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Introduction: Nonadherence to immunosuppressive medication increases the risk of graft failure. Maladaptive emotion regulation strategies (ERS) seem to be a risk factor for nonadherence, whereas for patients in relationships spousal support appears as a protective resource. Emotional arousal, objectively measured by the fundamental frequency (f 0 ) during spousal supportive communication is associated with supportive behavior., Materials & Methods: This study examined the relationship between beliefs about immunosuppressive medication, quality of life, ERS, emotions and emotional arousal, assessed during social support interactions of both spouses of N=50 couples after kidney transplantation., Results: Maladaptive ERS of the transplant recipient were associated with lower mental quality of life of the partner, marginally higher own negative affect and lower beliefs about medication. Maladaptive ERS of the partner showed negative correlations with own mental quality of life. Regarding f 0 , gender differences were found. Higher f 0 of the male transplant recipient were associated with more maladaptive ERS of the female partner. Marginally significate correlations were found with lower own beliefs about medication. Higher f 0 of the wife of the male transplant recipient showed correlations with lower own positive affect, more negative affect of the male patient and lower beliefs about medication. Higher f 0 of female transplant recipients were associated with lower own maladaptive ERS and lower maladaptive ERS of the husband., Discussion: The findings support the relevance of early interventions focusing on identifying and modifying maladaptive ERS for both the patient and partner., Competing Interests: Die Autoren geben an, dass kein Interessenkonflikt besteht., (© Georg Thieme Verlag KG Stuttgart · New York.)

Vascular complications following orthopedic procedures at the lower extremity are mainly thrombotic or thromboembolic events. Damages to vascular structures during operations close to the knee joint, like injuries of the popliteal artery, are extremely rare and receive a reserved consideration in the evaluation of postoperative complications. The extent of the vessel injury affects the grade of clinical symptoms-from acute arterial bleeding as far as slowly developing disturbances of haemodynamic, with effects to the different functions and pattern of the concerned tissues. Arterial bleeding into muscle compartments do not necessarily appear as an acute emergency, therefore it may occasionally be difficult to place the clinical symptoms into the right context of pathophysiological processes. In the present case a deep vein thrombosis of the affected extremity was initiated by a haemorrhage into the fossa popliteal and the compartments of the lower leg after injury of the popliteal artery. Subsequently a compartment syndrome, a false aneurysm of the popliteal artery and an arteriovenous fistula from popliteal artery into a lower leg vein developed.

Out of 100 psychotic patients who underwent neurobiochemical examination, in 24 cases activity of phenylalanine hydroxylase in the thrombocytes was found to be absent. 38% of these cases were susceptible to stimulation in vitro by means of folic acid derivative, without actually reaching a normal level of activity. The patients are presented first as a homgeneous group, then in the two major diagnostic divisions, and divided according to the biochemical data. An account is given of early experiences in the treatment of the more intractable cases.

Beta-Phenylethylamine can be detected in the cisternal cerebrospinal fluid of healthy controls and acute endogenous psychoses. One group of the patients shows the same concentrations as the psychiatrically healthy controls. In the other groups beta-phenylethylamine was found to be elevated in some cases up to a very high level. The results suggest a link between a disturbance of the phenylethylamine pathway and certain endogenous psychoses.

LSD (10(-7)M--10(-11)M) and 5-methoxy-N,N-dimethyltyptamine (10(-7)--10(-9)M) inhibited the high affinity uptake of [3H]-5HT into synaptosomes. These results suggest that the inhibition of the high affinity uptake is involved in the psychotomimetic action of LSD and 5MeODMT.

The pattern of gangliosides in membranes of erythrocytes was examined in healthy donors, in acute schizophrenics without neuroleptic treatment and in alcohol-dependent patients. 7 different gangliosides could be detected after extraction, purification by column chromatography and fractionation by TLC. Healthy donors were characterized by the following pattern of gangliosides: GX = 5.8%, GT1b = 6.7%, FucGD1b = 5.2%, und GD1a = 12.6%, GD3 = 9.2%, SPG = 43.5% and GM3 = 17.0%. In schizophrenic patients the GM3- and GD3-fraction were increased. No difference was found between the control group and the alcoholics.

For the investigated indolamines, the recovery following extraction with n-butanol and acetic acid ethyl ester from alkaline solution amounted to 80-90%. Using benzene only the two 5-methoxyindolamines were transferred from the alkaline medium into the organic phase. The reaction of the o-phthaldialdehyde with substituted indolamines was optimized in regard to higher fluorimetric detection sensitivity. The lower limit of determination was 2.0 ng for 5HT and 5OHDMT, and 1.0 ng for 5MeOT and 5MeODMT.

A rapid and simple method is described for separation of intact synaptosomes, synaptic plasma membranes and vesicles. Two synaptosome fractions were obtained by modified differential centrifugation. The rate zonal zentrifugation in a linear sucrose gradient (very low density) is suitable to obtain fractions highly enriched in synaptic plasma membranes and vesicles. Examination of the prepared fractions was done by enzyme marker activities and electron microscopy

Tryptamine (Try), 5-methoxytryptamine (5MeOT), N-methyltryptamine (N-Met), 5-methoxy-N,N-dimethyltryptamine (5MeODMT) and N,N-dimethyltryptamine (DMT) are metabolites of the neurotransmitter 5-hydroxytryptamine (5HT). The cisternal cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) is probably a suitable biological material for investigating the problem of indolamine metabolism in schizophrenic patients. As part of a biological research programme on schizophrenia we have investigated concentrations of cisternal CSF indolamines in a group of acute paranoid patients in comparison with psychiatrically healthy controls. The concentrations of indolamines in the cisternal CSF reveal that psychotomimetic indolamines like 5MeODMT, 5MeOT and DMT and the indolamines N-Met and Try are present in psychological and pathological states. The patients suffering from acute paranoid schizophrenia have high or very high levels of the investigated indolamines in comparison with healthy controls, but there are significant individual differences in the group of these patients. The search for correlations between the level of a single indolamine and individual psychopathological symptoms could provide more specific information for diagnosis or treatment.