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PURPOSE: We compared [11C]choline-positron emission tomography (PET) with [18F]fluorodeoxyglucose-PET for re-staging prostate cancer in a group of 100 patients. MATERIALS AND METHODS: A total of 100 consecutive patients referred for whole body [18F]fluorodeoxyglucose-PET for clinical prostate re-staging after radical treatment for prostate cancer were retrospectively included in the study. Mean prostate specific antigen (PSA) was 6.57 ng./ml. In all cases [11C]choline-PET was also performed. PET studies were done with a multiring device 5 minutes after intravenous injection of approximately 370 MBq. [11C]choline and 60 minutes after injection of approximately 370 MBq. [18F]fluorodeoxyglucose. PET findings were compared with those obtained with different conventional imaging and with PSA assessed at the time of PET and 1 year later. RESULTS: Areas of abnormal focal increases were noted in 47% of patients on [11C]choline-PET and in 27% on [18F]fluorodeoxyglucose-PET. Of the 100 patients 49 had positive conventional imaging findings. All except 14 [11C]choline-PET findings were concordant with conventional imaging, including 6 negative and 8 positive conventional imaging results. All except 1 [11C]choline-PET negative cases also had negative conventional imaging after 1 year. PSA at 1 year remained stable or decreased in 80% and 62% of [11C]choline-PET negative and positive cases, respectively. CONCLUSIONS: [11C]choline-PET seems to be useful for re-staging prostatectomy cases with increasing serum PSA levels. It is superior to [18F]fluorodeoxyglucose-PET and complementary to conventional imaging but with the advantage of staging disease at a single step.

OBJECTIVE Oculomotor nerve palsy greatly impairs the patient's daily life. After oculomotor nerve injury, when the central nerve stump is not available, neurotization of the distal nerve stump with a donor nerve may be performed. Here, we present an experimental anatomic study in rats related to the motor nuclear organization after facial-to-oculomotor nerve anastomosis. METHODS In adult rats, the right oculomotor nerve was transected at the skull base. Then, the ipsilateral facial nerve was exposed at the stylomastoid foramen and connected side-to-end to one extremity of a peroneal nerve autograft. The other extremity of the nerve autograft was connected end-to-end to the distal stump of the transected oculomotor nerve. Twelve weeks later, axonal regeneration in the autograft and brainstem somatotopic representation of the reinnervated extraocular muscles were investigated by use of histological and retrograde axonal tracing techniques. RESULTS The autograft was reinnervated by a large number of small axons, 1 to 5 microm in diameter. After tracer injection into the superior rectus and medial rectus muscles, retrogradely labeled neurons were seen not only in the ipsilateral facial nucleus (16%) but also in the contralateral nucleus (8%). Labeled neurons were also seen in the ipsilateral abducens (12%), motor trigeminus (7%), trochlear (23%), and contralateral trochlear (34%) nuclei. In normal rats, the extraocular muscles are innervated by unilateral-ipsilateral brainstem motor nuclei, except for the superior rectus and superior oblique muscles, which are innervated by bilateral, primarily contralateral, nuclei. CONCLUSION The central rearrangement of the extraocular muscle nuclei after facial-to-oculomotor nerve anastomosis represents an original example of plasticity. Functional studies are needed to demonstrate whether this procedure might serve to restore some degree of eye motility.

Microgyria was experimentally induced by focal freezing lesions of the frontal cortex in newborn rats. Adult microgyric animals received cortical injections of biotinylated dextran amine combined with NMDA, in order to obtain a Golgi-like retrograde labeling of cortico-cortical association neurons. Injections were performed either rostrally or caudally to the microgyric lesion. Results demonstrate that long-range association projections traveling across the zone of the microgyric lesion arise mainly from infragranular layers. In normal animals the same projections originate both from supragranular and infragranular layers. The analysis of single basal dendrites of layer 2/3 in microgyric animals demonstrates a simplified branching pattern, with a number of end points lower than in control animals. Potential implications for microgyria-associated epilepsy are discussed.

OBJECTIVE: Hyperprolactinemia is a frequent evidence occurring in both metastatic breast cancer and prostate cancer, and it has been proven to be associated with poor prognosis and reduced efficacy of the anticancer therapies. Therefore, the pharmacological control of cancer-related hyperprolactinemia could improve the prognosis of advanced breast and prostate carcinomas. Unfortunately, at present it is still controversial which may be the treatment of cancer-related hyperprolactinemia, which could depend at least in part on a direct autocrine production by cancer cells themselves. The present study was performed to evaluate the acute effects of the long-acting dopaminergic agonist bromocriptine on cancer-related hyperprolactinemia. METHODS: The study included 10 women affected by metastatic breast cancer and 10 men with metastatic prostate cancer, showing persistent hyperprolactinemia. Venous blood samples were collected before bromocriptine, and 2, 4, 10 and 24 hours after bromocriptine administration (2.5 mg orally) serum levels of PRL were measured with the double antibody RIA method. RESULTS: Bromocriptine induced a normalization of PRL levels in both groups of patients with breast and prostate cancers. Moreover, mean levels of PRL persisted significantly lower than those found before therapy during the whole 24-hour circadian period. DISCUSSION: This preliminary study shows that low-dose bromocriptine is sufficient to acutely normalize PRL secretion in both metastatic breast cancer and prostate carcinoma patients, irrespectively of the mechanisms involved in inducing cancer-related hyperprolactinemia. Therefore, low-dose bromocriptine could be recommended in association with the classical antitumor therapies in the treatment of metastatic breast cancer and prostate carcinoma patients showing cancer-related hyperprolactinemia, in an attempt to improve the efficacy of anticancer therapies themselves.