A case of prosopometamorphopsia caused by infarction of the splenium of the corpus callosum and major forceps.

An adult female complained of enlargement of right eyes in other people. Diffusion-weighted imaging detected an abnormal high-intensity area in the region from the splenium of the corpus callosum to the major forceps on the right side. The patient reported that right eyes appeared larger in size, which suggested prosopometamorphopsia. Adichotic listening test identified left-ear deficit. Acombination of prosopometamorphopsia and left-ear deficit was not identified in the reported patients. Prosopometamorphopsia in most of the reported patients included the eye as did that in our patient. This result suggested the importance of information on the eye in recognizing faces.

The Detection of Hyaline Casts in Patients Without Renal Dysfunction Suggests Increased Plasma BNP.

BACKGROUND AND AIM: Casts in urinary sediments are useful in the identification of kidney diseases. Among them, hyaline casts have not previously been considered as pathognomonic. However, hyaline casts can occasionally be found in patients undergoing cardiovascular treatment without renal dysfunction. We evaluated the background of these patients and also investigated their levels of plasma brain natriuretic peptide (BNP). MATERIALS AND METHODS: Samples from patients who visited the Division of Cardiovascular Disease at Nihon University Hospital (2014-2018) were examined. We set extract conditions from the laboratory information system database, setting the threshold over 60 mL/min/1.73 m2 for the estimated glomerular filtration rate (eGFR), and proteinuria as absent (-) or trace (±). One hundred forty-seven of 3137 (4.7%) samples showed hyaline casts (M:F=102:45, mean age 69.5±11.2 years). Samples with hyaline casts were divided into three rank groups. We compared BNP levels among each cast group and age-matched controls using Kruskal-Wallis analysis. RESULTS: The median BNP levels of the controls and the three casts groups were 23.3 pg/mL in the controls, 31.1 pg/mL in group (1+), 35.5 pg/mL in group (2+), and 45.8 pg/mL in group (≥3+). The median BNP levels differed significantly between two casts groups (group (2+) and group (≥3+)) and the control group (P<0.05 and P<0.01, respectively). CONCLUSION: Hyaline casts could be detected in patients with normal renal function. When hyaline casts are more than 2+, the physician should consider checking plasma BNP levels of the patient.

Haplotype-based, case-control study of myosin phosphatase target subunit 1 (PPP1R12A) gene and hypertensive disorders of pregnancy.

Objective: Hypertensive disorders of pregnancy (HDP) are thought to be a multifactorial genetic disease. Myosin light chain phosphorylation, which is involved in the regulation of vascular smooth muscle contraction and relaxation and thus contributes to the maintenance of blood pressure, is related to HDP. The official symbol of the gene for the production of MYPT1 protein is PPP1R12A gene. Thus, we investigated the possibility that the PPP1R12A gene is related to HDP. Methods: Subjects were 194 pregnant women with HDP and a control group of 262 pregnant women from those women examined. Four SNVs (rs7296839, rs11114256, rs2596793, and rs2694657) were selected from the PPP1R12A gene region. The HDP group was divided according to disease type, and each group was analyzed in comparison with the control group. Results: In the association analysis using the PPP1R12A gene, there were significant differences between the control group and the superimposed preeclampsia (SPE) group for rs11114256 in allele frequency distribution (P = 0.017) and genome frequency distribution in the dominant model (P = 0.014), and for rs2694657 genotype distribution frequency in the recessive model (P = 0.018). In the association analysis using haplotypes, there was a significant difference for G-A-A-G (rs7296839-rs11114256-rs2596793-rs2694657). In an analysis of haplotype-based case-control study, there was a significant difference for G-A-A-G between the control group (0.00%) and the HDP group (2.46%) (P = 0.038). Furthermore, the G-T-A-G haplotype was significantly higher in SPE group than in control group (P = 0.011). Conclusions: The implication is that the PPP1R12A gene may be a disease-susceptibility gene for SPE.

Localization of human intraparietal areas AIP, CIP, and LIP using surface orientation and saccadic eye movement tasks.

In monkeys, areas in the intraparietal sulcus (IPS) play a crucial role in visuospatial information processing. Despite many human neuroimaging studies, the location of the human functional homologs of some IPS areas is still a matter of debate. The aim of the present functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) study was to identify the distinct locations of specific human IPS areas based on their functional properties using stimuli adapted from nonhuman primate experiments, in particular, surface orientation discrimination and memory guided saccadic eye movements (SEM). Intersubject anatomical variability likely accounts for much of the debate. By applying subject by subject analysis, we can demonstrate that sufficient intersubject anatomical and functional commonalities exist. Both the lateral bank of the anterior part of IPS, the putative human homolog of the area AIP, and the caudal part of the IPS (putative CIP) showed activation related to spatial discrimination of surface orientation. Eye tracking conducted during fMRI data acquisition allowed us to show that both areas were separated by an area related to SEM. This area was located in the middle region of the IPS (most probably including LIP), i.e., similar to the location observed in nonhuman primates. In 10 of 11 subjects our putative CIP activation was located in a medial side branch of the posterior part of the IPS, on the opposite side as described in nonhuman primates, making this landmark a useful anatomical marker for the location of CIP.

Functional properties and interaction of the anterior and posterior intraparietal areas in humans.

In the monkey the lateral bank of the anterior part of the intraparietal sulcus (area AIP), contains neurons that are involved in visually guided, object-related hand movements. It has also been shown that neurons in the caudal part of the intraparietal sulcus (area CIP) preferentially respond to 3D surface orientation. According to these results, it has been hypothesized that neurons in area CIP primarily encode the 3D features of an object and forwards this information to area AIP. AIP then utilizes this information for appropriate hand actions towards the object. Based on analogies to these primate studies, recent neuroimaging studies have suggested human homologues of areas AIP and CIP, however, the functional interaction between these areas remains unclear. Our event related fMRI study was designed to address specifically the question, how CIP and AIP interact in the process of adjustment of hand orientation towards objects. Volunteers were asked to perform three tasks: discrimination of surface orientation, imaging of visually guided hand movements and execution of visually guided hand movements. Our data show that the human AIP was activated both during discrimination of surface orientation and during the subsequent spatial adjustment of the thumb and index finger position towards the surface orientation. In contrast, human CIP was activated by the surface orientation but not by spatial adjustment of finger position. These data clearly indicate that the function of human CIP is more involved in coding 3D features of the objects, whereas human AIP is more involved in visually guided hand movements, similar to its role in the monkey.