Abnormal white matter integrity as a structural endophenotype for bipolar disorder.

BACKGROUND: Several lines of evidence suggest that bipolar disorder (BD) is associated with white matter (WM) pathology. Investigation of unaffected first-degree relatives of BD patients may help to distinguish structural biomarkers of genetic risk without the confounding effects of burden of illness, medication or clinical state. In the present study, we applied tract-based spatial statistics to study WM changes in patients with BD, unaffected siblings and controls. METHOD: A total of 27 euthymic patients with BD type I, 20 unaffected siblings of bipolar patients and 29 healthy controls who did not have any current or past diagnosis of Axis I psychiatric disorders were enrolled in the study. RESULTS: Fractional anisotropy (FA) was significantly lower in BD patients than in the control group in the corpus callosum, fornix, bilateral superior longitudinal fasciculus, inferior longitudinal fasciculus, inferior fronto-occipital fasciculus, anterior thalamic radiation, posterior thalamic radiation, cingulum, uncinate fasciculus, superior corona radiata, anterior corona radiata and left external capsule. In region-of-interest (ROI) analyses, we found that both unaffected siblings and bipolar patients had significantly reduced FA in the left posterior thalamic radiation, the left sagittal stratum, and the fornix compared with healthy controls. Average FA for unaffected siblings was intermediate between the healthy controls and bipolar patients within these ROIs. CONCLUSIONS: Decreased FA in the fornix, left posterior thalamic radiation and left sagittal stratum in both bipolar patients and unaffected siblings may represent a potential structural endophenotype or a trait-based marker for BD.

Comparison of BCG vaccination at birth and at third month of life.

Tuberculosis is an important health problem in developing countries and the BCG vaccine plays an important part in preventing the disease. There are different reports about the preventive value of BCG. Some of them claim that it is satisfactory while others suggest that it provides little protection. There are also varying ideas about the optimum time to vaccinate babies, some studies suggesting that late vaccination confers a high degree of protection. This prospective controlled study has been undertaken to evaluate the value of BCG vaccine given to babies during their first three days of life versus its value when given in their third month of life. Evaluation was measured by the results of tests with purified protein derivative (PPD), by vaccine scars, that by the complications of the vaccine. It was found that BCG given at the end of the third month provides a higher rate of response and fewer complications than when given during the first three days of life.