Search

The study explored the analgesic effects of transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) over the motor cortex on postamputation phantom limb pain (PLP). Eight subjects with unilateral lower or upper limb amputation and chronic PLP were enrolled in a crossover, double-blind, sham-controlled treatment program. For 5 consecutive days, anodal (active or sham) tDCS was applied over the motor cortex for 15 minutes at an intensity of 1.5 mA. The 5-day treatment with active, but not sham, tDCS induced a sustained decrease in background PLP and in the frequency of PLP paroxysms, which lasted for 1 week after the end of treatment. Moreover, on each day of active tDCS, patients reported an immediate PLP relief, along with an increased ability to move their phantom limb. Patients' immediate responses to sham tDCS, on the contrary, were variable, marked by an increase or decrease of PLP levels from baseline. These results show that a 5-day treatment of motor cortex stimulation with tDCS can induce stable relief from PLP in amputees. Neuromodulation targeting the motor cortex appears to be a promising option for the management of this debilitating neuropathic pain condition, which is often refractory to classic pharmacologic and surgical treatments. Perspective The study describes sustained and immediate effects of motor cortex stimulation by tDCS on postamputation PLP, whose analgesic action seems linked to the motor reactivation of the phantom limb. These results are helpful for the exploitation of tDCS as a therapeutic tool for the management of neuropathic pain. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article reads the Indian travelogues of Eliza Fay, Maria Graham, and Fanny Parks along the trajectory of a discourse of sympathy that the writers employ as a via media between sentimental participation in and detached appreciation of cultural difference. Thanks to intellectually engaging and ethically nuanced approaches, these narratives offer examples of a new sensibility in action in the community of Anglo-Indians undergoing the transition from colonising subjects to imperial agents. Despite the markedly nineteenth-century tone of their rhetoric, Fay's, Graham's, and Parks endorsement of colonial sympathy draws extensively on its most sophisticated and authoritative eighteenth-century British apologists, namely Adam Smith, Edmund Burke, and William Jones. Their composite outlook on the Indian question throws an interesting light on the complex and, as yet partly uncharted, cultural revolution that accompanied the rise of imperial liberalism in Britain. The paper intends to show how sympathy accommodates a double-edged discourse, caught between imperial gaze and anti-conquest rhetoric. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The authors report the case of a young nun who came to their attention because of the simultaneous development of mammary and pelvic lymphoblastic lymphoma and acute leukemia showing aspects typical of nonendemic Burkitt's lymphoma. The rapid tumoral growth and the equally rapid spontaneous cell lysis led to severe renal insufficiency and metabolic acidosis which were ultimately the cause of death. Given the rareness of the clinical situation and the diagnostic problems involved, the authors examined the literature dealing with this subject.

The research here reported concerns 9 hirsute women, four of them with PCO and five with idiopathic hirsutism, who underwent treatment with spironolactone. 4 non hirsute hypertensive cases served as control. For one year hair growth, testosterone, 17 Ks, estradiol and gonadotropins behaviours were studied in all of the patients. Results clearly show that the peripherical response (the hair) to the therapy is only just sufficient, and corresponds to a good reduction of the androgenic hormones in blood. However, there is also an LH gonadotropin secretion reduction which is statistically scarcely significant. If the therapeutic response of hair were good, fetal risk could be prevented with safe and contemporaneous contraception. However, since the response is scarcely sufficient, we do not think this therapy is more advisable than other ones.

The effects on hair growth by treatment with cimetidine have been studied. This drug has been given orally to 4 women with simple hirsutism and 3 women with peptic ulcer as controls for a period of 9 months. Hair growth slowed down in all of the treated women but the results were not statistically significant. A significant decrease in urine 17-ketosteroids has been observed, while plasma levels of testosterone, 17-beta estradiol, progesterone, FSH, LH and prolactin, did not change substantially. It is concluded that, on the whole, cimetidine doses not seem to induce such results on hair growth as to claim a role in the treatment of hirsutism in other current regimes.