Biomedical subjects

Hirofumi Ochi

Publications and source records attributed to Hirofumi Ochi.

27 records · Page 2Linked to original sources

PubMed2003

Juvenile muscular atrophy of distal upper extremity associated with airway allergy: two cases successfully treated by plasma exchange.

Juvenile muscular atrophy of the distal upper extremity (JMADUE) is postulated to be a type of flexion myelopathy. However, patients with typical clinical features of JMADUE but without evidence of flexion myelopathy have been reported. We recently reported a significant association of JMADUE with airway allergy. Here we report the successful treatment by plasma exchange (PE) of two patients with both airway allergy and JMADUE without evidence of flexion myelopathy. Patient 1 had a 5-year history of allergic rhinitis and high titers of mite antigen-specific IgE, and patient 2 had an 8-year history of pollinosis and high titers of cedar pollen-specific IgE. Both patients noted progressive distal muscle atrophy and weakness of the upper extremities: patient 1 for 3 months and patient 2 for 3 years. Neurologically, both showed asymmetric intrinsic hand muscle atrophy, oblique atrophy of the forearm muscles, and weakness and contraction fasciculation (minipolymyoclonus) of these muscles without any sensory impairment. Neither had any evidence of flexion myelopathy on magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) in a flexed position. Both were subjected to PE three times. Soon after the PEs, both showed improvement of distal muscle weakness of the upper extremities and marked reduction of contraction fasciculation of the forearm muscles. Patient 1 showed marked reduction in ongoing denervation potentials in the distal muscles on needle electromyography, while patient 2 showed marked improvement of F wave persistence of bilateral median and ulnar nerves. Serum total and allergen-specific IgE decreased after PEs in both patients. PE was thus considered to be effective in these two patients having JMADUE without evidence of flexion myelopathy. These observations may suggest the involvement of an immune-mediated process in the neural damage of JMADUE without evidence of flexion myelopathy, especially in patients with atopic diathesis, and may support the notion that JMADUE is etiologically heterogeneous.

Adolescent↗

PubMed2003

[Interferon beta treatment in multiple sclerosis].

Medical treatment of multiple sclerosis(MS) consists primarily of corticosteroid therapy to enhance recovery from relapse and drug interventions to help manage symptoms. However, disease-modifying drugs for the treatment of MS have been developed recent years, including interferon(IFN) beta, glatiramer acetate, and mitoxantrone. In addition to reductions in annual relapse rates and other measures of clinical disability, these drugs appear to reduce disease activity on MRI. In Japan, IFN beta-1b(Betaferon) is available as a disease-modifying drug from September 2000. This article focuses on the use of IFN beta for MS on the basis of available clinical data.

Antiviral Agents↗

PubMed2002

Eosinophilic myelitis associated with atopic diathesis: a combined neuroimaging and histopathological study.

Histologically proven eosinophilic myelitis has rarely been reported except in connection with parasitism. To clarify its clinicopathological features, we conducted a nationwide survey of biopsy-proven eosinophilic myelitis of unknown cause throughout Japan. Six such cases were collected and studied immunologically and pathologically. All were young to middle-aged men. All showed a protracted and fluctuating course with mild disability for 3-25 (mean 12.5) months before biopsy. Magnetic resonance imaging revealed localized lesions of T2-high and T1-iso signal intensity with a partial gadolinium enhancement in all cases. Cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) examinations were completely normal except for modest pleocytosis in two cases. Eosinophilia was present in the peripheral blood in two cases but was absent from the CSF of all cases. In spite of the chronic nature of the disease, spinal cord pathology revealed very active lesions with marked cell infiltration consisting mainly of CD8(+) T cells and varying numbers of eosinophils in the perivascular areas and the parenchyma. Both the myelin and axons were severely disrupted in all cases. Moreover, eosinophil cationic protein (ECP), an activated eosinophil product, was heavily deposited in the tissues. All but one case had hyperIgEemia and mite antigen-specific IgE in the sera, and two had accompanying atopic disorders. The present study thus revealed idiopathic eosinophilic myelitis to be a localized and persistent inflammation of the spinal cord, with distinct clinicopathological features, that has a possible link to atopic diathesis.

Adult↗

PubMed2002

Proteomic analysis of human brain identifies alpha-enolase as a novel autoantigen in Hashimoto's encephalopathy.

Hashimoto's encephalopathy (HE) is a rare autoimmune disease associated with Hashimoto's thyroiditis (HT). To identify the HE-related autoantigens, we developed a human brain proteome map using two-dimensional electrophoresis and applied it to the immuno-screening of brain proteins that react with autoantibodies in HE patients. After sequential MALDI-TOF-MASS analysis, immuno-positive spots of 48 kDa (pI 7.3-7.8) detected from HE patient sera were identified as a novel autoimmuno-antigen, alpha-enolase, harboring several modifications. Specific high reactivities against human alpha-enolase were significant in HE patients with excellent corticosteroid sensitivity, whereas the patients with fair or poor sensitivity to the corticosteroid treatment showed less reactivities than cut-off level. Although a few HT patients showed faint reactions to alpha-enolase, 95% of HT patients, patients with other neurological disorders, and healthy subjects tested were all negative. These results suggest that the detection of anti-alpha-enolase antibody is useful for defining HE-related pathology, and this proteomic strategy is a powerful method for identifying autoantigens of various central nervous system diseases with unknown autoimmune etiologies.

Amino Acid Sequence↗

PubMed2002

Increased IL-13 but not IL-5 production by CD4-positive T cells and CD8-positive T cells in multiple sclerosis during relapse phase.

In the present study, we flow cytometrically analyzed the intracellular production of interleukin (IL)-5 and IL-13 in peripheral blood CD4(+) and CD8(+) T cells from patients with multiple sclerosis (MS), human T-lymphotropic virus type I-associated myelopathy/tropical spastic paraparesis (HAM/TSP) and healthy controls. IL-13-producing T cells were significantly increased in both T cell subsets in MS at relapse, markedly in the conventional form of MS and modestly in the optocospinal form of MS, and returned to normal at remission. However, IL-5-producing T cells did not vary regardless of clinical phase or type. HAM/TSP showed no significant change in the number of IL-5- and IL-13-producing cells. A distinct profile of IL-13 and IL-5 production by disease and by phase of MS suggests an active involvement of these type 2 cytokines in central nervous system (CNS) inflammation.

Adult↗

PubMed2002

Paradoxical lateralization of parasagittal spikes revealed by back averaging of EEG and MEG in a case with epilepsia partialis continua.

Our aim was to localize the generator site of parasagittal epileptiform discharges in a patient with epilepsia partialis continua (EPC) in the right leg. We examined a 32-year-old woman with EPC whose conventional EEG did not show any epileptic discharge. We performed the jerk-locked back averaging (JLA) of EEG and magnetoencephalography (MEG) to localize the dipole source of sharp transients. The myoclonic discharges in the right soleus muscle were used as a trigger pulse. JLA revealed consistent EEG and MEG sharp transients that coincided consistently and constantly preceded the myoclonic jerks. JLA of EEG demonstrated sharp waves paradoxically distributed over the vertex and right hemisphere. However, the estimated dipoles of MEG were localized in a restricted area in the primary leg motor area in the left hemisphere, which was closely located in the abnormal lesion on the brain MRI. JLA of MEG is considered to be a useful non-invasive method for localizing the epileptogenic area in EPC even when paradoxical lateralization of electroencephalographic discharges was noted.

Action Potentials↗

PubMed2002

A patient with delayed posthypoxic demyelination: a case report of hyperbaric oxygen treatment.

A 62-year-old man who developed akinetic mutism with delayed white matter demyelination after hypoxia was treated with hyperbaric oxygen (HBO). HBO in the subacute period markedly improved the patient's activity in daily life, cognitive function and organization on EEG. 1H-MRS showed a recovery of aerobic metabolism of the neurons. However, dementia and cerebral atrophy slowly progressed despite HBO treatment. Thus, HBO had a beneficial effect on the activity of depressed neurons but did not improve the prognosis.

Atrophy↗

PubMed2002

Suppression of Cdc2 dephosphorylation at the tyrosine 15 residue during nitrosourea-induced G2M phase arrest in glioblastoma cell lines.

We examined the mechanism of action of nitrosoureas as represented by 1-(4-amino-2-methyl-5-pyrimidinyl) methyl-3-(2-chloroethyl)-3-nitrosourea (ACNU) with respect to p53 and the G2M cell cycle checkpoint using two glioblastoma cell lines: U251MG and U373MG, with mutated p53. At log-phase cell growth, fresh medium containing ACNU (final concentration, 3, 10, or 30 microg/ml) was added. After 24 h of incubation, cells were harvested for flow cytometric or Western analysis. In both lines, cell numbers in the G0/G1 phase decreased with ACNU treatment. Cells accumulated in G2M and S phases, and the peak was shifted from G2M to the S phase in a concentration-dependent manner. In both cell lines, the amount of Cdc2 protein phosphorylated at the tyrosine 15 residue was increased 2- to 6-fold by treatment with ACNU compared with untreated control cells. Expression of cyclin B protein was suppressed in cells treated with 30 microg/ml ACNU. Protein abundance for total Cdc2, Cdc2 phosphorylated at the threonine 161 residue, Wee 1, Myt 1, Chk 1, and 14-3-3sigma was not affected by treatment with ACNU in either cell line. We suggest that a low concentration of ACNU should be used with adjuvant therapies that act upon cells in the G2M phase. A high concentration of ACNU should be used with adjuvant therapies that act upon cells in the S phase.

Blotting, Western↗

PubMed2002

High incidence of subclinical peripheral neuropathy in myelitis with hyperIgEaemia and mite antigen-specific IgE (atopic myelitis): an electrophysiological study.

OBJECTIVE: To study subclinical involvement of the peripheral nerves in myelitis with hyperIgEaemia and mite antigen-specific IgE (atopic myelitis: AM). MATERIAL AND METHODS: We carried out a nerve conduction study of the median, ulnar, tibial, and sural nerves in 21 patients with AM and in 28 patients with clinically definite or laboratory-supported definite multiple sclerosis (MS). RESULTS: The patients with AM showed a significantly higher frequency of abnormal records than the MS patients in the sensory nerve conduction study (52.4% vs. 14.3%, p = 0.0106). The frequency of abnormal records in the motor nerve conduction study in AM patients was twice as high as in MS patients (38.1% vs. 17.9%), but the difference was not statistically significant. Abnormality in the F-wave-evoked frequency in the median nerve was also significantly more common in AM patients than in MS patients (57.9% vs. 10.7%, p = 0.0016). CONCLUSIONS: These findings suggest that subclinical peripheral neuropathy is frequent in patients with AM.

Adult↗