Role of emotional processing in depressive responses to sex-hormone manipulation: a pharmacological fMRI study.

Sex-hormone fluctuations may increase risk for developing depressive symptoms and alter emotional processing as supported by observations in menopausal and pre- to postpartum transition. In this double-blinded, placebo-controlled study, we used blood-oxygen level dependent functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to investigate if sex-steroid hormone manipulation with a gonadotropin-releasing hormone agonist (GnRHa) influences emotional processing. Fifty-six healthy women were investigated twice: at baseline (follicular phase of menstrual cycle) and 16 ± 3 days post intervention.

Role of Serotonin Transporter Changes in Depressive Responses to Sex-Steroid Hormone Manipulation: A Positron Emission Tomography Study.

Background: An adverse response to acute and pronounced changes in sex-hormone levels during, for example, the perimenopausal or postpartum period appears to heighten risk for major depression in women. The underlying risk mechanisms remain elusive but may include transiently compromised serotonergic brain signaling. Here, we modeled a biphasic ovarian sex hormone fluctuation using a gonadotropin-releasing hormone agonist (GnRHa) and evaluated if emergence of depressive symptoms was associated with change in cerebral serotonin transporter (SERT) binding following intervention.

What is the best hydration regimen to prevent contrast media-induced nephrotoxicity?

Background: Hydration is a commonly used method to prevent the decline in GFR after contrast media (CM) application. So far, there have been no controlled, randomized trials investigating the most effective route of fluid administration.

Methods: Thirty-nine patients with normal renal function (65 +/- 9 years, serum creatinine 0.

[Het gebruik van chemische oorlogsagentia: historiek en toxicologische aspecten].

The first wholesale use of chemical warfare agents took place in World War I. These agents can be classified either as "weapons", like choking agents, nose agents, vesicants and nerve agents, or as "expedients", like smoking agents and defoliants, depending on the fact if they are used with the purpose either to kill or to incapacitate the enemy or to interfere with his fighting performances, or if they are only applied in view of an easier enforcement of certain military operations. In this paper the history of chemical warfare will be expounded concisely, starting from the period of the "Great War" (1914-1918) up to the more recent conflicts like the first and the second Gulf War.

Postsynaptic neuromuscular dysfunction in organophosphate induced intermediate syndrome.

A 65-year-old Caucasian female developed an intermediate syndrome seven days after an acute cholinergic crisis, caused by the ingestion of fenthion. Cholinesterase activity in the blood, plasma and red cells was monitored daily by the method according to Nenner and serial serum fenthion levels were measured by capillary gas chromatography. Electromyographic studies showed fade on tetanic stimulation by means of surface electrodes at 20 Hz of the left M.