Diagnosis of serous neuroretinal detachments of the macula in severe preeclamptic patients with optical coherence tomography.

OBJECTIVE: Visual symptoms are common in patients with preeclampsia, and are caused by various underlying pathological changes in the retina. Blurred vision may be one of these symptoms. We describe three cases in which the underlying retinal pathology of blurred vision was clarified using optical coherence tomography (OCT), a novel, non-invasive ophthalmic imaging technique that provides micrometer-scale resolution images of the human retina. METHODS: Three patients with preeclampsia complained of blurred vision postpartum. In all cases, ophthalmoscopy was performed at the bedside, followed by the assessment of best corrected visual acuity, slit-lamp biomicroscopy, fluorescein angiography (FLA), and OCT. In all cases, the presence of central visual defects was examined by an Amsler-grid. RESULTS: In one case, the symptoms were bilateral. In all affected eyes, the patients complained of a relative central scotoma. Ophthalmoscopy showed edema in the affected maculae, while OCT examination clarified a serous neurosensory detachment of the macula. In one case, a neurosensory detachment was also detected in the papillomacular region of a fellow eye with no symptoms. In two cases, FLA was performed, but only in one case could we detect late leakage and subretinal exudates. The serous detachments observed showed total resolution in all cases within 5 to 10 weeks, with restoration of visual acuity. CONCLUSION: In patients with preeclampsia, OCT may provide a useful method for the precise assessment of retinal changes, distinguishing retinal edema from serous neurosensory detachments. This finding may help to clarify the pathophysiological circulatory changes seen in preeclampsia.     

A 1463 gene cattle-human comparative map with anchor points defined by human genome sequence coordinates

A second-generation 5000 rad radiation hybrid (RH) map of the cattle genome was constructed primarily using cattle ESTs that were targeted to gaps in the existing cattle-human comparative map, as well as to sparsely populated map intervals. A total of 870 targeted markers were added, bringing the number of markers mapped on the RH(5000) panel to 1913. Of these, 1463 have significant BLASTN hits (E < e(-5)) against the human genome sequence. A cattle-human comparative map was created using human genome sequence coordinates of the paired orthologs. One-hundred and ninety-five conserved segments (defined by two or more genes) were identified between the cattle and human genomes, of which 31 are newly discovered and 34 were extended singletons on the first-generation map. The new map represents an improvement of 20% genome-wide comparative coverage compared with the first-generation map. Analysis of gene content within human genome regions where there are gaps in the comparative map revealed gaps with both significantly greater and significantly lower gene content. The new, more detailed cattle-human comparative map provides an improved resource for the analysis of mammalian chromosome evolution, the identification of candidate genes for economically important traits, and for proper alignment of sequence contigs on cattle chromosomes.     

Cystoid macular edema in anterior chamber lens implantation following posterior capsule rupture

By comparing the incidence of cystoid macular edema (CME) in three groups of patients having different surgical procedures, we attempted to assess the role of vitreous loss as a risk factor for CME development. In the first group (n = 470), the surgical procedure was extracapsular cataract extraction followed by implantation of posterior chamber lens (EC-CE + PC-IOL). The second group (n = 42) had extracapsular cataract extraction which was complicated by posterior capsule rupture, and therefore anterior vitrectomy followed by implantation of anterior chamber lens had to be performed (ECCE + anterior vitrectomy + AC-IOL). In the third group (n = 22) the surgery was intracapsular cataract extraction followed by anterior chamber lens implantation (ICCE + AC-IOL). The third group was included in this follow up study to assess the role of AC-IOL as a possible causative factor for development of CME in uncomplicated cases of ICCE and AC-IOL. The difference of incidences of CME in the second and third group would therefore depend mostly on the vitreous loss. The incidence of CME diagnosed by fluorescein angiography in the first, second and third group was 1.5% (7/470), 35.7% (15/42) and 9.0% (2/22), respectively. All patients who developed CME were treated with combination of corticosteroid-antibiotic drops, dexamethasone retrobulbarly (40 mg/day) and peroral indomethacine (25 mg/day/6 weeks). This therapeutic regime resulted in only moderate improvement of visual acuity.Abbreviations AC-IOL anterior chamber intraocular lens - CME cystoid macular edema - ECCE extracapsular cataract extraction - ICCE intracapsular cataract extraction - IOL intraocular lens - PC-IOL posterior chamber intraocular lens     

Retained ability to extract gist in childhood-acquired amnesia: Insights from a single case

ABSTRACT

This paper presents the performance of a young amnesic person (CJ) in the DRM task. CJ was found to be sensitive to the DRM manipulation at a level comparable to controls in recognition and at a level higher than controls in free recall. Detailed analyses of recall intrusions lent further support to the finding that CJ is able to extract gist on the basis of semantic associations. Results are discussed with reference to relevant theory as well as the potential role of an impaired and immature cognitive system in adopting a semantic gist strategy in the absence of episodic memory.     

High normal serum levels of C3 and C1 inhibitor,two acute-phase proteins belonging to the complement system,occur more frequently in patients with Crohn's disease than ulcerative colitis

Few data are available on measurements of serum concentrations of complement proteins in inflammatory bowel disease (IBD). Therefore we measured serum levels of C3, C4, and C1-esterase inhibitor (C1-INH) as well as C-reactive protein (CRP) in 167 patients with Crohn's disease (CD) and 111 patients with ulcerative colitis (UC). Median serum concentrations of C3 and C1-INH were significantly higher in CD than in UC. According to multiple logistic regression analysis adjusted to age, sex, activity of disease, and presence of extraintestinal manifestations, IBD patients with high-normal (128%, 75th percentile ) C1-INH concentrations had significantly (0.0275) higher odds ratio to have a diagnosis of CD than UC. Patients with high-normal C3 (1.40 g/liter) and high (20 mg/liter) CRP concentrations had an even higher odds ratio of a CD diagnosis (P = 0.0132). Our findings indicate that measurement of C3, C1-INH, and CRP can be used as an additional marker to pANCA/ASCA for distinguishing patients with CD and UC.     

Substituted adamantylphthalimides: Synthesis,antiviral and antiproliferative activity

In this study, three groups of adamantylphthalimides, bearing different substituents at the phthalimide moiety, N-(4′-R²)phthalimidoadamantanes ( 1 – 7 ), 3-[N-(4′-R²)phthalimido]-1-adamantanols ( 8 – 10 ), and 3-[N-(4′-R²)phthalimido]adamantane-1-carboxylic acids ( 11 – 15 ), were synthesized and screened against tumor cells and viruses. The most potent compounds are not substituted at the adamantane and bear an OH or NH₂ substituent at the phthalimide (compounds 3 and 5 ). The antiproliferative activities of compounds 3 and 5 are in the micromolar range, much higher than the one of thalidomide. A minor antiviral activity against cytomegalovirus and varicella-zoster virus was found for compounds 3 and 5 , but these compounds lacked selectivity. The results presented are important for the rational design of the next-generation compounds with anticancer and antiviral activities.     

Positional cloning of the gene LIMBIN responsible for bovine chondrodysplastic dwarfism

Chondrodysplastic dwarfism in Japanese brown cattle is an autosomal recessive disorder characterized by short limbs. Previously, we mapped the locus responsible for the disease on the distal end of bovine chromosome 6. Here, we narrowed the critical region to approximately 2 cM by using linkage analysis, constructed a BAC and YAC contig covering this region, and identified a gene, LIMBIN (LBN), that possessed disease-specific mutations in the affected calves. One mutation was a single nucleotide substitution leading to an activation of a cryptic splicing donor site and the other was a one-base deletion resulting in a frameshift mutation. Strong expression of the Lbn gene was observed in limb buds of developing mouse embryos and in proliferating chondrocytes and bone-forming osteoblasts in long bones. These findings indicate that LBN is responsible for bovine chondrodysplastic dwarfism and has a critical role in a skeletal development.