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The Pattern study was conducted to provide longitudinal observational data for individual patients with persistent symptoms of schizophrenia. Pattern is an international, multicenter, non-interventional, prospective cohort study of schizophrenia outpatients who were not considered to be in recovery. In the longitudinal phase reported herein, patients were assessed over 1 year using different clinical rating scales. Patient management followed routine local clinical practice. Primary outcome was disease state, defined by the Positive and Negative Syndrome Scale (PANSS), Negative Symptom Factor Score (NSFS), Positive Symptom Factor Score (PSFS), and Personal and Social Performance (PSP) Scale. In total, 1344 protocol-compliant patients (70.9% male) were included. Patients showed a high stability in disease state between consecutive study visits. Persistent negative persistent symptoms and symptomatic remission were the most prevalent and stable disease states. Patients in relapse generally transitioned to negative persistent symptoms or to symptomatic remission. PANSS, PSP, and quality of life ratings remained relatively stable. Relapses occurred in 10% of patients; probability of relapse was associated with younger age, extra-pyramidal symptoms, and more antipsychotic medications. Despite treatment, schizophrenia symptoms tend to remain stable over time, without overall improvement. One of the greatest challenges in schizophrenia is attainment of full symptom remission.

The high societal burden of schizophrenia is largely caused by the persistence of symptoms and accompanying functional impairment. To date, no studies have specifically assessed the course of persistent symptoms or the individual contributions of positive and negative symptoms to patient functioning. The cross-sectional analysis of the Pattern study provides an international perspective of the burden of schizophrenia.

IEEE Virtual Reality 2004 Conference, March 27-31, 2004, Chicago, Illinois, USA

A morphometric study was carried out to assess the thickness of the fibrous lamina in the nuclei of cells adjacent to tears in semilunar cartilages and in cells from relatively normal uninjured parts of semilunar cartilages. Comparisons of mean thickness of the lamina showed a statistically significant thickening of the lamina at the site of injury. This observation supports the growing body of evidence indicating that the fibrous lamina is not a static structure of fixed dimensions for a given cell type but a dynamic structure whose thickness varies as a result of altered physiological or pathological states.

An increase in the number of hepatocellular lysosomes is detectable with the electron microscope in rats bearing a carcinogen-induced sarcoma but not in rats bearing a transplanted Walker tumour. Biochemical studies show an increase in lysosomal enzymes in the liver of both groups of rats, but the increase in the rats bearing a carcinogen-induced sarcoma was greater than that in rats bearing a Walker tumour. This difference is explained by the fact that only gross increases in lysosomal population are likely to be detected in the small samples examined with the electron microscope, but by biochemical methods whereby many grams of tissue are analysed, finer changes may be detected. The collective data to date indicate that an increase in hepatocellular lysosomes and/or lysosomal enzymes occurs in rats and man bearing a variety of tumours and to this there is, as yet, no known exception.