Subacute posttraumatic ascending myelopathy (SPAM): A potential complication of subarachnoid shunt for syringomyelia?

Context: Treatment of primary spinal syringomyelia is still controversial. Among others, shunting syrinx fluid to the subarachnoid, peritoneal or pleural space has been utilized with varying success. Shunt obstruction, migration, and infection represent the most common complications of these procedures.

Findings: The authors present the case of an 81-year-old woman who developed an unusual neurological deterioration resembling a subacute posttraumatic ascending myelopathy (SPAM) after the insertion of a syringosubarachnoid shunt for the treatment of slow-growing D10 syringomyelia.

Conclusion/Clinical Relevance: To date, no cases of SPAM secondary to the insertion of a syringosubarachnoid shunt for the treatment of syringomyelia have been reported. The potential pathogenesis related to this phenomenon is discussed.     

Role of pulsed electromagnetic fields after joint replacements

Although the rate of patients reporting satisfaction is generally high after joint replacement surgery, up to 23% after total hip replacement and 34% after total knee arthroplasty of treated subjects report discomfort or pain 1 year after surgery. Moreover, chronic or subacute inflammation is reported in some cases even a long time after surgery. Another open and debated issue in prosthetic surgery is implant survivorship, especially when related to good prosthesis bone ingrowth. Pulsed Electro Magnetic Fields(PEMFs) treatment, although initially recommended after total joint replacement to promote bone ingrowth and to reduce inflammation and pain, is not currently part of usual clinical practice. The purpose of this review was to analyze existing literature on PEMFs effects in joint replacement surgery and to report results of clinical studies and current indications. We selected all currently available prospective studies or RCT on the use of PEMFs in total joint replacement with the purpose of investigating effects of PEMFs on recovery, pain relief and patients' satisfaction following hip, knee or shoulder arthroplasty. All the studies analyzed reported no adverse effects, and good patient compliance to the treatment. The available literature shows that early control of joint inflammation process in the first days after surgery through the use of PEMFs should be considered an effective completion of the surgical procedure to improve the patient's functional recovery.     

Motivated behavior and the estrous cycle in rats

(1) The estrous cycle in the rat may be used to study recurrent changes in motor behaviors and motivation which are strongly related to cyclic hormonal and CNS changes. (2) The peak in motivated behaviors occurs during a sharply defined period on the night between proestrus and estrus and is evident in facilitated wheel-running, lordosis, and intracranial self-stimulation. (3) Behaviors without a clearly motivated character do not show an estrous cyclicity. (4) The estrous cyclic variation in intracranial self-stimulation was observed at a specific locus — the pars campacta of the substantia nigra. (5) A neurochemical link between sexually motivated behavior, wheel running and intracranial self-stimulation is suggested. This link is in part dopaminergic but is probably also activated by many other systems.     

Cavo-portal transposition in rat: a new simple model

Background  

Liver transplantation in presence of diffuse portal vein thrombosis is possible by using caval blood as portal inflow, through cavo-portal transposition. However, clinical results are heterogeneous and experimental studies are needed, but similar hemodynamic conditions are difficult to obtain, especially in small animals. Herein we describe a new simple model of cavo-portal transposition in rat.     

Thermal behaviour of highly stereoregular syndiotactic polypropene from homogeneous catalysts

Thermal characterization was carried out on highly stereoregular and regioregular syndiotactic polypropene (sPP) obtained with isopropylidene(cyclopentadienyl)(9-fluorenyl)zirconium dichloride and methylaluminoxane. The influence of molecular weight and syndiotacticity degree on the thermodynamic melting point (T°_m) of sPP were separately investigated by examining samples with a fully syndiotactic pentads content (rrrr) ranging from ca. 81% to ca. 94% and with an weight-average molecular weight (M?_w) ranging from 9,6 · 10⁴ to 17,3 · 10⁴. Upon excluding any influence of the molecular weight, the correlation between the rrrr pentads content and the T°_m of the samples led to the extrapolation of the thermodynamic melting point for a fully syndiotactic polypropene.     

WHO and ATPIII proposals for the definition of the metabolic syndrome in patients with Type 2 diabetes.

AIMS: Different criteria have been proposed by the World Health Organization (WHO) and by the Third Report of the National Cholesterol Education Expert Panel on Detection, Evaluation, and Treatment of High Blood Cholesterol in Adults (ATPIII) for the diagnosis of the metabolic syndrome. Its identification is of particular importance for coronary risk assessment. METHODS: The prevalence of the metabolic syndrome was determined according to the two different proposals in 1569 consecutive subjects with Type 2 diabetes. RESULTS: By the WHO proposal, 81% of cases (95% confidence interval, 79-83) were labelled as metabolic syndrome. Microalbuminuria had the highest specificity (99%) and visceral obesity the highest sensitivity (93%). Seventy-eight per cent of patients (95% CI, 76-80) fulfilled the ATPIII criteria for metabolic syndrome, low HDL-cholesterol having the highest specificity (95%), elevated blood pressure having the highest sensitivity. According to both proposals, 1113 patients were positive; 183 were concordantly negative, indicative of a fairly good agreement (k statistics, 0.464). Subjects only positive for the WHO proposal were more frequently males, had a lower BMI and a higher arterial pressure. Only subjects identified by the ATPIII proposal had a significantly higher prevalence of previously detected coronary heart disease. CONCLUSIONS: Minimum criteria for the metabolic syndrome are met in most patients with Type 2 diabetes. Correct identification of the syndrome is important for an integrated approach to reduce the high costs and the associated disabilities. The ATPIII proposal more clearly identifies the burden of coronary heart disease associated with the metabolic syndrome.     

The clinical phenotypes of juvenile bipolar disorder: toward a validation of the episodic-chronic-distinction.

BACKGROUND: Recent research has addressed the issue of subtyping juvenile bipolar disorder (JBD). Accordingly, we set out to find out, in a naturalistic sample of bipolar children and adolescents with mania and mixed mania, whether the most useful subtyping should be based on clinical features (elated vs. irritable) or course (episodic vs. chronic). METHODS: We studied 136 patients, 81 male patients (59.6%) and 55 female patients (40.4%), mean age 13.5 +/- 2.9 years, meeting the DSM-IV diagnosis of bipolar disorder, assessed by a structured clinical interview (Schedule for Affective Disorders and Schizophrenia for School-Age Children-Present and Lifetime Version [K-SADS-PL]). RESULTS: Regarding course, 77 patients (56.6%) had an episodic course and 59 patients (43.4%) had a chronic course. Patients with chronic course were significantly younger, had an earlier onset of JBD, and presented a more frequent comorbidity with disruptive behavior disorders. According to the prevalent mood disturbance, 75 patients (55.1%) showed an elated and 61 patients (44.9%) showed an irritable mood. Elated mood was more frequent in patients with episodic course, whereas irritable mood was more frequent in the patients with chronic course. CONCLUSIONS: These findings suggest that chronic versus episodic course may be a putative differential feature. Further validation of such a distinction would require prospective studies, temperament evaluation, gender and neurobiologic approaches, and differential psychopharmacologic assignment and response.     

Effects of phorbol ester on carbachol-induced contraction in bovine ciliary muscle: possible involvement of protein kinase C

The aim of the research was to characterize muscarinic receptors of bovine ciliary muscle and to investigate the desensitization process. The role of protein kinase C was analyzed. The results show that muscarinic receptors of bovine ciliary muscle have the pharmacological characteristics of the M₃ subtype. Acute exposure to phorbol esters (1 μM phorbol 12,13-dibutyrate, PDB, or 0.1 μM phorbol 12-myristate 13-acetate, PMA, for 15 and 5 min, respectively) resulted in antagonism of muscarinic receptor-mediated contraction. Long-term pretreatment (18 h) with PMA to down-regulate protein kinase C resulted in potentiation of carbachol-induced contraction, reduction of agonist-induced desensitization and loss of phorbol ester-induced desensitization. Staurosporine (3 μM) and H₇ [1-(5-isoquinolinesulfonyl)-2-methyl-piperazine] (1 μM), protein kinase C inhibitors, produced a significant potentiation of the contractile effect of carbachol, reduced the desensitization produced by repeated addition of carbachol and suppressed that induced by phorbol esters. In vitro incubation with carbachol, PDB or PMA did not cause any modification of the binding of labeled [³H]quinuclidinyl benzilate. In vitro incubation with PDB and PMA produced, as expected, a significant translocation of protein kinase C from the cytosol to the membrane. The incubation of the ciliary muscle with carbachol, using the protocol of exposure that induced maximal desensitization of contractile responses, produced a significant redistribution of the enzyme from the cytosol to the membrane. These findings suggest that agonist-induced modulation of functional cholinergic sensitivity in ciliary muscle is correlated, at least partially, to the translocation of protein kinase C from the cytosol to the membrane. The desensitization by phorbol esters is completely due to protein kinase C activation; during the desensitization process, direct modification of the density and affinity of muscarinic receptors is not involved.