As well as physiological states, pathological states and therapeutical problems may be a gushing spring for biological theory--and conversely.

New class of therapies, including bipolar therapies (BPT) and "paradoxical" unipolar therapies (PUT) were firstly proposed in relation to a clinical insight and to some results of biological investigations, then they gave rise to mathematical modeling which brought a justification of these therapies, at least from a theoretical point of view. After recalling the mathematical model for the regulation of agonistic antagonistic couples, and reporting the fundamental types of control simulation by means of it, we point out the validity of therapeutical applications inferred from this model. These therapy modalities, including BPT and PUT, now concern the following diseases: astrocytomas, epilepsia and trials on multiple sclerosis.

[Psychiatric presentation of human African trypanosomiasis: overview of diagnostic pitfalls, interest of difluoromethylornithine treatment and contribution of magnetic resonance imaging].

We report a case of a western African man, residing in France for 4 years, who developed human African trypanosomiasis (HAT) caused by Trypanosoma brucei gambiense. Diagnosis was made at a late stage of the disease. The disease was misdiagnosed and untreated for several years because the clinical presentation was limited to psychiatric disorders and biological confirmation was difficult.

Cyclic alternating pattern as a provocative factor in nocturnal paroxysmal dystonia.

Purpose: We made a polygraphic study of 6 patients with nocturnal paroxysmal dystonia (NPD) in which the cyclic alternating pattern (CAP) parameters were compared with those of a group of age- and sex-matched controls.

Methods: All patients met the requirements for NPD diagnosis, characterized by generalized stereotyped movements (dystonic-dyskinetic), with a 1-min centered duration but with no clear evidence of epileptic abnormalities in the waking EEG and during nocturnal recordings.

Results: Besides the major events, the NPD polysomnograms also showed shorter, repeated episodes of shorter duration (generally <20 s) consisting of abrupt movements involving one or more body segments.

[The timing of crisis and day-night distribution of paroxysmal EEG activities: a study on 197 epileptic patients].

The purpose of the present study was to determine whether paroxysmal EEG activity (PA) occurs randomly over time and whether seizures arise at time of maximum PA. 204 ambulatory recordings (A/EEG) in 197 adult epileptic outpatients have been were included. The patients' seizures were grouped according to ILAE classification: Simple partial seizures; complex partial seizures (CPS), isolated or secondarily generalized; idiopathic generalized seizures: epilepsy with myoclonic absences, generalized tonic-clonic seizures (GTCS) on awakening, GTCS with photo-sensitivity; undetermined epilepsies: "grand mal morpheique", epilepsies with generalized PA without photosensitivity or with All recordings were performed with a 8-channel 24 h cassette recorder system (Medilog 9,000).