Study of serum factors potentially involved in the pathogenesis of heterotopic bone formation after severe brain injury.

Objective: To look for serum factors detectable early after head injury and predictive of heterotopic bone formation.

Patients And Methods: In this prospective study of a homogeneous population of 31 men with severe brain injury, blood samples were obtained 3 months after the accident, and levels of serum factors influenced by bone metabolism were compared between patients with and without heterotopic bone formation. As extensive fractures can influence serum factors, the patients without heterotopic bone formation were divided into two groups based on whether they had major fractures.

Dementia of frontal lobe type due to adult polyglucosan body disease.

We describe a patient with adult polyglucosan body disease (APBD) who presented with a dementia of frontal lobe type (FLD), with a neurogenic bladder but no symptoms of sensory motor peripheral neuropathy. Diagnosis was made from a cerebral biopsy specimen which showed an accumulation of intra-axonal polyglucosan bodies in the central nervous system. This case differs from the usual presentation, in which gait disturbance is the main symptom and diagnosis is possible by sural nerve biopsy.

Visuo-spatial attention and psychomotor performance in elderly community residents: effects of age, gender, and education.

In cross-sectional analysis of 1,799 subjects of the Paquid Research Program, an epidemiological study on brain aging conducted in the Bordeaux area (France), we have studied the effects of age, gender, and education level on psychometric tests requiring visuo-spatial focused attention and psychomotor performance. Although previous studies suggest that normal aging produces no significant change in focused attention, we did observe lower attentional abilities and lower speed of execution with increasing age. Female gender and low education level were also related to poorer attention and psychomotor performance.

[Demonstration of dissociation between frontal and temporal lesions in man on two versions of delayed non-matching recognition tests used in monkeys].

11 patients with frontal lobe lesions (F group), 9 patients with temporal lobe lesions (T group) and 18 normal control subjects (C group) were tested on two versions of the delayed non matching-to-sample task using either different pairs (DNMTS) or the same pairs of objects (RECURRENT) on successive test trials. The results revealed that the DNMTS task was sensitive to memory impairment but did not differentiate the two experimental groups. In contrast, the recurrent version of the task showed a dissociation between the two pathologies.

RU 24722, a new eburnamine derivative, induces selective alterations in cerebral glucose utilization in freely moving rat.

The effect of a new eburnamine derivative, RU 24722, a putative phasic activator of catecholaminergic systems on local cerebral glucose utilization was studied in freely moving rats 15 min, 90 min and 6 h after the intraperitoneal administration of the drug (25 mg/kg). Of the 53 brain regions examined, 9 exhibited significant time-dependent increases of glucose utilization (up to 45-55%). Some changes were early and transient, as in the substantia nigra reticulata and the paraventricular nuclei.