Romanian journal of neurology and psychiatry = Revue roumaine de neurologie et psychiatrie最新文献

This investigation was performed to verify a previous hypothesis which correlates the catamenial seizures with the stoppage of progesterone secretion. White rats from a Wistar strain were tested with an electric bell. Thirty-five animals refractory to the acoustic stimulus were selected for the experiment. Each animal received 9 daily injections with progesterone, 5 mgr/day. The animals were tested with the acoustic stimulus after the 5th and the 9th injections, 24 hours after the administration of the last dose. Audiogenic seizures were obtained in 29.4% of the rats tested after 5 injections and in 40.0% of the rats tested after the 9th injection. The increased seizure susceptibility lasted 3-8 days after the hormone withdrawal. In conclusion, the withdrawal of high doses of progesterone exerts a seizure-activating effect.

Several socio-demographic, family and clinical history variables, stressful life events, index episode characteristics, symptom severity, clinically and psychometrically assessed personality type and traits, and treatment were evaluated as potential predictors of multiple outcome criteria in a sample of 157 outpatients and inpatients meeting commonly used criteria for depression episodes. Outcome criteria included: severity scores on the final evaluation, improvement rate, impairment level of functioning, clinically rated treatment response, episode duration and relapse frequency in one year follow-up. Gender, personality structure and type, stressful life event characteristics, prior episode number, clinical status after the last episode, symptom length at intake, initial symptom severity, psychotic and endogenous features emerged as significant predictors of depression outcome in univariate analyses. The combination of independent variables by multivariate regression analyses improved outcome prediction.

This study presents the files of nine pregnant women with severe neurosurgical diseases (traumatic, vascular, and tumoral) who were treated in the Neurosurgical Clinic, from 1982 to 1988. Conclusions were drawn after a survey according to the optimal therapy applied, to the mother or fetus priority, to the age of patients and to the severity of the neurological impairment. The early intervention of a team including the neurosurgeon, obstetrician and the specialist in the intensive care unit saves one life or both. A delay condemns both.

The aim of this study is to prove that the systolic increase of the intracranial pressure affects the cerebral activity. Since the systolic stress on the cerebral parenchyma reaches its maximal power on the third ventricular wall, it was stated that the nonspecific mechanical stimuli must affect the thalamic nuclei. Simultaneous EEG-ECG recording shows that the alpha activity presents amplitude fluctuations related to the cardiac cycle. The primary thalamic spindles, when present in the EEG recordings, show the rise in amplitude related to the T wave on the ECG. Thus, the rhythmic pulsatile mechanical stress on the thalamic nuclei due to the cardiac cycle acts like a "cerebral heart" on the cortical activity.

In a homogeneous group of 75 aphasics after single ischaemic stroke, randomly selected, performance tests were carried out two weeks and one, three and six months post-onset. None of them were systematically treated. Both for the global performance and for repetition, naming, auditory comprehension, reading comprehension, writing under dictation as well as for the communicative value of a standard interview, "spontaneous" recovery was more marked during the first three months and obviously reduced between three and six months post-onset. In 28 of these aphasics, the clinical form changed from a severe to a milder form, the fluent or nonfluent character remaining unchanged. Clinical form influenced recovery by the severity of aphasia or by certain symptoms. Initial severity is quite important in recovery, very severe cases being unfavored, severe and mild cases reacting better, while moderate cases recovered the best. Associated oral apraxia had a negative influence while age had a minor effect and sex a doubtful one.

The therapeutic effect of calcium channel blockers (nifedipine) was studied in 40 rabbits with acute experimental spinal cord injury. In 30 animals, doses of 2.50 mg/day were orally administered for 10 days (after injury) whereas 10 animals received the same treatment 5 days before and 10 days after injury. The clinical evolution was assessed on a 5-graded scale (clinical marker of the motor deficit) and compared with the clinical evolution of a control group (20 rabbits with untreated spinal cord injury). The animals were sacrificed after 14 days of post-traumatic evolution (death occurring in some of them during this time interval). The mean of motor score was identical in both treated animal groups but significantly higher than in controls. Histopathological findings revealed various degrees of damage at injury site (hemorrhagic necrosis in the central gray matter, ischemic-type neuronal alterations, mesenchyme-glial reaction, demyelination) correlated with the degree of functional loss.

The present paper filed 129 clinically defined cases of multiple sclerosis (MS) (the prevalence day on December 31, 1986) in Mureş County (Transylvania) out of a total population of 615,032 inhabitants, assessing the prevalence rate (20.97/100000) and a predominance of women (F/M = 1.34/1). Incidence (during the last 10 years: 0.86/100000), mortality (0.34/100000), lethality (0.033%) and death (1.83%) rates were also obtained.

Unilateral exophthalmos associated with an inflammatory pseudotumoral process in a woman with insulin-dependent diabetes diagnosed 30 years earlier is reported. The discussion is focussed on the complications: diabetic retinopathy and neovascular glaucoma as well as on the therapy applied.