Gray matter features of schizotypal disorder patients exhibiting the schizophrenia-related code types of the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory.

OBJECTIVE: Previous studies have suggested that several code types of the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory (MMPI) are useful markers for identifying schizophrenia. We hypothesized that schizotypal disorder (STD) patients with such schizophrenia-related code types have the morphological brain abnormalities associated with schizophrenia. METHOD: Voxel-based morphometric analysis with statistical parametric mapping (SPM) 99 software was used to investigate the differences in brain morphology between 14 STD patients with the schizophrenia-related code types of the MMPI and 28 normal individuals. RESULTS: The STD patients showed significantly decreased gray matter volume in the insular regions bilaterally and in the left entorhinal cortex, compared with the controls. CONCLUSION: Our findings suggest that STD patients with the schizophrenia-related code types have volume reductions in these regions as an endophenotype that overlaps with schizophrenia.

[The evaluation of the pre-operative interviews using information sheets].

This investigation deals with patients of more than 15 years of age and family members of children younger than 12 years of age to evaluate the pre-operative interviews using information sheets. The information sheets describe the anesthetic management and complications in a simple style. Sixty% of the patients and 75% of the children's family felt anxiety about the anesthesia and/or the operation (P < 0.05). More than a half of the patients did not want to receive informations about the anesthetic management and the risk of anesthesia. On the other hand, 9% of children's family did not want to know informations about the risk (P < 0.05). More than 80% of patients read the information sheets after the pre-operative interviews and about a half of patients answered that their anxiety before the surgery decreased. In this investigation, the children's family wanted to have information about the anesthesia or the operation more than patients themselves. The pre-anesthetic interviews using information sheets is useful to give information about anesthesia and to relieve anxiety of the patients and the children's family.

[Allergic contact dermatitis due to topical imidazole antimycotics. The sensitizing ability of active ingredients and cross-sensitivity].

Since the introduction of clotrimazole cream to the Japanese market in 1979, topical imidazole antimycotics have been used with increasing frequency in the treatment of superficial fungal infections. Topical imidazole antimycotics are in common use today and new imidazole derivatives continue to be developed. In this study, the author discussed allergic contact dermatitis due to topical imidazole antimycotics and cross-reactions among them. Of the 3,049 outpatients who were patch-tested for contact dermatitis at the Department of Dermatology, Nippon Medical School Hospital from January, 1984 to August, 1994, 218 were patch-tested with topical antimycotic agents. Of these 218 cases, 18 were tested with imidazole derivatives and 66 showed positive. Thirty-five were allergic to the active ingredients; 16 were allergic to sulconazole, 11 to croconazole, 3 to tioconazole, 3 to miconazole, one to bifonazole, and one to clotrimazole. The reason why sulconazole induced the most frequent positive reactions is probably that sulconazole was prescribed most frequently at our department during the period. The duration and the total amount of topical imidazole needed until contact dermatitis occurred, were statistically analyzed by t.test. Croconazole needed a significantly shorter duration and smaller quantity than sulconazole. This means that the sensitizing ability of croconazole is stronger than that of sulconazole. Since 21 of the 35 imidazole-allergic cases cross-reacted to other imidazole(s), the imidazole derivatives are considered to cross-react frequently.