Familial idiopathic intracranial hypertension with spinal and radicular pain

OBJECTIVE: To describe a mother and her 2 sons affected by idiopathic intracranial hypertension (IIH), associated in the sons with root irritation symptom. Unlike the other 4 families reported previously, obesity was not present in our patients. DESIGN: Case reports. SETTING: Department of pediatrics in a university school of Medicine, Naples, Italy. PATIENTS: A mother (aged 36 years) and her 2 sons (aged 14 and 9 years) developed IIH at different times. Neuroimaging showed an empty sella in the mother, while IIH was associated with spinal and radicular pain in her 2 sons. The mother and the younger son developed permanent visual loss. CONCLUSIONS: Ophthalmologic follow-up in our patients indicates that IIH is a chronic disease. Surgical treatment should be considered an option.     

Increase of striatal dopamine release by cadmium in nursing rats and its prevention by dexamethasone-induced metallothionein

Repeated daily intraperitoneal (i.p.) administrations of cadmium (CdCl2, 1 mg/kg per day for 5 days) increased striatal dopamine (DA) release (180% of controls) and turnover (150% of controls) in 13-day-old rats. Cd treatment also increased striatal metallothionein (MT) content (161%), Cd (127%) and lipid peroxidation (LPO, 190%). In addition, Cd treatment decreased striatal tyrosine hydroxylase (TH) activity (-28%), and such an effect may result from D-2 receptor blockade as a consequence of excessive dopamine release, since sulpiride (a specific D-2 receptor antagonist) administration to Cd-treated rats abolished the effect of Cd on TH. No effect was observed on striatal monoamine oxidase (MAO) activity. Dexamethasone (Dx) treatment increased striatal MT content and caused no effect on either DA release or turnover. However, Dx administration prevented the effects caused by Cd, including the increased DA release and enhanced striatal lipid peroxidation. These results indicate that toxic effects on the brain are to be expected as a result of Cd exposure and that Dx administration can attenuate them.     

A controlled evaluation of an elementary school primary prevention program for eating problems

Researchers have recently called for the development of primary prevention of eating disorders programs aimed at elementary school students. The present study reports on the development of a curriculum for fifth graders designed to encourage healthy eating, exercise, and body image while discouraging calorie-restrictive dieting, exercising for weight loss, and the development of body dissatisfaction. The program consisted of ten lessons taught by the classroom teachers. The influence of the curriculum on (1) knowledge about nutrition, body fat, and dieting; (2) attitudes about fat people and own body (body esteem); and (3) behaviors, including attempts at weight reduction, consumption of fruits and vegetables, and exercising, were evaluated in a pre-post controlled experimental design. There were 222 white public school children who participated in both the pre- and posttesting, 167 of whom were in the classrooms receiving the curriculum. Results indicated that knowledge was broadly improved by the curriculum. There were information improvements in terms of nutrition, effects of dieting, and causes of body fat. Attitudinal changes were less pronounced, although the curriculum did positively affect attitudes about fat people. Behavior, including eating patterns, exercise patterns, weight reduction attempts, and teasing of fat children, was not changed by participation in the curriculum.     

Effects of gemfibrozil (Lopid) on hyperlipidemia in acitretin-treated patients. Results of a double-blind cross-over study

Retrospectively 78 patients with uni- or bilateral acute acoustic trauma (AAT) were evaluated to assess the therapeutic effect of hyperbaric oxygenation (HBO). All subjects received saline or dextran (Rheomacodrex) infusions with Ginkgo extracts (Tebonin) and prednisone. Thirty six patients underwent additional hyperbaric oxygenation at a pressure of 2 atmospheres absolute for 60 minutes once daily. Both treatment groups were comparable as far as age, gender, initial hearing loss and prednisone dose are concerned. The delay of therapy onset was 15 hours in both groups and treatment was started within 72 hours in all cases. Control audiometry was performed after 6.5 days, when the HBO group had had 5 exposures to hyperbaric oxygenation. The average hearing gain in the group without HBO was 74.3 dB and in the group treated additionally with HBO 121.3 dB (P < 0.004). It is concluded, that hyperbaric oxygenation significantly improves hearing recovery after AAT. Therefore acute acoustic trauma with significant hearing threshold depression remains an otological emergency. Minimal therapy involving waiting for spontaneous recovery, which is mostly incomplete leaving a residual C5 or C6 and handicapping tinnitus, is not the treatment of choice. Randomized prospective clinical trials with a larger patient series are needed and further experimental studies are required to understand the physiological mechanisms of HBO responsible for the clinical success in AAT.     

Heterochromatin effects on the frequency and duration of LCR-mediated gene transcription

Organ transplantation is associated with an early bone loss that subsequently increases the risk of osteopenia and bone fractures. It is not known whether bone loss continues in long-term survivors, but persistent bone demineralization could further jeopardize an already diminished bone mass. To better define long-term bone status of kidney transplant recipients (KTR), we conducted cross-sectional and longitudinal evaluations of bone mineral density (BMD) in 70 KTR with a mean posttransplantation time of 8.1 years. BMD was determined by dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry and was repeated in 55 of the patients after a mean follow-up period of 22 +/- 5 months. Lumbar and femoral osteopenia, defined as a BMD lower than 2 standard deviations from mean value of sex- and age-matched controls, was present in 28.6% and 10.5% of patients, respectively. There was a significant negative correlation between cumulative prednisone dose and adjusted lumbar as well as femoral BMD (R = 0.45, P < 0.001 and R = 0.29, P < 0.05, respectively). Five patients had a vertebral BMD below a fracture threshold of 0.777 g/cm2. Vertebral fractures (VF) were found in four men and were associated with higher prednisone dosage (P < 0.05), larger cumulative prednisone dose (P < 0.05), and significantly lower BMD values. According to World Health Organization recent criteria for women, prevalences of lumbar and femoral osteopenia and lumbar and femoral osteoporosis in female patients reach 75%, 65%, 33%, and 10%, respectively. The longitudinal part of the study showed a persistent pathological lumbar demineralization process. Over the study period, BMD, expressed as a percentage of that of controls, decreased from 89 +/- 14% to 86 +/- 14% (P < 0.001). Annual change of bone mass was -1.7 +/- 2.8% per year. Accelerated vertebral bone loss (defined as a decrease of BMD, expressed as a percentage of that of controls, of more than 1% per year) was present in 56% of patients and was associated with higher prednisone dosage (P < 0.01). In conclusion, although VF are relatively infrequent in long-term survivors of renal transplantation, osteopenia is a frequent finding, and a substantial proportion of women present lumbar osteoporosis. An ongoing demineralization process of the spine is also demonstrated and probably contributes to long-term spinal osteoporosis incidence. Prednisone dosage remains the most constantly isolated risk factor.     

Management of E. coli dependent factorial diseases in weaning piglets

The most important postweaning factorial diseases are at least partly caused by E. coli. The term postweaning coli complex can be subcategorized into the following manifestations: postweaning diarrhoea, edema disease, postweaning wasting and hemorrhagic gastroenteritis. In the presented study the effect of prophylactic zootechnique alone and zoo- and biotechnique in combination was evaluated during the first weeks postweaning. The results showed that combined zoo- and biotechnique is superior to simple zootechnique regarding food conversion (1.41 kg versus 1.73 kg), average daily weight gain (390 g versus 325 g) and postweaning piglet mortality (3.1% versus 4.9%). It is the opinion of the authors that combined postweaning zoo- and biotechnique should be performed in such pig production units where ETEC and/or SLTEC are present.     

Tyrosine phosphorylation in peripheral lymphocytes from patients with systemic lupus erythematosus

A comparative study of tyrosine phosphorylation was performed on peripheral blood lymphocytes from systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) patients and from healthy donors. Freshly isolated SLE lymphocytes presented an elevated tyrosine phosphorylation level when compared to healthy donors lymphocytes (p = 0.005). Among all phosphorylated proteins, those called p120, p110, p80 and p55-p60 were more phosphorylated. The level of tyrosine phosphorylation of p120 and p110 proteins discriminated significantly (p = 0.0048, respectively, p = 0.02) between SLE patients and healthy donors. Lymphocytes form SLE patients and healthy donors were then stimulated by cross-linking T cell antigens (CD3, CD4, CD8) to further distinguish the signal transduction between normal and pathologic lymphocytes. No statistical differences in the tyrosine phosphorylation pattern, following CD4 or CD8 cross-linking, were observed between SLE patients and healthy donors lymphocytes. CD3 cross-linking induced an effect on tyrosine phosphorylation different in SLE patients versus healthy donors lymphocytes. Thus, the lymphocytes of SLE patients were refractile in anti-CD3 stimulation in comparison with the healthy donors lymphocytes. Chi-square analysis demonstrated that a significantly larger number of healthy donors responded to anti-CD3 stimulation compared to SLE patients (p = 0.03). The high frequency of tyrosine phosphorylation of p110 and p80 proteins, following CD3 stimulation, in normal versus SLE lymphocytes, suggested that these proteins could be involved in abnormal signal transduction in SLE cells.     

Diffraction of millimeter waves by projecting a shadow pattern onto a semiconductor

The transmission of millimeter waves through a semiconductor changes according to the amount of light falling on it. In the experiments reported here, a pattern of light and shadow is projected onto a sheet of semiconductor and the regions of greater and lesser transmission serve as a diffracting object for a millimeter-wave beam. The light source is a quartz tungsten halogen lamp. A lock-in amplifier is employed to overcome difficulties due to the differences in transmitted power being small.     

Phase Equilibria in the Quaternary System Ti-Al-C-N

The quaternary system Ti-Al-C-N and its binary and ternary boundary systems are investigated using powder methods and XRD analysis. Phase equilibria at 1375°C are presented in an isothermal network for alloys up to 50 at.% Ti. In the vertical section Ti₂AIC_1-x-Ti₂AlN_1-x a complete series of solid solutions exists at 1495°C, but a wide miscibility gap occurs at 1375°C. The vertical section Ti₃AlC_1-x-Ti₃AlN_1-x is more complex because of the occurrence of the quaternary, tetragonally distorted phase Ti₃Al(C,N)_1-x ( a = 0.41135(4) nm, c = 0.41366(5) nm) and the transformation of perovskite-type Ti₃AlN_1-x into filled Re₃B-type Ti₃AlN_1-x below 1200°C.     

A study of reinforced refractory concretes

Results of a laboratory study of the properties of corundum concrete with metallic fibers of five compositions are presented. It is shown that some of the fibers affect favorably the strength and heat resistance of the concrete. Industrial tests of parts made of the suggested reinforced concrete have proved these conclusions.Translated from Ogneupory i Tekhnicheskaya Keramika, No. 11, pp. 22–24, November, 1996.