Takayasu arteritis and atherosclerosis: illustrating the consequences of endothelial damage.

The excess of cardiovascular morbidity associated with chronic vasculitic disease has become a focus of considerable research, particularly regarding the link between endothelial damage and the development of atherosclerosis. We describe a case of Takayasu arteritis treated sub-optimally by today's standards, giving rise to an 11 year history of progressive, stepwise decline associated with cerebrovascular events and leading to early death. Postmortem findings presented a picture of chronic atherosclerotic disease but in a distribution consistent with lesions of Takayasu arteritis.

Modality of Communication and Recall of Health-related Information.

A health warning was presented to 89 female and 19 male students aged 17-36 years via three modalities or channels of communication: a 'talking head' (video), an audiotape recording (audio) or a printed transcript (print). The verbal content of the message was identical in all three conditions. Participants' free recall, cued recall (recognition) and global recall of the message were then measured.

Clinical diagnosis of intracranial haemorrhage using Guy's Hospital score.

We tested the Guy's Hospital stroke diagnostic score using the clinical data from two independent samples of patients with acute stroke. These were 228 patients from the Oxfordshire community stroke project and 130 referred to the National Hospital for Nervous Diseases in London. The diagnosis was confirmed by computed tomography or necropsy in each case.

Hypersensitivity to azathioprine in myasthenia gravis.

A patient with myasthenia gravis is described who exhibited hypersensitivity including an apparent acute exacerbation of the underlying disorder when treated with azathioprine. 6-mercaptoprine (6-MP) also produced hypersensitivity which, in contrast, did not manifest as a myasthenic exacerbation.

Prognosis in middle cerebral artery stenosis.

Among 21 patients with angiographically demonstrated stenosis of the middle cerebral artery (MCA) 14 presented with a stroke and 7 with transient ischaemic attacks (TIAs). Of the former 4 had further strokes (3 fatal); of the latter one had a fatal stroke. Only 2 of the 21 patients had TIAs during the follow-up period.