Cognitive Impairment in People Living with HIV and the Impact of Mood: Results from a Cross-Sectional Study.

: Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) infection represents a significant public health concern and, consequently, the incidence of HIV-Associated Neurocognitive Disorder (HAND) has grown over the years. The present study aims to assess HAND with the Montreal Cognitive Assessment (MoCA) in People Living With HIV/AIDS (PLWHA) to find significant associations with cognitive impairment. : The study included 210 PLWHA, aged from 30 to 81 years, of whom, 137 (65.

Telecytologic diagnosis of cervical smears for triage of self-sampled human papillomavirus-positive women in a resource-limited setting: concept development before implementation.

Introduction: Cytology is an option for triaging human papillomavirus (HPV)-positive women. The interpretation of cytologic slides requires expertise and financial resources that are not always available in resource-limited settings. A solution could be offered by manual preparation and digitization of slides on site for real-time remote cytologic diagnosis by specialists.

Obsessive-compulsive disorder and migraine with medication-overuse headache.

Objective: A strong association has been demonstrated between migraine, particularly in the chronic form and with medication overuse, and either major depression or various anxiety disorders. However, there has been less systematic research on the links between migraine with medication-overuse headache (MOH) and obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD). A drug-seeking behavior shares with OCD the compulsive quality of the behavior.

Repeated electroconvulsive stimulation impairs long-term depression in the neostriatum.

Background: Increasing and consistent findings of structural and functional abnormalities in patients with mood disorders demonstrate a clear involvement of the neostriatum. Therefore, the beneficial effect of electroconvulsive stimulation (ECS) treatment of acute state of mood disorder may relate to changes in striatal synaptic plasticity.

Methods: We studied the effect of ECS treatment on the reported long-term depression (LTD) of synaptic excitatory afferents to striatal medium spiny neurons.

Engineering peroxidase activity in myoglobin: the haem cavity structure and peroxide activation in the T67R/S92D mutant and its derivative reconstituted with protohaemin-l-histidine.

Atomic co-ordinates and structure factors for the T67R/S92D metMbCN mutant have been deposited with the Protein Data Bank, under accession codes 1h1x and r1h1xsf, respectively. Protein engineering and cofactor replacement have been employed as tools to introduce/modulate peroxidase activity in sperm whale Mb (myoglobin). Based on the rationale that haem peroxidase active sites are characterized by specific charged residues, the Mb haem crevice has been modified to host a haem-distalpropionate Arg residue and a proximal Asp, yielding the T67R/S92D Mb mutant.

[Metastatic thyroid tumors from adenocarcinoma of the colon: clinical and anatomo-pathological contribution].

We report herein the case of a 43 year-old man who was operated 1998 of left colectomy and hepatic resection for colic adenocarcinoma metastasized in the liver. He suffers of multinodular goiter from some years; was admitted to our hospital with a 2-month history of enlargement of goiter and appearance of a new nodule. Physical and imaging examinations disclosed a new nodules in the thyroid.

Action of GP 47779, the active metabolite of oxcarbazepine, on the corticostriatal system. II. Modulation of high-voltage-activated calcium currents.

GP 47779, the active metabolite of oxcarbazepine (OCBZ) inhibits glutamatergic excitatory postsynaptic potentials (EPSPs) in rat striatum (described in the accompanying article). This effect was presumed to involve the modulation of the calcium (Ca2+) signals at either pre- or postsynaptic level. Therefore, we directly tested whether GP 47779 could modulate Ca2+ conductances in cortical as well as in striatal neurons.

Action of GP 47779, the active metabolite of oxcarbazepine, on the corticostriatal system. I. Modulation of corticostriatal synaptic transmission.

Oxcarbazepine (OCBZ) is the keto-analogue of carbamazepine (CBZ). In humans, OCBZ is rapidly and almost completely metabolized to 10, 11-dihydro-10-hydroxy-CBZ (GP 47779), the main metabolite responsible for the drug's antiepileptic activity. The corticostriatal pathway is involved in the propagation of epileptic discharges.

Electrophysiology of dopamine D-1 receptors in the basal ganglia: old facts and new perspectives.

1. The dopamine (DA) D1-receptor family is highly represented in the mammalian brain and particularly in the nigrostriatal system, whose integrity is crucial for the execution of motor performances. 2.

Vulnerability of medium spiny striatal neurons to glutamate: role of Na+/K+ ATPase.

In Huntington's disease neuronal degeneration mainly involves medium-sized spiny neurons. It has been postulated that both excitotoxic mechanisms and energy metabolism failure are implicated in the neuronal degeneration observed in Huntington's disease. In central neurons, > 40% of the energy released by respiration is used by Na+/K+ ATPase to maintain ionic gradients.

Endemic goiter and thyroid function in central-southern Sardinia. Report on an extensive epidemiological survey.

Unlabelled: Although the existence of endemic goiter and cretinism in Sardinia is known since to ancient time, scanty information collected according to WHO criteria is available. In the present paper the results of an extensive epidemiological survey carried out in juvenile population living in some rural and/or hilly villages in the provinces of Nuoro and Oristano in Central-Southern Sardinia and in urban area of Cagliari, are reported. In the majority of the villages the mean urinary iodine excretion was lower than 60 micrograms/L; the goiter prevalence ranged between 39% and 61% in the district of Nuoro and between 21% and 56% in the district of Oristano.

[Isolated thyroid and skin metastases of renal carcinoma].

Metastases to the thyroid gland from renal carcinoma are observed in 10% of the uncommon metastatic thyroid tumours. They are the first sign of renal carcinoma in 25% of cases or appear after primary treatment of renal neoplasia, up to 27 years later. Metastases are more frequent in pathological glands, perhaps because intraparenchymal blood flow is slowed and tissue oxygen partial pressure is reduced.

Percutaneous intranodular ethanol injection for treatment of autonomously functioning thyroid nodules.

Background: The aim of the study is the assessment of percutaneous intranodular ethanol injection (PNEI) as an alternative therapeutic procedure to classic surgery and radioiodine administration in autonomously functioning thyroid nodule treatment.

Methods: Thirty-seven patients with hot nodules (18 pretoxic and 19 toxic) have been treated by means of PNEI under ultrasonographic guide. Ninety-five percent ethanol in a mean dose of 25 ml has been used.

Iodine contamination in subjects admitted to a general hospital.

Urinary iodine excretion was measured in 300 consecutive patients admitted to a general hospital for nonthyroidal disease. Iodine contamination (values greater than 300 micrograms l/g creatinine) was found in 29.3% of cases, mostly due to amiodarone and iodinated contrastographic agents.

Chronic neuroleptic treatment: D2 dopamine receptor supersensitivity and striatal glutamatergic transmission.

We studied the in vitro electrical activity of rat neostriatal neurons following chronic neuroleptic treatment. In haloperidol-treated rats, unlike naive animals, activation of neostriatal D2 dopamine receptors induced a potent presynaptic inhibition of glutamate-mediated excitatory synaptic potentials. Haloperidol treatment did not affect the intrinsic membrane properties of the neostriatal neurons.

Activation of blood coagulation and fibrinolysis in Graves' disease.

We studied blood coagulation and fibrinolysis activities in hyperthyroidism before and after methimazole or 131I. Fibrinopeptide A and B beta 15-42, in vivo indicators of thrombin and plasmin activity, were measured by RIA, while fibrinogen by the Clauss method. We studied 50 patients, affected by toxic diffuse goiter.

Involvement of GABA systems in feedback regulation of glutamate-and GABA-mediated synaptic potentials in rat neostriatum.

1. Neostriatal neurones were recorded intracellularly from a rat corticostriatal slice preparation. Depolarizing postsynaptic potentials (DPSPs) were evoked by either cortical or intrastriatal stimulation.

Kainic acid on neostriatal neurons intracellularly recorded in vitro: electrophysiological evidence for differential neuronal sensitivity.

The electrophysiological effects produced by different concentrations of kainic acid (KA) were studied by utilizing intracellular recordings from neostriatal slices. In most of the recorded cells (81%), concentrations of KA ranging between 10 and 300 nM produced reversible and dose-dependent membrane depolarizations. Higher concentrations of this agonist caused larger depolarizations and changes of the membrane properties of the recorded neurons not reversible during the time of recording.

Endogenous GABA mediates presynaptic inhibition of spontaneous and evoked excitatory synaptic potentials in the rat neostriatum.

The effect of the blockade of the gamma-aminobutyric acid (GABA) uptake system on the amplitude of glutamatergic synaptic potentials was studied by using a corticostriatal slice preparation. Nipecotic acid (0.1-1 mM), a GABA uptake blocker, produced a dose-dependent decrease of the amplitude of kynurenate-sensitive excitatory synaptic potentials recorded in the neostriatum following cortical stimulation.

Reliability of prenatal diagnosis of genetic diseases by analysis of amplified trophoblast DNA.

Dot blot analysis on enzymatically amplified trophoblast DNA with allele specific oligonucleotide probes is currently used for the prenatal diagnosis of single gene disorders characterised at the molecular level, such as the beta thalassaemias, phenylketonuria, sickle cell anaemia, and alpha 1-anti-trypsin deficiency. A potential problem with the use of this procedure is the co-amplification of maternal sequences, which may obscure the diagnosis in the fetus. To address this question, we carried out prenatal diagnosis of beta thalassaemia in 300 couples at risk by dot blot analysis on enzymatically amplified DNA with 32P or horseradish peroxidase labelled allele specific oligonucleotide probes.