Expressed emotion and social functioning in chronic schizophrenia.

The aim of this study was to reveal the relationships between family expressed emotion (EE), family evaluations of social functioning, and the psychopathologic symptoms of patients with schizophrenia. We examined whether EE influenced the social functioning of patients with schizophrenia. Forty-four subjects with schizophrenia and 82 of their relatives participated in this study.

Estrogen-induced proliferation of normal endometrial glandular cells is initiated by transcriptional activation of cyclin D1 via binding of c-Jun to an AP-1 sequence.

To explore the mechanism of estrogen-induced growth of normal endometrium, the transactivation system of the cyclin D1 gene was analysed using cultured normal endometrial glandular cells. Estradiol (E2) treatment of cultured normal endometrial glandular cells induced upregulation of c-Jun, and then cyclin D1 proteins, followed by serial expressions of cyclins E, A and B1 proteins. Increase in the mRNA expression of cyclin D1 preceded the protein expression of cyclin D1 under E2 treatment.

Topography and interactions of the arytenoid and cricoid articular facets: implications for vocal process positional shifts.

Using new computer applications and digital technologies, we provide a rigorous description and realistic illustrations of the arytenoid-on-the cricoid rotations. We also provide the articular facet topography and interactions that underlay those rotations and the concomitant vocal process positional shifts. The thyroid cartilage and all soft tissues were removed from three excised, preserved, normal, adult human larynges without disturbing the crico-arytenoid (CA) articular capsule.

A clinical case series of switching from antipsychotic polypharmacy to monotherapy with a second-generation agent on patients with chronic schizophrenia.

Second-generation antipsychotic medications have become popular as a treatment for schizophrenia. The authors investigated 25 chronic subjects who had previously been treated with high-dose antipsychotic polypharmacy without amelioration. All patients had a history of having been treated with an antipsychotic polypharmacy regimen of the total daily chlorpromazine equivalent dose exceeding 1000 mg/day for more than 6 weeks.

Revising polypharmacy to a single antipsychotic regimen for patients with chronic schizophrenia.

Antipsychotic polypharmacy has been empirically used and a recent trend in favour of that mode of therapy has been suggested for the treatment of schizophrenia. The clinical efficacy, however, still remains to be clarified. In order to critically evaluate the usefulness of such kind of psychopharmacotherapy, antipsychotic combination regimen (polypharmacy) was switched to a treatment with the single main antipsychotic (monotherapy) in cross-tapered fashion, while approximately maintaining the total amount, for patients with chronic schizophrenia.

Efficient filtering methods for clustering cDNAs with spliced sequence alignment.

Motivation: Clustering sequences of a full-length cDNA library into alternative splice form candidates is a very important problem.

Results: We developed a new efficient algorithm to cluster sequences of a full-length cDNA library into alternative splice form candidates. Current clustering algorithms for cDNAs tend to produce too many clusters containing incorrect splice form candidates.

Duration of untreated psychosis and pathways to psychiatric services in first-episode schizophrenia.

The aim of the present study was to examine the duration of untreated psychosis (DUP) in first-episode schizophrenia patients in Japan and to investigate the available pathways to psychiatric services. Eighty-three patients who visited Keio University Hospital (n = 54) or Oizumi Mental Hospital (n = 29) were evaluated retrospectively with regard to their DUP, living situation, social participation level, referral pathway, reason for seeking treatment, and their global assessment of functioning (GAF) score. The mean DUP was 13.

Nuclear localization of beta-catenin is correlated with the expression of cyclin D1 in endometrial carcinomas.

Background: beta-catenin has recently been reported to act as a cell growth promoter through cyclin D1 transcription. However, the correlation between beta-catenin and cyclin D1 expressions is not fully understood in endometrial tissues.

Materials And Methods: Immunohistochemical expression of beta-catenin was examined in normal endometria (32 cases) and endometrial carcinomas (82 cases), and its expression was compared with that of cyclins (D1, E, A, B1).

Complete hydatidiform mole in a triplet pregnancy coexisting two viable fetuses: case report and review of the literature.

We report a rare case of a complete hydatidiform mole with two or more coexisting fetuses where both infants survived without complications. A male infant weighing 1258 g and a female infant weighing 880 g were delivered without complications and discharged 95 days after the birth. The analysis of DNA microsatellite polymorphisms indicated that the mole was of paternal origin and probably homozygous.

Expression of steroid receptor coactivators and corepressors in human endometrial hyperplasia and carcinoma with relevance to steroid receptors and Ki-67 expression.

Background: To examine the steroid hormone dependent growth mechanism of human endometrial hyperplasia and carcinoma, expression levels of steroid receptor cofactors, such as coactivators (steroid receptor coactivator 1 [SRC-1] and p300/cyclic AMP-response element-binding protein (p300/CBP]) and corepressors (nuclear receptor corepressor [NCoR] and silencing mediator for retinoid and thyroid-hormone receptors [SMRT]), were investigated.

Methods: The expression levels of cofactors were examined immunohistochemically using 20 samples of normal endometria, 36 samples of hyperplastic endometria, and 58 of malignant endometria and were compared with the expression levels of estrogen receptor (ER), progesterone receptor (PR), and a proliferation marker, Ki-67.

Results: In samples of normal endometria, the expression of coactivators was observed diffusely in glandular cells in the proliferative phase, with a mean positivity index (PI) of 81.

Reducing the dose of antipsychotic medications for those who had been treated with high-dose antipsychotic polypharmacy: an open study of dose reduction for chronic schizophrenia.

Antipsychotic medications are often used at higher than the recommended dose and sometimes in a combination regimen to treat schizophrenia. However, in general, high-dose therapies have been abandoned in recent clinical studies. In this study, dose reduction of antipsychotic medication was implemented for patients with chronic schizophrenia, most of whom (81%) had been treated with an antipsychotic high-dose polypharmacy regimen consisting of more than 1000 mg/day in total amount.

Recurrent episodes of perceptual alteration in patients treated with antipsychotic agents.

Antipsychotics have been sporadically reported to induce the brief recurrent episodes characterized by hypersensitivity of the visual perception, which is known as paroxysmal perceptual alteration (PPA) mainly in Japan. PPA is characterized by hypersensitivity of perception mainly in visual modalities, which could occur in patients treated with antipsychotics. PPA is occasionally known to be accompanied by an oculogyric crisis (OGC).

Cross-script and within-script priming in alcoholic Korsakoff patients.

In two experiments, alcoholic Korsakoff patients and control subjects studied a list of Japanese nouns written in either Hiragana or Kanji script. Word-fragment completion and recognition tests were then administered in Hiragana. When the writing script was changed between study and test phases, repetition priming in word-fragment completion was significantly attenuated but was still reliable against baseline performance.

Mediastinal cavernous hemangioma in a child: report of a case.

We present herein a rare case of mediastinal cavernous hemangioma in a 5-year-old boy. The patient was referred to our hospital for an evaluation of cough and high fever. On admission, a chest computed tomogram and magnetic resonance imaging revealed a large tumor arising from the left-sided mediastinum which compressed the left main pulmonary artery and left lung.

Effects of habitual cigarette smoking on higher cortical function in patients with unruptured cerebral aneurysms.

Postoperative changes in higher cortical function and cerebral blood flow (CBF) were investigated in patients with unruptured cerebral aneurysms to assess the effect of habitual smoking on the known transient changes after aneurysm surgery. Fifty-six adults with unruptured cerebral aneurysms, including 11 heavy smokers (smoking index > or = 600) and 45 non-smokers, were evaluated using three neuropsychological examinations, the Mini-Mental State Examination, the Maze test, and the Kana-hiroi test, and single photon emission computed tomography to measure CBF before and after surgery. Neuropsychological changes were assessed by reliable change indices to take into account the practice effects.

Existence of functional beta1- and beta2-adrenergic receptors on microglia.

We examined the expression and function of beta-adrenergic receptor (beta-AR) subtypes in both isolated primary rat microglia and a rat microglial cell line. RT-PCR analyses revealed that microglia expressed beta(1)- and beta(2)-ARs but not beta(3)-ARs, whereas rat primary peritoneal macrophages expressed only beta(2)-ARs. Stimulation of beta-ARs on microglia by norepinephrine (NE) resulted in an increase in the level of intracellular cAMP and the subsequent expression of interleukin-1beta mRNA.

Executive dysfunction and clinical outcome in chronic alcoholics.

Background: The purpose of this study was to investigate which of 12 neuropsychological tests predict alcoholic patients' alcohol-specific and/or alcoholic-nonspecific outcome. Our hypothesis was that the ecologically valid neuropsychological tests that measure executive function are better predictors of alcoholics' functional outcome.

Methods: We administered 12 neuropsychological tests to chronic alcoholics.

Stress analysis of metal-free polymer crowns using the three-dimensional finite element method.

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to evaluate the stress distribution under various loading conditions within posterior metal-free crowns made of new composite materials.

Materials And Methods: A three-dimensional finite element model representing a mandibular first molar was constructed. Variations of the model had crowns of two types of composite, a glass ceramic, and porcelain fused to metal.

Wisconsin card sorting test in children with temporal lobe epilepsy.

To search for the origin of frontal lobe dysfunction identified by the Wisconsin card sorting test (WCST) in temporal lobe epilepsy (TLE) patients, we investigated the WCST performance among 19 children with TLE (with hippocampal atrophy (HA group N=12), without structural lesions (NSL group N=7)), 15 patients with frontal lobe epilepsy (FLE group), and age-matched normal controls (N group). The paired verbal association learning test (PVALT) and Benton visual retention test (BVRT) were also performed. HA group and FLE groups achieved significantly fewer categories and demonstrated more perseverative errors on the WCST than NSL and N groups.

Case-control study of calcification of the hepatic artery in chronic hemodialysis patients: comparison with the abdominal aorta and splenic artery.

Background And Aims: Studies of the hepatic artery are scarce. We have observed that hepatic artery calcification is very uncommon in patients with hyperparathyroidism that expedites calcification.

Methods: Plain abdominal CT was studied in 221 patients on chronic hemodialysis.