Cognitive and motor retardation in depression.

The study analysed the profile of psychomotor retardation in depression by clinically and psychometrically assessing its motor, speech and cognitive components. Psychomotor performance level of a group of 100 moderately depressed patients was significantly lower than that of controls on most psychometric tests. The interrelations among the variables evaluating various aspects of the depressive psychomotor retardation were examined and factor analyses were performed.

Comparative study of the treatment with tetracyclic and tricyclic antidepressants in patients with minor depressive disorders.

One hundred and twenty-nine cases with depression were submitted to a comparative therapeutic study, using a flexible treatment administration: mianserin 30-60 mg and imipramine 50-150 mg. The mean dosages were 43.6 mg of mianserin and 62 mg/day of imipramine.

Predictors of outcome in depression.

Several socio-demographic, family and clinical history variables, stressful life events, index episode characteristics, symptom severity, clinically and psychometrically assessed personality type and traits, and treatment were evaluated as potential predictors of multiple outcome criteria in a sample of 157 outpatients and inpatients meeting commonly used criteria for depression episodes. Outcome criteria included: severity scores on the final evaluation, improvement rate, impairment level of functioning, clinically rated treatment response, episode duration and relapse frequency in one year follow-up. Gender, personality structure and type, stressful life event characteristics, prior episode number, clinical status after the last episode, symptom length at intake, initial symptom severity, psychotic and endogenous features emerged as significant predictors of depression outcome in univariate analyses.

Structural modifications of intracerebral small vessels in various types of dementia.

Previous and recent studies stress the importance of small intracerebral vessel lesions in the pathogeny of some forms of dementia. The observations on this subject and included in our study refer to adult patients (32-86 years) selected only on the criterion of clinical diagnosis of dementia. To diagnose most of the cases, clinical experimental data and clinico-psychomotor tests were used.

Hypertension in acute ischaemic stroke: to treat or not to treat.

The reasons for not treating hypertension could be the risk of reducing cerebral blood flow (CBF) which may induce additional cerebral damage in the so-called ischaemic "penumbra". Hypertensive patients have altered autoregulation. A severe hypertension (over 230/120 mmHg) may lead to further damage by cerebral edema which asks for antihypertensive therapy.

Increased susceptibility to audiogenic seizures following withdrawal of progesterone.

This investigation was performed to verify a previous hypothesis which correlates the catamenial seizures with the stoppage of progesterone secretion. White rats from a Wistar strain were tested with an electric bell. Thirty-five animals refractory to the acoustic stimulus were selected for the experiment.

"Spontaneous" recovery in aphasics after single ischaemic stroke.

In a homogeneous group of 75 aphasics after single ischaemic stroke, randomly selected, performance tests were carried out two weeks and one, three and six months post-onset. None of them were systematically treated. Both for the global performance and for repetition, naming, auditory comprehension, reading comprehension, writing under dictation as well as for the communicative value of a standard interview, "spontaneous" recovery was more marked during the first three months and obviously reduced between three and six months post-onset.

The effect of calcium channel blockers in experimental spinal cord injury.

The therapeutic effect of calcium channel blockers (nifedipine) was studied in 40 rabbits with acute experimental spinal cord injury. In 30 animals, doses of 2.50 mg/day were orally administered for 10 days (after injury) whereas 10 animals received the same treatment 5 days before and 10 days after injury.

Degenerative neuromuscular diseases with a late onset. Clinical, electrophysiological and morphological study.

This study carried out clinical, electrophysiological and morphological investigations (sural nerve and gastrocnemius muscle biopsies) in a group of 47 patients with neuromuscular disease of a certain or supposed degenerative origin and a late onset (over the age of 30 yrs.). It aimed the evidence of the eventual particularities of such diseases with a delayed onset.

The cerebral content of excitatory and inhibitory amino acids in rats following withdrawal of antiepileptic drugs.

The aim of the present study was to investigate the role of amino acids in the increased seizure susceptibility induced by withdrawal of antiepileptic drugs (AEDs). Fifty white Wistar rats treated with AEDs and 30 controls were used. The animals were previously exposed to the acoustic stimulus and only the non responsive were used.

Catecholamine response to exercise in migraine.

Catecholamine (CA) response to exercise was studied in patients with common (16 cases) or classic (7 cases) migraine as well as in subjects with lumbar disc disease (20 control cases). In migrainous patients exercise induced constantly a rise in epinephrine (E) urinary excretion and a depression in norepinephrine (NE) excretion; the post-exercise E excretion represented the double or the treble of basal E excretion. In controls the pattern of CA response to exercise was opposite to that noted in migraineurs: the exercise induced in almost all controls an augmentation in NE excretion and a depression in E excretion.

Chronic sensorimotor polyneuropathy associated with cerebello-extrapyramidal manifestations in a patient with tomaculous neuropathy.

Clinical, electrophysiological and morphological (sural nerve and gastrocnemius muscle biopsies) data of a 57-year-old man with a chronic sensorimotor polyneuropathy of Charcot-Marie-Tooth type associated with a progressive cerebello-extrapyramidal syndrome are reported. Patient's family data were negative. Nerve structural and ultrastructural examinations revealed the morphological picture of a tomaculous neuropathy.

Diagnostic value of computerized EEG topographic analysis in epilepsy (preliminary data).

A computerized EEG topographic analysis (CETA) was carried out in 69 epileptics in order to evaluate the diagnostic value of such an investigation compared to that of the routine interictal EEG. The spectral frequency analysis of the bioelectrical activity in these patients was accomplished both by the fast Fourier transform and by the autoregression method. The obtained data were used for the spatial analysis of the electrical activity which was performed both by the interhemispheric coherence technique and by the color-coded topographic mapping in frequency bands.

Interictal responsiveness in therapy-resistant partial epilepsy.

A polygraphic study of the somatic, autonomic and EEG components of the orienting reaction elicited by an auditory stimulus was performed in 66 epileptics with therapy-resistant partial seizures (TRPS) and in 135 matched subjects in two control groups. The study showed a significant interictal hyperresponsivity in epileptics with TRPS vs. the normal subjects of control group I, which consisted in a marked increase of the intensity of the orienting reaction components.

Cerebral evoked potentials in the chronic vertebrobasilar insufficiency.

The syndrome of chronic vertebrobasilar insufficiency (VBI) consists in a complex of symptoms, often mild and transient, and lacks a complementary system of objective paraclinical investigations able to certify its existence. The study of somato-sensory, auditory and visual evoked potentials in VBI showed the occurrence of changes regardless of the symptom importance both in disorders due to extrinsic causes: a) compression by a damage of the cervical column (92.9%, 50% and 63.

Hereditary motor and sensory neuropathy. Clinical, genetic and electrodiagnostic studies.

Motor conduction velocity (MCV) alone cannot separate all the cases with types I and II of hereditary motor and sensory neuropathy (HMSN). However, sensory conduction velocity (SCV) in sural nerve distinctly separated types I and II of HMSN (8). As in most of our patients with HMSN sural nerve was unexcitable, we introduced SCV estimation in the distal segments of median and ulnar nerves.

Transient peripheral ischemia may restore quickly the motility in patients with compression neuropathy.

Transient ischemia of the extremities was applied in compression or traumatic neuropathies affecting radial nerve (17 cases), ulnar nerve (3 cases), upper brachial plexus (4 cases) or peroneal nerve (10 cases). The limb opposite to that displaying paresis was submitted repeatedly to a 15-minute-period of ischemia every other day for two weeks. The procedure induced in most patients (27 out of 34 cases) a motor improvement of variable degree.

The concentration of serum creatine-kinase in manic attacks of primary affective psychoses.

The study aims to observe whether subjects with a primary affective disease and manic attacks show modifications of serum concentration of creatine-kinase conferring it the role of a biologic marker. Serum concentration of creatine-kinase was determined for 122 men with mono- and bipolar affective disease during the different stages as well as for schizophrenic men with different clinical forms excepting the affective form. The control group included 60 men.

Communicative disorders in Wernicke's aphasics.

The purpose of this study was to analyze some aspects of communicative capacities in 25 predominantly Wernicke's aphasics. The patients with moderate and mild deficits were compared with severely affected patients. Answers in a standard interview were studied for two aspects: answer adequacy to question and conceptual thinking fluency.

Ménière's attacks associated with facial paralysis.

An 85-year-old man developed in the last 5 years three attacks on Ménière's syndrome associated with facial paralysis. The syndrome could be interpreted as a transient ischemic attack in the territory of the anterior inferior cerebellar artery. An alternative hypothesis could be to admit a Ménière's disease with compression of the facial nerve during the attacks of labyrinthine hydrops.