Prognostic relevance of early serial C-reactive protein measurements after first ischemic stroke.

Background And Purpose: Recent studies described an association between elevated levels of C-reactive protein (CRP) and outcome after ischemic stroke. We investigated the impact of early serial CRP measurements in hyperacute ischemic stroke on long-term outcome.

Methods: One hundred twenty-seven consecutive patients without thrombolysis with a first ischemic stroke no more than 12 hours after symptom onset were examined.

Naturalistic manner of benzodiazepine use and cognitive behavioral therapy outcome in panic disorder with agoraphobia.

Benzodiazepines (BZs) are commonly used in conjunction with cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) in the treatment of panic disorder with agoraphobia (PDA). However, empirical evidence provides little support for the utility of this combined treatment approach over CBT alone. Westra and Stewart [Clin.

Service-based survey of dystonia in munich.

We performed a service-based epidemiological study of dystonia in Munich, Germany. Due to favourable referral and treatment patterns in the Munich area, we could provide confident data from dystonia patients seeking botulinum toxin treatment. A total of 230 patients were ascertained, of whom 188 had primary dystonia.

[Circumscribed vasculitis with posterior infarct in Hashimoto encephalopathy].

The aetiology of Hashimoto's encephalopathy is still unknown. A 52-year-old woman with so far unspecific thyroid disorder presented with acute onset of right-sided sensory loss and visual disturbances. The neurological examination revealed a right upper quadrant anopsia and subtle right-sided sensory loss and weakness.

The role of lateral premotor-cerebellar-parietal circuits in motor sequence control: a parametric fMRI study.

Functional characterisation of higher order motor systems can be obtained by modulating the processing demands imposed onto relevant motor circuitries. Here we performed whole-brain functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) and parametric statistical analyses in eight healthy volunteers to study task-related recruitment of motor circuits associated with unilateral finger movement sequences of increasing length and complexity, but with equal basic motor parameters. Statistical parametric mapping software was applied for analysis.

[Investigations on the effect of acupuncture on affective and sensory components of pain in patients with different stages of chronic pain].

Objectives: The aim of the study was to investigate the effects of acupuncture on the affective and sensory experience of pain in chronic pain patients. Furthermore, the study tried to estimate the therapeutical benefit of acupuncture in relation to the stage of chronic pain according to the Mainz pain staging system for chronic pain (MPSS).

Methods: Patients with chronic pain syndromes who received acupuncture treatment answered a standardized pain questionnaire before and after treatment.

Long-term consequences of switching handedness: a positron emission tomography study on handwriting in "converted" left-handers.

Until some decades ago, left-handed children who attended German schools were forced to learn to write with their right hand. To explore the long-term consequences of switching handedness, we studied the functional neuroanatomy of handwriting in 11 adult "converted" left-handers and 11 age-matched right-handers. All participants had used exclusively their right hand for writing since early childhood.

Two different lantibiotic-like peptides originate from the ericin gene cluster of Bacillus subtilis A1/3.

A lantibiotic gene cluster was identified in Bacillus subtilis A1/3 showing a high degree of homology to the subtilin gene cluster and occupying the same genetic locus as the spa genes in B. subtilis ATCC 6633. The gene cluster exhibits diversity with respect to duplication of two subtilin-like genes which are separated by a sequence similar to a portion of a lanC gene.

Adherence to a Very Low Fat Diet for Cardiac Rehabilitation Patients.

Diets encouraging 10% or less fat energy intake have been advocated to prevent progression of coronary artery disease. In this study, a randomized, controlled, repeated measures experimental design was used to determine if reducing fat intake incrementally to an eventual goal of 10% of total energy intake would result in better dietary adherence than would an immediate reduction to 10%. After completing a lifestyle education program and receiving personal dietary counselling, volunteers recruited from a cardiac rehabilitation program (treatment group, n = 4; control group, n = 3) completed a 24-hour recall at two, four, and seven months post-intervention.

Elevated C-reactive protein is associated with an increased intima to media thickness of the common carotid artery.

In this study, we analyzed the relationship between serum C-reactive protein (CRP) and the intima to media thickness (IMT) of the common carotid artery in 411 consecutive neurological inpatients (215 males, mean age 64.1 years). The CRP concentration was determined within 12 h and patients were subdivided according to the CRP level.

The relationship between maternal self-esteem and maternal attachment in mothers of hospitalized premature infants.

The purpose of this study was to examine the relationship between maternal self-esteem and maternal attachment in mothers of hospitalized premature infants. The research instruments administered included: a demographic sheet, the Maternal Self-Report Inventory (MSRI), Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale, and Leifer's How I Feel About My Baby Now Scale. Thirty-two mothers whose premature infants were medically stable and hospitalized in the NICU were studied.

Primary central nervous system lymphoma in the SMA presenting as rapidly progressive parkinsonism.

We report on a 56-year-old man who developed a rapidly progressive parkinsonism and apraxia over 2 months due to biopsy confirmed cerebral non-Hodgkin lymphoma primarily involving the SMA and parts of the superior frontal gyrus bilaterally.

Expression of GABA(B1) and GABA(B2) mRNA in the human brain.

GABA(B) receptors are widely expressed in the CNS. The distribution of the recently cloned GABA(B1) receptor is highly concordant with GABA(B) ligand binding sites, but experiments with transfected cell lines indicate that GABA(B1) has to heterodimerize with GABA(B2) to gain the functionality of a native GABA(B) receptor. Using in situ hybridization we investigated the expression of GABA(B1) and GABA(B2) mRNAs in the human brain.

Age-related decrease in paired-pulse intracortical inhibition in the human primary motor cortex.

Using biphasic magnetic stimuli, paired-pulse transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) at short interstimulus intervals (ISIs) was employed to investigate age-related changes in the balance between intracortical inhibition and facilitation. In 26 right-handed healthy individuals, motor evoked potentials were recorded from the relaxed right first dorsal interosseus muscle after paired-pulse TMS of the left primary motor hand area. The magnitude of intracortical paired-pulse inhibition at ISIs of 1-5 ms was markedly reduced in elderly individuals, whereas no age effect was observed for intracortical paired-pulse facilitation at ISIs of 11-15 ms.

Interferon-alpha-induced endogenous superantigen. a model linking environment and autoimmunity.

We earlier proposed that a human endogenous retroviral (HERV) superantigen (SAg) IDDMK(1,2)22 may cause type I diabetes by activating autoreactive T cells. Viral infections and induction of interferon-alpha (IFN-alpha) are tightly associated with the onset of autoimmunity. Here we establish a link between viral infections and IFN-alpha-regulated SAg expression of the polymorphic and defective HERV-K18 provirus.

Epstein-Barr virus transactivates the human endogenous retrovirus HERV-K18 that encodes a superantigen.

Superantigens (SAgs) are proteins produced by pathogenic microbes to elicit potent, antigen-independent T cell responses that are believed to enhance the microbes' pathogenicity. Here we show that the human lymphotropic herpesvirus Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) transcriptionally activates the env gene of an endogenous retrovirus, HERV-K18, that possesses SAg activity. SAg activity was demonstrated by MHC class II dependent preferential activation of TCRVB13 T cells in response to murine B cells transfected with the HERV-K18 env gene.

Brain correlates of fast and slow handwriting in humans: a PET-performance correlation analysis.

The present study examined the cerebral control of velocity during handwriting. We employed H215O positron emission tomography (PET) to measure the regional cerebral blood flow (rCBF) in 10 healthy subjects. Participants were required to write the German verb 'bellen' ('to bark') either at their normal speed (i.

Continuous transcranial magnetic stimulation during positron emission tomography: a suitable tool for imaging regional excitability of the human cortex.

In six healthy volunteers, H(2)(15)O positron emission tomography (PET) was employed to evaluate rate-dependent functional activation of the left primary sensorimotor hand area (SM1(HAND)) during subthreshold repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS). Using an eight-shaped coil, continuous trains of rTMS were delivered during nine 50-s H(2)(15)O PET scans. Nine different stimulation frequencies were used, ranging from 1 to 5 Hz.

Prognostic relevance of pathological sympathetic activation after acute thromboembolic stroke.

Objective: To evaluate the prognostic impact of early pathologic sympathetic activation after stroke.

Methods: The authors examined 112 consecutive patients (mean age, 69 years; 60 men) with their first brain infarction. A pathologic sympathetic activation was presumed if the initial norepinephrine level exceeds 300 pg/mL.

Germline mutations in BMPR1A/ALK3 cause a subset of cases of juvenile polyposis syndrome and of Cowden and Bannayan-Riley-Ruvalcaba syndromes.

Juvenile polyposis syndrome (JPS) is an inherited hamartomatous-polyposis syndrome with a risk for colon cancer. JPS is a clinical diagnosis by exclusion, and, before susceptibility genes were identified, JPS could easily be confused with other inherited hamartoma syndromes, such as Bannayan-Riley-Ruvalcaba syndrome (BRRS) and Cowden syndrome (CS). Germline mutations of MADH4 (SMAD4) have been described in a variable number of probands with JPS.

Cortical correlates of gesture processing: clues to the cerebral mechanisms underlying apraxia during the imitation of meaningless gestures.

The clinical test of imitation of meaningless gestures is highly sensitive in revealing limb apraxia after dominant left brain damage. To relate lesion locations in apraxic patients to functional brain activation and to reveal the neuronal network subserving gesture representation, repeated H2(15O)-PET measurements were made in seven healthy subjects during a gesture discrimination task. Observing paired images of either meaningless hand or meaningless finger gestures, subjects had to indicate whether they were identical or different.

[Brain stem and cerebellar atrophy in neurosyphilis].

A 54-year-old man suffered from serologically proven neurosyphilis with tetraspastic syndrome and bladder dysfunction. He showed a pronounced psychopathy with cognitive decline and attention/concentration deficits. MRI showed slowly progressive cerebellar and brainstem atrophy, which has rarely been described over the past decades.

Altered cerebrovascular response pattern in interictal migraine during visual stimulation.

A dysbalance of the cerebrovascular response during functional activation of the brain has been postulated as a factor in the pathophysiology of migraine. To determine the dynamic pattern of the cerebrovascular response in migraineurs compared with a control group, changes of the cerebral perfusion during cerebral activation were studied with high temporal resolution by functional transcranial Doppler sonography (fTCD). The cerebral blood flow velocity (CBFV) in the right posterior cerebral artery (PCA) and the left middle cerebral artery (MCA) was measured simultaneously during visual stimulation in 19 interictal migraineurs and in 19 age- and sex-matched control subjects.

Right lateralized motor cortex activation during volitional blinking.

Using H2 15O positron emission tomography in 6 healthy volunteers, we found that self-initiated and externally cued blinking activated the right primary motor cortex and supplementary motor area (SMA). The left dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC) and the rostral SMA showed greater activation during the self-initiated task compared to the externally cued task. This study confirms the hypothesis of right hemispheric lateralization of volitional blinking derived from observations in stroke patients.