Alcoholism ; metabolism ; pathology ; Animals ; Humans ; Orexins ; metabolism

Marchiafava-Bignami disease (MBD) is a fatal disorder characterized by demyelination of the corpus callosum. MRI, suggestive of corpus callosum demyelination with associated white matter involvement in both cerebral hemispheres, indicates a diagnosis of MBD. In this case, MR diffusion-weighted findings taken at an acute stage of MBD revealed lesions not only in the corpus callosum but also in the cerebral cortex. Lower apparent diffusion coefficient values of the corpus callosum and cortical lesions were associated with poor clinical outcome.
Middle Aged ; Male ; Humans ; Demyelinating Diseases/*pathology ; Corpus Callosum/*pathology ; Brain/*pathology ; Alcoholism/complications

Clinical and postmortem findings of a case that had combined alcoholic pellagra encephalopathy and Wernicke disease are described. This 51-year-old malnourished and chronic alcoholic man presented with progressive mental deterioration, pellagra dermatitis, hypertonus of the neck and other musculatures, myoclonic jerks with bizarre involuntary movements, in addition to total external ophthalmoplegia and gait disturbance. After administration of multivitamins, including thiamine and nicotinamide, these neurologic abnormalities were dramatically improved in a few days. However, the patient died thereafter because of sepsis associated with pneumonia. Postmortem examination revealed marked abnormalities in CNS, characterized by diffuse atrophy of gray matter and widespread neuronal degeneration and characteristic central chromatolysis in pontine nuclei, dentate nuclei, cranial nerve nuclei in the brain stem, Betz cells of the cerebral cortex, and Clarke's column and anterior horn cells of the spinal cord. There were also atrophy and gliosis of the mammillary bodies, degeneration and vascular proliferation of periaqueductal gray matter, and massive gliosis around the third ventricle. These neuropathological changes were compatible with symptoms of both alcoholic pellagra encephalopathy and Wernicke's disease, but they were also strongly suspected on clinical grounds.
Alcoholism/*complications ; Central Nervous System Diseases/complications/pathology ; Humans ; Male ; Middle Aged ; Pellagra/*complications/pathology ; Wernicke Encephalopathy/*complications/pathology

This review focused on the pharmacological treatment of alcoholism, especially alcoholism-related mental disorder. The pharmacological agent for alcoholism can be divided into the following categories : anticraving agent, aversive agent, agent to treat acute alcohol withdrawal, agent to diminish drinking by treating associated psychiatric pathology, agent to induce sobriety in intoxicated individuals. Following trends are included in new trends of pharmacological treatment of alcoholism. What are precise conditions amenable to pharmacological intervention? : How can psychosocial and behavioral intervention be integrated with pharmacotherapy to enhance treatment outcome?: Is the concept of "matching" specific pharmacotherapy treatment to different aspect of alcoholism more efficacious than a more generalized medicational approach to treatment? One of the most important factors for alcoholics treatment is good and proper therapeutic relationship with patients and setting up individually specialized treatment program is also important.
Alcoholics ; Alcoholism* ; Drinking ; Drug Therapy ; Humans ; Mental Disorders ; Pathology ; Treatment Outcome

OBJECTIVES: To observe the changes of expression of α-synuclein （α-syn） and neuronal apoptosis in brain cortex of acute alcoholism rats and to explore the mechanism of the damage caused by ethanol to the neurons. METHODS: The model of acute alcoholism rat was established by 50% alcohol gavage. The α-syn and caspase-3 were detected by immunohistochemical staining and imaging analysis at 1 h, 3 h, 6 h and 12 h after acute alcoholism. The number of positive cell and mean of optical density were detected and the trend change was analyzed. The variance analysis and t-test were also performed. RESULTS: The number of α-syn positive cell and average optical density in brain cortex of acute alcoholism rat increased significantly and peaked at 6 hour with a following slight decrease at 12 h, but still higher than the groups at 1 h and 3 h. Within 12 hours after poisoning, the number of caspase-3 positive cell and average optical density in brain cortex of rats gradually increased. CONCLUSIONS The abnormal aggregation of α-syn caused by brain edema and hypoxia may participate the early stage of neuronal apoptosis in brain cortex after acute alcoholism.
Alcoholism/pathology* ; Animals ; Apoptosis ; Brain Edema/pathology* ; Caspase 3/metabolism* ; Cerebral Cortex/pathology* ; Ethanol ; Hypoxia/pathology* ; Neurons/pathology* ; Rats ; alpha-Synuclein/metabolism*

AIMTo investigate the correlation between the gastric adaptive cytoprotection and the low concentration alcohol intake in a chronic drinking rat model and the effect of chronic ethanol exposures on the cell turnover of the gastric mucosa and its possible role in adaptive cytoprotection.

METHODSSprague-Dawley rats received the drinking water containing 6% (v/v) ethanol as their only water intake for 28 days. In the different stages of the 28 days (1st, 3rd, 7th, 14th and 28th days), the stomachs of the rats were cannulated and perfused with pure ethanol, and the severity of mucosal lesions was measured in 2 hours at the end of perfusion respectively. The cell proliferation and apoptosis in gastric mucosa of rats in different groups were analyzed by flow cytometer, immunohistochemistry and computer image analysis.

RESULTSPure ethanol caused ulcer and haemorrhagic damage in the corpus and antral mucosa of the control rats. These lesions were prevented by pretreatment of the animals with ethanol exposure in the 3 rd to 14 th days. The damage index was decreased by 80%, as compared with those in control rats. There was no significant difference in the rats exposed to the ethanol in the 1st and 28th days. Compared with control, the cell apoptosis in gastric mucosa of the rats was enhanced during they exposure to the ethanol in the 3rd to 28th days. Otherwise the cell proliferation was increased in the 3rd to 28th days, and decreased in the 28th days, respectively.

CONCLUSIONChronic adequate alcohol intake may enhance the cell turnover of gastric mucosa and lead to an adaptive cytoprotection. Long-term stimulus with the low concentration ethanol may cause the atrophy of gastric mucosa and reduce the gastric mucosal cytoprotective effect.

Alcoholism ; Animals ; Apoptosis ; Cell Proliferation ; Cytoprotection ; Ethanol ; adverse effects ; Gastric Mucosa ; cytology ; pathology ; Male ; Rats ; Rats, Sprague-Dawley

OBJECTIVETo investigate the relationship between serum sex hormone levels, liver function, and pathogenic mechanisms related to cutaneous lesions involving the facial skin in male patients with liver cirrhosis.

METHODSFifty male cirrhotic patients with facial skin lesions, including spider angiomas, angiotelectasis and special type rash, (mean age: 48.1 +/- 12.2 years) were randomly selected for study and enrolled as the case group. Thirty cirrhotic male patients without facial skin lesions (mean age: 44.5 +/- 11.7 years) were enrolled as the control group. Serum levels of luteinizing hormone (LH), follicular stimulating hormone (FSH), prolactin (PRL), estradiol (E2), progesterone (PRGE), and testosterone (T) were detected and compared between cases and controls by the t-test. All patients were sub-categorized according to severity of cirrhosis (Child-Pugh classification) and comparisons between cases and controls were carried out by single factor analysis of variance. Logistic regression modeling was used to evaluate whether the presence of skin lesions is related to changes in markers of liver impairment, including alanine aminotransferase (ALT), aspartate aminotransferase (AST), total bilirubin (TBil), serum albumin (Alb), prothrombin time (PT-SEC), creatinine (CREA), platelet count (PLT), and alcoholism.

RESULTSIn the cases with spider veins, LH level was significantly elevated (t = 2.01) and T level was significantly decreased (t = -2.20) (both, P less than 0.05 vs. controls). In the cases with telangiectasia, the LH level (t = 3.76, E2 (t = 2.08) and E2/T ratio (t = 2.98) were significantly elevated and T level was significantly decreased (t = -3.77) (all, P less than 0.05 vs. controls). In the cases with special type rash, FSH level was significantly elevated (t = 2.03) and T level was significantly decreased (t = -2.01) (both, P less than 0.05 vs. controls). In the case group, E2 levels decreased as severity of liver damage increased, while in the control group, E2 levels increased as severity of liver damage increased; however, the difference in average E2 values of the two groups did not reach statistical significance (P more than 0.05). In both cases and controls, the T levels were decreased as the severity of liver damage increased (F = 3.70, P less than 0.05). Multivariate logistic regression analysis showed that increased incidence of facial skin lesions is associated with alcoholism (odds ratio (OR) = 4.46, 95% confidence interval (CI) = 1.45-13.7, P less than 0.05) and elevated serum levels of AST (OR = 11.87, 95% CI = 1.24-113.1, P less than 0.05).

CONCLUSIONAlcoholism, impaired liver function, and perturbed levels of circulating sex hormones are associated with cirrhosis-related facial lesions and may play important roles in the pathogenesis of cutaneous lesions in patients with cirrhosis.

Adult ; Alcoholism ; physiopathology ; Case-Control Studies ; Face ; pathology ; Gonadal Steroid Hormones ; blood ; Humans ; Liver Cirrhosis ; blood ; pathology ; physiopathology ; Logistic Models ; Male ; Middle Aged ; Skin ; pathology

OBJECTIVE: To introduce recent progress on diagnosis and treatment of benign symmetric lipomatosis (BSL). METHOD: Detailed clinical data of 6 patients with BSL were reviewed and analyzed. We present a summary of the clinical symptoms, physical sign, diagnosis and therapeutic methods of BSL. And related literatures were discussed together. RESULT: All of 6 patients have excessive subcutaneous fat deposit predominantly around neck. One patients had upper extremity localizations. Six patients had the complication of left ventricular diastolic function changes, glucose intolerance or diabetes mellitus, chronic hepatopathy, hyperuricemia and sleep apnea syndrome in one or more. One patients with several symptoms occur simultaneously, another one female patient was accompanied by all symptoms but chronic hepatopathy. Five male patient were alcohol abusers. Total neck lipectomy and abstinence from alcohol were performed on 5 patients. One patient refused treatment. During a follow-up of 3 months to 4 years, one patients was relapsed again, and no recurrence was seen in another 4 patients. All patho logical results were nonencapsulated fat. CONCLUSION BSL is a lipodystrophy caused by diffuse fatty tissue, symmetry deposition in the neck and shoulder subcutaneous fascia space or deep fascial space. The highest incidence favors to middle-aged man who is alcoholic. Chronic alcohol addiction and typical clinical symptoms help to diagnosis BSL. Lipectomy represents a successful procedure in treating BSL.
Adult ; Alcoholism ; complications ; Fascia ; pathology ; Female ; Humans ; Lipectomy ; Lipomatosis, Multiple Symmetrical ; complications ; diagnosis ; surgery ; Male ; Middle Aged ; Neck ; pathology ; Shoulder ; pathology

PURPOSE: The purpose of this study was to identify factors affecting the social competence of school-aged children according alcohol consumption by their parents. METHODS: The participants were 558 5th grade elementary school students. Data were collected using structured questionnaires from September 17 to October 2 2013, and analyzed using descriptive statistics, chi2-test, t-test, ANOVA, Pearson correlation coefficients, and Stepwise multiple regression analysis with the SPSS PC+ 21.0 program. RESULTS: Participants were classified into three groups according to alcohol use; Non-use parent group (52.7%), social use parent group (31.0%), and problem use parent group (16.3%). Participants whose parents were problem users had significantly lower scores on emotional awareness and expression (F=14.45, p<.001), social support (F=5.82, p=.003), and social competence (F=16.33, p<.001) compared to students in the other two groups. In school-aged children with parents who were alcohol abusers, the variables that predicted social competence was friend support (66.0%). CONCLUSION: These results emphasize the importance of focusing on the crucial role of peer support in the development of social competence in school-aged children of parents who abuse alcohol. Further, for these children, interventions aimed at improving social support and children's emotional awareness and expression may be most beneficial.
Alcohol Drinking/pathology ; Alcoholism/*pathology ; Child ; Emotions ; Female ; Humans ; Interpersonal Relations ; Male ; Parents/psychology ; Questionnaires ; *Social Skills ; Social Support ; Students/*psychology

Adult ; Alcoholism ; complications ; Humans ; Lipomatosis, Multiple Symmetrical ; diagnostic imaging ; etiology ; pathology ; surgery ; Male ; Neck ; diagnostic imaging ; pathology ; surgery ; Tomography, X-Ray Computed