Cerebral glutamate, neuroleptic drugs and schizophrenia: increase of cerebrospinal fluid glutamate levels and decrease of striate body glutamate levels following sulpiride treatment in rats.

Chronic (12 days) administration of sulpiride (50 mg/kg, i.p.) in rats resulted in a significant (12%) increase in the glutamate contents of cerebrospinal fluid.

[Diaphragmatic eventration and paralysis in children].

Diaphragmatic relaxation is either congenital, due to muscular dysplasia ("eventration"), or acquired and related to phrenic nerve lesion ("paralysis"); phrenic nerve paralysis can be a complication of a difficult delivery (breech presentation or forceps) or of a surgical--mostly cardiac--procedure. The authors review their own experience (12 eventrations and 9 paralysis) and recall the pathophysiology, the symptoms and treatment of this condition. They recommend the surgical plication, as most experienced authors do, when the symptoms are not completely alleviated by medical treatment which should be of short duration and must include intubation and assisted ventilation in case of acute respiratory distress.

Evaluation of infratentorial atrophy by computed tomography.

Eight parameters of cranial computed tomograms were examined from 121 controls, 33 patients suffering from paleocerebellar atrophy and 53 with widespread cerebellar atrophy. With the aid of step-by-step linear discriminant analysis the most important parameters were found and their normal and limiting values were calculated. With the help of correlation analysis the correlation between normal values and the age of the controls was investigated.

[Differential diagnosis of infratentorial atrophies by computed tomography (author's transl)].

Computed tomographical findings are documented for 140 patients with different cerebellar atrophic or heredodegenerative processes. There are idiopathic cerebellar atrophies, so called alcoholic and paraneoplastic cerebellar atrophies, cerebellar atrophies associated with nutritional deficiency diseases or intake of diphenylhydantoin. Further, there are patients suffering from Friedreich's ataxia.

Visually evoked potentials in Friedreich's ataxia.

Visual evoked potentials to pattern-reversal stimulation have been recorded in 45 patients with Friedreich's ataxia. In six patients, no response could be obtained because of optic atrophy; altogether, pathological results were found in 25 patients (55%). Normal latencies were recorded in 20 patients (45%).

Association of bilateral renal agenesis and Di George syndrome in an infant of a diabetic mother.

We found at postmortem examination the association of bilateral renal agenesis and of apparently complete Di George syndrome in an infant whose mother was diabetic. Vertebral abnormalities and hallux duplication were present as well. There is a correlation between maternal diabetes and the bilateral renal agenesis-caudal dysplasia complex on one hand, and maternal diabetes and cardiac malformations on the other hand.

[Tiapride therapy of centrally produced dyskinesia. Examination of the serum levels of protein, LH and FSH (author's transl)].

The effect of N-(2-diethylaminoethyl)-2-methoxy-5-(methylsulfonyl)-benzamide hydrochloride (tiapride, Tiapridex), a dopamine antagonist, on the serum levels of prolactin, luteinising hormone (LH) and follicle-stimulating hormone (FSH) was studied on 20 healthy individuals and 10 patients with dyskinesia resulting from extrapyramidal disorders. Daily doses of 300 mg in healthy subjects and 300-800 mg in patients with dyskinesia resulted from CNS disorders, were found to increase serum prolactin levels without causing amenorrhoea or galactorrhoea. The drug seemed to have no effect on LH and FSH concentrations in the serum.

Effects of amitriptyline on serum glutamate and free tryptophan in rats.

In rats, chronic amitriptyline (14 days, 10 mg/kg, IP) administration resulted in a significant increase in the serum glutamate concentration and concomitant increase in the serum free tryptophan. In contrast, amitriptyline had no effect on the total serum tryptophan or CSF glutamate level. The data confirmed that antidepressant drugs may induce an increase of the serum glutamate concentration in depressive patients.

Increased serum glutamate in depressed patients.

Glutamate concentration was determined in serum from endogenous and neurotic depressive patients, in persons with schizophrenia or schizoaffective disorder, and in normal subjects. The mean serum glutamate level in the endogenous and neurotic depressive patients was found to be significantly higher than in any of the other groups. No other statistically significant differences were found.

[Effect of ethanol on the neurotransmitters glutamate and GABA].

The effect of chronic ethanol administration, 5 g/kg per day for 2 or 4 weeks, on the neurotransmitters glutamate and GABA was investigated in rats. An increase in GABA was found in the striatum, hippocampus, and substantia nigra, 8 or 12 h after the last ingestion of ethanol, this being masked by injection of barbiturate. In addition an increase of glutamate has been found in the examined brain areas.

[Glutamate and GABA concentration in the brain and cerebrospinal fluid of rats treated with phosphatidylcholine].

Phosphatidylcholine increases CNS concentrations of acetylcholine. In rats we investigated whether or not phosphatidylcholine also influences the neurotransmitters glutamate and GABA. In 17 rats 1.

Cystic partially differentiated nephroblastoma.

The clinical and pathologic findings of a case of cystic partially differentiated nephroblastoma in a 5-month-old boy is reported. We believe that it probably represents the differentiated counterpart of nephroblastoma. After nephrectomy, the child was given a short course single cytotoxic therapy with vincristine for 6 months.

[Differential diagnosis of acquired clubfoot (author's transl)].

The article introduces a patient of 14 years of age in whom clubfeet as well as paraspasticity had developed from his sixth year of life. Instead of the previously suspected heredodegenerative disease, a lipoma was found in the distal spinal canal which had prevented ascension of the spinal cord and had thus produced the described phenomenon.

Cranial computerized tomography in spinocerebellar atrophies.

Cranial computerized tomography was carried out in 110 patients with cerebellar ataxia [53 with Friedreich's ataxia, 4 with Marie's spastic ataxia, 51 with cerebellar atrophy, and 2 patients with olivopontocerebellar atrophy). In CT scans, cerebellar atrophies are found to be of various localization and partially of characteristic distribution. CT, therefore, greatly helps to distinguish different types of cerebellar and spinocerebellar atrophies and allows the differentiation of cerebellar atrophies of various origins from other diseases, such as multiple sclerosis.

[Choledochus cyst: a case with dilatation of the intrahepatic bile ducts and congenital liver fibrosis].

The authors report the case of a 2-year-old girl with hepatomegaly and failure to thrive in whom the diagnosis of congenital hepatic fibrosis was first considered on the basis of the histological examination of a percutaneous liver biopsy. Further radiographic and ultrasonic investigations of the biliary tree showed a choledocal cyst and dilatation of the intrahepatic ducts. Surgical operation consisted in complete removal of the cyst with hepaticojejunostomy.

[Computerized tomography in atrophy of the posterior fossa (author's transl)].

Cranial computerized tomography was carried out in 69 patients with cerebellar ataxia (45 with Friedreich's ataxia, 4 with Marie's spastic ataxia, 14 with cerebellar atrophy, and one patient with olivo-pontocerebellar atrophy). In CT scans cerebellar atrophy is found to be of various localisation and partially of characteristic distribution. CT, therefore, greatly helps to distinguish different types of cerebellar and spino-cerebellar atrophy and also distinguishes separate cerebellar atrophy of various origin from other diseases like multiple sclerosis.

[Clinical, endocrinological, and computerized tomography scans for symmetrical calcification of the basal ganglia (author's transl)].

Symmetrical calcification of the basal ganglia was found in 2% of 8000 computerized tomography (CT) scans. Of 19 cases, only 2 were detectable on conventional skull films. The less prominent calcifications were most often found in the region of the pallidum, the knee of the internal capsule.