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Biomedical subjects

M Iivanainen

Publications and source records attributed to M Iivanainen.

At least 109 records · Page 6Linked to original sources
PubMed1980

Public awareness and attitudes toward epilepsy in Finland.

Public awareness and attitudes toward epilepsy were surveyed in Finland. Three thousand names were randomly selected from the population registry in the age range of 15 to 64 years. Of the 2,789 persons contacted, 2,272 (81%) answered a questionnaire about epilepsy. The social background of the responsdents did not deviate significantly from that of the general population in this age range. The questionnaire consisted of 28 questions designed to determine the respondents' social background, acquaintance with epileptic persons, awareness of epilepsy, and opinions and attitudes about the disorder. Ninety-five percent of the respondents had heard of epilepsy, 49% knew an epileptic person, 45% had seen a seizure, 15% were familiar with the causes of epilepsy, 12% knew how to help a person having a generalized convulsive seizure, and 1% would leave their jobs if they had to work with an epileptic person. The attitudes toward children with epilepsy were more charitable than toward epileptic adults. The factors of knowing an epileptic person, education, and age had the greatest influence on awareness and knowledge of epilepsy and to a lesser extent, attitudes toward it. The level of knowledge of epilepsy was rather low, especially in younger age groups. The results appeared useful for the Attitude Formation Program of the Finnish League for Epilepsy. Those processes that govern the forming and changing of attitudes toward epilepsy in school or work should be traced. An information campaign will be continued, and the survey of public attitudes toward epilepsy will be renewed in the future.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1979

Bromocriptine treatment of spasmodic torticollis. A double-blind crossover study.

A double-blind crossover study (12 weeks and 12 weeks) was performed to evaluate the effects of bromocriptine on the symptoms and serum prolactin levels of 14 women with spasmodic torticollis. While the serum prolactin level decreased in response to bromocriptine, no difference was found between the effects of placebo and bromocriptine on the symptoms of spasmodic torticollis. Our findings suggest that dopaminergic neurotransmission is not involved in the pathogenesis of this syndrome.

Adult↗
PubMed1979

Causes of death in institutionalized epileptics.

To assess the causes of death in institutionalized epileptics, the patient records, death certificates, and other data from the only hospital for epileptics in Finland (Vaajasalo Hospital) were reexamined. During the years 1900--1976, 179 inpatients in Vaajasalo Hospital died; this was 12% of all inpatients. The most common causes of death were as follows: pneumonia in 40 cases, seizures in 34 cases (single seizure in 18 and status epileptics in 16), drowning in 29 cases, stroke in 10 cases, and heart infarct in 9 cases. Chronic intoxication caused by phenytoin and/or phenobarbitol was a common supplementary factor leading to death in patients who died of pneumonia or seizures. Thirteen deaths were recorded as suicides or suspected suicides (11 by drowning and 2 by strangulation). The results reflect the severe epilepsy and the poor conditions of the patients, as well as the poor condition of the local facilities in the past. The information obtained should be useful in the effort to improve medical care for these patients.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1978

Partial trisomy 15 and temporal lobe syndrome in a retarded girl without gross malformations.

A supernumerary small bisatellited chromosome was found in a girl with stunted growth and psychomotor retardation. The extra chromosome was identified as a deleted 15, del(15)(q21), with C-band positive heterochromatin and satellite-like appendages to the distal end of the long arm. This chromosome was the product of a translocation between a chromosome 15 and some other acrocentric chromosome, as shown by G-, C- and Q-banding and silver staining of the nucleolus organizer regions. The proposita had no gross phenotypic malformations. She had a small head, a high forehead, oblique palpebral fissures, bilateral enophthalmus, clinodactyly and simple dermatoglyphic patterns. She was autistic and suffered from epileptic seizures and expressive aphasia. The waking electroencephalogram revealed diffuse abnormalities; sleep recording showed focal spikes and sharp waves anteriorly on the left side. The pneumo-encephalogram showed microventriculy, an enlarged left temporal horn and some enlarged sulci in the right frontotemporal cortex. The prenatal influence of the chromosome anomaly is interpreted as being the primary cause of these disorders, neonatal asphyxia being a secondary contributing factor.

Abnormalities, Multiple↗
PubMed1978

Cerebrospinal fluid beta 2-microglobulin in neurological disorders.

Beta-2-microglobulin was measured in specimens of cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) collected from 167 patients classified in 14 diagnostic categories at an outpatient Department of Neurology. In the control group of 29 subjects without any obvious disease of the nervous system, the concentration of beta-2-microglobulin was 1.15 +/- 0.37 mg/1 (M +/- s.d.). The concentration was almost significantly elevated in the groups with fresh brain infarct, central nervous system infection, and polyneuropathy. The serum concentrations of beta-2-microglobulin did not differ significantly among these diagnostic categories. The mean ratio between CSF and serum beta-2-microglobulin was 0.79 +/- 0.32 in the control group and more than 1.0 in the patients with brain infarcts, CNS infections and spinal paresis, but the differences were not statistically significant.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1978

Pneumoencephalographic and clinical findings of the XYY syndrome.

In order to approach the hitherto unknown brain involvement in the XYY syndrome five adult patients with this syndrome were studied clinically and pneumoencephalographically. Clinical manifestations included delayed difficulties of speech and learning, clumsiness, mild intention tremor, muscular hypotonia, convulsions, hyperactivity, distractibility, impulsiveness, weak mental control, psychosexual disturbances and a slight defect of intelligence. All five had committed crimes. Pneumoencephalograms showed general ventricular enlargement of mild or moderate degree. The enlargement of lateral ventricles was unilateral or asymmetrically bilateral. The suprapineal recess of the third ventricle was uniformly enlarged. Small cerebellum and enlarged fourth ventricle were the abnormal findings in the posterior fossa. No cortical abnormalities were found. The clinical and pneumoencephalographic findings suggest a slight non-progressive developmental disorder of the brain resembling the so-called minimal brain dysfunction syndrome. The XYY syndrome appears to be one cause of the male preponderance in minimal brain dysfunction syndrome and criminal psychopathy.

Adult↗
PubMed1978

Electroencephalography and phenytoin toxicity in mentally retarded epileptic patients.

There were significantly more diffuse and focal electroencephalographic abnormalities in 127 mentally retarded epileptic patients treated with phenytoin than in 68 epileptics without phenytoin. Phenytoin intoxication made the difference still more pronounced. Monitoring drug levels and electroencephalograms appears to be the method of choice for ensuring safe and effective medication in intractable epilepsy.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1977

Atelencephaly.

A 13 1/2-month-old boy with severe microcephaly was found to have nearly total absence of the telencephalon. The patient had marmorated skin, hypoplastic penis and undescended testes. Spastic tetraparesis was present. Moro, grasp and sucking reflexes were easily elicited. He could not sit or stand, but was able to raise and support his head. He had occasional convulsions and a tendency to hypothermia and vomiting. The EEG showed symmetrical low-voltage theta-delta activity. His psychomotor development was severely retarded. Bone age was normal. Head circumference was 28cm at six months and did not increase after this age. At autopsy the small cranial vault and meninges were found to be intact. Brain weight was 105g. The supratentorial part of the brain was extremely small, consisting of an irregularly lobulated mass about 3cm in diameter and without any median fissure or ventricular cavity. The telencephalon was severely involved and partly replaced by gliomesenchymal scar tissue, while the diencephalic structures, including the eyes and the optic nerves and chiasm, were comparatively well-developed. The cerebellum and brain stem were essentially intact.

Brain↗
PubMed1977

Cerebellar atrophy in phenytoin-treated mentally retarded epileptics.

The relationship among the serum concentration of phenytoin, pneumoencephalographic measurements describing, in particular, cerebellar atrophy, and various other clinical variables was analyzed statistically in a series of 131 phenytoin-treated mentally retarded epileptics. Phenytoin intoxication was diagnosed retrospectively in 73 patients (56%), of whom 18 had persistent loss of locomotion. The mean duration of phenytoin intoxication until locomotion was lost was 22.8 +/- 23.6 months. There was a temporal relationship between the high serum level of phenytoin and the loss of locomotion. The degree of brain atrophy in the posterior fossa was most severe in these 18 patients with severe phenytoin intoxication. The frequency of cerebellar and/or brain stem atrophy in the present series was 28%, the same as in mentally retarded epileptics without phenytoin treatment from the same institution. That phenytoin levels in serum correlated significantly with the heights of the fourth ventricle suggests that an overdosage of phenytoin or an underlying disease, or both, were the probable causes of cerebellar impairment and atrophy. Thus brain-damaged mentally retarded epileptics appear to be unusually susceptible to the side effects of phenytoin. This antiepiliptic drug is therefore not recommended for patients with no locomotor ability or with marked cerebellar signs and symptoms. To prevent phenytoin intoxication in susceptible patients, careful observation of the patients and routine monitoring of phenytoin levels in blood are stressed.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1977

Free trisomy 9P in elderly woman.

The karyotype 47,XX,+9p was observed in a 50-year-old mentally retarded woman with dysmorphic facies, severe cerebral malformations, limb deformities, retarded sexual maturation and deviating dermatoglyphs. Banding analysis showed the extra chromosome to be composed of 9p and the proximal part of 9q comprising a large secondary constriction. The breakage point is estimated as 9q13. Hemozygous large C bands were observed in both chromosomes No. 9 as well as in the extra chromosome. Clinically this case can be regarded as a pure 9p trisomy. The mechanism causing the syndrome is thought to be malsegregation of a deleted chromosome No. 9.

Abnormalities, Multiple↗
PubMed1976

Skin thickness in cutis verticis gyrata and mental retardation syndrome.

To study the distribution of the skin involvement in the cutis verticis gyrata and mental retardation (CVG-MR) syndrome skin thickness was determined radiographically on the flexor aspect of the forearm of ten patients with this syndrome. The skin of patients was thicker than that of normal controls but the difference was quite significant (1.4 +/- 0.4 mm versus 1.1 +/- 0.2 mm; p less than 0.05). When the analysis was applied to males only, the difference was statistically significant (1.5 +/- 0.3 versus 1.1 +/- 0.2 mm; p less than 0.01). There was no difference in skin thickness between the primary and miscellaneous forms of the syndrome. The findings suggest generalised skin involvement in the CVG-MR syndrome.

Adult↗