Early averaged electroencephalic responses to clicks in neonates.
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Acoustic Stimulation↗
Biomedical subjects
R Goldstein
Publications and source records attributed to R Goldstein.
Early- and middle-aer components to clicks as response indices for neonatal hearing screening.
Early- and middle-component-averaged electroencephalic responses (AER) to monotic clicks at 60, 40 and 20 dB normal hearing level were elicited from 18 carefully selected normal neonates. Grand-composite AERs of the responses from all 18 babies showed stimulus-related configurations at all three stimulus levels. AERs for individual babies were more frequently identified as stimulus-related when poststimulus activity beyond 10 ms was included in response-identification procedures than when only the first 10 ms was observed.
Audiometry↗
Agricultural use of Burkholderia (Pseudomonas) cepacia: a threat to human health?
In the past 2 decades, Burkholderia cepacia has emerged as a human pathogen causing numerous outbreaks, particularly among cystic fibrosis (CF) patients. One highly transmissible strain has spread across North America and Britain, and another between hospitalized CF and non-CF patients. Meanwhile, the organism has been developed as a biopesticide for protecting crops against fungal diseases and has potential as a bioremediation agent for breaking down recalcitrant herbicides and pesticides. However, B. cepacia is inherently resistant to multiple antibiotics; selection of strains "safe" for environmental application is not at present possible phenotypically or genotypically; molecular epidemiology and phylogenetic studies demonstrate that highly transmissible strains emerge randomly; and the organism has a capacity for rapid mutation and adaptation (facilitated by numerous insertion sequences), and a large, complex genome divided into separate chromosomes. Therefore, the widespread agricultural use of B. cepacia should be approached with caution.
Agriculture↗
The disease management approach to cost containment.
Disease management has been around a long time, certainly since Pasteur. Its initial focus was to eliminate or contain epidemics. In the 20th century, American public health scientists and officials have used disease management to address a high-risk, often poor population. Currently, the population-based principles of disease management, including disease prevention activities, are being applied to noninfectious diseases. Two examples of public health disease prevention strategies are vaccinations and chlorination of water. Hospitals are now providing post-hospital disease management programs for selected chronic conditions that account for a high volume of repeat admissions or emergency department visits, such as chronic heart failure, asthma, and cancer. In other words, hospitals are spending money on a program that, if done right, will reduce their inpatient revenues. They are doing so for various reasons (e.g., because they have established at-risk financial partnerships with their physicians, or possibly because other area hospitals are doing it, or possibly because they want to keep the ancillaries [x-rays, laboratory, pharmacy, ambulatory surgery, etc]). Regardless of the reasons, hospital case managers will be charged with referring qualified patients to both hospital-based and provider-based disease management programs.
Case Management↗
Assisting elderly people with medication--the role of home carers.
In 1991, home carers in Derbyshire were asked to participate in a questionnaire survey in order to estimate the demand for home carers to assist elderly clients with specific medication tasks. The results indicate that 17% of regular clients require assistance with medication, and that 86% of home carers are expected to assist with at least one medication task. Home care aides received considerably more requests than home helps to assist with such tasks. The findings are discussed in relation to the way home carers perceive 'personal care'. The type of personal care tasks that home carers are expected to perform should be more clearly defined, and the findings highlight the importance of providing pharmaceutical advice and training to home carers.
Aged↗
Acro-osteolysis and osteoporosis as manifestations of the Hajdu-Cheney syndrome.
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Acro-Osteolysis↗
A rebound-like pattern of REM sleep induced by guinea pig myelin basic protein (MBP) in cats.
In order to investigate the effects of myelin basic protein (MBP) on sleep parameters, adult cats received 10 micrograms of guinea pig MBP into the third ventricle of the brain and were subsequently recorded for 8 hours. In comparison with both saline solution (0.1 ml) and 10 micrograms basic proteins (protamines and histones), MBP specifically produced a rebound-like pattern of the REM sleep (REMS); it decreased the REMS latency, increased the number of REMS episodes and dramatically increased the REMS percent during the 3rd and 6th hour of recording. In the light of the strong depolarisation effect and of the presence of specific binding sites for serotonin, the results are discussed as suggesting that MBP enhances the REMS triggering mechanisms.
Animals↗
EEG mapping in mentally retarded children by synthetic arginine vasotocin administration.
EEG investigations (using source-derivation) were performed in 15 mentally retarded children, before, during (at 1 and 6 months) and after three months of pineal hormone treatment (AVT, 10(-6) mg/day, intranasally). Power spectral analysis, maturation lines and EEG mapping were used to ascertain the functional changes induced by AVT. A rapid increase in maturation EEG coefficients was found. It resulted from a significant reduction in the percent amount of theta and delta activity and from the increase in alpha activity. A significant increase in alpha peak frequency occurred after 6 months of treatment as well as a better separation of the EEG patterns between the anterior and posterior halves of the hemispheres. These favourable effects were clearly evidenced by EEG mapping. They are in good relation with cognitive function (attention, intelligence) improvement induced by AVT therapy.
Administration, Intranasal↗
Growth hormone (GH) release by arginin-vasotocin (AVT) given intranasally in sexually immature children.
Eighteen healthy children were given 50 micrograms synthetic AVT intranasally and samples of serum for GH, magnesium and alpha-amino-nitrogen were drawn 30, 60 and 120 minutes later. There was a significantly different mean of GH peak level (13.1 +/- 3.02 microU/ml) which occurred generally at 30 minutes. The number of GH responders (i.e. peak level greater than 15 microU/ml) was of 7/18. The means of chemical determinations elicited little though opposite changes: slight increases in magnesium and slight decrease in alpha-amino-nitrogen. In a separate day, a sleep test of 30 minutes-duration performed in the morning resulted in a significantly greater GH peak level (28.2 +/- 9.7 microU/ml) but the number of GH responders was nearly the same (6/18). The serum magnesium levels following sleep decreased slightly and unsignificantly. The involvement of serotonergic neurons in mediating GH-releasing effects of AVT is briefly discussed.
Administration, Intranasal↗
REM sleep dependent release of vasotocin into cerebrospinal fluid of narcoleptics.
The lumbar cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) collected from 6 narcoleptic patients (three males and three females) aged between 31 and 47 years, as well as from 2 patients having Pickwickian syndromes with hypersomnia attacks (two males), aged 43-51 years, contained relatively high amounts of arginine vasotocin (AVT) only if the CSF was removed after a REM sleep period. The release was not induced by darkness since the same release of AVT occurred when the CSF was removed after a REM sleep period during daylight hours. No detectable AVT levels have been found in the CSF samples of four narcoleptics collected after a NREM period of sleep, either during night or daylight hours. The present results suggest a possible alteration of the rhythmical release of AVT both in narcolepsy and in narcoleptic syndromes.
Adult↗
Pineal vasotocin: REM sleep dependent release into cerebrospinal fluid of man.
Lumbar cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) of seven healthy male volunteers contains detectable levels of arginine vasotocin (AVT) when CSF was removed after awakening from rapid eye movement (REM) sleep. No detectable levels of AVT were found in the CSF of the same subjects when CSF WAS removed after awakening from non rapid eye movement (NREM) sleep. The amount of AVT detected in CSF after REM sleep was significantly higher if the subjects experienced vivid and emotive dreams. The present results provide the first evidence for a REM sleep dependent release of AVT into CSF of man.
Adult↗
Habenular nuclei specifically bind synthetic arginine vasotocin.
The antidiuretic activity of an arginine vasotocin (AVT) solution (10 microU/ml) was studied in comparison with an arginine vasopressin (AVP) solution (10 microU/ml) after their incubation for 1 h at 37 degrees C with the supernatants (S) or the pellets (P) of the habenular nuclei (HN) or frontal cortex (FC) fragments homogenized in saline solution, removed from adult or newborn rats. Both SHN and SFC from adults inactivated about 5 microU/ml AVT and 10 microU/ml AVP, PHN and not PFC inactivated only about 7 microU/ml. In newborns the phenomena were in the same direction, but the specific inactivation of AVT by the PHN was of about twice greater than in adults. The results are interpreted as suggesting that, in contrast to an unspecific inactivation from S, probably of an enzymatic nature, the PHN specifically bind AVT and that this activity is greater in newborn than in adult rats.
Aging↗
Standard EEG might predict the intensity of the vasotocin effects on REM sleep in prepubertal children.
Standard electroencephalographic (EEG) anomalies were correlated with the intensity of the acute intranasally administered arginine vasotocin (AVT) effects on the REM sleep of 27 healthy prepubertal children (aged between 4 and 13 years). In comparison with saline controls, AVT greatly enhanced REM sleep parameters in subjects with alpha rhythm anomalies, theta waves or with low-voltage EEG as well as in those without hyperpnea-induced EEG anomalies, than in those without (and respectively with) these anomalies. No statistical significant correlation could be established between the intensity of AVT effects on sleep and age, sex, appearance of incidental delta waves or of paroxysmal activities. It is concluded that standard EEG might predict the intensity of the hypnogenic effects of AVT in prepubertal children. The present results support the hypothesis that AVT could be involved in the maturation of the electrical activity of the brain.
Adolescent↗
Vasotocin and sleep in prepubertal boys: its suppression by valproic acid.
In order to investigate a possible involvement of the GABA-ergic neurotransmission in the effects of arginine vasotocin (AVT) hormone on human sleep, we administered in 20 healthy prepubertal boys (aged 7-12 years), by an intra-nasal route, AVT (1 microgram) alone or 10 minutes after an intra-nasal dose of valproic acid (VA) (1, 10 and 50 micrograms). Whether the dose of 50 micrograms VA alone produced a quasi-total insomnia for all recording time (3h), the doses of 1 and 10 micrograms VA were without any apparent effect on sleep parameters. However, whatever be the dose of VA, it produced a total suppression of the hypnogenic effects of AVT. The results suggest not only a possible involvement of the GABA-ergic mechanisms in mediating the hypnogenic properties of AVT in man, but also that VA could be used in the treatment of excessive sleep syndromes, especially of narcolepsy.
Administration, Intranasal↗
Humoral mediation of the development of the mammalian nervous system.
The application of the new ideas advanced by modern neuroscience research, mainly those about the neuronal plasticity and the extrinsic influences able to modify the behaviour of the neuronal populations, to the ontogenetic evolution of the nervous system, have conducted to the elaboration of the concept of the humoral mediation of the brain development. Data sustaining this concept come from at least four areas of investigations, referring to the influences which the endocrine glands (thyroid, gonads, adrenals, hypophysis and pineal), neurotransmitters and the "growth factors" exert on the in vivo and in vitro development of the nervous system. These data are synthetically presented in the present paper, a special attention being paid to the pineal gland and its hormones, due to the personal research of the author in this field. All these researches support some fascinating hypotheses regarding the future of this extremely controversed field of the neuroscience, hypotheses that are presented in the final chapter of the paper.
Animals↗
Vasotocin release from the pineal gland of newborn mammals: the involvement of GABA mechanisms.
The arginine vasotocin (AVT) levels were bioassayed in the pineal extracts from 20-day-old kittens and from 10-day-old rat pups and in the cerebrospinal (CSF) samples taken from 20-day-old kittens. The animals received daily (between the postnatal day 2 and the day of sacrifice) the selective GABA receptor antagonist picrotoxin (5 X 10(-7) mg) or the specific GABA agonist valproic acid (10(-5) mg). Picrotoxin was found to produce a decrease of the pineal AVT levels in newborn kittens and rats, and an increase of the AVT amount of the CSF samples from kittens. Valproic acid had opposite effects, producing an increase of pineal AVT in both species and a decrease of AVT levels in the kittens CSF samples below the sensitivity limit of the bioassay method. The result suggests that not only in adult, but also in newborn mammals, the inhibitory feed-back loop between the brain and the pineal gland is GABA-mediated and that the GABA-ergic mechanisms are involved in regulating the release of AVT from the pineal gland.
Animals↗
Plasma vitamin E levels in uremic children and adolescents.
We studied plasma vitamin E levels in children/adolescents 3-19 years of age (10.9 +/- 4.5; mean +/- 1 SD) with chronic renal failure treated conservatively, on hemodialysis, on continuous ambulatory peritoneal dialysis and after renal transplantation. In all 4 groups of patients vitamin E levels (0.66-0.90 mg/dl) were within the normal range (0.76 +/- 0.19 mg/dl). The lowest levels of vitamin E (0.59 +/- 0.1 mg/dl) were found in nonuremic patients with a good functioning renal transplant. These data do not support the notion that uremia is accompanied by vitamin E malabsorption.
Adolescent↗