OBJECTIVE: The present study was designed to identify the acute and chronic immobilization stress-induced polyamine (putrescine) responses and their modulation by administration of melatonin in brain regions (frontal cortex and hippocampus) and gastrointestinal tract regions (GIT, gastric mucosa and duodenal mucosa). METHOD: For immobilization stress (3 or 14 days), rats (250-300 g, male Sprague-Dawley rats) were placed in restrainers once daily, for 3 h. Melatonin (10 mg/kg, i.p.) was administered once daily immediately after stress. Rats were sacrificed 2 h after the final application of stress for the measurement of putrescine levels. RESULTS: The putrescine levels of frontal cortex, hippocampus, gastric mucosa and duodenal mucosa were significantly increased by acute stress (p<0.05, p<0.05, p<0.0005 and p<0.01, respectively). The putrescine levels of frontal cortex and duodenal mucosa were significantly increased by chronic stress (p<0.05, respectively). In chronic stress group, animals showed adaptation tendency. The changes of putrescine level in gastric and duodenal mucosa induced by chronic stress were significantly lower than those by acute stress (p<0.05, respectively). The putrescine responses to acute stress in frontal cortex, hippocampus, gastric mucosa and duodenal mucosa were attenuated by administration of melatonin (p<0.01, p<0.05, p<0.05 and p<0.05, respectively). The putrescine response to chronic stress in frontal cortex was attenuated by melatonin administration (p<0.05, respectively). CONCLUSION: The results suggested that putrescine may play a role in stress response of brain regions (frontal cortex and hippocampus) and GIT regions (gastric and duodenal mucosa). Melatonin can inhibit the stress-induced putrescine responses in the brain and GIT.
Animals ; Brain* ; Gastric Mucosa ; Gastrointestinal Tract* ; Hippocampus ; Humans ; Immobilization* ; Male ; Melatonin* ; Mucous Membrane ; Putrescine ; Rats ; Rats, Sprague-Dawley

Blepharospasm is a focal dystonia that consists of repetitive involuntary spasmodic contractions of the orbicularis oculi muscle. A 27-year-old man was admitted with ptosis and involuntary blinking in both eyes. He was diagnosed as having schizophrenia when he was 15 years old and medicated with chlorpromazine for 12 years. After excluding all the possible etiopathological causes of the blepharospam, the offending drug was discontinued and changed to an atypical antipsychotic, clozapine. Clozapine was increased up to 75 mg in the 7th day of admission, and the symptoms were slowly ameliorated.
Adolescent ; Adult ; Blepharospasm* ; Blinking ; Chlorpromazine ; Clozapine ; Dystonic Disorders ; Humans ; Schizophrenia

BACKGROUND: The cerebellum and its neural circuitry have been assumed to play a major role in the pathophysiology of essential tremor (ET). In this study, we sought to find associations between ET and cerebellar dysfunction. METHODS: We performed tandem gait test in 41 ET patients and 44 age-matched controls. Investigators assessed tandem gait by counting the number of missteps during ten-step tandem walk and each subject repeated the trial three times. RESULTS: ET patients had a higher average and total numbers of missteps during tandem gait tests than control subjects (p<0.05). Sex-adjusted odds ratio of the association between tandem gait abnormality and ET was 3.40 (95% confidence intervals 1.06-10.85). According to age stratification, aged ET patients (age > or =70 years) showed significantly higher prevalence of tandem gait abnormality than young ones. Interaction terms determined by a likelihood ratio test was also statistically significant (p<0.05). CONCLUSIONS: Dysfunction of cerebellar neural circuitry may be associated with the pathophysiological mechanism of ET. In addition, aging may be an important factor modifying the association.
Aging ; Cerebellar Diseases* ; Cerebellum ; Essential Tremor* ; Gait ; Humans ; Odds Ratio ; Prevalence ; Research Personnel

OBJECTIVE: Although little is known about its origins, neck pain may be related to several associated anatomical pathologies. We aimed to characterize the incidence and features of chronic neck pain and analyze the relationship between neck pain severity and its affecting factors. METHODS: Between March 2012 and July 2013, we studied 216 patients with chronic neck pain. Initially, combined tramadol (37.5 mg) plus acetaminophen (325 mg) was administered orally twice daily (b.i.d.) to all patients over a 2-week period. After two weeks, patients were evaluated for neck pain during an outpatient clinic visit. If the numeric rating scale of the patient had not decreased to 5 or lower, a cervical medial branch block (MBB) was recommended after double-dosed previous medication trial. We classified all patients into two groups (mild vs. severe neck pain group), based on medication efficacy. Logistic regression tests were used to evaluate the factors associated with neck pain severity. RESULTS: A total of 198 patients were included in the analyses, due to follow-up loss in 18 patients. While medication was successful in reducing pain in 68.2% patients with chronic neck pain, the remaining patients required cervical MBB. Lateral cervical curvature, such as a straight or sigmoid type curve, was found to be significantly associated with the severity of neck pain. CONCLUSION: We managed chronic neck pain with a simple pharmacological management protocol followed by MBB. We should keep in mind that it may be difficult to manage the patient with straight or sigmoid lateral curvature only with oral medication.
Acetaminophen ; Ambulatory Care Facilities ; Colon, Sigmoid ; Factor Analysis, Statistical* ; Follow-Up Studies ; Humans ; Incidence ; Logistic Models ; Neck Pain* ; Neck* ; Pathology ; Tramadol

BACKGROUND: Direct measurements of ionized magnesium (iMg) in serum by ion-selective electrodes have recently become available in clinical practice, and its usefulness needs to be investigated in dialysis patients because chronic renal failure is associated with disturbances in magnesium metabolism. METHODS: We measured serum iMg in 29 hemodialysis (HD) patients and 24 peritoneal dialysis (CAPD) patients using an ion-selective electrode. The results were compared with those from 30 age- matched control patients who were admitted due to non-renal diseases and were confirmed to have normal serum total magnesium (tMg) levels. RESULTS: Serum tMg was significantly higher in both HD (0.95 [0.81-1.06] mmol/L) and CAPD (0.86 [0.74-0.99] mmol/L) patients compared with the controls (0.74 [0.70-0.78] mmol/L). Serum iMg was significantly higher in HD patients (0.65 [0.60-0.72] mmol/L) compared with the controls (0.55 [0.51-0.57] mmol/L), but was not higher in CAPD patients (0.54 [0.50-0.60] mmol/L). Thus, the ionized fraction of serum magnesium (iMg/tMg) was significantly lower in CAPD patients (65.3 [58.8-68.2]%), but not in HD patients (68.7 [63.6-77.0]%), compared with the controls (72.2 [67.2-78.3]%). In dialysis patients, iMg/ tMg was significantly lower in those with residual renal function than in anuric patients (67.5 [63.6-74.8]% vs. 61.4 [56.4-70.7]%). CONCLUSION: In current practice, true hypermagnesemia may exist frequently in HD patients (at predialysis), but not in CAPD patients. The ionized fraction of serum magnesium may be reduced in CAPD patients, but not in HD patients.
Dialysis* ; Humans ; Ion-Selective Electrodes ; Kidney Failure, Chronic ; Magnesium* ; Metabolism ; Peritoneal Dialysis ; Peritoneal Dialysis, Continuous Ambulatory ; Renal Dialysis

BACKGROUND: Many types of cancer become resistant to current chemotherapeutic and radiotherapeutic intervention. To overcome this situation application of gene therapy by the introduction of suicide genes followed by their prodrugs may be promising. A viral enzyme, Herpes simplex thymidine kinase (HSV-tk), which converts ganciclovir from an inactive prodrug to a cytotoxic agent by phosphorylation, are being actively investigated for use in gene therapy for cancer. The purpose of this study was to determine whether combining prodrug-activating gene therapy and irradiation might result in enhanced antitumor effects. METHODS: The HSV-tk gene was cloned into the retroviral vector, pLXSN and established the clones producing retroviruses carrying the HSV-tk gene. The carcinoma cell line, HCT116 and Huh-7 were transduced with high-titer recombinant retroviruses. These cell lines were treated with ganciclovir before or after irradiation for the defining combinational effect of suicide gene therapy and radiotherapy. RESULTS: The titers of cloned PA3 17 amphotropic retroviruses ranged from 4 to 6 X 10(6) CFU/ml . After selectional periods, the expression of HSV-tk was confirmed by reverse-transcriptase polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR). The growth of cells expressing HSV-tk was inhibited as increase of GCV dose after 48 hr and the growth inhibitory effect of GCV was much higher after 72 hr. When the cells transduced with HSV-tk gene were exposed to radiation, the growth inhibitory effect of GCV was significantly increased, as compared with non-transduced parental cells. CONCLUSIONS: The result s suggest that the addition of HSV-tk gene therapy to standard radiation therapy may improve the effectiveness of treatment for solid tumors.
Cell Line ; Clone Cells ; Ganciclovir* ; Genetic Therapy ; Herpes Simplex* ; Humans ; Parents ; Phosphorylation ; Polymerase Chain Reaction ; Prodrugs ; Radiotherapy ; Retroviridae ; Simplexvirus* ; Suicide ; Thymidine Kinase* ; Thymidine* ; Zidovudine

Intracortical microstimulation (ICMS) is a technique that was developed to derive movement representation of the motor cortex. Although rats are now commonly used in motor mapping studies, the precise characteristics of rat motor map, including symmetry and consistency across animals, and the possibility of repeated stimulation have not yet been established. We performed bilateral hindlimb mapping of motor cortex in six Sprague-Dawley rats using ICMS. ICMS was applied to the left and the right cerebral hemisphere at 0.3 mm intervals vertically and horizontally from the bregma, and any movement of the hindlimbs was noted. The majority (80%+/-11%) of responses were not restricted to a single joint, which occurred simultaneously at two or three hindlimb joints. The size and shape of hindlimb motor cortex was variable among rats, but existed on the convex side of the cerebral hemisphere in all rats. The results did not show symmetry according to specific joints in each rats. Conclusively, the hindlimb representation in the rat motor cortex was conveniently mapped using ICMS, but the characteristics and inter-individual variability suggest that precise individual mapping is needed to clarify motor distribution in rats.
Animals ; *Brain Mapping ; Electric Stimulation ; Electrodes ; Hindlimb/*physiology ; Male ; Motor Cortex/*physiology ; Rats ; Rats, Sprague-Dawley

Atrial fibrillation occurs in 10 to 25% of patients with thyrotoxicosis. Several recent studies have found a high frequency of cerebral thromboembolism in such patients. Thus anticoagulation has been recommended for patients with thyrotoxic atrial fibrillation to prevent embolic complications especially when associated with predictors of an increased risk of arterial thromboembolism in nonrheumatic atrial fibrillation such as recent congestive heart failure, history of hypertension, previous thromboembolism, left atrial enlargement, and global left ventricular dysfunction. Most reported cases of embolic events involving central nervous system in thyrotoxic atrial fibrillation affected cerebrum, and cerebellar embolic infarction from the heart was rarely seen. We herein report our experience of a case of cerebellar embolism in thyrotoxic atrial fibrillation.
Atrial Fibrillation* ; Central Nervous System ; Cerebrum ; Embolism ; Heart ; Heart Failure ; Hepatitis ; Humans ; Hypersensitivity ; Hypertension ; Infarction* ; Thromboembolism ; Thyrotoxicosis ; Ventricular Dysfunction, Left

We present a case of a 55-year-old woman with pontine infarction and fenestration of the basilar artery that was demonstrated using virtual endoscopy. The patient had motor weakness of the right side with sudden onset. Diffusion- and T2-weighted MR images revealed high signal intensities in the left pontine regions, and an MR angiographic examination showed the double-lumen sign of the basilar artery. An extensive duplication-type, nonseparated fenestration of the basilar artery was diagnosed by virtual endoscopy and craniocaudal communications with discrete openings were observed. We report a case of a patient with basilar artery fenestration and associated brainstem infarction.
Basilar Artery* ; Brain Stem Infarctions ; Endoscopy* ; Female ; Humans ; Infarction* ; Middle Aged

No abstract available.
Korea*