Antipsychotic efficacy of the antidepressant trimipramine: a randomized, double-blind comparison with the phenothiazine perazine.

Background: The tricyclic antidepressant trimipramine exhibits several features (e. g., dopaminergic effect, molecular structure similar to a neuroleptic, receptor-binding profile similar to clozapine) that suggest its potential as an antipsychotic medication.

Pituitary carcinoma: a clinicopathologic study of 15 cases.

Background: Pituitary carcinomas are rare adenohypophysial neoplasms, the definition, diagnosis, therapy, and prognosis of which are controversial.

Methods: Pituitary carcinomas were defined as primary adenohypophysial neoplasms with documented craniospinal and/or systemic metastases. The authors report a clinicopathologic study of 15 examples examined by light microscopy, immunohistochemistry, and image analysis.

New syndrome: brain malformation, growth retardation, hypokinesia and polyhydramnios in two brothers.

We report two brothers who were born after pregnancies characterized by polyhydramnios and hypokinesia. Both had brain malformation (absence of corpus callosum in one; arhinencephaly in the other), telecanthus and narrow palpebral fissures. This family and several similar phenotypes reported only in affected brothers could reflect X-linked inheritance.

Central nervous system malformations in trisomy 9.

Trisomy 21, 18 and 13 are the most common varieties of autosomal trisomy recognized at birth; most of the others lead to spontaneous abortions in the first trimester. Trisomy 9, a rare trisomy, is compatible with life, but, unlike trisomy 21, 18 and 13, the range of manifestations has not been well catalogued. Central nervous system abnormalities have been reported in the majority of cases, usually including a dilated fourth ventricle and malformed cerebellum.

Malignant tumors in the pituitary gland.

Malignant tumors of the pituitary gland may mimic pituitary adenomas both in clinical presentation and in imaging, and often present with neurologic findings including visual field loss and extraocular movement palsies. We describe a 58-year-old woman without known malignancy who presented with extraocular movement weakness, loss of facial sensation, and a sellar plasmacytoma; a 49-year-old woman with oculomotor palsy, no known malignancy, and rapidly failing vision who had metastatic lung carcinoma; and a 70-year-old woman with metastatic breast carcinoma who presented with rapidly failing vision and a metastasis to the anterior lobe of the pituitary. These cases illustrate several important features of malignancy in the pituitary fossa: that it can mimic a "nonfunctioning" pituitary adenoma in clinical presentation and imaging; that rapidly progressive visual loss, extraocular movement palsies, or facial sensory loss may help to distinguish it from a benign adenoma; and that when the pathologist evaluates an alleged "nonsecretory" or "nonfunctional" adenoma, metastases should be included in the differential diagnosis.