Biomedical subjects
Publications and source records attributed to A F Bleasel.
We report the case of a man who developed anosmia while taking doxycycline tablets for a skin disorder. Two other cases of parosmia occurring in association with doxycycline have been reported to the Adverse Drug Reactions Advisory Committee of the Commonwealth Department of Community Services and Health since 1972. Disturbances of taste but not olfaction have been reported with tetracycline use in the past.
It is well known that chronic encephalopathy may be a major complication after the establishment of a surgical portal caval shunt for an episode of variceal haemorrhage. In an effort to minimise this problem Warren and colleagues developed the distal splenorenal shunt where the portal and mesenteric blood flow to the liver was left intact. It is now recognised, however, that the longterm incidence of encephalopathy may be no different with this type of shunt compared with conventional surgical portal systemic shunts. Acquired chronic hepatocerebral degeneration has not been reported after such a selective shunt. A patient with primary biliary cirrhosis is reported who developed the clinical features of this syndrome eight years after a successful distal splenorenal shunt.
The structural changes in kidneys of diabetic rats induced by streptozotocin were compared with those of age-matched control animals. Degenerative changes were found in the distal tubules of diabetic rats as early as 2 weeks following the onset of diabetes and by one month the entire distal tubule was severely affected. Fibrinoid lesions were also found in diabetic rats after 4 weeks of the disease and became more frequent subsequently. IgG, albumin but not C3 were also found in the glomerular basement membrane of diabetic rats. Diabetic glomerulosclerosis was present only after several weeks, affected glomeruli showed diffuse mesangial sclerosis and only occasionally nodular sclerosis. Diabetic animals developed renal cortical adenomas and mesenchymal tumours after several months.
Adult Wistar rats rendered diabetic by a single dose of streptozotocin develop renal morphological changes which show subtle differences compared to those seen in human diabetic renal disease. The early tubular degeneration is sited in the distal rather than the proximal convoluted tubule and subsequent glomerular lesion shows linear deposits of IgG and albumin in the basement membrane rather than in the mesangium. The carcinogenicity of streptozotocin in the rat is reconfirmed.
OBJECTIVE: Children with epilepsy are at risk of specific cognitive deficits. We aimed to compare and characterize the memory function of children with childhood absence epilepsy (CAE), frontal lobe epilepsy (FLE) and temporal lobe epilepsy (TLE). METHODS: Epilepsy syndrome was identified by clinical data, seizure semiology, interictal and ictal electroencephalogram (EEG). Seventy children aged 6-18 years with CAE, FLE or TLE had neuropsychological assessment including memory function. After adjusting for epilepsy variables, neuropsychological results of the syndrome groups and normative data were compared. RESULTS: Children from all three syndrome groups were at risk of memory difficulties. The duration of epilepsy correlated negatively with memory function. Children with TLE had the worst memory function, significantly lower in verbal memory tasks than children with CAE (P = 0.02) and children with FLE (P = 0.01). The performance of children with TLE was significantly below the normed mean across all verbal and most visual tasks. Compared to the normed means, children with FLE had results that were statistically lower in some verbal and visual tasks, and children with CAE were lower in two visual tasks only. CONCLUSIONS: This study demonstrates memory dysfunction in three common childhood epilepsy syndromes. Children with TLE had the greatest impairment, children with FLE had memory difficulties not previously reported, and children with CAE had subtle memory deficits. Qualitative differences were also evident. Longer duration of intractable epilepsy was associated with reduced memory ability. Memory function and its potential impact on academic achievement are vital considerations when managing children with epilepsy.