Family and schizophrenia - psychoeducational group in a pilot programme.

Aim: The paper aims to present the programme, the outcomes and the conclusions of a psychoeducational training series for families with schizophrenia carried out by the Babiński Specialist Hospital in Kraków, Poland. The paper sets out to describe an explorative project based on qualitative study methods. The programme described in the paper adheres to the systemic and narrative approach to therapy.

Inhalation dose due to presence of 131I in air above septic tank system of an endocrinology hospital.

We present here measurements of the 131I concentration for both: gaseous and aerosol fraction of 131I in the air above the septic tank containing wastes from medical application of this isotope. Aerosols were collected using air filters, whereas gaseous forms of iodine were trapped in KI impregnated charcoal double layer cartridge. Besides an active method (pumping of the air through system of filters) an attempt for using a passive method (charcoal traps) for monitoring of radio-iodine is described.

Radon concentration in soil gas around local disjunctive tectonic zones in the Krakow area.

The purpose of this study was to investigate radon in the vicinity of geologic fault zones within the Krakow region of Poland, and to determine the influence of such formations on enhanced radon concentrations in soil. Radon ((222)Rn and (220)Rn) concentration measurements in soil gas (using ionization chamber AlphaGUARD PQ2000 PRO and diffusion chambers with CR-39 detectors), as well as radioactive natural isotopes of radium, thorium and potassium in soil samples (using gamma ray spectrometry with NaI(Tl) and HPGe detectors), were performed. Site selection was based on a geological map of Krakow.

MCP-N (LiF:Mg,Cu,P) TLDs for radon measurements with charcoal canisters.

A method of measurement of radon concentration in air was developed, based on high-sensitivity LiF:Mg,Cu,P (MCP-N, TLD Poland) thermoluminescent detectors installed in charcoal canisters. The canisters were exposed typically for 72 h in a calibration chamber with a radon concentration ranging from 100 Bq x m(-3) to 87 kBq x m(-3). It was found that in these conditions the signal registered by the TL detectors was proportional to the 222Rn concentration and the lowest limit of detection (LLD) was at a level of 100 Bq x m(-3).

Oculomotor phenomena in petit-mal.

Objective: To determine the temporal relationship among behavior, eye movements and respiration during absence seizures.

Method: This included simultaneous videorecording of a patient's face, EEG and respirogram, in 5 patients with absence seizures. Absence seizures were defined as a sudden lapse of consciousness with impairment of mental functions.

Fully automated assay of glycohemoglobin with the Abbott IMx analyzer: novel approaches for separation and detection.

We describe a novel assay for measuring glycohemoglobin directly from anticoagulated whole blood with the Abbott IMx analyzer. The glycohemoglobin is labeled with a soluble polyanionic affinity reagent and the anionic complex is then captured with a cationic solid-phase matrix. Glycohemoglobin is quantified by measuring the quenching by heme of the static fluorescence from an added fluorophore.

Visual evoked potentials and brain stem auditory potentials in Friedreich's ataxia--a longitudinal study.

Six patients with Friedreich's ataxia, 4 males and 2 females, their ages ranging from 13 to 33 years, were studied. The early manifestations started between age 7 and 13 with an evolution time between 6 and 20 years. Serial visual and brain stem auditory evoked potential recordings were made.

Familial spastic ataxia associated with Ehlers-Danlos syndrome with platelet dysfunction.

Four members of a family with consanguineous relationships, the proband and his three children (2 sons and 1 daughter) are affected with Familial Spastic Ataxia and with Ehlers-Danlos' Syndrome with platelet aggregation dysfunction. In the four cases, this exceptional association appears remarkably homogeneous both in clinical and laboratory studies. The two syndromes are of dominant-autosomic transmission and probably originated in a new mutation which presumably maintained a genetic linkage.

Herbicide-quinone competition in the acceptor complex of photosynthetic reaction centers from Rhodopseudomonas sphaeroides: a bacterial model for PS-II-herbicide activity in plants.

A select group of herbicides that inhibit photosystem II also act at the acceptor side of the reaction center (RC) from the photosynthetic bacterium Rhodopseudomonas sphaeroides, with much the same relative specificity as in plants. These include the triazines and some phenolic compounds. The proposal that herbicides inhibit the electron transfer from the primary quinone (QA) to the secondary quinone (QB) by competing for the secondary quinone binding site--the B-site--[5], is tested here with terbutryn, the most potent of the triazines.

Saccadic eye movements in frontal lesion and posthemispherectomy in humans. An electro-oculographic study.

This study was concerned with the assumed role that the frontal eye fields could play in the mechanisms of: the voluntary saccade optokinetic responses. Ten patients with frontal lobe tumors (8 unilateral, 2 bilateral) and two patients with a right hemispherectomy were studied. EOG and EEG were performed in the same session.

Electro-oculographic and electroencephalographic correlative study of optokinetic responses in brain lesions.

Electro-oculograms of induced optokinetic responses (OKR) and EEG were recorded in 61 patients with either left or right hemisphere lesions. Of the 61 patients 55 showed focal EEG disturbances as follows: occipito-temporal (7 cases), parieto-temporal (10 cases), occipito-parieto-temporal (26 cases), temporal (9 cases) and frontal (3 cases). Symmetric OKR (21 cases) were recorded when no EEG changes were observed or when these were localized to left or right temporal and frontal electrodes and exceptionally when unilateral occipital and parietal regions were also involved.

[Ocular diskinesia].

The clinical findings and the electro-oculogram were correlated in four cases (3 postinfectious, 1 vascular) with ocular dyskinesias, of a mixed type in two of them. This correlation led to a more precise recognition of the pattern of opsoclonus, flutter and ocular dysmetria. Ocular dyskinesias have certain resemblances with voluntary saccadic movements; the effects of ocular following and optokinetic stimulation are described.