, and a poorer 2-year and even 8-year outcome. Patients from families with a fluctuating EE or a consistently low EE had better courses. Expessed emotion is therefore a valid predictor not only of symptomatic relapses, but also of other important aspects of schizophrenia. The connection between EE index and course of illness seerns not to be simply reactive or causal, but complex and non-uniform.     

Neuronal changes in the basolateral complex during development of the amygdala of the rat

Neuronal changes in the amygdala basolateral complex were studied during development and maturation in fetal and postnatal rat brains using morphometrical methods. Forty brains of animals of various ages were fixed in formalin, frozen and cut into 25 μm thick sections and stained with cresyl violet or haematoxylin and eosin (H&E). In cresyl violet preparations, the complex appeared for the first time on embryonic day (E)17 and was composed of two homogeneous nuclei—lateral and basolateral. On about the seventh postnatal day, each of these nuclei was divided into two parts—the first one into the dorsolateral and ventromedial and the second one into the anterior and posterior. Morphometric investigations showed a different increase of the neuronal and nuclear size in various parts of the basolateral complex up to postnatal day (P)14; after that time these parameters did not change significantly. The neuronal density and the total number of neurons stabilized at P7 in all parts of this complex, except for the dorsolateral part of the lateral nucleus in which a 30% decrease of the total number of cells was observed. From P14, in all nuclei under study, the total number of neurons did not change significantly.