Anesthetic considerations in the child with Gaucher disease

Alpidem, an imidazopyridine that acts at the gamma-aminobutyric acid/benzodiazepine receptor complex, has been reported to be an effective anxiolytic with a more favorable side effect profile than benzodiazepines. The effect of alpidem was investigated in an 8-week, open, clinical trial in 13 patients with panic disorder, with or without agoraphobia. Three patients were responders (much improved or very much improved), five patients were nonresponders, and five patients dropped out after less than 6 weeks of treatment. Significant improvement was seen in the sample as a whole for spontaneous panic attacks, phobic avoidance, and anticipatory anxiety. Most improvement occurred during the first 4 weeks of treatment, and responders had milder panic disorder at baseline. Adverse effects were generally mild. After 8 weeks of treatment, taper of medication over 2 weeks occurred without significant worsening of panic disorder symptoms. The efficacy of alpidem in the treatment of panic disorder remains uncertain and requires assessment in a controlled trial.     

ACAT inhibitors derived from hetero-Diels-Alder cycloadducts of thioaldehydes

Acyl-CoA:cholesterol acyltransferase (ACAT) is the enzyme largely responsible for intracellular cholesterol esterification. A systemic inhibitor of ACAT is believed to be able to slow or even reverse the atherosclerotic process. Towards that goal, a series of cyclic sulfides, derived from the hetero-Diels-Alder reaction of thioaldehydes with 1,3-dienes, and bearing carboxamide substituents, were prepared and evaluated for in vitro (in several tissues and species) and ex vivo ACAT inhibition. Minor changes in subsequent structure were found to have a significant effect in optimization of the biological activity of this series of compounds.     

Outbreak of serogroup C meningococcal disease associated with campus bar patronage

Between February 1991 and April 1992, eight undergraduates at a US residential university and one at a nearby 2-year college contracted serogroup C meningococcal disease. A case-control investigation with 20 controls per case, oropharyngeal carriage surveys, and multilocus enzyme electrophoresis (MEE) of serogroup C isolates were used to identify factors contributing to the outbreak. All eight sterile-site isolates from cases were closely related by MEE and were similar (though not identical) to the strain associated with the 1991-1992 epidemic of meningococcal disease in eastern Canada. Disease was associated with cigarette smoking (p = 0.012), recent patronage of campus-area bars (p = 0.034), estimated amount of time spent in campus-area bars (p = 0.0003), and, especially, recent patronage of one specific bar, bar A (p = 0.0006; odds ratio = 23.1, 95% confidence interval 3.0-571.5). In carriage surveys, 1,528 throat cultures taken from (primarily student) noncases yielded only five (0.3%) strains that were identical by MEE to those from cases. Two of these were found among 22 cultures obtained from bar A employees in spring 1992. Some cases in this outbreak may have followed transmission of the epidemic strain in bar A. Campus bar environments may facilitate the spread of meningococcal disease among teenagers and young adults.     

Imitation and pantomime in high-functioning adolescents with autism spectrum disorders

A study was designed to test 2 alternative hypotheses--a symbolic hypothesis and an executive function hypotheses--for the imitation and pantomime deficits found in previous studies of autism. The subjects were 17 adolescent high-functioning subjects with autism spectrum disorders and 15 clinical comparison subjects who were matched on chronological age and verbal IQ. Meaning and sequence were manipulated in facial and manual imitation tasks. Sequence was manipulated in the pantomime and control tasks. Recognition memory and motor control tasks were matched to the experimental tasks. The results provided no support for the symbolic deficit hypothesis; meaning aided rather than hindered the performance of the group with autism. Partial support for the executive deficit hypothesis was found. There were no group differences on motor control tasks, and few on the memory control tasks, arguing against deficits in motor initiation, basic motor coordination, or visual recognition memory.     

Congenic rats reveal three independent Copenhagen alleles within the Mcs1 quantitative trait locus that confer resistance to mammary cancer

It has previously been shown that the Copenhagen (COP) rat contains several genetic loci that contribute to its mammary tumor-resistant phenotype after 7,12-dimethylbenz(a)anthracene (DMBA) administration. One of these loci, mammary carcinoma susceptibility 1 (Mcs1), is located on the centromeric end of chromosome 2 and appears to act in a semidominant fashion. To confirm the existence and independent action of this locus and also aid in the identification of the physical location of the Mcs1 gene, congenic lines were generated by transferring the Mcs1 COP allele onto a Wistar Furth (WF) genetic background. Male carriers were genotyped using microsatellite markers spanning 20-30 cM of the Mcs1 locus. One of the congenic lines minimally retained the COP allele at D2Mit29 on the centromeric end of chromosome 2 and extended distally to D2Rat201. Heterozygous Mcs1 carrier rats were interbred, and the female offspring were treated with DMBA. The female rats from the Mcs1 congenic line that carried one or two COP alleles of the Mcs1 region had a significantly reduced (65 and 85%, respectively) tumor development (P < 0.001) compared with rats carrying zero COP alleles at this locus. A WF.COP-D2Mit29/D2Rat201 homozygous congenic strain derived at the N10 generation was treated with DMBA, and the COP homozygous rats developed 1.5 +/- 0.3 carcinomas/rat versus 6.3 +/- 0.5 in WF control rats (P < 0.0001). Fine mapping of this congenic interval using several recombinant lines identified three genetic loci within the Mcs1 congenic region that independently supported a tumor resistance phenotype. These genetic loci have been termed Mcs1a, Mcs1b, and Mcs1c. In rats for which each locus was homozygous for the COP allele, tumor development was reduced by approximately 60% compared with littermate controls. The identification of these independent loci within the Mcs1 COP allele provide a model of the genetic complexity of cancer.     

Implicit processing in the cued recall of young and old adults.

Reports 2 cued recall experiments in which younger and older Ss studied target words varying in number of preexperimental associates. In Exp 1, targets were studied in either the absence or presence of meaning-related context cues, with recall always prompted by the cues. In the absence of context, words with smaller sets of associates were easier to recall than those with larger sets, but this effect was reduced for older Ss. The presence of a study context cue facilitated recall and eliminated the effect of associative set size for both ages. In Exp 2, targets were studied and tested in the presence of unrelated words. In this situation, words with smaller sets of associates were less likely to be recalled than words with larger sets; again the effect was reduced for older Ss. The results are interpreted as an age decrement in processing implicitly activated information. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)