Residual motor control and cortical representations of function following hemispherectomy: effects of etiology.

Fifteen posthemispherectomy children were examined to assess residual motor function of the paretic side using the 74-point Fugl-Meyer Assessment of Motor Recovery scale. The degree of residual motor control differed for upper and lower extremities, with hand function being most severely impaired. Posthemispherectomy motor outcomes also differed as a function of etiology: cortical dysplasia, perinatal infarct, and Rasmussen's encephalitis.

Modulations of 'late' event-related brain potentials in humans by dynamic audiovisual speech stimuli.

Lipreading reliably improve speech perception during face-to-face conversation. Within the range of good dubbing, however, adults tolerate some audiovisual (AV) discrepancies and lipreading, then, can give rise to confusion. We used event-related brain potentials (ERPs) to study the perceptual strategies governing the intermodal processing of dynamic and bimodal speech stimuli, either congruently dubbed or not.

Gastric emptying and small intestinal transit time in preterm infants: a scintigraphic method.

Objectives: Practical methods to determine gastric emptying (GE) and small intestinal transit time in preterm infants are required. The aim of this study was to develop a scintigraphic method to determine GE and small intestinal transit time in preterm infants which produce minimal radiation exposure and physical disturbance in these infants.

Methods: Ten premature infants were studied.

Cerebral hemispherectomy: hospital course, seizure, developmental, language, and motor outcomes.

Objective: To compare hemispherectomy patients with different pathologic substrates for hospital course, seizure, developmental, language, and motor outcomes.

Methods: The authors compared hemispherectomy patients (n = 115) with hemimegalencephaly (HME; n = 16), hemispheric cortical dysplasia (hemi CD; n = 39), Rasmussen encephalitis (RE; n = 21), infarct/ischemia (n = 27), and other/miscellaneous (n = 12) for differences in operative management, postsurgery seizure control, and antiepilepsy drug (AED) usage. In addition, Vineland Adaptive Behavior Scale (VABS) developmental quotients (DQ), language, and motor assessments were performed pre- or postsurgery, or both.

How normal is grammatical development in the right hemisphere following hemispherectomy? The root infinitive stage and beyond.

We examined the morphosyntax of eight left hemispherectomized children at two different stages and compared it to MLU-matched normals. We found that the language of the hemispherectomies paralleled that of their MLU matches with respect to the specific morphosyntactic characteristics of each stage. Our findings provide strong evidence for the presence of functional categories in all early grammars and demonstrate that grammatical development, regardless of its neural substrate, is highly constrained by UG and follows a narrowly determined course.

Evidence of a visual-to-auditory cross-modal sensory gating phenomenon as reflected by the human P50 event-related brain potential modulation.

We investigated the existence of a cross-modal sensory gating reflected by the modulation of an early electrophysiological index, the P50 component. We analyzed event-related brain potentials elicited by audiovisual speech stimuli manipulated along two dimensions: congruency and discriminability. The results showed that the P50 was attenuated when visual and auditory speech information were redundant (i.

Diastereomer-differentiating hydrolysis of 1,3-diol-acetonides: a simplified procedure for the separation of syn- and anti-1,3-diols.

[reaction: see text] A new method to facilitate the separation of diastereomeric syn- and anti-1,3-diols is described. The method relies on the different hydrolysis rates of the corresponding diastereomeric acetonides. Treatment of a dichloromethane solution of syn- and anti-1,3-diol-acetonide with a catalytic amount of diluted aqueous hydrochloric acid leads to the selective cleavage of the anti diastereomer.

Spoken language outcomes after hemispherectomy: factoring in etiology.

We analyzed postsurgery linguistic outcomes of 43 hemispherectomy patients operated on at UCLA. We rated spoken language (Spoken Language Rank, SLR) on a scale from 0 (no language) to 6 (mature grammar) and examined the effects of side of resection/damage, age at surgery/seizure onset, seizure control postsurgery, and etiology on language development. Etiology was defined as developmental (cortical dysplasia and prenatal stroke) and acquired pathology (Rasmussen's encephalitis and postnatal stroke).

Language after hemispherectomy.

We studied the spoken language of 49 children who had undergone hemispherectomy as part of the UCLA Pediatric Epilepsy Surgery Research Program and analyzed, among a number of clinical factors, the relation between acquired vs developmental pathology and spoken language outcomes. In this paper we will briefly review the results of our study and attempt to explain (1) why "the early" is not always better, (2) why so many right hemispherectomies fail to develop language, and (3) why some left hemispherectomized children develop remarkably good language despite removal of the "language" hemisphere. This account will rest on the proposed model of brain maturation and progressive lateralization.

Age and etiology as predictors of language outcome following hemispherectomy.

We report on the effects of etiology and age on the linguistic outcomes in a large pediatric hemispherectomy population. Four populations were considered separately: cortical dysplasia (multilobar involvement), Rasmussen's encephalitis, infarction as a primary etiology and, fourth, children who failed to develop language, regardless of etiology. We argue against the 'the-earlier-the-better' hypothesis and propose our own hypothesis that weds maturational factors to etiological factors to predict language outcomes following pervasive brain insult.

Electromyographic timing analysis of forward and backward cycling.

Purpose: Backward walking to running progressions are becoming a popular, nontraditional component of functional knee rehabilitation programs. The purpose of this electromyographic (EMG) and motion analysis study was to compare the activation duration of the vastus medialis, vastus lateralis, rectus femoris, medial hamstrings, lateral hamstring, tibialis anterior, and gastrocnemius muscles during forward and backward cycling. We hypothesized that the hamstrings would demonstrate greater activation duration during backward cycling.

Prognostic relevance of cathepsin D detection in micrometastatic cells in the bone marrow of patients with primary breast cancer.

Patients with an elevated level of cathepsin D in breast cancer tissue have an adverse prognosis. This study evaluated the prognostic relevance of cathepsin D detection in disseminated tumour cells in bone marrow. Bone marrow was sampled intraoperatively from both anterior iliac crests in 290 patients with primary breast cancer.

[Incidence and prevalence of symptomatic celiac disease among adults in Denmark].

The purpose was: 1) to determine annual incidence rates of adult coeliac disease, 2) to calculate the risk of having developed coeliac disease in adult life, and 3) to calculate the life time prevalence by five-year birth cohorts. All patients fulfilling defined criteria for adult coeliac disease living in the county of Copenhagen and diagnosed during the years 1976-1991 were included. The reference population consisted of 503,283 subjects.

Prognostic relevance of urokinase plasminogen activator detection in micrometastatic cells in the bone marrow of patients with primary breast cancer.

Patients with an elevated level of urokinase plasminogen activator (uPA) in breast cancer tissue have an adverse prognosis. This study evaluated the prognostic relevance of uPA detection in disseminated tumour cells in bone marrow. Bone marrow was sampled intraoperatively from both iliac crests in 280 patients with primary breast cancer.

Incidence and prevalence of adult coeliac disease within a defined geographic area in Denmark.

Background: In childhood coeliac disease highly varying incidence rates have recently been disclosed. Very low incidence rates (0.09/1000) were found in Denmark, in contrast to our neighbouring country Sweden (2.

Symptoms and haematologic features in consecutive adult coeliac patients.

Background: The aim of this study was to determine in a homogeneous adult population from Denmark, which is known to have very low incidence rates of coeliac disease, 1) the percentage of patients presenting with mild or atypical symptoms; 2) a possible change in clinical pattern over time; and 3) the delay in diagnosis and the age and sex distribution.

Methods: The symptoms, delay in diagnosis, age, sex, and haematologic features of 50 consecutive adult coeliac patients, diagnosed by the same person in a uniform manner, are presented.

Results: The median age was 40.

Taking account of age-related differences on Digit Symbol and Incidental Recall for diagnostic purposes.

The purpose of the present study was to develop age-related normative data on the WAIS Digit Symbol subtest, and a short form of the Digit Symbol Incidental Recall test, for a nonclinical population of English-speaking South Africans with a relatively high level of education. The tests were administered to 131 individuals between the age of 20 and 89 years with at least 10 years of education (mean = 14.93 years; range = 10-22 years).

Conversion of an anti-single-stranded DNA active site to an anti-fluorescein active site through heavy chain complementarity determining region transplantation.

Complementarity determining region (CDR) transplant studies were conducted between two monoclonal antibodies of distinctly different specificities (anti-fluorescein monoclonal antibody (mAb) 4-4-20 and anti-single-stranded DNA (ssDNA) mAb 04-01) which possessed nearly identical light chains but dissimilar heavy chains. The variations in binding specificities between the two immunoglobulins suggested that the active-site features of anti-fluorescein antibodies were dictated by characteristics intrinsic to the heavy chain (H-chain). To identify specific regions of the H-chain which influence the structure and function of an anti-fluorescein active site, CDR transplantation was systematically employed to convert the anti-ssDNA 04-01 antibody active site to an active site with anti-fluorescein activity.

Evaluation of the gliadin antibody test for diagnosing coeliac disease.

The purpose of this study was to evaluate the diagnostic value of gliadin antibodies (GA) in coeliac disease. The test was a diffusion in gel enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (DIG-ELISA), with combined determination of IgA and IgG. The sensitivity, specificity, and positive and negative predictive value of the test were determined, as used on a well-described, consecutive material of 100 adult patients, admitted for small-intestinal biopsy.

[Dimethicone in lactulose-induced dyspepsia. Effect on H2 production and symptoms].

The results of studies of the effect of simethicone on abdominal gas-related symptoms have been contradictory. In a randomized, double-blind, cross-over study, ten healthy volunteers were given 30 g lactulose and 600 mg simethicone or placebo. End-expiratory breath samples were collected and analyzed for H2, and gastrointestinal symptoms registered.

The diagnostic value of the gliadin antibody test in celiac disease in children: a prospective study.

Serum gliadin antibodies (IgA/IgG) were determined in 191 consecutive children (median age, 2.75 years; range, 0.33-15.

Candida albicans septicemia in a premature infant successfully treated with oral fluconazole.

A premature male infant, birth-weight 1460 g, was treated successfully for a Candida albicans septicemia with orally administered fluconazole for 20 days. Dosage was 5 mg/kg/day. No side effects were seen.

Body composition and calcium metabolism in adult treated coeliac disease.

Twenty two treated adult patients with coeliac disease (aged 20-70 years) were examined. Body composition was assessed from anthropometry and directly measured by dual photon absorptiometry. Bone mineral content was measured in the spine (dual photon absorptiometry) and at two forearm sites (single photon absorptiometry).