Additional mechanical pleurodesis after thoracoscopic wedge resection and covering procedure for primary spontaneous pneumothorax

Background  Additional mechanical pleurodesis for the treatment of primary spontaneous pneumothorax (PSP) is believed to reduce the recurrence of PSP, and a covering procedure with absorbable mesh also shows comparable results. This study was conducted to determine whether additional mechanical pleurodesis would be effective in reducing recurrence after thoracoscopic wedge resection and covering procedure. Materials and methods  Between May 2003 and August 2005, 99 patients underwent thoracoscopic bullectomy with staple line covering with absorbable cellulose mesh and fibrin glue followed by an additional mechanical pleurodesis. These patients were compared with 98 patients who underwent thoracoscopic bullectomy with staple line coverage alone. Results  The additional mechanical pleurodesis group had findings comparable to those of the coverage group for duration of postoperative chest drainage, length of hospital stay, and complication rate. After median follow-up of 29.2 months, postoperative recurrence occurred in four patients (4.0%). Conclusions  Additional mechanical pleurodesis after covering procedure is also effective in decreasing postoperative recurrence of PSP.     

MRI derived brain atrophy in PSP and MSA-P

Abstract Progressive supranuclear palsy (PSP) and multiple system (MSA) atrophy are associated with progressive brain atrophy. Serial MRI can be applied in order to measure this change in brain volume and to calculate atrophy rates. We evaluated MRI derived whole brain and regional atrophy rates as potential markers of progression in PSP and the Parkinsonian variant of multiple system atrophy (MSA-P). 17 patients with PSP, 9 with MSA-P and 18 healthy controls underwent two MRI brain scans. MRI scans were registered, and brain and regional atrophy rates (midbrain, pons, cerebellum, third and lateral ventricles) measured. Sample sizes required to detect the effect of a proposed disease-modifying treatment were estimated. The effect of scan interval on the variance of the atrophy rates and sample size was assessed. Based on the calculated yearly rates of atrophy, for a drug effect equivalent to a 30% reduction in atrophy, fewer PSP subjects are required in each treatment arm when using midbrain rather than whole brain atrophy rates (183 cf. 499). Fewer MSA-P subjects are required, using pontine/cerebellar, rather than whole brain atrophy rates (164/129 cf. 794). A reduction in the variance of measured atrophy rates was observed with a longer scan interval. Regional rather than whole brain atrophy rates calculated from volumetric serial MRI brain scans in PSP and MSA-P provide a more practical and powerful means of monitoring disease progression in clinical trials.     

Universal grammar in the frontotemporal dementia spectrum: evidence of a selective disorder in the corticobasal degeneration syndrome

INTRODUCTION: While sentence comprehension has been reported to be defective in frontotemporal dementia (FTD), it is still unclear if this disorder reflects the presence of syntactic impairment, or may be attributed to other factors, such as executive or working memory dysfunction. In order to assess the status of syntactic knowledge in a group of patients belonging to the FTD spectrum, we investigated their ability to detect violations of Universal Grammar principles in a sentence judgement task. METHODS: The group included four semantic dementia patients (SD), nine frontal variant of FTD patients (FvFTD), 15 progressive supranuclear palsy (PSP) patients, and 11 corticobasal degeneration syndrome (CBDS) patients. Their performance was compared to a group of 10 patients with mild probable Alzheimer disease (AD) and to 10 healthy volunteers. The patients underwent a standard aphasia test and a sentence comprehension test. The experimental study included five kinds of violations: semantic coherence (SC), verb-subject agreement (VSAgr), pronominalization involving clitic movement (ClM), interrogatives (WhS) and contrastive focus constructions (CFC). RESULTS: The FTD patients performed within normal range in the aphasia test, and in the sentence comprehension test. Within the FTD subgroups, only patients with CBDS were significantly impaired in detecting three of the five kinds of violations. AD patients were also impaired in the detection of WhS and SC anomalies and in sentence comprehension. DISCUSSION: The present findings indicate that, within the FTD spectrum, an impairment of syntactic knowledge can be found only in CBDS patients, even in the absence of clinical evidence of aphasia.     

ELISA法测定贝毒素污染的研究

目的 探讨以ELISA检测麻痹性贝毒素(PSP)、腹泻性贝毒素(DSP)、神经性贝毒素(NSP)的可行性,并对深圳市污染状况调查.方法 采用ELISA检测PSP、DSP、NSP,对抽样的深圳市贝类样品进行检测.结果 PSP浓度为0.02～0.32μg/kg之间的标准曲线R=0.996,变异系数(CV,％)为2.4～8.3,回收率为88.7％～105.0％; DSP浓度为0.20～5.00μg/kg之间的标准曲线R=0.995,变异系数(CV,％)为1.5～8.0,回收率为89.6％～116.0％; NSP浓度为0.10～2.50μg/kg之间的标准曲线R=0.993,变异系数(CV,％)为2.2～9.5,回收率为88.7％～111.6％.结论 ELISA法检测三种贝毒均具有灵敏度高、干扰少、测定步骤简便、快速、操作安全、结果准确可靠的优点,适合作为快速筛选方法.     

黄精多糖对阿托伐他汀在大鼠体内药代动力学的影响

目的 建立测定大鼠血浆中阿托伐他汀含量的高效液相色谱法,研究黄精多糖对阿托伐他汀在大鼠体内药代动力学的影响.方法 采用高效液相法测定大鼠灌胃给予阿托伐他汀(对照组)及阿托伐他汀+黄精多糖(试验组)后血浆中的阿托伐他汀浓度,经DAS2.11软件计算药动学参数.结果 对照组与试验组血药浓度-时间值经DAS2.11软件处理,根据各组数据统计对照组与试验组的主要药动学参数,结果表明,对照组与试验组在大鼠体内的各项药代动力学参数差异无统计学意义.结论 黄精多糖对阿托伐他汀在大鼠体内的药代动力学无明显影响.     

Characterizing behavioral and cognitive dysexecutive changes in progressive supranuclear palsy.

Frontal lobe dysfunction is a prominent feature of many neurological disorders. Early diagnosis may be enhanced by establishing a profile of cognitive, behavioral, and emotional change. Traditional psychometric assessment focuses on cognitive dysfunction and fails to identify behavioral changes, particularly those associated with orbitofrontal dysfunction. We examined progressive supranuclear palsy (PSP), a prototypical subcortical dementia with frontal features, using commonly available neuropsychological measures and a modification of the Katz Adjustment Scale-Relatives (KAS-R), an instrument first developed to assess dysexecutive changes in head-injured patients. Executive tests identified deficits in reasoning, planning, set shifting, verbal fluency, information processing speed, and response initiation. On the KAS-R, changes in apathy, social withdrawal, and independence were observed, with little change in belligerence, social irresponsibility, uncooperativeness, obstreperousness, anxiety, and depression. The results show the potential utility of this instrument in characterizing behavioral and emotional changes associated with frontal lobe dysfunction in neurodegenerative disease.     

Concomitant progressive supranuclear palsy and multiple system atrophy: More than a simple twist of fate?

Progressive supranuclear palsy (PSP) and multiple system atrophy (MSA) are both rare neurodegenerative diseases. In the Queen Square Brain Bank, from 2001 to 2008, we received 120 cases of pathologically confirmed PSP and 36 of MSA, and one had concomitant PSP and MSA pathology. The clinical symptoms in this case were compatible with PSP and did not predict the dual pathology. The growing number of collective case reports, including the one reported here, might suggest an increased prevalence of concomitant PSP and MSA than what would be expected by chance.     

Selective detection of saxitoxin over tetrodotoxin using acridinylmethyl crown ether chemosensor.

At pH 7.1, saxitoxin decomposes to produce a trace impurity that can interfere with fluorescence sensing when using irradiation wavelengths near 325 nm. The fluorophore acridine is found to be a suitable component of arylmethyl crown ether chemosensors for the fluorescent detection of saxitoxin. These sensors are selective for the detection of saxitoxin over tetrodotoxin.