An institution for the mentally retarded was surveyed to determine the prevalence rate of Rett syndrome (RS). Four patients with definite RS and one with probable RS were identified in a population of 350, yielding a prevalence rate of 1 in 87, about 1% of institutionalized male and female patients with mental retardation. In this population of patients with severe and profound mental retardation (N = 297), 138 females were surveyed, suggesting a prevalence rate among females of 1 in 34 in an institutional population of persons with mental retardation. Surveys of institutions for persons with mental retardation may be an effective method to identify adults with RS.

Adolescent↗

PubMed1990

Autism, profound mental retardation and atypical bipolar disorder in a 33-year-old female with a deletion of 15q12.

A case report of a 33-year-old woman with atypical bipolar disorder, autistic disorder, profound mental retardation and a chromosomal anomaly is presented. This patient is behaviourally similar to a patient reported by Akuffo et al. (1986), who apparently did not have a chromosomal investigation. The chromosomal anomaly and similarities between the two patients are discussed.

Adult↗

PubMed1990

The hand apraxia scale.

A scale for the assessment of hand apraxia was developed on a population of 239 institutionalized mentally retarded adults. Guttman scaling indicates adequate reliability and validity.

Activities of Daily Living↗

PubMed1989

Use of a shuttle vector for the transformation of the white rot basidiomycete, Phanerochaete chrysosporium.

A novel shuttle vector based spheroplast transformation system for the lignin degrading filamentous fungus P. chrysosporium is described. The transformation vector, designated pRR12, consists of the yeast integration plasmid YIp5, a putative autonomous replication sequence (ars) of P. chrysosporium, and a 2.2 kb PvuII fragment carrying kanr determinant from plasmid pNG35, which confers resistance against both kanamycin and the related antibiotic G418. Two different strains of P. chrysosporium (ME446 and BKM-F) were transformed to G418 resistance using vector pRR12. Approximately 20 transformants per micrograms of vector DNA were obtained. The transforming vector pRR12 could be recovered from the total DNA of transformants by E. coli transformation, albeit at a low frequency.

Basidiomycota↗