Predictors of the response to tricyclic antidepressants in major depression.

In a relatively young sample of 108 nonbipolar patients with major depressive disorder and at least moderately severe depression, the contribution of a comprehensive set of socio-demographic, psychosocial, clinical and personality trait variables toward the prediction of short-term, multidimensionally evaluated response to tricyclic antidepressants was investigated by univariate and multivariate analyses. There is a naturalistic study without a standard treatment protocol, but treatment type, duration and dosage were controlled. Only patients who received at least moderate dosages of tricyclic antidepressants for minimum four weeks were included in this study.

Carbohydrate metabolism, as reflected by glycosylated hemoglobin, in clinically active definite multiple sclerosis.

In 30 patients with the diagnosis of definite multiple sclerosis (MS) established on clinical criteria (CDMS-A1 patients), who were in a severe clinical state of MS, i.e., in whom one or more MS clinical signs or symptoms had become obvious during the last 10 days, the integrated concentration of plasma glucose over long-term (the last 6-8 weeks) was established by measurement of the percent of the glycosylated fraction of hemoglobin (Hb A1).

Terminal complement complex in blood of patients with neurological diseases.

The local involvement of complement (C) in the pathophysiology of tissue lesions in several neurological diseases is known, but it has never been studied whether or not in neurological disorders the C activity in the circulation is altered as well. This was the aim of the present investigations. We measured in blood plasma, with an automatic device for analysis and quantitation of the haemolytic activity of the terminal complement complex, the variables T1, T2 and T3 which define the latter quantitatively.

The influence of amitriptyline and flunarizine on catecholamine response to light in patients with migraine.

The effect of amitriptyline on catecholamine (CA) response to light of 20 migrainous patients was studied. The drug was given orally, 36 mg daily (12 mg x 3), for ten days. Before therapy, the migraineurs responded to light by an increase in epinephrine (E) excretion and not by the rise in norepinephrine (NE) excretion, noticed in controls.

A trial to apply the concept of genomic imprinting to the manic-depressive illness.

The phenotypic indicators of genomic imprinting were applied to the familial psychopathology data collected through the family history method about 886 adult relatives of 65 manic-depressive probands directly investigated. The probands and their relatives were diagnosed according to DSM-III/DSM-III-R criteria. A first analysis of the age at onset of the BP illness by affective status of the probands' parents suggested that the BP disorder begins about 8 years earlier in the probands whose father was affectively ill (13.

Habituation of orienting reaction in therapy-resistant generalized epilepsy.

A polygraphic study on resistance to habituation of the somatic, autonomic and EEG components of the orienting reaction elicited by a repetitive auditory stimulus was performed in 39 epileptics with therapy-resistant generalized seizures (TRGS) and in 119 matched subjects in two control groups. The study showed a significantly higher resistance to habituation of the orienting reaction in epileptics with TRGS vs. the normal subjects of control group I.

Effect of hypothermia on focal experimental seizures.

The effect of general hypothermia was investigated in 15 unanesthetized cats. The animals were immobilized with Flaxedil and maintained on mechanical respiration. An epileptogenic focus was induced by stereo-tactical injection of penicillin to the right hippocampus.

Statistical study of lethal stroke.

Deceased cases with cerebral infarction and hemorrhage constituted the subjects of the present study. They were divided into two groups: 127 cases in group 1 (1954-1959) and 427 cases in group 2 (1977-1982). The purpose of the study was to compare clinical data to evidence any statistical difference between groups.

Outcome in ischaemic stroke: carotid versus vertebro-basilar territory.

Clinical study and laboratory investigations were performed in 166 carotid ischaemic stroke (CIS) patients and 64 vertebro-basilar ischaemic stroke (VBIS) patients. The study revealed some features of VBIS: significant male predominance (p < 0.001), better outcome (for modified Rankin Scale (MRS)) (p < 0.

Recurrent cranial polyneuropathy.

General considerations on recurrent cranial polyneuropathy are made. In addition, a study carried out in 42 patients with recurrent cranial polyneuropathy (RCP) permitted the assessment of some parameters closely related to age, sex and evolution in order to elaborate an etiopathologic hypothesis. Female cases prevailed (31 females, 11 males); the interval between two episodes varied from 1 month to 39 years.

Deficiency of sympathetic nervous system function in myasthenia.

The norepinephrine (NE) and epinephrine (E) responses to forearm ischemia were studied in 24 myasthenic patients and 22 subjects with lumbar disc disease (control group). In some of these myasthenic (11 cases) and control (11 cases) subjects the NE and E responses to orthostasis were also investigated. In controls both stimuli induced a rise in NE urinary excretion without significantly changing the E excretion.

Melodic intonation in the rehabilitation of Romanian aphasics with bucco-lingual apraxia.

The main objective of the present study was to assess the efficiency of the melodic intonation therapy (MIT) in the rehabilitation of Romanian aphasics. Eighty predominantly Broca aphasics used the melodic intonation therapy when no other therapy methods were very efficient. The speech therapist intonated the respective word, then together with the patient and finally let him continue alone.

Lidocaine kindling does not generate epilepsy.

Forty Wistar rats were injected with a solution of lidocaine (90 mg/kg s.c.) 5 days per week for 30-40 days.

Pseudotumor cerebri: risk factors, clinical course, prognostic criteria.

Unlabelled: Eighty-five patients with the diagnosis of pseudotumor cerebri were retro- and prospectively studied. For clinical evaluation, the following criteria were used: neurological--headache, ophthalmological--visual acuity, visual field, ophthalmoscopy and psychic--memory. Each patient was assigned 2 categories of results expressed by: neuropsychic and ophthalmological scores which were statistically processed.

Serum immunoglobulin levels in schizoaffective disorders (manic and depressive).

Immunoglobulin levels (A, G, M) were measured with Mancini's radial immunodiffusion technique (RID). IgA and IgG levels showed a statistically significant increase in schizoaffective patients compared to normals, and schizophrenics, but no modification in comparison with the affective patients. IgM also showed a statistically significant increase which may constitute a trait marker for the schizoaffective disease.

Type and frequency of phonetic errors in aphasics: therapeutic aspects.

Fifty aphasics were studied in three separate groups: nonfluent Broca, fluent Wernicke and fluent anomics in order to form a therapeutic guide of their phonetic errors (omission substitution, addition, repeated phonemes, perseveration of phonemes belonging to the preceding word, reversed order, phonematic targetting and misplacing. Frequency of phonetic error was also assessed.

Vocabulary grammatical structure in aphasic patients.

In 10 aphasics (7 Broca's and 3 Wernicke's) of vascular etiology and 10 normal controls, a corpus of 2,500 words was selected in each subject by means of a standard interview. The 10 grammatical classes of the Romanian language were studied. The vocabulary reduction observed in aphasics was produced by the loss of nouns, adjectives and verbs.

Mapping of VEPs and ERG responses to punctual stimulations in the visual field.

Visual field projection maps were obtained using retinal and cortical EP amplitude values. Single meridian investigations were also performed. Stimulation was done with punctual photic stimuli delivered by the LED perimeter built for the purpose.

LED perimeter for visual field analysis by mapping of small field evoked potentials.

A new type of visual field perimeter, equipped with conic light emitting diodes (LEDs) located at 10 degrees intervals automatically programmable is described. The device is meant for visual field analysis by mapping of the evoked responses derived from the retina and specific cortical projection areas.

Humoral immunity in Down's syndrome.

Carried out on 57 outpatients, the study was aimed to prove the existence of a disgammaglobulinemia in Down's syndrome. The event could not be attributed to hospitalization. Data indicate increased A and G immunoglobulinemias.