The Digit Vigilance Test: reliability, validity, and sensitivity to diazepam.

The Digit Vigilance Test (DVT), a measure of sustained attention and psychomotor speed, was evaluated in terms of test-retest and alternate-form reliability as well as sensitivity to a single dose of diazepam (10 mg). A one-page version was compared to the standard two-page format. Forty undergraduates, randomly assigned in a double-blind manner to either drug or placebo condition, were tested three times in two sessions (1 week apart).

Inhibition and excitation of neck and shoulder muscles during unilateral electrical stimulation of the rat neostriatum.

Electrical stimulation of the caudate-putamen (Cd-Pt) in anesthetized adult male rats was used to determine the nature and extent of the control exerted by the Cd-Pt over the following neck and shoulder muscles: the trapezius, biventer cervicis, rectus capitis and scalenus dorsalis. Unilateral Cd-Pt stimulation resulted in a pattern of muscle responses marked by immediate inhibition of ipsilateral spontaneous activity and subsequent excitation of contralateral activity. Lesions of the substantia nigra pars reticulata blocked the excitation in 3 of the 4 muscles, while globus pallidus lesions had equivocal results.

Necrotising sarcoidal granulomatosis: a problem of identity. A study of seven cases.

We report on a study of 6 cases of Necrotising Sarcoidal Granulomatosis (NSG) and details of another problem case illustrating the difficulties of classification. We have compared the clinical and pathological features with those of sarcoidosis, Wegener's Granulomatosis (WG), Churg Strauss Granulomatosis (CSG), Pulmonary Hyalinizing Granuloma (PHG) and various metal lung diseases. We distinguish NSG from sarcoidosis, in particular by the prominence of vasculitis, necrosis and the rarity of extrapulmonary manifestations, but accept that problem cases can occur.

New aid for diagnosing chronic beryllium disease (CBD): laser ion mass analysis (LIMA).

The value of laser ion mass analysis (LIMA) for the detection of beryllium disease in routine histological sections was investigated. Our results were based on the examination of 14 cases of confirmed and five cases of suspected chronic beryllium disease. With the exception of two cases of coal workers' lungs, all the control material, normal, tuberculous, and sarcoid lungs examined were free of beryllium.