Interleukin-1beta (IL-1beta) and interleukin-6 (IL-6) levels in 20 patients with bacteremic Streptococcus pneumoniae community-acquired pneumonia (CAP) were compared with these cytokine levels in 20 patients with Mycoplasma pneumoniae CAP. All 40 patients survived hospitalization and underwent a follow-up examination one month later. Serum IL-1beta and IL-6 levels were determined by the enzyme immunoassay (EIA) method using commercial kits. In the acute phase of CAP, IL-6 levels were significantly higher in the S. pneumoniae group (p = 0.014), while IL-1beta levels were higher in the M. pneumoniae group (p = 0.046). In the convalescence phase, the two cytokines were detected in a considerable number of patients in both groups. In this phase, only the level of IL-1beta was significantly higher in the M. pneumoniae group than in the S. pneumoniae group (p = 0.03). We conclude that the levels of IL-1beta and IL-6 are different between patients with S. pneumoniae-CAP and M. pneumoniae-CAP during the acute phase. In the convalescence phase, cytokine levels remain high in some of the CAP patients, but a significant difference between the groups exists only for IL-1beta. Further studies are required.

Adult↗

PubMedDate not supplied

Effect of naloxone on neurologic deficit and cortical blood flow during focal cerebral ischemia in cats.

Using middle cerebral artery occlusion in the cat as a model of focal cerebral ischemia, we investigated the effect of naloxone on both neurologic deficit and regional cortical blood flow during cerebral ischemia. In all animals with major strokes, 2 mg/ml naloxone administered intravenously produced a dramatic reversal of neurologic symptoms four hours after the ischemic lesion. Animals were then anesthetized and cortical blood flow was measured by the hydrogen clearance method. Blood flow in the ischemic cortex was noted to be approximately 55% that of the control side. Naloxone produced a significant decrease of approximately 20% in cortical blood flow in the ischemic hemisphere while no effect on blood flow on the control side was noted. Thus, naloxone appears to reverse the neurologic deficits following middle cerebral artery occlusion in the cat. This effect appears to be accompanied by a decrease in local blood flow to the ischemic cortex.

Animals↗

PubMedDate not supplied

Enkephalin and alpha-adrenergic receptors: evidence for both common and differentiable regulatory pathways and down-regulation of the enkephalin receptor.

Several clones of neuroblastoma-glioma NG108-15 hybrid cells were used to reveal whether the regulation of opiate receptor density interacts with the regulation of alpha-adrenergic or acetyl-choline receptors. Low density of alpha-adrenergic receptors in 3 selected clones was accompanied with similar reduction in the density of enkephalin receptors but not in muscarinic acetyl-choline receptors. Yet opiate antagonists that increased the number of opiate receptors in the parent NG108-15 cells in a stereospecific manner had no similar effect on the number of alpha-adrenergic receptors. Moreover, the stable enkephalin analogue D-ala-2-methionine enkephalinamide, but not the opiate alkaloid morphine, decreased the binding of 3H-DAMEA to the membranes and induced down-regulation of enkephalin receptors. Yet DAMEA had no effect on the binding of the alpha-adrenergic antagonist 3H-yohimbine. The study suggests that alpha-adrenergic and enkephalin receptors may share some common regulatory pathways but opiate peptides and antagonists selectively decrease or increase the density of enkephalin receptors, respectively, with no effect on alpha-adrenergic receptor density.

Animals↗

PubMedDate not supplied

Visual evoked potentials in Alzheimer's disease: correlations with age and severity.

Flash and pattern reversal visually evoked potentials were recorded in 25 patients fulfilling NINCDS-ADRDA criteria for 'probable' Alzheimer's disease (AD). Results were compared with those obtained from groups of normal elderly subjects and patients with mild memory impairment not amounting to dementia. The P2 component of the flash VEP was significantly delayed in AD patients of 74 years or less and correlated with severity whereas the P100 component of the pattern reversal VEP remained relatively unchanged. The latency difference between the P2 and the P100 proved to be a valid discriminator between demented and non-demented subjects only in the younger age group. This limits its usefulness as a diagnostic test of dementia in patients over the age of 75.

Age Factors↗

PubMedDate not supplied

Executive functions and updating of the contents of working memory in unipolar depression.

BACKGROUND: Depression is characterized by cognitive impairments, including executive dysfunctions. These executive deficits could reflect impairments of more basic executive processes, such as updating, set shifting and inhibition. While shifting and inhibition impairments are often reported, studies on depression have been somewhat obscure about specific deficits of the updating process. The main goal of that study was to assess the updating process in young in-patients with depression. METHODS: We used a verbal n-back task to assess updating process. Load and mental manipulation within working memory (WM) were incremented by using three different levels of complexity (1,2,3-back). Neuropsychological tests and an attentional task (0-back) were also administered to subjects. Twenty-two individuals meeting DSM-IV criteria for Major Unipolar Depression and 22 healthy control subjects, matched on age, verbal IQ and education, were included in the study. RESULTS: Subjects with depression showed significant deficits at the n-back task compared to control subjects. They were normal in tasks assessing the short-term maintenance in WM and attention. This suggests that depressed patients exhibit impairment in the updating process. Depressed patients also showed set shifting and inhibition deficits. Only the n-back task was correlated with the number of hospitalizations and the longitudinal course of the illness. CONCLUSIONS: Our results suggest that young depressed in-patients have widespread executive dysfunctions, including updating, shifting and inhibition processes. We also found a correlation between a longitudinal measure of depression severity and an updating task performance. We suggest that using multiple executive tasks gives the opportunity to distinguish the specific influence of various executive processes on clinical dimensions in depression.

Adult↗

PubMedDate not supplied

A generic cyclosporine development program.

Explore the source record for details and available documents.

Administration, Oral↗

PubMedDate not supplied

Prognostic significance of DNA ploidy in childhood astrocytomas.

The ability to divide subsets of children with astrocytoma into prognostic groups is limited because only a few clinical and pathologic variables are available. This study evaluated DNA ploidy as a potential prognostic factor in 30 children with diagnosed gliomas and examined the correlation of flow cytometric analysis to other parameters such as sex, age at diagnosis, histologic grading, localization of tumor, and completeness of surgical resection. Seventeen children with low-grade glioma and 13 with high-grade glioma were retrospectively reviewed; mean age of the patients was 8.2 years, and mean follow-up of the population was 7.6 years. The tumor was localized to the cerebrum in 19 patients, the cerebellum in 7 patients, the brain stem in 3 patients, and the spine in 1 patient. Fourteen patients underwent complete excision and 16 patients underwent partial excision. DNA diploidy was demonstrated in 21 patients and aneuploidy in 9 patients. Twenty children had no evidence of disease and 10 died of disease. Of the patients with diploid tumors, 81% survived, compared to only 33% survival among patients with aneuploid tumors (p < .011). By Cox regression analysis with age, gender, type of excision, grade, location of tumor, and ploidy as independent variables, ploidy was a statistically significant predictor of survival (p = .043). This investigation provides further evidence that flow cytometry may have prognostic value in children with gliomas. Thus, a larger number of tumors can be studied to extend and validate these observations.

Adolescent↗

PubMedDate not supplied

Social support in social interaction: a moderator of cardiovascular reactivity.

This study examines the possibility that social support operates as a moderator of cardiovascular reactivity, which may be a factor in the development of heart disease and hypertension. An experiment was performed in which each of 40 subjects was the object of verbal attack in a discussion of a controversial issue. In each session, one subject and three confederates participated. Two of the confederates argued with the subject; in half the groups, a third confederate defended the subject's position (social support condition); in the other half, the third confederate sat quietly (no support condition). The subject's blood pressure and heart rate were continuously monitored. Subjects in the social support condition showed significantly smaller increases in cardiovascular measures than subjects in the no support condition. The results are discussed in terms of small group dynamics and Social Comparison Theory.

Adaptation, Psychological↗