Lifetime coffee consumption, pineal gland volume, and sleep quality in late life.

Study Objectives: Previous studies have shown that coffee consumption may suppress the production of melatonin in pinealocytes through competitive inhibition of adenosine A2 receptors by caffeine. We investigated the impact of lifetime coffee consumption on pineal gland volume and the resulting effects on sleep quality. Methods: We enrolled 162 cognitively normal elderly individuals among the participants in the Korean Longitudinal Study on Cognitive Aging and Dementia. We evaluated the patterns and amounts of coffee consumption using a study-specific standardized interview and assessed sleep quality using the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index. We measured the volume of pineal parenchyma (VPP) by manually segmenting the pineal gland on high-resolution three-dimensional T1-weighted magnetic resonance images. We examined the impact of lifetime coffee consumption on the VPP and the resulting effects on sleep quality using analysis of covariance, multiple linear regression, and mediation analyses. Results: We found that smaller VPP was associated with higher cumulative lifetime coffee consumption. Participants who consumed more than 60 cup-years of coffee had VPPs that were smaller by about 20% than individuals who consumed less than 60 cup-years of coffee. The VPP mediated the association between lifetime coffee consumption and sleep efficiency and quality. Conclusions: Our findings suggest that high lifetime coffee consumption may reduce VPP, and that this reduction in VPP may impair the quality of sleep in late life.

Opioidergic changes in the pineal gland and hypothalamus in cluster headache: a ligand PET study.

Using PET with the opioidergic ligand [11C]diprenorphine, the authors demonstrate decreased tracer binding in the pineal gland of cluster headache patients vs healthy volunteers. Opioid receptor availability in the hypothalamus and cingulate cortex depended on the duration of the headache disorder. Therefore, the pathophysiology of cluster headache may relate to opioidergic dysfunction in circuitries generating the biologic clock.

Pineal and habenula calcification in schizophrenia.

Animal data indicate that melatonin secretion is stimulated by the paraventricular nucleus (PVN) of the hypothalamus and that lesions of the PVN mimic the endocrine effects of pinealectomy. Since the PVN lies adjacent to the third ventricle, I propose that periventricular damage, which is found in schizophrenia and may account for the third ventricular dilatation seen on computed tomographic (CT), may disrupt PVN-pineal interactions and ultimately enhance the process of pineal calcification (PC). To investigate this hypothesis, I conducted CT study on the relationship of PC size to third ventricular width (TVW) in 12 chronic schizophrenic patients (mean age: 33.7 years; SD = 7.3). For comparison, I also studied the relationship of PC size to the ventricular brain ratio and prefrontal cortical atrophy. As predicted, there was a significant correlation between PC size and TVW (r pbi = .61, p < .05), whereas PC was unrelated to the control neuroradiological measures. The findings support the hypothesis that periventricular damage may be involved in the process of PC in schizophrenia and may indirectly implicate damage to the PVN in the mechanisms underlying dysfunction of the pineal gland in schizophrenia. In a second study, I investigated the prevalence of habenular calcification (HAC) on CT in a cohort of 23 chronic schizophrenic-patients (mean age: 31.2 years; SD = 5.95). In this sample HAC was present in 20 patients (87%). Since the prevalence of HAC in a control population of similar age is only 15% these data reveal an almost 6-fold higher prevalence of HAC (X2 = 84.01, p < .0001) in chronic schizophrenia as compared to normal controls. The implications of HAC for the pathophysiology of schizophrenia are discussed in light of the central role of the habenula in the regulation of limbic functions.

A computerized tomographic analysis of the anatomy and pathological conditions of the posterior third ventricular region.

The normal anatomical boundaries of the posterior third ventricular region as delineated by CT findings are described. The characteristics CT findings in a diverse group of lesions which involve this region are analyzed.

Computerized axial tomography: the normal EMI scan.

Computerized axial tomography using the EMI scanner as a new method of using x-rays in diagnosis. The technique displays intracranial and orbital structures in the transverse plane. The appearances of normal EMI Scans are described and correlated with cerebral and orbital anatomy seen in transverse section.