Biomedical subjects
Publications and source records attributed to Birgit Herting.
We report on a 44-year-old man who suffered from severe anterocollis. Repeated computed tomographically controlled injections of botulinum toxin into the right longus colli muscle allowed a precise location of the needle and injection of the toxin, leading to clear improvement of symptoms.
Depression occurs in approximately 45% of all patients with Parkinson's disease (PD), reduces quality of life independent of motor symptoms and seems to be underrated and undertreated. Characteristics of symptoms differ from major depression. Because of overlapping clinical symptoms, diagnosis is based on subjectively experienced anhedonia and feeling of emptiness. Available rating scales for major depression may not be adequate to correctly measure severity of depression in PD. Anxiety and depression may manifest as first symptoms of PD many years before motor symptoms. Serotonergic, noradrenergic and dopaminergic mechanisms play key roles in the etiology of depression in PD. Tricyclic and newer, selective antidepressants including serotonin and noradrenaline reuptake inhibitors (SSRI, SNRI) appear to be effective in treating depression in PD. Selective reuptake inhibitors seem to have a favorable side effect profile. Recent controlled studies show antidepressant effects of pramipexole in bipolar II depression. New dopamine agonists pramipexole and ropinirole appear to ameliorate depressive symptoms in PD in addition to effects on motor symptoms. There is a lack of appropriate rating scales and controlled studies regarding depression in PD.
Approximately 25% of patients with idiopathic Parkinson's disease (IPD) later develop dementia, with the typical characteristics as detailed in ICD-10 and DSM-IV. Differential diagnosis has to exclude dementia due to Lewy bodies, subcortical vascular encephalopathy and subcortical dementia due to progressive supranuclear paralysis or corticobasal degeneration. Several studies showed promising results for cholinesterase inhibitors such as donepezile, rivastigmine and galantamine. The demented Parkinsonian patients then present with improvement in cognitive function while motor skills do not deteriorate.
The aim of this investigation was to define characteristic properties of cellular energy metabolism in meningiomas in vitro dependent on the histological subtype. We analysed marker enzymes of representative metabolic pathways localized in the mitochondria (respiratory chain, citric acid cycle, beta-oxidation of fatty acids) and in the cytoplasm (glycolysis, pentose phosphate shunt). The activities of the intramitochondrial enzymes were significantly reduced in the meningiomas compared to normal cortex tissue. Glycolytic enzymes were not significantly different, but the marker enzyme of the pentose phosphate shunt was increased by a factor of 3.5-6 in the tumours. Further analysis of the histological subtypes showed that phosphofructokinase and lactate dehydrogenase were significantly increased in the anaplastic meningiomas compared to the benign subtypes.