Biomedical subjects
Publications and source records attributed to I Zeeberg.
In 5 patients with definite or highly probable MS, unusually large hypodense plaques are seen by computerized tomography (CT scan). The active plaques all show enhancement after i.v. contrast medium injection, suggestive of blood-brain-barrier-damage, and differ from the well-known CT findings in chronic MS patients, causing diagnostic difficulties between glioma and infarction.
50 multiple sclerosis (MS) patients were evaluated, according to an objective weighting scale measuring neurologic deficit, and investigated with continuous reaction time (CRT). Compared to a group of 105 controls, the reaction times of the MS patients were significantly delayed. The CRT method could correctly classify 80% of the controls and 72% of the patients. The CRT was especially sensitive for patients in the progressive phase of the disease and independent of dyscoordination.
Reports have indicated that patients with migraine have abnormalities in platelet function and in the metabolism of vasoactive monoamines. On the basis of these findings, a number of compounds with a stabilizing effect on the level of free vasoactive monoamines in plasma or with anti-platelet effects have been evaluated with regard to their prophylactic effect in migraine. Femoxetine, a new phenylpiperidine derivative and a potent selective serotonin uptake inhibitor, has been suggested as a useful prophylactic drug in migraine. The present studies were designed to evaluate platelet function and blood serotonin levels in patients with migraine before and during femoxetine treatment. During the treatment of 11 patients with migraine with 300 mg femoxetine daily, blood serotonin decreased from 0.17 +/- 0.06 microgram/ml (mean +/- SD) to 0.06 +/- 0.02 microgram/ml. In 8 patients treated with 300 mg femoxetine daily for 12 weeks, 14C-serotonin uptake into platelets in vitro was reduced significantly. Unlike most drugs used in migraine prophylaxis, femoxetine did not influence platelet aggregation in vitro. The demonstration of a certain prophylactic effect of femoxetine in some patients lends support to theories of a serotonin involvement in the pathogenesis of migraine. It does not, however, exclude the possibility of a platelet abnormality as the primary cause of migraine. A hypothesis combining the 2 theories is put forward.
The prophylactic effect in migraine of femoxetine, a 5-HT-uptake inhibitor, was compared to that of placebo in a double-blind group-comparative study. A total of 59 patients, referred to the department from general practitioners, was stratified according to age, sex, duration, and frequency of attacks and then allocated at random to treatment with either femoxetine or placebo. Each patient was treated for 12 weeks with 200 mg in the first week and 300 in the remaining weeks. Ten patients on femoxetine and four patients on placebo failed to complete the study. Headache index as well as number and severity of attacks showed a significant reduction with time. The patients on femoxetine showed the greatest improvement over time. It was, however, not statistically significant. Direct comparison between femoxetine and placebo revealed no statistically significant difference. Three patients in the femoxetine group withdrew due to side-effects combined with lack of therapeutic effect. Other side-effects were slight and infrequent. They did not interfere with the treatment. These results indicate that femoxetine could be useful in migraine as a prophylactic drug.
Alcoholism has been shown to predispose to cerebrovascular thrombosis in normotensive males under the age of 50. To elucidate this phenomenon platelet aggregation and fibrinolytic activity were studied in 29 alcoholic males under 50 years of age who showed no evidence of acute cerebrovascular disease. Age matched healthy nonalcoholic volunteers made up the control population. Platelet aggregation did not differ significantly (P greater than 0.05) in the two groups. Fibrinolytic activity was significantly reduced in the alcoholics as compared to the controls (P = 0.005). The data suggest that the alcoholics have an increased thrombotic tendency. This may cause alcoholics to be at a greater risk of suffering stroke at an early age.
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Addition of human serum to incubated rat cerebral slices induced increased generation of myelin-related, membranous fragments floating on 0.32 M sucrose. Sera from 20 healthy subjects and 19 patients with various neurological disorders were equally active in this respect. On the other hand, the myelin-degrading activity of sera from 20 multiple sclerosis patients in remission was found to be significantly elevated by about 50%. The present findings support the contention that the serum of multiple sclerosis patients possesses increased potency to induce myelin sheath alterations.