Studies on the influence of a Se-restricted diet on the effects of long-term increased copper intake in guinea pigs.

Guinea pigs were exposed to Se-restriction/deficiency in combination with drinking water containing 200 or 300 mg Cu/l for 6-30 weeks. Under the influence of Se-restriction/deficiency Cu excretion by bile was diminished, the Cu content of the kidneys was increased and disturbances of liver function were seen in animals exposed for prolonged periods. Some parameters of the immune system, such as the phagocytic activity of peritoneal macrophages, mitogenicity of spleen lymphocytes and the amount of lymphatic spleen tissue were also adversely affected. These effects correlated in part with the liver damage and the copper content of the kidneys. Conclusion are drawn with respect to the Idiopathic Copper Toxicosis/Indian Childhood Cirrhosis.

The history of algology, algotherapy, and the role of inhibition.

Cephalalgia (1st century AD), nostalgia (1678), neuralgia (18th century), causalgia (1872) were terms followed in the 1950's by Bonica's 'algology... a disease state of its own', addressed by ever-growing numbers of pain clinics, strongly foreshadowed by Leriche's douleur maladie in the 1930's. (Hence also 'algotherapy'). Philosophers first, then early academic physiologists began to exhibit interest in pain, that all too common phenomenon, only too often unyielding to theoretical as well as practical efforts. Was it, after all, an instance of built-in self-preservation, a reflex? Identification of the nervous energy and its anatomical pathways in the 19th century, endless arguments as to their 'specificity', led to new surgical attempts to control and interpret pain, by now supported by general, then local anesthesia. Early in this century Henry Head's much-discussed notion of 'epicritic' sensation exerting some control over 'protopathic' pain was soon followed by Otfried Foerster's insistence on a central role of inhibition providing pain relief. Almost forgotten, Foerster's idea found expression in Melzack and Wall's 'gate control theory' of 1965. Gasser and Erlanger's classification of sensory nerve fibers began to dominate research in the 1930's thanks to the cathode ray oscillograph invented in 1897. The pain inhibition concept was given another boost in the seventies when the role of the midline mesencephalic and oblongata nuclei was established as both opium receptors and producers of opioids. Finally, inhibition may also be seen as the principle underlying the age-old therapeutic effect of 'counter-irritation', mostly in the form of electrical stimulation.

Historical note on sleep and eye movements.

Involuntary eye movements at the onset of sleep are mentioned in Virgil's Aeneid (19 BC). "Nystagmus" in relation to states of lowered consciousness was painstakingly catalogued by Sauvages (1768). Sporadic studies of eye behavior during sleep were recorded during the 19th century and were associated with disorders of brainstem physiology, culminating in von Economo's observations during the encephalitis lethargica epidemic of the 1920s.

[Psoriasis therapy with the aromatic retinoid Ro 10-9359 (Tigason)]. / Zur Therapie der Psoriasis mit dem aromatischen Retinoid Ro 10-9359 (Tigason).

At three University Departments of Dermatology (Berlin, Leipzig, Erfurt) of the GRD, 63 psoriatics (46 men, 17 women) were treated with aromatic retinoid Ro 10-9359 (Tigason) up to a maximum of 84 weeks. In 34 of these cases, photochemotherapy was additionally applied. This combination resulted in a more rapid healing than Tigason alone. The average initial dose amounted to 1 mg per kg body weight. Only in cases of psoriatic erythroderma, the treatment started with a daily rate of 25 mg Tigason. The maintenance dose came to 50 to 25 mg daily. On account of deterioration of the cutaneous condition and/or heavy itching, the treatment had to be discontinued in 4 cases. Side effects as cheilitis, rhagades, loss of hair, and onycholysis disappeared after reduction of the dose. Our study confirmed the good therapeutical effect of Tigason with the various forms of psoriasis.