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Biomedical subjects

R Cancro

Publications and source records attributed to R Cancro.

At least 37 records · Page 2Linked to original sources
PubMed1992

Low cerebellar metabolism in medicated patients with chronic schizophrenia.

Because of the frequent association of cerebellar structural defects with schizophrenia, the authors reanalyzed the metabolic brain images of patients with chronic schizophrenia to assess if they had abnormalities in cerebellar metabolism. They used carbon-11-2-deoxyglucose and positron emission tomography to study 18 medicated patients with chronic schizophrenia and 12 normal comparison subjects. Patients with schizophrenia showed significantly lower absolute and relative metabolism in the cerebellum than normal subjects.

Adult↗
PubMed1992

Spatial low frequency pattern analysis in positron emission tomography: a study between normals and schizophrenics.

Using the two-dimensional Fourier transform and the brain's centroidal principal axis, a method is developed for the analysis of PET metabolic brain images without the use of predefined anatomic regions of interest. We applied the method to images from a group of 11 normal and 12 medicated schizophrenics tested under resting conditions and under a visual task. A cortical/subcortical spatial pattern was found to be significant in two directions; anterior/posterior and chiasmatic (left-anterior/right-posterior). The best individual clinical classification (Jackknife classification) occurred under visual task at two axial brain levels: at the basal ganglia with correct classification rates of 91% and 84%, while the cerebellum had rates of 82% and 92%. These high classification rates were obtained using only the four coefficients of the lowest spatial frequency. These results point to the generalized brain dysfunction of regional glucose metabolism in chronic medicated schizophrenics both at rest and at a visual image-tracking task.

Analysis of Variance↗
PubMed1990

Neurobiology of schizophrenic syndromes.

The development of imaging technologies for investigating the living human brain has expanded knowledge about schizophrenia and is providing clues about biological factors associated with the disorder. Drawing on these and other developments in the last two decades, the authors review selected structural, functional, neurochemical, immunological, and infectious factors associated with the schizophrenic syndrome. Many of the biological alterations reported have also been found in other psychiatric, neurological, and medical conditions; therefore, the findings have little specificity for schizophrenia and in fact support the heterogeneity of the disorder.

Brain↗
PubMed1988

Low frontal glucose utilization in chronic schizophrenia: a replication study.

Frontal/posterior ratios of cerebral glucose metabolism as determined by positron emission tomography were significantly lower in 13 chronic schizophrenic patients than in eight normal control subjects, as were absolute metabolic rates in both the frontal and posterior regions. The differences were not accounted for by cerebral atrophy.

Adult↗
PubMed1987

Effects of amphetamine on local cerebral metabolism in normal and schizophrenic subjects as determined by positron emission tomography.

The effects of d-amphetamine (0.5 mg/kg PO) on regional cerebral glucose utilization were measured with Positron Emission Tomography (PET). Subjects included ten chronic schizophrenics and six controls who received amphetamine, and six chronic schizophrenics and nine controls who received placebo or no treatment. Amphetamine decreased glucose metabolism in all regions studied (frontal, temporal, and striatal) in normal and schizophrenic subjects. The metabolic effects of amphetamine were correlated with plasma level of the drug. Cortical atrophy was associated with a blunted metabolic response.

Adult↗
PubMed1987

Phenomenological correlates of metabolic activity in 18 patients with chronic schizophrenia.

Using [11C]-deoxy-D-glucose and positron emission tomography (PET), the authors measured brain metabolism in 18 patients with chronic schizophrenia to assess which of the metabolic measures from two test conditions was more closely related to the patients' differing clinical characteristics. The two conditions were resting and activation, and an eye tracking task was used. Patients with more negative symptoms showed lower global metabolic rates and more severe hypofrontality than did the patients with fewer negative symptoms. Differences among the patients were distinguished by the task: sicker patients failed to show a metabolic activation response. These findings suggest that cerebral metabolic patterns reflect clinical characteristics of schizophrenic patients.

Adult↗
PubMed1986

Brain organization in schizophrenia.

Brain metabolism was measured with positron emission tomography and [11C]deoxyglucose during baseline and during a visual task in 12 normal subjects and 18 schizophrenic patients. Global measures of metabolism for 11 brain regions were transformed into relative values by dividing them by the metabolic value for whole brain. Factor analysis was accomplished on the matrix of intercorrelations among the relative regional values for the normal and for the schizophrenic patients under baseline and under the task. Four factors that revealed independently varying metabolism in frontal, occipital, left-versus-right hemisphere, and subcortical structures were obtained. The frontal and subcortical factors discriminated between normal subjects and schizophrenic patients, whereas the occipital factor discriminated between baseline and task. Although activity in these individual regions varied significantly, it was the pattern of differences in regional metabolic activity that best discriminated between diagnostic groups and testing conditions.

Adult↗
PubMed1986

Brain metabolism in patients with schizophrenia before and after acute neuroleptic administration.

Positron emission tomography (PET) with 11C-2-deoxyglucose (11DG) was used to compare regional brain metabolism in four patients with chronic schizophrenia who had no history of psychotropic medication and in 12 normal controls. Patients had a second PET scan after an injection of thiothixene to evaluate the effects of acute neuroleptics on glucose metabolism. The patients showed higher glucose metabolic values than the normals and did not show the metabolic hypofrontality reported in chronic medicated patients with schizophrenia. Administration of the neuroleptic did not have a significant effect in the metabolic pattern of the patients. These results give support to the hypothesis that prolonged medication may contribute to the metabolic hypofrontal pattern seen in patients with schizophrenia.

Adult↗
PubMed1985

Persistence of cerebral metabolic abnormalities in chronic schizophrenia as determined by positron emission tomography.

Local cerebral metabolic rates were determined by positron emission tomography and the deoxyglucose method in a group of 10 chronic schizophrenic subjects before and after somatic treatment and in eight normal subjects. Before treatment, schizophrenic subjects had markedly lower absolute metabolic activity than did normal controls in both frontal and temporal regions and a trend toward relative hyperactivity in the basal ganglia area. After treatment, their metabolic rates approached those seen in normal subjects in nearly all regions except frontal. Persistence of diminished frontal metabolism was manifested as significant relative hypofrontality. These findings suggest specific loci of aberrant cerebral functioning in chronic schizophrenia and the utility of positron emission tomography in characterizing these abnormalities.

Adult↗
PubMed1982

Pharmacotherapy of Hispanic depressed patients: clinical observations.

Based on the observation that Hispanic depressed patients appear to receive lower dosages of antidepressants, the clinical records of 41 Hispanic and 21 Anglo, female outpatients receiving antidepressants were compared. All the patients had been diagnosed by two psychiatrists as suffering from a major depressive episode according to the DSM III criteria. The records showed that the Anglo patients received about double the dosage of antidepressants given to the Hispanic patients. The Hispanic patients complained more about side effects, but the treatment outcome was comparable in both groups. Apart from pharmacokinetic factors, the authors suggest that these clinical observations may be due to the fact that Hispanic depressed patients express depression in terms of somatic symptoms which are often similar to the side effects produced by antidepressants. Clinicians ought to familiarize themselves with the psychological, sociocultural, and biologic characteristics of the patient, and should approach the chemotherapy in a differential manner. Controlled prospective studies should be designed to test the hypotheses generated by this study.

Adult↗
PubMed1982

The metamorphosis of the country psychiatric service.

From their beginnings, county or municipal psychiatric services have reflected the political and social attitudes of the times. Traditionally they were public facilities that delivered acute inpatient care and a variable range of outpatient services, and, within their mandate, they functioned well. During the past two decades institutional psychiatry has evolved in such a way that there is little difference in the range of services delivered by county, state, and voluntary facilities. The logical role of the county hospital continues to be the provision of acute care for the poor. But for county systems to survive and flourish, they must be prepared to regionalize some services, and to differentiate their role in relation to voluntary and state facilities, yet integrate services with them where needed. They must strengthen ties with academic institutions and effectively address problems of third-party payment and other financial issues.

Delivery of Health Care↗