Biomedical subjects
Publications and source records attributed to G J Lammers.
For over 40 years, a 55-year-old woman had suffered from cataplexy, which had been mistakenly identified as hysteria. Sleepiness, hypnagogic hallucinations and sleep-onset paralysis were not present. This is the longest duration of isolated cataplexy reported so far.
In a double-blind placebo-controlled trial, ritanserin (a 5-HT2 receptor blocker) 5 mg/day or placebo was added to the usual medication in 28 patients with narcolepsy during 4 wk. The effect was assessed by means of polysomnography, daily and weekly subjective evaluations, and Multiple sleep latency tests (MSLT). During the night ritanserin increased the amount of nonrapid eye movement slow wave sleep and reduced wakefulness after sleep onset. It improved the feeling of being refreshed in the morning after awakening and reduced subjective daytime sleepiness. The drug did not significantly influence sleep latency in the MSLT.
Narcolepsy, with its specific symptomatology is an intriguing but often frightening disease. Recognition of the clinical picture may be reassuring, though the therapeutic possibilities are limited.
In the present study the morphogenesis of the ventricular ridges, i.e. the site of origin for neurons in the basal ganglia and various related basal forebrain structures, has been studied in the Chinese hamster with the aid of three-dimensional and graphical reconstructions. The first ridge appears at developmental stage 14 (E 12 1/2). It originates at the level of the torus hemisphaericus, thereby obscuring the basal part of the telodiencephalic boundary. Later on this ridge passes into the medial ventricular ridge. Subsequently, the lateral ventricular ridge arises at stage 16 (E 13 1/2). Initially, both ridges are completely separated by the sulcus subpallii intermedius. During further development, however, this limiting groove fades away, a process starting caudally and gradually proceeding in the rostral direction. Eventually, this process results in the formation of one single ventricular eminence at the second fetal stage (E 18). In the adult stage the ventricular eminence curves around the cerebral stem area. Thickening of the telencephalic walls and local coarctations have considerably reduced the lumen of the lateral ventricle. The preoptic region in the adult must be considered as a derivative of the diencephalic part of the medial ventricular ridge.
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