[Sub-acute phase of cerebral ischemia: value of MRI].

MRI is the examination of choice for the evaluation of ischemic brain injury. At the acute phase, this examination may differentiate infarcted tissue from hypoperfused tissue. At the subacute phase, MRI allows to confirm the diagnosis of ischemia, exclude other diagnoses, recognize the rare appearances of cerebral ischemia, distinguish the different aspects of infarct and detect some rare diseases at the origin of the ischemic event.

Poststroke dementia: influence of hippocampal atrophy.

Background: The prevalence of dementia is increased after stroke. Medial temporal lobe atrophy (MTLA) is associated with Alzheimer disease, and with prestroke dementia in patients who have had a stroke.

Objective: To determine the influence of MTLA on the long-term risk of dementia after stroke, after excluding the patients who had prestroke dementia.

Extensive conformational sampling in a ternary electron transfer complex.

Here we report the crystal structures of a ternary electron transfer complex showing extensive motion at the protein interface. This physiological complex comprises the iron-sulfur flavoprotein trimethylamine dehydrogenase and electron transferring flavoprotein (ETF) from Methylophilus methylotrophus. In addition, we report the crystal structure of free ETF.

Antiplatelet agents in the perioperative period: expert recommendations of the French Society of Anesthesiology and Intensive Care (SFAR) 2001--summary statement.

Purpose: Antiplatelet agents are administered to an increasing number of patients. Preoperative treatment with these agents represents a major problem for the anesthesiologist. The results of a French expert meeting on their perioperative management are reported.

Cerebral venous thrombosis 3-year clinical outcome in 55 consecutive patients.

An early diagnosis and heparin therapy have contributed to a decreased mortality in cerebral venous thrombosis (CVT). However, predictors of outcome are difficult to identify, because most studies suffered heterogeneity in diagnostic findings and treatments, retrospective design, and recruitment bias. The aim of this study was to evaluate the clinical outcome in 55 consecutive patients with CVT admitted over a 4-year period.

Influence of prestroke dementia on early and delayed mortality in stroke patients.

Causes of early and delayed death after stroke differ. It has been suggested that delayed mortality rate was increased in patients with post-stroke dementia. Prestroke dementia is frequent: its influence on survival in stroke patients has never been evaluated.

[Giant arteriovenous malformation of the vein of Galen in a 50 year old man].

True malformations of the vein of Galen are usually diagnosed within the first weeks of life. They represent less than 1 p. 100 of the cerebral arteriovenous malformations.

The TB structural genomics consortium: providing a structural foundation for drug discovery.

Structural genomics, the large-scale determination of protein structures, promises to provide a broad structural foundation for drug discovery. The tuberculosis (TB) Structural Genomics Consortium is devoted to encouraging, coordinating, and facilitating the determination of structures of proteins from Mycobacterium tuberculosis and hopes to determine 400 TB protein structures over 5 years. The Consortium has determined structures of 28 proteins from TB to date.

Hypolipemic agents for stroke prevention.

An important issue for stroke prevention is identification and treatment of risk factors such as hypercholesterolemia. The four reasons to test hypolipidemic agents in stroke prevention are: (i) a statistical link between elevated low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-c) or decreased high-density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL-c) and ischemic stroke; (ii) a reduction in vascular risk in randomized trials in patients with coronary heart disease; (iii) evidence of a decreased plaque progression under statins, (iv) pooled analyses of primary and secondary prevention trials showing that reduction of total serum cholesterol reduces the incidence of stroke, especially with the highest rate of cholesterol reduction, and in patients with the highest risk of stroke (i.e.

Atomic structure of Mycobacterium tuberculosis CYP121 to 1.06 A reveals novel features of cytochrome P450.

The first structure of a P450 to an atomic resolution of 1.06 A has been solved for CYP121 from Mycobacterium tuberculosis. A comparison with P450 EryF (CYP107A1) reveals a remarkable overall similarity in fold with major differences residing in active site structural elements.

Engineering water to act as an active site acid catalyst in a soluble fumarate reductase.

The ability of an arginine residue to function as the active site acid catalyst in the fumarate reductase family of enzymes is now well-established. Recently, a dual role for the arginine during fumarate reduction has been proposed [Mowat, C. G.

Expression, purification and spectroscopic characterization of the cytochrome P450 CYP121 from Mycobacterium tuberculosis.

The CYP121 gene from the pathogenic bacterium Mycobacterium tuberculosis has been cloned and expressed in Escherichia coli, and the protein purified to homogeneity by ion exchange and hydrophobic interaction chromatography. The CYP121 gene encodes a cytochrome P450 enzyme (CYP121) that displays typical electronic absorption features for a member of this superfamily of hemoproteins (major Soret absorption band at 416.5 nm with alpha and beta bands at 565 and 538 nm, respectively, in the oxidized form) and which binds carbon monoxide to give the characteristic Soret band shift to 448 nm.

Clinical outcome in 287 consecutive young adults (15 to 45 years) with ischemic stroke.

Objective: To determine the 3-year outcome in 287 young adults (15 to 45 years old) consecutively admitted between 1992 and 1996 for an ischemic stroke.

Methods: Follow-up was obtained with clinical examinations or telephone interviews, and data were recorded about risk factors, associated disorders, causes of stroke, and current treatments. Functional outcomes were classified with the modified Rankin Scale (mRS).

Role of His505 in the soluble fumarate reductase from Shewanella frigidimarina.

The X-ray structure of the soluble fumarate reductase from Shewanella frigidimarina [Taylor, P., Pealing, S. L.

Crystal structures at atomic resolution reveal the novel concept of "electron-harvesting" as a role for the small tetraheme cytochrome c.

The genus Shewanella produces a unique small tetraheme cytochrome c that is implicated in the iron oxide respiration pathway. It is similar in heme content and redox potential to the well known cytochromes c(3) but related in structure to the cytochrome c domain of soluble fumarate reductases from Shewanella sp. We report the crystal structure of the small tetraheme cytochrome c from Shewanella oneidensis MR-1 in two crystal forms and two redox states.

P450 BM3: the very model of a modern flavocytochrome.

Flavocytochrome P450 BM3 is a bacterial P450 system in which a fatty acid hydroxylase P450 is fused to a mammalian-like diflavin NADPH-P450 reductase in a single polypeptide. The enzyme is soluble (unlike mammalian P450 redox systems) and its fusion arrangement affords it the highest catalytic activity of any P450 mono-oxygenase. This article discusses the fundamental properties of P450 BM3 and how progress with this model P450 has affected our comprehension of P450 systems in general.

Stroke prevention: management of modifiable vascular risk factors.

Stroke prevention is a crucial issue because (i) stroke is a frequent and severe disorder, and (ii) acute stroke therapies that are effective at the individual level have only a little impact in term of public health. Stroke prevention consists of the combination of 3 strategies: an optimal management of vascular risk factors, associated when appropriate with antithrombotic therapies, carotid surgery, or both. Primary prevention trials have shown that reducing blood pressure in hypertensive subjects reduces their vascular risk, including stroke.

The 1.25 A resolution structure of the diheme NapB subunit of soluble nitrate reductase reveals a novel cytochrome c fold with a stacked heme arrangement.

The diheme cytochrome NapB constitutes the small subunit of a periplasmic nitrate reductase found in a wide variety of bacterial species, including pathogens. The NapB protein is essential in transferring electrons to the large catalytic subunit NapA, which subsequently reduces nitrate to nitrite. Here we present the crystal structure of a proteolyzed form of recombinant NapB from Haemophilus influenzae, which was determined by the multiple-wavelength anomalous dispersion (MAD) method at 1.

Crystallization and preliminary crystallographic analysis of a novel cytochrome P450 from Mycobacterium tuberculosis.

The product of the Rv2276 gene of Mycobacterium tuberculosis is a cytochrome P450 (P450 MT2, CYP121) which has been shown to bind tightly to a range of azole-based antifungal drugs (e.g. miconazole, clotrimazole).

Crystallization and preliminary X-ray diffraction analysis of cytochrome c peroxidase from the purple phototrophic bacterium Rhodobacter capsulatus.

Bacterial cytochrome c peroxidase (BCCP) from Rhodobacter capsulatus was heterologously expressed in Escherichia coli. It was purified to homogeneity and crystallized using the hanging-drop vapour-diffusion method. Diffraction-quality crystals of the enzyme were obtained under two conditions.

Atherothrombosis--the neurologist's point of view.

Patients with peripheral arterial disease (PAD) have an increased risk of cerebral ischaemia, but many transient ischaemic attacks are not recognized by patients, or by physicians who are not neurologists. Similarly, PAD is common in stroke patients, but often remains unrecognized by neurologists. Major long-term risks in patients with cerebral ischaemia due to atherosclerosis are myocardial infarction and recurrence of stroke.