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Biomedical subjects

E Strube

Publications and source records attributed to E Strube.

10 recordsLinked to original sources
PubMed1988

[Neurophysiological and therapeutic evaluation of stiripentol in epilepsy. Preliminary results].

The main objective of this study was to determine whether stripentol (STP) alleviates side-effects commonly observed in treated epileptic patients, since preliminary data suggested a positive psychotropic effect. A secondary objective was an evaluation of drug efficacy. Eleven patients with either a drug-resistant epilepsy or toxic effects of AEDs completed the study. Ten had symptomatic partial epilepsies and one an idiopathic generalized epilepsy. STP was added to the baseline therapy (1 or 2 AEDs) and the dose of the baseline AEDs was reduced to maintain plasma levels unchanged (mean reduction: PB 26%, PHT: 49%, CBZ: 38%). Several motor, perceptual and attention tasks and the Washington Psychosocial Seizure Inventory were performed before and after STP administration. Seizure frequency and clinical side-effects were evaluated during a baseline period and after two months of constant therapy. Effects of repeated administration of the neuropsychological battery were assessed by administration of the battery on two occasions at 12-week interval to a randomized subgroup of patients. No practice effect was observed. A trend of improvement (p less than 0.05) in the performance of two tasks requiring sustained attention was noted. Previous side-effects (mainly drowsiness) decreased or disappeared in 7 of 9 patients who became more alert. Six of the nine uncontrolled patients experienced a decrease in seizure frequency equal to or larger than 50 per cent.

Adult↗
PubMed1983

Recent developments in corticoid synthesis.

In an attempt to improve the industrial manufacture of corticoids starting from desoxycholic acid, two major tasks had to be accomplished: (1) selective transposition of a 12 alpha-oxygen function to the 11-position. (2) Degradation of the side chain by three carbon atoms. The most convenient solution to the first problem included protection of the 3 alpha-hydroxyl, then dehydrating the 12 alpha-alcohol via its mesylate, and treatment of the resulting delta 11-12-alkene with PDC and iodine, to obtain the 12 alpha-iodo-11-ketone in very high yield. After reductive dehalogenation and saponification, the resulting acid proved to be suitable for solving our second problem. Oxidative decarboxylation with lead tetraacetate leads to an olefin, the double bond of which could be shifted along the side chain to produce the corresponding delta 20-22-isomer. Ozonolytic cleavage of the C--C double bond in this position made the 20-ketone 19 readily accessible. The latter plays a key role in the production of various corticoid drugs, since most of them are derived from this very compound, e.g. cortisol.

Adrenal Cortex Hormones↗
PubMed1983

Learning impairment in epileptic patients.

In order to evaluate immediate recall and learning in epileptic patients, four tests were chosen: Wechsler's memory span for digits, graphic reproduction of geometric figures from the Wechsler Memory Scale, learning of a list of words from the Rey Memory Scale, and recognition of these words. These tests were performed on 200 epileptic patients over the age of 15 years, without defined cerebral lesions, and with a normal or subnormal social adjustment. Memory impairment was analyzed with respect to the following variables: seizure frequency, seizure type, duration of the disorder, and anticonvulsant medication. Patient data were compared with values obtained for a population of 100 normal subjects matched for age and level of education. Comparison between epileptics and controls clearly demonstrated a statistically significant memory impairment in the group of patients. However, the reasons for these poor performances are not clear, and none of the studied parameters (type of epilepsy, frequency of seizures, duration of the disease, and medication), if considered alone, accounts for this impairment.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1982

[New approaches to the study of memory impairment in epileptics].

Some memory functions were evaluated in 56 adult epileptic patients. A memory battery scale with verbal and visual material was used. Patients' scores were statistically worse than those of controls matched according for age and cultural level. No differences were observed between generalized and complex partial epilepsies. Left interictal E.E.G. abnormalities were correlated with verbal efficiency impairment. Length of illness and seizure frequency were consistently correlated with poor memory ability. Surprisingly antiepileptic drugs were not a major factors. However, none of these parameters if considered alone accounts for this impairment, which is obviously multifactorial. These poor memory performances are mainly due to a learning decrement. Epileptic patients have difficulties to learn but they well remember what they have learnt.

Child↗
PubMed1979

[Hemorrhage of the head of the left caudate nucleus: disorganization of speech and graphic expression, and disturbances in gestures (author's transl)].

A 72 year-old woman was found to have hemorrhage limited to the head of the left caudate nucleus. Clinical symptomatology consisted of disturbances in oral, written, and graphic expression. There were no difficulties in comprehension, dysarthria, or phonemic paraphrasing, but speech and graphic expression were incoherent. Perseverance of ideas, semantic inconsistencies, inability to keep a stable objective during speech and graphic activity, are the principal characteristics of a disorder which is related to a prelinguistic stage, and illustrate the role of the caudate nucleus in the selection processes which are a preliminary step for speech organization.

Aged↗
PubMed1978

[Quasi-aphasia associated with thalamic lesions: relation between the language disorder and elective activation of the left hemisphere in 4 cases of left and right thalamic lesions].

The authors report on four patients with vascular lesions of the thalamus, three on the left side and one on the right, two of which were due to haemorrhage and two to infarcts. Language difficulties were observed in those cases with left thalamic lesions only. Speech was either slower or faster than normal, and there were verbal perseveration, semantic paraphasia, and more especially, reduction in verbal fluency with loss of control of logic, causing a true jargon in some tests in certain cases. Articulation, and phonemic programming were unaffected, as were comprehension, reading and writing. A comparison is made between these findings and those reported in the literature. Among the hypo-theses suggested, the authors subscribe to that which accepts the predominant role played by the interruption of the activating system of the left hemisphere by the thalamic lesion. The relative inactivation resulting from this could produce modifications in language dynamics and disturbances in attention in relation to language. The semantic paraphasia could be related to the intrusion of the right hemisphere apparatus into language, because of the lack of balance between the activation of each of the two hemispheres. The fact that thalamic lesions are characterized by language disorders would tend to show that sub-cortical dynamic factors constantly regulate the activation of the hemispheres.

Adult↗
PubMedDate not supplied

[Alexia without agraphia, colour "agnosia" and right visual field defect: a syndrome of the posterior cerebral artery (author's transl)].

Two cases of alexia without agraphia are reported, with differences in the characters of the alexia and in the accompanying signs. The visual field defect was limited to quadranopia in both cases which was upper quadrantic and mild in one, lower quadrantic and severe in the other. These differences make it unlikely that a similar anatomical location of the lesion and a unique mechanism are responsible of all cases of alexia without agraphia. Persistance of visual inputs in the right visual field is partial in our cases, but alexia without hemianopsia does exist. These facts are against the mechanism of "splenio-cortical" disconnection proposed by Geschwind as the only explanation. A "cortical", or agnosic mechanism has been also claimed, with lesions of the lingual and fusiform gyri on the dominant side, as well as "subangular", mechanism, with intrahemispheric disconnection by a lesion located between the visual associative areas and the angular gyrus: in these last two situations an hemianopsia is not necessarily associated to the alexia without agraphia.

Agnosia↗