PubMed · 4555226
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M Taniewski. 1972-05-15. [Gustometry in current diagnostics].. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/4555226/
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Devic's neuromyelitis optica (NMO) associates optic neuritis and myelitis without any other neurological signs. Many patients with NMO may be diagnosed as having multiple sclerosis (MS), optic neuritis and myelitis being the inaugural symptom in 20% and 5% of MS cases, respectively. The aim of our study was to compare a new NMO cohort with recent studies and to try to determine the place of NMO in the spectrum of MS. We retrospectively studied 13 patients with a complete diagnostic workup for NMO. We compared our data with the most recent studies on NMO and with the criteria proposed by Wingerchuck et al. [Neurology 53 (1999) 1107]. We also determined whether these patients fulfilled the diagnostic criteria for MS. Thirteen patients (10 women and three men, with a mean age of 37.4 years) were included in the study. We found similar results to previously published data, except for an association with vasculitis in 38% of our cases. All but three of the patients fulfilled the clinical criteria for MS and two patients fulfilled both clinical and MRI criteria for MS. However, if we applied more restrictive criteria concerning spinal cord and brain MRI and CSF, none of our NMO patients fulfilled the MS diagnostic criteria. NMO might therefore be differentiated from MS by the application of more stringent criteria. Furthermore, all NMO patients should be investigated for vasculitis, even those with no history of systemic disease.
BACKGROUND: There are few effective treatments for ankylosing spondylitis, which causes substantial morbidity. Because of the central role of tumor necrosis factor alpha in the spondyloarthritides, we performed a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial of etanercept, a recombinant human tumor necrosis factor receptor (p75):Fc fusion protein, in patients with ankylosing spondylitis. METHODS: Forty patients with active, inflammatory ankylosing spondylitis were randomly assigned to receive twice-weekly subcutaneous injections of etanercept (25 mg) or placebo for four months. The primary end point was a composite of improvements in measures of morning stiffness, spinal pain, functioning, the patient's global assessment of disease activity, and joint swelling. Patients were allowed to continue taking nonsteroidal antiinflammatory drugs, oral corticosteriods (< or =10 mg per day), and disease-modifying antirheumatic drugs at stable doses during the trial. RESULTS: Treatment with etanercept resulted in significant and sustained improvement. At four months, 80 percent of the patients in the etanercept group had a treatment response, as compared with 30 percent of those in the placebo group (P=0.004). Improvements over base-line values for various measures of disease activity, including morning stiffness, spinal pain, functioning, quality of life, enthesitis, chest expansion, erythrocyte sedimentation rate, and C-reactive protein, were significantly greater in the etanercept group. Longitudinal analysis showed that the treatment response was rapid and did not diminish over time. Etanercept was well tolerated, with no significant differences in rates of adverse events between the two groups. CONCLUSIONS: Treatment with etanercept for four months resulted in rapid, significant, and sustained improvement in patients with ankylosing spondylitis.
UNLABELLED: mRNA, protein and activity for the enzymes required for the synthesis of adrenal corticosteroids have been demonstrated in rat brains by several laboratories. In this study real-time RT-PCR was used to determine whether mRNA for these enzymes are expressed in the human amygdala, caudate nucleus, cerebellum, corpus callosum, hippocampus, spinal cord, and thalamus. Published sequences for the human adrenal enzymes were used to construct primers. RESULTS: mRNAs encoding cholesterol side-chain cleavage enzyme (CYP11A gene), 17beta-hydroxylase (CYP17), 3beta-hydroxysteroid dehydrogenase (3beta-HSD), 21-hydroxylase (CYP21), 11beta-hydroxysteroid dehydrogenase (11beta-HSD2) and glucocorticoid and mineralocorticoid receptors were detectable in all anatomical regions evaluated. The 11beta-hydroxylase mRNA was detected in all except cerebellum and hippocampus. The aldosterone synthase mRNA was not found in amygdala, cerebellum or hippocampus. Levels of transcripts were 10(-1)-10(-7)-fold lower than those in the adrenal, with corpus callosum and spinal cord having the highest concentrations. Enzyme activity or relevance is yet unknown.