Motor and non-motor sequence learning in children and adolescents with cerebellar damage.

Cerebellar involvement in motor and non-motor sequence learning was examined with serial reaction time tasks (SRT). Our sample consisted of 8 children and adolescents who had undergone surgical removal of a benign posterior fossa tumor (PFT) during childhood. None of them had undergone chemotherapy or cranial radiation therapy (CRT). Ages ranged from 1-11 years at surgery and 9-17 years at testing. The children were tested not earlier than 2.5 years after surgery (M = 5.9 years), enabling brain plasticity and recovery of functions. Their performance was compared with a matched control sample. The PFT group was not impaired in the implicit learning of sequences, as reflected in their performance in blocks with a repeated sequence, both before and after a random block. However, in the perceptual task, their performance deteriorated more than that of the control group when a random block was introduced, suggesting that it was more difficult for the patients to respond flexibly or change their response set when encountering changing task demands. These results are in line with another study by our group on task switching with the same patients.     

Postural stability by computerized posturography in minor head trauma

Mild head injuries are very common among young children. Often, these injuries are followed by a variety of subjective complaints termed posttraumatic syndrome. Posturography (balance test) was performed immediately after the trauma in 21 children who had sustained mild head injury. Significant difference in performance was observed in head-injured children in all subparts of the test as compared with a control group. We conclude that posturography may serve as a simple cost-effective method in qualifying the posttraumatic imbalance.     

The occurrence of obstructive vs absorptive hydrocephalus in newborns and infants: relevance to treatment choices

Background and objective The classification of hydrocephalus in newborns and in infants is different from the classification in adulthood. This difference exists due to disparity in the source pathologies that produce the hydrocephalus, and the practical distinctions in prognosis and treatment choices. The objective of this paper is to present the spectrum of obstructive-communicating hydrocephalus, which is more complex in the pediatric group, and to propose the relevance of this particular classification to treatment options. Materials and methods The authors categorized infants with active hydrocephalus at time of presentation into the following four groups along the spectrum of communicating vs obstructive HCP. Group 1: patients with a purely absorptive (communicating) HCP. In these patients, tetraventricular dilatation is usually observed with occasional extraaxial fluid accumulation. An extracranial CSF diversion (shunt) is the treatment of choice. Group 2: patients with an obstructive component together with a persistent absorptive component. In these patients, a technically successful endoscopic procedure will not prevent progression of clinical symptoms of HCP. An extracranial CSF diversion (shunt) should be the treatment of choice even though some of these patients are currently treated by endoscopy. Group 3: patients with an obstructive component together with a temporary absorptive component. In these patients, a technically successful ETV should be followed by temporary CSF drainage [via LP, continuous spinal drainage (CLD), or ventriculostomy] with or without supplemental medical treatment (i.e., Diamox) for several days. Such temporary drainage may decrease failure rate in this subgroup. Group 4: patients with a purely obstructive HCP. In these patients, an endoscopic procedure (ETV) is the treatment of choice. According to this spectrum classification, the authors classify different entities with representative cases and discuss relevancy to treatment options and prognosis. Results The data suggest that obstructive hydrocephalus in the very young population may be rather a combination of obstructive and absorptive problem. The outcome of the patient depends mainly not only on the basic pathology causing the hydrocephalus but also on the treatment that is chosen and its complications. While bleeding and infection represent the major causes for communicating hydrocephalus, patients with complex pathologies of congenital type and intra- or interventricular obstructions may reflect obstructive hydrocephalus. Treatment of these patients may be successful by shuntless procedures if the absorptive problem is not the major component. In transient absorptive hydrocephalus, temporary measures were effective in many cases leading to successful procedures of ETV and/or posterior-fossa decompression in selected cases. Conclusions Shuntless procedures are the dream of a pediatric neurosurgeon provided it solves the problem and does not imply unacceptable risk. However, the benefit has to be evaluated years after the procedure is performed, as only prospective multicenter studies will truly show which procedure may have the best overall results in the developing child. Until such studies are available, understanding the basic pathology or the combination of pathologies leading to hydrocephalus in a given child may open the window of opportunities for other than shunt surgery in many hydrocephalic children with major obstructive component.     

Assessment of a self-contained solid phase enzyme linked immunoassay (ImmunoComb) for the determination of serum total IgE

A semiquantitative method (ImmunoComb) for measuring total serum IgE is described and compared with a standard radioimmunoassay (PRIST). ImmunoComb, based on a solid-phase enzyme-linked immunoassay, is self-sufficient and does not require any expensive laboratory equipment. Comparison of these two assays revealed an almost absolute agreement between them (correlation coefficient = 0.95). Furthermore, the ImmunoComb assay also demonstrated its rapidity and temperature independence while maintaining a recovery of 90% to 102%.     

Consistency of strength curves for determining maximal effort production during isokinetic knee testing of anterior cruciate ligament-deficient patients

The purpose of this investigation was to attempt to establish decision rules for determining maximal effort production during isokinetic strength testing of unilateral anterior cruciate ligament-deficient patients based on the degree of strength curve consistency within a set. Thirty-three participants performed six bilateral knee extension and flexion exertions at maximal effort and at 80% of perceived maximum at testing velocities of 60 and 180°s^–1. Within-set consistency was quantified by computation of the variance ratio across strength curves. Tolerance interval-based cutoff scores covering 99% of the population were calculated for declaring efforts as being maximal or not at confidence levels of 90%, 95%, and 99%. The sensitivity percentages attained for the injured knee for both testing velocities ranged between 9.1% and 27.2%, while specificity percentages ranged between 84.8% and 100%. For the non-injured knee, sensitivity values for both testing velocities ranged between 21.2% and 45.0%, while specificity percentages ranged between 97.0% and 100%. The developed decision rules do not effectively discriminate on an individual patient basis between maximal and non-maximal isokinetic knee musculature efforts. Further research is needed for development of methods that would enable to ascertain maximal effort production in this patient population during knee muscle strength testing.     

Selective degradation of cyclin B1 mRNA in rat oocytes by RNA interference (RNAi)

Cyclic adenosine monophosphate (cAMP) keeps oocytes in meiotic arrest, thereby preventing activation of the key regulators of meiosis, p34cdc2/cyclin B1, (known as maturation-promoting factor (MPF)) and Erk 1 and 2, members of the mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAPK) family. The activity of MAPK in oocytes is upregulated by Mos. We previously demonstrated that Mos translation in rat oocytes is negatively regulated by a PKA-mediated cAMP action, which inhibits c-mos mRNA polyadenylation and is associated with the suppression of p34 cdc2 kinase. The goal of the present study was to provide definitive evidence that Mos translation is subjected to MPF regulation. In order to inhibit MPF activity, we employed the double-stranded (ds) RNA interference (RNAi) of gene expression. We demonstrated that the introduction of cyclin B1 dsRNA into rat oocytes selectively depleted the corresponding mRNA, further ablating its protein product. These oocytes, which exhibit low MPF activity, failed to elongate the c-mos mRNA poly(A) tail, did not accumulate Mos and were unable to activate MAPK. We conclude that an active MPF in rat oocytes is necessary for c-mos mRNA polyadenylation and Mos translation.