The effects of olanzapine treatment on brain regional glucose metabolism in neuroleptic-naive first-episode schizophrenic patients.

Objective: The current study examined metabolic alterations associated with a positive response to olanzapine and identified brain regions associated with treatment-related improvement of symptoms in neuroleptic-naive first-episode schizophrenic patients using [ F]fluoro-deoxy-glucose positron emission tomography analysis.

Methods: Neuroleptic-naive first-episode schizophrenic patients who showed good or poor clinical responses to olanzapine were assessed using the Positive and Negative Syndrome Scale. Data were analyzed using statistical nonparametric mapping.

Flexor-dominant myopathic phenotype in patients with His46Arg substitution in the Cu/Zn superoxide dismutase gene.

We present the cases of 3 patients with a histidine-to-arginine substitution at position 46 of the Cu/Zn superoxide dismutase gene. Consistent with previous reports, the initial symptom in each patient was unilateral weakness in the distal leg muscles. Remarkably, muscular atrophy in these patients during the early stage of the disease was more specific to the flexor muscle group, with the extensor muscle group remaining intact over long-term observation.