EQUAL FREQUENCY OF TEL/AML1 ACUTE LYMPHOBLASTIC LEUKEMIA IN CHILDREN WITH AND WITHOUT DOWN SYNDROME

Constitutional trisomy 21 is the most prominent predisposing factor to childhood leukemia, whereas the t(12;21)(p13;q22) with its molecular genetic counterpart, the TEL/AML1 fusion gene, is the most common acquired chromosomal rearrangement in childhood B-cell precursor (BCP) acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL). Thus, it was somewhat surprising that according to the currently available literature the incidence of TEL/AML1+ BCP ALL is extremely low in patients with Down syndrome (DS). To further investigate this issue in a population-based fashion, the authors retrospectively assessed the number of DS patients with a TEL/AML1+ ALL in two consecutive Austrian ALL multicenter trials. Accordingly, they were able to analyze 8 of 10 individuals with DS and a BCP ALL, including 2 who suffered from a TEL/AML1+ leukemia. Based on this observation we concluded that individuals with a constitutional trisomy 21 may have the similar likelihood to develop a TEL/AML1+ leukemia as BCP ALL patients without this specific predisposing factor.     

Empfehlungen der European Stroke Initiative für Diagnose und Behandlung spontaner intrazerebraler Blutungen

Zusammenfassung Dieser Artikel stellt eine Übersetzung der im Jahr 2006 herausgegebenen Empfehlungen zur Behandlung von Patienten mit spontaner intrazerebraler Blutung der Europäischen Schlaganfallinitiative (EUSI) für das Europäische Schlaganfall-Council (ESC), die Europäische Neurologische Gesellschaft (ENS) und die Europäische Förderation Neurologischer Gesellschaften (EFNS) dar.Diese EUSI-Empfehlungen werden von dem European Stroke Council (ESC), der European Neurological Society (ENS) und der European Federation of Neurological Societies (EFNS) unterstützt.     

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.     

Altered central micro-opioid receptor binding after psychological trauma.

BACKGROUND: Functional neuroimaging studies have detected abnormal limbic and paralimbic activation to emotional probes in posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), but few studies have examined neurochemical mechanisms that underlie functional alterations in regional cerebral blood flow. The mu-opioid neurotransmitter system, implicated in responses to stress and suppression of pain, is distributed in and is thought to regulate the function of brain regions that are implicated in affective processing. METHODS: Here we examined the micro-opioid system with positron emission tomography and the micro-opioid receptor-selective radiotracer [11C] carfentanil in 16 male patients with PTSD and two non-PTSD male control groups, with (n = 14) and without combat exposure (n = 15). Differences in micro-opioid receptor binding potential (BP2) were detected within discrete limbic and paralimbic regions. RESULTS: Relative to healthy controls, both trauma-exposed groups had lower micro-opioid receptor BP2 in extended amygdala, nucleus accumbens, and dorsal frontal and insular cortex but had higher BP2 in the orbitofrontal cortex. PTSD patients exhibited reduced BP2 in anterior cingulate cortex compared with both control groups. Micro-opioid receptor BP2 in combat-exposed subjects without PTSD was lower in the amygdala but higher in the orbitofrontal cortex compared with both PTSD patients and healthy controls. CONCLUSIONS: These findings differentiate the general response of the micro-opioid system to trauma from more specific changes associated with PTSD.     

Contributions of occipital and temporal brain regions to visual and acoustic imagery--a spect study

Regional cerebral blood flow (rCBF) was assessed by means of HMPAO-SPECT in two experimental groups. In a control condition both groups listened to abstract words, in the experimental condition they heard five names of objects. One group was advised to form visual images of the objects, the other group was advised to form acoustic images of the sounds made by these objects. Post-experimental questionnaires revealed that most of the subjects in the acoustic imagery condition had had visual images in addition to the acoustic ones. Both imagery conditions lead to approximately equal increases of rCBF in the left inferior occipital region and in the left thalamus. Flow increases in both hippocampal regions and the right inferior and superior temporal regions were larger in the acoustic than in the visual imagery condition. It is concluded that only the activation of left inferior occipital and left thalamic regions can be interpreted as being related to modality-specific visual aspects of imagery.