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Biomedical subjects

M Brecher

Publications and source records attributed to M Brecher.

33 records · Page 2Linked to original sources
PubMed1987

Late positive component amplitude in schizophrenics and alcoholics in two different paradigms.

Abstinent alcoholics, unmedicated schizophrenics, and controls were tested in two paradigms designed to elicit the late positive component. Experiment A used frequent stimuli of differing incentive value and Experiment B used infrequent stimuli of differing perceptual discriminability. Alcoholics and schizophrenics showed late positive components that were significantly reduced in amplitude compared to controls. The patient groups were similar in their late component amplitudes. Control subjects showed a substantially wider response range than the patient groups. The narrow response range in both patient groups was manifested in diminished late component amplitudes to both stimuli in both experiments. The intraclass correlation coefficient of late component amplitudes for both patient groups was significantly greater than that of the controls.

Adult↗
PubMed1987

The N2 component of the event-related potential in schizophrenic patients.

Event-related potentials (ERPs) to easy and difficult infrequent visual target stimuli were recorded in unmedicated schizophrenic patients and age-matched controls. N2 difference wave forms were computed by subtracting the ERP to a frequent non-target stimulus from the ERP to each target. The N2 component was identified in these difference wave forms. All subjects showed longer latency N2 and P3 peaks to the difficult target than to the easy target. Schizophrenic patients had longer latency N2 peaks than controls to both targets. Schizophrenic patients also showed reduced P3 amplitudes to both targets compared to controls. The prolonged N2 latency in schizophrenics accounts for a substantial portion of the delayed reaction time commonly observed in this group. N2 latency prolongation appears to be yet another evoked potential abnormality in schizophrenic patients.

Adult↗
PubMed1987

Intensive remission consolidation therapy in the treatment of acute nonlymphocytic leukemia.

A pilot study was conducted to determine the possible efficacy and the toxicities associated with the administration of four courses of intensive consolidation chemotherapy to patients with acute nonlymphocytic leukemia in remission. All therapy was completed within 6 months. The median duration of remission was 22 months, with 45+% of patients in remission at 3 years and few relapses to date thereafter. Sixty percent of patients experienced significant side effects after each course of therapy. The therapy appeared to be particularly efficacious for patients less than 45 years of age, since 65% are alive at 3 years and there is no projection for a median duration of remission as yet. The cytogenetic characteristics of the leukemic cells, the percentage of S phase cells, and the height of the WBC count were the most important prognostic characteristics at diagnosis.

Acute Disease↗
PubMed1986

Prognostic factors in brainstem gliomas.

Although brainstem gliomas carry the worst prognosis of any brain tumor in children, with median survivals of 9 to 12 months, there may be a subgroup of long-term survivors. We have identified 12 children with brainstem gliomas, 5 of whom have survived greater than 6 years and 6 less than or equal to 12 months. Another child, alive and well 3 years following diagnosis, was considered in the long-term survivor group. Favorable prognostic factors included neurofibromatosis, symptoms greater than or equal to 12 months before diagnosis, calcification on CT, exophytic location, and pathology suggesting a low-grade tumor. Recognition that certain patients with brainstem gliomas may have prolonged survivals even in the absence of definitive treatment must be taken into consideration when new treatment regimens are being formulated.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1985

Tourniquet infusion chemotherapy for osseous malignant lesions.

Two patients with osseous malignant lesions were treated with the tourniquet infusion method. The first patient, with two metastatic lesions in the left femur resulting from a renal adenocarcinoma, had three courses of intra-arterial Adriamycin. Biopsies of these lesions showed that the distal lesion, which was perfused during each treatment, was histologically negative, whereas the proximal lesion, which was not perfused because of the position of the catheter, contained the viable tumor. The second patient, a 12-year-old girl with osteogenic sarcoma of the proximal portion of the right tibia, had three courses of intra-arterial chemotherapy with Adriamycin and cisplatinum, and then underwent open biopsy, which was histologically negative. Another open biopsy six months later was also histologically negative. She has normal use of her extremity and, at eleven months since the initiation of treatment, she remains disease free. The evaluation of the tourniquet infusion technique in greater numbers of patients with bone tumors under carefully controlled conditions, appears warranted.

Bone Neoplasms↗
PubMed1983

Event-related brain potentials to high-incentive stimuli in unmedicated schizophrenic patients.

Schizophrenic patients have been observed to have a significantly diminished P300 component of the event-related potential (ERP). We investigated whether this result would be obtained with high-incentive stimuli. We presented 14 unmedicated patients and 14 controls with two easily identified visual stimuli under three conditions: (i) a nonincentive condition, (ii) under the condition of $1 payment for each correct identification, and (iii) under the condition of $1 payment for each correct identification within a criterion time. The patients responded accurately but showed a significantly reduced P300 in the incentive conditions. We interpret our results as neurophysiological evidence for possible limbic system dysfunction in schizophrenia.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1982

The treatment of acute myelocytic leukemia in patients 30 years of age and younger.

The treatment of acute myelocytic leukemia in childhood and young adults has lagged behind that for acute lymphocytic leukemia. The studies described here were directed towards evaluating the role of intensive chemotherapy in the treatment of this illness. Intensive remission induction therapy combining cytosine arabinoside with an anthracycline antibiotic produced a complete remission rate comparable to that achieved in acute lymphocytic leukemia (45 of 49 patients or 92%). Intensive consolidation chemotherapy produced a median duration of complete remission of 160 weeks with 40% of patients projected to be in remission at 4 years. By contrast, the median duration of remission for patients treated with moderate consolidation/maintenance therapy was 23 weeks with only 10% of patients in remission at 4 years. These studies demonstrate that intensive chemotherapy can be administered to pediatric patients and young adults and that this approach to therapy produces a high remission rate with a 3 year median duration of remission.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1982

Vindesine: a phase II study in childhood malignancies-a report for cancer and leukemia group B.

Vindesine, a semisynthetic derivative of vinblastine sulfate, was tested for antitumor activity and clinical toxicity in 36 children. The drug was administered to the initial 13 patients entered into the study a 2 mg/m2/day for five days by IV bolus. Because of severe neurotoxicity and life-threatening gastrointestinal toxicity, the regimen in 23 patients was modified to 4mg/m2 IV infusion over four hours, weekly. This latter regimen was well tolerated, with acceptable gastrointestinal, hematological, and neurotoxicity. One child with acute lymphocytic leukemia resistant to vincristine had a transient M1 remission bone marrow. Improvement or stable disease was noted in one patient each with Ewing's sarcoma, neuroblastoma, and Hodgkin's disease.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1982

Vasoactive intestinal peptide producing neuroblastoma.

The Verner-Morrison syndrome has been described in 19 previous patients with ganglioneuroma and ganglioneuroblastoma but never neuroblastoma. Its occurrence following treatment of a neuroblastoma with chemotherapy with maturation of the tumor has only been reported on one previous occasion. Our case suggests that vasoactive intestinal polypeptide may be used not only as a diagnostic indicator for the presence of a neural crest tumor but also as a marker to monitor maturation of the tumor and indicate an improving prognosis.

Adenoma, Islet Cell↗
PubMedDate not supplied

Glomerulonephritis and chronic myelogenous leukemia.

An adolescent with chronic myelogenous leukemia (CML) developed gross hematuria. Evaluation included renal biopsy revealing a proliferative glomerulonephritis with mesangial deposits of immunoglobulins A and G. An association between CML and immune-complex glomerulonephritis has not been previously reported and may represent a paraneoplastic phenomenon.

Adolescent↗