Search

A 62-year-old woman with cervical myelopathy due to cervical spine rheumatoid arthritis is presented. Transoral decompression of the spinal cord, followed by posterior spine fusion in the same session was performed with good results. Unfortunately she died 3 months later due to cardiovascular disease. Clinical, radiological, surgical and autopsy data are presented.

Particles of the bottom component of alfalfa mosaic virus have a compact bacilliform structure at neutral pH. When the pH is raised to 8.3 the structure unfolds. Since the particle weight does not change it is concluded that the protein subunits remain attached to the RNA. The particle weight of the spheroidal top component a of the virus is halved when the particles unfold at pH 8.3. This can be explained by the fact that these particles contain two RNA molecules of identical size. Free RNA molecules of alfalfa mosaic virus are able to withdraw protein subunits from intact particles of the virus. It is demonstrated that per RNA molecule there are a few sites with a high affinity for coat protein. Possibly these are the sites where the coat protein plays its role in activating the genome.

40 forensic SIDS cases were found to have a significantly higher rate of serologic evidence of recent influenza A (H 3 N 2) infection than did matched controls. In contrast, the SIDS cases had serologically no significantly increased infection rate with influenza H 1 N 1 and B virus, parainfluenza virus, RS virus, adenovirus, and cytomegalovirus. SIDS cases with recent influenza infection had a significantly higher rate of histological findings as described for primary viral pneumonia than did SIDS cases without influenza infection. SIDS cases with recent influenza infection occurred much more frequently during epidemic than during interepidemic influenza A (H 3 N 2) periods. Our results confirm previous reports that SIDS cases have an increased rate of respiratory virus infections. However, they cannot prove a causal relationship between influenza infection and death. Since our SIDS cases comprised 75 per cent of cases aged more than three months, our results pertain essentially to cases of this age group.

The direction of eye movement (i.e., the angle of the resultant velocity vector calculated from the horizontal and vertical components) during flash-induced nystagmus was evaluated in static roll and pitch positions. It appeared that this direction coincided with the orientation of the visual streak, as influenced by the ocular countertorsion which is known to occur in the various body positions. This supports the hypothesis that flash-induced nystagmus results from stimulation of direction-selective retinal elements. The intensity of flash-induced nystagmus, evaluated either by measuring slow-phase velocity (i.e., magnitude of resultant vector) or by beat frequency, was minimal in approximately 90 and 270 degrees roll or pitch positions, presumably because the total combined (utricular and saccular, left and right) excitatory otolith stimulation was maximal in these positions, the effect of this stimulation being inhibitory to the flash-induced nystagmus.

84 forensic necropsy cases with a history of sudden unexpected death and where no acceptable cause of death was found at autopsy (= cases of sudden unexplained death, SUD) were found to have a significantly higher rate of influenza A (H 3 N 2) infection than did matched controls of the general population and a group of forensic necropsy cases with known cause of death (NON-SUD cases). By contrast, the group of SUD cases was found to have no significantly increased infection rate with influenza H 1 N 1 and B virus, parainfluenza viruses, RS virus, adenovirus, and cytomegalovirus. The influenza A associated SUD cases had a significantly higher rate of pathological and histological findings previously described for cases of primary viral pneumonia than did SUD cases without recent influenza A infection and NON-SUD cases. These findings suggest that virological examination of SUD cases could be helpful in order to determine the probable cause of death. A considerable portion of the influenza associated SUD cases occurred during interepidemic influenza periods. Therefore, such cases could be a useful source for monitoring the interepidemic spread of influenza virus.

Three members of a single family with the symptom of "motion sickness" showed rebound nystagmus, saccadic pursuit eye movements, defective optokinetic slow phase velocity and lack of fixation suppression of vestibularly induced nystagmus. One of them showed vestibular hyperreactivity and a gradual build-up of the optokinetic response. In absence of other abnormalities, these findings can be localized to the vestibulocerebellum (flocculo-nodular lobe).

The results of clinical and electrophysiological investigations in a patient with a locked-in syndrome due to a pontine infarction, mainly on the right side, are presented. EEG showed only slight disturbances, while BAER and SSER revealed response alterations as could be expected from physical examination. BAER revealed altered central conduction after stimulation of either side. After median nerve stimulation on the right side SSER was slightly delayed, while no reproducible cortical response was seen after stimulation on the left side. Our patient survived and showed partial recovery.

Coxsackie viruses of types A7 and A21 were produced in HEp-2 cells and concentrated by precipitation with polyethylene glycol. The viral RNA was extracted by means of the hot phenol-SDS method and used for transfection of Hep-2 cells. Transfection was greatly enhanced by the addition of DEAE-dextran. 8 of 11 (72.7 per cent) coxsackie viruses obtained after 1 to 3 transfections were found to have drastically reduced pathogenicity in suckling mice in comparison to the corresponding viruses produced by infection. Attenuation was generally obtained after the first transfection and could be improved by further transfections in one experiment, only.

A family is described with a progressive autosomal dominant vestibulocochlear dysfunction resulting in a Dandy syndrome, head movement dependent oscillopsia and hearing loss. The history was negative for other neurological or otological diseases (including infectious diseases) or use of neuro-ototoxic drugs, except for a high incidence of vascular disorders (hypertension, stroke, and heart infarction).

Polyoma virus of the Stuart Eddy strain was tritium-labelled by cultivating the virus in phosphate free Hepes buffered medium in presence of tritium labelled nucleotide triphosphates. The distribution of labelled virus in the organs and in the blood of newborn Wistar rats was examined at graded time intervals from two hours until 40 days after inoculation. The highest amounts of virus per organ was refound in the liver and the highest amount per mg organ weight in the spleen. The virus concentration in most organs exceeded by far the concentration found in the blood, indicating adsorption of virus in these organs. It was found that the distribution of tritium in the target organs for tumor appearance (kidneys and brain) did not differ basically from that in the non-target organs. As a consequence, the distribution of virus in the organs does not explain the fact that the kidneys and the brain are the predilection sites for tumor induction. Tritium labelling did not measurably influence the oncogenicity, infectivity and hemagglutinating activity of the virus.