Pathological observations of a long spinal cord lesion in a patient with multiple sclerosis.

We report an autopsy case of multiple sclerosis (MS) manifesting as a long spinal cord lesion. The patient was a Japanese woman. At the age of 59 years, she presented with a one-month history of progressive paraplegia, dysesthesia in the lower extremities, and urinary retention.

Antiparkinsonian drugs as potent contributors to nocturnal sleep in patients with Parkinson's disease.

Objective: To clarify whether antiparkinsonian drugs contribute to nocturnal sleep disturbances in patients with Parkinson's disease (PD).

Background: Although the major antiparkinsonian drugs L-dopa and dopamine agonists (DAs) have been found to affect sleep, little is known about the effects of specific drugs on sleep in PD patients.

Methods: The study participants consisted of 112 PD patients (median age 72.

A case of disseminated nontuberculous mycobacteriosis and cerebellar toxoplasmosis with autoantibody to interferon-γ.

Autoantibody against interferon-γ has recently been associated with a variety of opportunistic infections, particularly among Asians. We report the case of a 64-year-old Japanese woman who suffered from concomitant or sequential infections of the skin, lungs, bronchi, uterus, and bladder with nontuberculous mycobacteriosis, cerebellar toxoplasmosis, measles,herpes zoster, and vulvar herpes. Blood mononuclear cells from the patient displayed intact cytokine production in response to various stimuli and interferon-γ.

[Living situation of the in-home patients suffering from amyotrophic lateral sclerosis in Aichi prefecture, Japan].

It is essential that we know the real situation of at-home patients with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) in order to improve their medical support system. We indirectly investigated the daily living status of ALS patients and their families at home by conducting on individual questionnaires survey for nurses working at public health centers in Aichi prefecture, Japan. Detailed information about 136 cases was obtained, and we could clarify the need for variety of communication methods, plasticity of medical interrelations and care between neurologists and home doctors, incomplete utilization of social resources including various official support, overwork among single caregivers, and underdeveloped immature individual medical care support programs for them.

A sodium channel myotonia due to a novel SCN4A mutation accompanied by acquired autoimmune myasthenia gravis.

Mutations of the voltage gated sodium channel gene (SCN4A) are responsible for non-dystrophic myotonia including hyperkalemic periodic paralysis, paramyotonia congenita, and sodium channel myotonia, as well as congenital myasthenic syndrome. In vitro functional analyses have demonstrated the non-dystrophic mutants to show a gain-of-function defect of the channel; a disruption of fast inactivation, an enhancement of activation, or both, while the myasthenic mutation presents a loss-of function defect. This report presents a case of non-dystrophic myotonia that is incidentally accompanied with acquired myasthenia.

Factor C acts as a lipopolysaccharide-responsive C3 convertase in horseshoe crab complement activation.

The complement system in vertebrates plays an important role in host defense against and clearance of invading microbes, in which complement component C3 plays an essential role in the opsonization of pathogens, whereas the molecular mechanism underlying C3 activation in invertebrates remains unknown. In an effort to understand the molecular activation mechanism of invertebrate C3, we isolated and characterized an ortholog of C3 (designated TtC3) from the horseshoe crab Tachypleus tridentatus. Flow cytometric analysis using an Ab against TtC3 revealed that the horseshoe crab complement system opsonizes both Gram-negative and Gram-positive bacteria.