The autopsy material of two brothers suffering of neuronal ceroid-lipofuscinosis was studied histologically, electron microscopically, and neurochemically. The brain of one of the patients was also biopsied during life. There was marked cerebral atrophy with severe neuronal and myelin loss and gliosis. Neurons and astrocytes contained PAS-positive, sudanophilic, acid fast, and autofluorescent pigment. Similar material was deposited also in the Kupffer cells and spleen. In the electron microscope the pigment bodies were rather homogenously granular and membrane-bound. Chemical analyses showed changes in lipid composition, increase in esterified cholesterol and decrease in total cholesterol and total phospholipid values. Ceramides were slightly increased but there was no accumulation of gangliosides. Glycoli-pids containing hexose were increased relatively as well as the proportion of proteins, DNA and RNA. Many lysosomal hydrolases were increased 2–5 times when compared with the controls, suggesting that a primary or secondary lysosomal response was related to the disease. However, no specific enzyme defect was found.
ABSTRACT Previous stroke prevention studies have suggested that the efficacy of antiplatelet therapy may be less in women than in men. This however, could be due to the small number of women in these trials and the low incidence of cases among female subjects. The European Stroke Prevention Study was a multicenter trial comparing the effect of a combination of dipyridamole 75 mg t.i.d and acetylsalicylic acid 330 mg t.i.d. to placebo in the secondary prevention of stroke or death after one or more recent attacks of TIA (transient ischemic attack), RIND (reversible ischemic neurological deficit) or stroke of atherothrombotic origin. From the 2500 patients recruited, 1307 patients were from a single center, Kuopio, East Finland. Forty-five percent of the patients were women. The number of end-point events (stroke or death from any cause) in women was one-third lower than that in men. End-point reduction in the treatment group was about 50% in women and about 40% in men, significantly lower than in the placebo group in both sexes. Thus, in the relatively randomly selected patient population from one Finnish center, a combination of dipyridamole and acetylsalicylic acid is as effective in women as in men in the prevention of stroke or death. It is unclear, however, whether this beneficial effect in both sexes is due to aspirin only or to the combination therapy of aspirin and dipyridamole.
A combined electron microscopic and neurochemical study was performed on two subacute sclerosing panencephalitis (SSPE) autopsies and one SSPE biopsy sample. Plasma cells were constantly found in area
Experimental findings as well as results in healthy volunteers and in an ongoing randomized study comparing vigabatrin and carbamazepine in hitherto untreated patients point to a favorable cognitive profile of vigabatrin
Myelin was purified from control and multiple sclerosis (MS) white matter. Purity of samples was checked with electron microscopy and biochemical analyses, and protein composition of myelin samples was evaluated with horizontal gel electrophoresis. Results showed a typical and consistent pattern in electropherograms with major protein constituents and some minor ones. All other proteins were similar in control and MS myelin samples except the encephalitogenic (basic) protein which showed decreased values in MS myelin. The role of encephalitogenic protein in the pathogenesis of MS is discussed on the basis of these findings.
