[Surgical technique of anterior cervical instrumented fusion.]. / Technika instrumentované prední spondylodézy krcní pátere.

Authors are presenting their results of anterior cervical instrumented fusion technique on group of 39 patients who were operated on in traumatic and degenerative indications.They present a 97 % fusion rate with minimal complications. Decompression of neural tissues, meticulous shaping of the tricortical autologous bone graft and respecting the physiological alignment of the cervical spine are presented as the most important steps. Application of the Morscher cervical plate is helpful, since it decreases postoperative neck immobilization in orthosis and increases the fusion rate. Key words: anterior instrumented cervical fusion, autologous bone graft, cervical plate.

Effects of aging and dementia on the levels of thiobarbituric-acid-reactive products stimulated by L-glutamic acid in human autopsy and biopsy brain tissue.

Basal and stimulated (by L-glutamic acid, GA) levels of thiobarbituric-acid-reactive products were estimated in the brain tissue (hippocampus, cortex and cerebellum) from autopsy samples of people with Alzheimer disease (AD), multi-infarct dementia (MID) and from nondemented control patients. The experiment was also performed on biopsy brain tissue (cortex) of nondemented controls. The biopsy brain tissue influenced by normal aging in vivo showed a limited susceptibility to undergo lipid peroxidation stimulated by GA in vitro in comparison with the younger tissue. A significant decrease in the ratio of stimulated to basal levels was found in the cerebellum of MID patients in comparison with nondemented controls and AD patients.