Biomedical subjects
A Kurtz
Publications and source records attributed to A Kurtz.
Juxtaglomerular cells in culture.
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[Sturge-Weber angiomatosis responsible for hemiplegia without cerebral infarction in term pregnancy].
During the third quarter of her pregnancy, a young woman with Sturge-Weber angiomatosis had a severe right hemiplegia with hemianopia and aphasia, followed 48 hours later by focal seizures. Neuroimaging did not show any cerebral lesion but contrast magnetic resonance imaging revealed a left hemispheric pial angiomatosis. The patient recovered progressively from the third day after a ceasarean. The hemianopia disappeared within 15 days, the hemiplegia within one month and the aphasia greatly improved within 3 months. Ten weeks after the clinical onset, we performed a positron emission tomography study. A decrease from 15 to 40% of the cerebral radioactivity was observed after injection of water (H2(15)O) or fluorodesoxyglucose (18FDG) in the left temporooccipital area adjacent to the meningeal angiomatosis. A chronic and focal olighemia, already reported in Sturge-Weber angiomatosis, might participate in the occurrence of this cortical metabolic depression.
Zonal expression of angiotensin II-AT1-receptor genes in rat kidneys.
This study aimed to examine the relative distribution of ANGII-AT1-receptor gene expression in different zones of the rat kidney, namely the glomeruli, cortex (CO), outer and inner stripes of outer medulla (OSOM and ISOM, respectively) and inner medulla (IM). By RNAse protection we found a ratio for the overall abundance of AT1 mRNA of 1, 0.68, 0.52, 0.86 and 0.46 for glomeruli, CO, OSOM, ISOM and IM, respectively. The intrazonal proportion of AT1a and AT1b mRNA was determined by RT-PCR, which yielded values for the ratio AT1a/AT1b of 1.1, 4.7, 4.4, 3.7 and 1.9 for glomeruli, CO, OSOM, ISOM, and IM, respectively. These findings suggest a zonal heterogeneity in the expression of AT1-receptor genes such that the highest expression is found in glomeruli and ISOM, whilst the papilla shows the lowest level of expression. Moreover, there appears to exist a corticopapillary gradient for the relative expression of AT1a and AT1b-receptor genes such that the preponderance of AT1a-receptor gene expression decreases into a papillary direction. Within the CO glomeruli appear as an isle of AT1b receptors of relatively high expression.