Living with global amnesia: self-established compensation strategies of a patient with severe memory impairment - a narrative report.

We report the case of C.H., a 48-year-old patient with global amnesia caused by herpes simplex encephalitis at the age of 20 and subsequent extensive bilateral temporal lobe lesions.

Sphingomyelin Synthase 1 Is Essential for Male Fertility in Mice.

Sphingolipids and the derived gangliosides have critical functions in spermatogenesis, thus mutations in genes involved in sphingolipid biogenesis are often associated with male infertility. We have generated a transgenic mouse line carrying an insertion in the sphingomyelin synthase gene Sms1, the enzyme which generates sphingomyelin species in the Golgi apparatus. We describe the spermatogenesis defect of Sms1-/- mice, which is characterized by sloughing of spermatocytes and spermatids, causing progressive infertility of male homozygotes.

Contrasting behavior of heterochromatic and euchromatic chromosome portions and pericentric genome separation in pre-bouquet spermatocytes of hybrid mice.

The spatial distribution of parental genomes has attracted much interest because intranuclear chromosome distribution can modulate the transcriptome of cells and influence the efficacy of meiotic homologue pairing. Pairing of parental chromosomes is imperative to sexual reproduction as it translates into homologue segregation and genome haploidization to counteract the genome doubling at fertilization. Differential FISH tagging of parental pericentromeric genome portions and specific painting of euchromatic chromosome arms in Mus musculus (MMU) × Mus spretus (MSP) hybrid spermatogenesis disclosed a phase of homotypic non-homologous pericentromere clustering that led to parental pericentric genome separation from the pre-leptoteneup to zygotene stages.

Multibiodose radiation emergency triage categorization software.

In this note, the authors describe the MULTIBIODOSE software, which has been created as part of the MULTIBIODOSE project. The software enables doses estimated by networks of laboratories, using up to five retrospective (biological and physical) assays, to be combined to give a single estimate of triage category for each individual potentially exposed to ionizing radiation in a large scale radiation accident or incident. The MULTIBIODOSE software has been created in Java.

[Indications for inpatient psychotherapy. When does your patient belong in a clinic?].

Institutionalized psychotherapy is indicated for specific disorders, the treatment of which at certain times or phases cannot be implemented in the doctor's office. Further Indications are patient denial and lack of motivation, a need to remove the patient from a pathogenic environment, a need for outpatient treatment initiation, and, in selected patients, a crisis situation, when the symptoms become acute or when internistic reasons are present. When these positive indication criteria apply--apart from emergency and crisis situations--a mental and somatic pre-evaluation--best done by the admitting institution--should be part of the pre-diagnostic work-up.

CardioOp: an integrated approach to teleteaching in cardiac surgery.

Introduction/purpose: The complexity of cardiac surgery requires continuous training, education and information addressing different individuals: physicians (cardiac surgeons, residents, anaesthesiologists, cardiologists), medical students, perfusionists and patients. Efficacy and efficiency of education and training will likely be improved by the use of multimedia information systems. Nevertheless, computer-based education is facing some serious disadvantages: 1) multimedia productions require tremendous financial and time resources; 2) the obtained multimedia data are only usable for one specific target user group in one specific instructional context; 3) computer based learning programs often show deficiencies in the support of individual learning styles and in providing individual information adjusted to the learner's individual needs.

Altered P53 conformation.

The p53 protein is a transcription factor that is frequently mutated in human malignancies. Using the MCF10AT model for early human breast cancer we show that P53 protein is unmutated indicating that mutations are not necessary for alterations in growth and morphology that accompany preneoplastic stages of breast tumor progression. Although p53 protein is wild-type in cells of the MCF10AT model system, it exists predominantly in a conformationally altered state that is defective in its ability both to bind DNA in a sequence-specific manner and to induce transcriptional activation from the WAF-1 promoter.

Clinical efficacy of leuprorelin acetate monthly depot in premenopausal patients with metastatic breast cancer.

We included 58 premenopausal patients with metastatic breast cancer in an open study with leuprorelin acetate monthly depot. The overall response rate was 15/50 patients (30%). The median duration to tumour progression according to Kaplan-Meier analysis was 12 months.

Suppression of apoptosis in COLO 205 cells by the phorbol ester TPA may be mediated by the PKC isoenzyme alpha.

Apoptosis induced by an antibody to CD95/APO-1/FAS in the colon carcinoma cells COLO 205 and HT-29 is suppressed by the phorbol ester TPA. Inhibition is much more effective in COLO 205 than in HT-29 cells. The TPA effect is abrogated by the protein kinase C (PKC)-specific inhibitor Go6983 indicating a role of PKC in this process.

Interaction of p53 with protein kinase CK2 during SV40 induced entrance of quiescent cells into the cell cycle.

Quiescent non-permissive cells re-enter the cell cycle upon infection with the DNA tumor virus SV40. Before the expression of virus specific proteins and other cellular reactions there is an induced expression of the growth suppressor protein p53. p53 is known to be a substrate for protein kinase CK2 and in addition it is tightly associated with CK2 and both proteins are implicated in cell cycle regulation.

Insulin-like growth factor II activates mitogenic signaling in pancreatic cancer cells via IRS-1.

Insulin-like growth factor-II (IGF-II) action and expression were examined in 3 human pancreatic cancer cell lines. IGF-II expression was also studied in 17 normal and 12 malignant pancreatic tissues. IGF-II enhanced the growth of all 3 cell lines.

Comparison of different antisense oligonucleotides against the BCR/ABL junction in chronic myelogenous leukemia.

The activity of the BCR/ABL hybrid gene is associated with a growth advantage of the chronic myelogenous leukemia (CML) stem cell. Suppression of BCR/ABL hybrid gene expression can be a valuable tool for leukemic cell purging. Antisense oligonucleotides (ODNs) have the capacity to specifically downregulate gene expression.

[Bicycle accidents. A retrospective study 1986-1991].

The aim of this study was to examine the type and outcome of bicyclist's accidents+ in a 6 year period from 1986--1991. Data were collected by analyzing accident-re of the police. The study group consisted of 1,176 bicyclists.

[Unrecognized carbon monoxide poisoning--the importance of subsequent studies in death with undetermined cause].

The author reports a case of an old man and his wife, who were found dead in the bedroom of their apartment with signs of putrifaction. The physician certified an internal cause of death respectively death by an overdosage of drugs. But toxicological investigations induced by a forensic scientist proved, that death was due to poisoning with carbon monoxide.

Flow cytometric DNA ploidy and recurrence development in squamous cell carcinoma of the oral cavity.

This prospective study on 348 patients with oral squamous cell carcinoma who underwent radical surgery established a close association between the DNA ploidy status of the primary tumor and the risk of local recurrence development. Nine percent of patients with flow cytometrically diploid tumors developed a recurrence compared to 46% of those with aneuploid tumors. This correlation held true even if evaluated with respect to tumor stage or histological grade.

Flow cytometric cellular DNA content and lymph-node metastasis in squamous-cell carcinoma of the oral cavity.

This prospective DNA flow cytometric study on 386 primary squamous cell carcinomas of the oral cavity showed that only 18% of the patients with diploid primary tumors had lymph node metastasis on admission compared to 52% of those with aneuploid carcinomas. The aneuploid group without evidence of lymph node involvement at the time of primary tumor treatment carried a 3-fold increased risk for developing late metastasis (23%) compared with the diploid group (8%). The clinical manifestation of occult metastasis in patients with diploid carcinomas was delayed by about two years compared to the aneuploid group.

[Klaus Grawe's confession and the psychoanalytic profession].

1994 saw the publication of the volume Psychotherapie im Wandel. Von der Konfession zur Profession ("Psychotherapy in Transition. From Confession to Profession") by K.

[Expert assessment within the scope of legal social determination of the extent of economic responsibility of insurance for analytic psychotherapy].

Expert Opinions and Social Insurance Tribunal Rulings on the Scope of Medical Insurance Cover for Analytic Psychotherapy.--In Germany at present medical insurance cover is more or less automatic for a bone-marrow transplant costing anything up to 100,000 dollars--an operation where the death of the patients is by no means infrequent. In view of this state of affairs it is hard to comprehend the refusal on the part of insurance cover reviewers to approve ongoing cover for analytic psychotherapy beyond the 240-hour limit.

Expression of urokinase-type plasminogen-activator (upa) and its receptor (upar) in human ovarian-cancer cells and in-vitro invasion capacity.

Expression of urokinase-type plasminogen activator (uPA), tissue-type plasminogen activator (t-PA), their inhibitor PAI-1 and the uPA-receptor (uPAR) was characterized in six human tumor cell lines (OV-MZ-6, -10, -13, -15, -19 and OVCAR-3) established from patients with cystadenocarcinoma of the ovary. The invasive potential of the ovarian cancer cell lines determined in an in vitro invasion assay did neither correlate with the antigen level of uPA, t-PA, PAI-1 or uPAR nor with the cell surface uPA activity, however, did correlate with the cell surface-bound plasmin activity. The in vitro invasiveness of three cancer cell lines selected displaying a different pattern of uPA and uPAR expression was significantly inhibited by a recombinant soluble truncated form of the uPAR functioning as a scavenger for uPA.

Involvement of 22q13.3 in chromosomal-anomalies.

In a series of neoplasms involvement of chromosome 22, mainly concerning loci within bands 22q11-q12 has been reported. Yet, little is known about chromosomal anomalies in 22q13. As loss of heterozygosity in two neurofibromatosis type 2 patients was described in a 22q13.

[New perspectives in color ultrasound in breast diagnosis].

In recent years, ultrasound has become established as part of the diagnostic evaluation of breast tumours. Not replacing, but complementing mammography, ultrasonic investigations increasingly represent a sensitive means of early diagnosis. Thermography, on the other hand, has proved of relatively little value and doesn't play a significant role today.

Incomplete axillary dissection in early breast-cancer and the risk of erroneous staging.

Maximum control of local disease in early breast cancer is obtained by breast conserving surgery, minimally invasive surgery of the axilla and consecutive selection for adjuvant therapy based on the number of involved axillary level I nodes. The answer to the question what is a 'node negative' patient? by defining the number of lymph nodes excised at operation exclusively, and the number of involved nodes found by the pathologist is given. Based on the data of Veronesi et al (Eur J Surg Oncol 16: 127-133, 1990) on 1446 complete axillary dissections performed between 1983-1986, the mathematical basis of the incomplete axillary dissection of the axilla in early breast cancer is presented: (i) To achieve a degree of confidence of 90% of the entire axilla being negative, histological examination of 10 level I nodes for a T1 tumor and 11 level I nodes for a T2 primary are necessary.

Immunologically defined subclasses of the growth suppressor protein p53 detected with antibodies in sera from tumor patients.

Somatic mutation of the gene encoding the cellular p53 protein is the most common event in the development of human cancer. Patients with various types of cancer have circulating antibodies against p53. We screened sera of patients with different types of tumors.

Mutation and expression of the p53 tumor suppressor gene in tumor samples and cancer cell-lines - comparison of nonisotopic direct DNA-sequencing, immunoblotting and immunohistochemistry.

Mutations in the nuclear phosphoprotein p53 are the most frequent genetic alterations in human solid tumors detected so far. These mutations are clustered in highly conserved domains spanning from exon 4 to 9 of the gene. A very precise method of detecting p53 mutations is to sequence these domains.