Genetic and epigenetic factors at COL2A1 and ABCA4 influence clinical outcome in congenital toxoplasmosis.

Background: Primary Toxoplasma gondii infection during pregnancy can be transmitted to the fetus. At birth, infected infants may have intracranial calcification, hydrocephalus, and retinochoroiditis, and new ocular lesions can occur at any age after birth. Not all children who acquire infection in utero develop these clinical signs of disease.

LDBio-Toxo II immunoglobulin G Western blot confirmatory test for anti-toxoplasma antibody detection.

Tests commonly used for routine determination of anti-Toxoplasma gondii immunoglobulin G (IgG) antibodies show a high level of consistency. However, considerable variations between commercial screening tests are still observed in detecting antibodies present at low concentrations, leading to a number of discrepant and/or equivocal results. It is therefore important to use a reference test to confirm borderline results.

Phonological regularities and grammatical gender retrieval in spoken word recognition and word production.

Two experiments investigate whether native speakers of French can use a noun's phonological ending to retrieve its gender and that of a gender-marked element. In Experiment 1, participants performed a gender decision task on the noun's gender-marked determiner for auditorily presented nouns. Noun endings with high predictive values were selected.

MALDI imaging of formalin-fixed paraffin-embedded tissues: application to model animals of Parkinson disease for biomarker hunting.

A common technique for the long-term storage of tissues in hospitals and clinical laboratories is preservation in formalin-fixed paraffin-embedded (FFPE) blocks. Such tissues stored for more than five years have not been useful for proteomic studies focused on biomarker discovery. Recently, MS-based proteomic analyses of FFPE showed positive results on blocks stored for less than 2 days.

Risk factors for retinochoroiditis during the first 2 years of life in infants with treated congenital toxoplasmosis.

Background: Retinochoroiditis is the main complication of congenital toxoplasmosis. Its risk factors have rarely been investigated and were the object of this study.

Methods: A retrospective study was conducted on 300 infants with congenital toxoplasmosis born between July 1, 1996 and December 31, 2002 and treated with pyrimethamine and sulfonamide for at least 12 months.

Naltrexone attenuates the subjective effects of amphetamine in patients with amphetamine dependence.

Amphetamine abuse and dependence is a global health concern with a collateral increase in medical and social problems. Although some of the neurobiological mechanisms underlying amphetamine dependence and its devastating effects in humans are known, the development of rational and evidence-based treatment is lagging. There is evidence from preclinical studies suggesting that the endogenous opioid system plays a role in mediating some of the behavioral and neurochemical effects of amphetamine in a variety of controlled settings.

Different drinking patterns for women and men with alcohol dependence with and without alcoholic cirrhosis.

Aim: The aim of our study was to investigate if there were differences in drinking patterns in patients with alcohol dependence (AD), with or without cirrhosis.

Methods: We examined three groups in regard to differences in drinking patterns. We collected information from 50 patients with alcoholic cirrhosis (AC), 50 patients with AD, and 40 patients with non-alcoholic cirrhosis (NAC).

Severe Toxoplasma gondii I/III recombinant-genotype encephalitis in a human immunodeficiency virus patient.

The reactivation of an uncommon type I/III recombinant-genotype Toxoplasma gondii strain resulted in unusually severe encephalitis and chorioretinitis associated with a cerebral salt wasting syndrome in an African human immunodeficiency virus patient. This observation suggests an influence of the parasite genotype on disease expression in immunocompromised patients.

Ethanol alters the effect of kappa receptor ligands on dopamine release in the nucleus accumbens.

Repeated exposure to ethanol has previously been shown to induce alterations in both midbrain dopamine and dynorphin systems. The aim of this study was to investigate functional changes in the sensitivity of dynorphin/kappa-receptor systems following repeated ethanol administration, using dopamine as an indirect marker. The effects of kappa-opioid receptor ligands on dopamine release in the rat nucleus accumbens were investigated following repeated ethanol administration (2 g/kg body weight, twice daily for 7 days).

Cerebellar volumes in men with schizophrenia and alcohol dependence.

The aim of the present study was to investigate the variation in cerebellar morphology in schizophrenia and alcohol dependence. Volumetric measurements of cerebellar structures were performed using magnetic resonance imaging in 17 men with schizophrenia, nine men with alcohol dependence, and 18 healthy men. Schizophrenia patients had smaller volumes of the posterior superior vermis, while alcohol-dependent patients had smaller volumes of both the anterior and the posterior superior vermis compared with controls.

Early and automatic syntactic processing of person agreement.

Mismatch negativity, an index of automatic cerebral activity in response to novel stimuli, was used to determine the onset of morphosyntactic processing in French. Stimuli were four two-word sentences made up of a pronoun (first or second person) and a verb (first or second person). Verb forms differed only in the inflectional suffix, which made the sentences either syntactically correct or incorrect.

Outcome for children infected with congenital toxoplasmosis in the first trimester and with normal ultrasound findings: a study of 36 cases.

Objective: We wished to investigate the prognosis of children infected with Toxoplasma gondii during the first trimester of pregnancy and whose ultrasound findings were entirely normal, in order to find out whether congenital toxoplasmosis did or did not justify termination of pregnancy if there was no fetal abnormality on ultrasound.

Study Design: A prospective and retrospective study was carried out by 12 French centers who enrolled 36 children infected with T. gondii during the first trimester of pregnancy and whose ultrasound examinations showed no anomaly.

[Alcoholic patients: legal responsibility of physicians].

The liability rising from medical cares given to a patient suffering from an addiction to alcohol does not differ from those stemming from cares to other pathologies. The cares must be relevant with regard to state of art, an information as comprehensive as possible must be provided to the patient, on the investigations to be carried out, as well as on the treatments considered. The most difficult thing to achieve is to obtain a full co-operation of the patient, who since the law of March 4, 2002, has the right to refuse a treatment, which cannot be imposed to him.

Physiological and subjective responding to alcohol cue exposure in alcoholics and control subjects: evidence for appetitive responding.

36 alcoholic patients, recruited from a treatment program, and 20 non-alcohol abusing control subjects were tested for their reactions to alcohol and non-alcohol cues. The cue exposure paradigm included audio-visual (video), tactile, olfactory, and guided imagery cue components related to alcohol and non-alcohol beverages. Response measures were analyzed for significant difference based on alcohol and non-alcohol cue and patient type.

Timely diagnosis of disseminated toxoplasmosis by sputum examination.

The diagnosis of disseminated toxoplasmosis in a 14-year-old allogeneic bone marrow recipient with graft-versus-host disease was determined by the detection of Toxoplasma gondii tachyzoites in sputum smears. Sputum analysis is a valuable alternative in the clinical assessment of pulmonary toxoplasmosis, especially when conventional invasive techniques are not practicable.

Agreement and movement: a syntactic analysis of attraction.

This paper links experimental psycholinguistics and theoretical syntax in the study of subject-verb agreement. Three experiments of elicited spoken production making use of specific characteristics of Italian and French are presented. They manipulate and examine its impact on the occurrence of 'attraction' errors (i.

An open clinical trial of naltrexone for amphetamine dependence: compliance and tolerability.

The aim of the study was to assess the feasibility of naltrexone as a potential pharmacotherapy for amphetamine dependence. The study design was an open-label clinical trial with 20 amphetamine-dependent patients receiving 12 weeks of treatment comprised of naltrexone (50 mg) along with relapse prevention therapy. Patients were assessed weekly for adverse events and compliance to medication.

Method for localization of sialic acid on cell surface and cell interior in peripheral blood: a pilot study.

This article presents a method for identification and localization of cell surface and intracellular sialoglycoconjugates of peripheral blood cells. To reveal cell surface conjugates, a sample of peripheral blood was incubated with lectin after centrifugation and rinsing. For intracellular localization in leukocytes, RBCs were lysed and the membranes were permeabilized prior to cytochemical reaction.

Effects of naltrexone on the subjective response to amphetamine in healthy volunteers.

While dopaminergic mechanisms in amphetamine-taking behavior have been extensively studied, the contribution of the endogenous opioid system is less clear. We assessed the effects of an opioid antagonist, naltrexone (50 mg), on the subjective response to an oral dose of dexamphetamine (30 mg) in 12 healthy volunteers in a double-blind, placebo-controlled design. Volunteers received a total of 4 combinations of the study preparation (placebo-naltrexone, placebo-amphetamine) over 4 occasions with 1-week intervals.

Amphetamine effects on dopamine levels and behavior following cannabinoid exposure during adolescence.

The cannabis gateway hypothesis purports that early exposure to cannabis is a risk factor for subsequent use of other addictive drugs, e.g., psychostimulants.

A comparison of two intensities of psychosocial intervention for alcohol dependent patients treated with acamprosate.

Aims: To compare two levels of psychosocial intervention in combination with acamprosate medication for the treatment of alcohol dependence.

Methods: Patients (n = 70) were prescribed acamprosate and randomized to Minimal Psychosocial Intervention (MPI) or Extended Psychosocial Intervention (EPI). MPI patients met a psychiatrist for 20-30 min sessions on four occasions during a 6 month period.

Usefulness of quantitative polymerase chain reaction in amniotic fluid as early prognostic marker of fetal infection with Toxoplasma gondii.

Objective: Our purpose was to evaluate Toxoplasma gondii concentration in amniotic fluid (AF) samples as a prognostic marker of congenital toxoplasmosis.

Study Design: A retrospective study was carried out in 88 consecutive AF samples from 86 pregnant women, which were found positive by prospective polymerase chain reaction (PCR) testing. Parasite AF concentrations were estimated by real-time quantitative PCR and analyzed in relation to the clinical outcome of infected fetuses during pregnancy and at birth, taking into account the gestational age at maternal infection.

Treatment of alcohol abuse: an evidence-based review.

This article represents the proceedings of a symposium at the 2002 annual meeting of the Research Society on Alcoholism in San Francisco, CA, organized and cochaired by Mats Berglund and Sten Thelander. The presentations were (1) Preventive interventions against hazardous consumption of alcohol, by Mikko Salaspuro; (2) Treatment of alcohol withdrawal, by Johan Franck; (3) Psychosocial treatment for alcohol problems, by Sven Andréasson and Agneta Ojehagen; and (4) Pharmacological treatment of alcohol dependence, by Mats Berglund.