The incidence and prevalence of unruptured intracranial aneurysms in sickle cell disease patients: a systematic review.

Background: Unruptured Intracranial Aneurysms (UIAs) pose a significant risk of morbidity in the general population and much more so among sickle cell disease (SCD) patients. Meanwhile, the proportion of these patients with UIAs is not established just as the course and characteristics of the aneurysms are not well known.

Aim: To estimate the prevalence, incidence and characteristics of UIAs in SCD patients and compare same with the metrics and features in the general population.

Todd, Faraday, and the electrical basis of epilepsy.

Purpose: To consider the origins of our understanding of the electrical basis of epilepsy in the light of the Lumleian lectures to the Royal College of Physicians in London for 1849, "On the pathology and treatment of convulsive diseases," by Robert Bentley Todd (1809-1860).

Methods: I have reviewed Todd's neglected Lumleian lectures and his observations and concepts of the electrical basis of epilepsy in relation to the influence of Michael Faraday (1791-1867), his contemporary in London, and in relation to later nineteenth century writings on the subject by Jackson, Ferrier, and Hitzig, all of whom overlooked Todd's lectures.

Results: Todd was a clinical scientist as well as Professor of Physiology and Morbid Anatomy, with a special interest in the nervous system, at King's College, where he came into contact with Michael Faraday, the greatest electrical scientist of all time, at the nearby Royal Institution.

Activin A and follistatin in acute liver failure.

Background: Liver regeneration may be impaired in acute liver failure due to either inhibition of the proliferative response or ongoing liver cell death. Activin A, a member of the TGFbeta superfamily, inhibits hepatocyte DNA synthesis and induces apoptosis.

Methods: Levels of activin A and its binding protein follistatin in the serum of 23 patients with acute liver failure were determined by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay.

Treatment of epilepsies associated with typical absences.

This review concentrates on the treatment of typical absences, which are distinct generalized epileptic seizures occurring mainly in the context of idiopathic generalized epilepsies. As typical absences may occur in combination with other generalized seizures, often in a syndrome-related pattern and vary in terms of frequency and severity, a brief discussion of the various different epileptic syndromes with typical absences and some principles of differential diagnosis are necessary. The diagnostic role of the electroencephalogram and its usefulness in monitoring the response to treatment are also outlined.

Benefits and risks of folic acid to the nervous system.

During three decades of neurological practice I have witnessed a remarkable change in attitudes to the benefits and risks of folic acid therapy in nervous system disorders. In the 1960s all that was known and taught was that folic acid was harmful to the nervous system, especially in precipitating or exacerbating the neurological complications of vitamin B12 deficiency. So deeply held was this view that the possibility of neuropsychological benefits from this vitamin was initially viewed with considerable scepticism.

Iron proteins of duodenal enterocytes isolated from mice with genetically and experimentally altered iron metabolism.

The molecular basis for the control of iron absorption by the duodenum remains unknown: however, ferritin (Ft) and the iron status of enterocytes have been suggested as regulatory factors. We determined the iron and Ft status of duodenal enterocytes from mice with hypotransferrinaemia, a genetic defect leading to greatly enhanced iron absorption, and for comparison we also investigated mice with experimentally-altered iron absorption. Duodenal enterocytes were isolated and analysed for Ft and non-haem iron content and for transferrin binding (as a measure of transferrin receptor activity).