Intermittent catatonia and complex automatisms caused by frontal lobe epilepsy in dementia.

An 82-year-old man was admitted to the emergency department following bizarre behaviour. Police had noticed him driving erratically through his village. He did not stop when instructed, drove slowly home and appeared 'vacant' on questioning. While in hospital, he had approximately 15 episodes of catatonia, involving rigidity, negativism, mutism except echolalia and perseveration, automatic obedience and utilisation phenomena, lasting 2-20 min each. Between episodes, he was amnestic but otherwise well. Electroencephalography demonstrated bifrontal slowing with left-sided emphasis, and captured two focal onset partial seizures with the clinical correlate of the syndrome described above. He improved rapidly on levetiracetam and lorazepam, was discharged and received a diagnosis of dementia by his community mental health team shortly afterwards, based on chronic short-term memory loss, functional decline and MRI changes. This case has implications for our understanding of the neural correlate of catatonia, specifically frontal lobe pathway dysfunction.

Electroclinical findings of minor motor events during sleep in temporal lobe epilepsy.

OBJECTIVE: It is well known that sleep-related motor seizures can originate from the temporal lobe. However, little is known about the clinical features of minor motor manifestations during sleep in patients with temporal lobe epilepsy. The main objective of our study was to verify the existence of minor motor events during sleep in patients with mesial temporal lobe epilepsy (MTLE) and to define their clinical features and electroencephalography (EEG) correlations. METHODS: We enrolled in the study patients with diagnosis of symptomatic MTLE and a group of healthy controls. All patients and controls underwent long-term video -EEG monitoring, including at least one night of nocturnal sleep. We analyzed all the movements recorded during nocturnal sleep of patients and controls and their electroencephalographic correlations. RESULTS: We analyzed the nocturnal sleep of 15 patients with symptomatic MTLE (8 males and 7 females; mean age ± standard deviation [SD]31.8 ± 14.9 years) and of 15 healthy controls (6 males and 9 females; mean age ± SD 32.8 ± 11.2 years). The analysis of movements during sleep revealed significant differences between groups, with the patients presenting significantly more movements in sleep than healthy controls (56.7 ± 39.2 vs. 15 ± 6.1; p < 0.001) with significant differences regarding oroalimentary automatisms, limb dystonia, straightening movements and gestural automatisms. EEG analysis showed that the proportion of movements preceded by EEG abnormalities was significantly higher in patients than in controls (57.8 ± 35.9 movements vs. 16.6 ± 13.4 movements; p < 0.001). SIGNIFICANCE: The results of our study demonstrated the presence of minor motor events during sleep in patients with MTLE, suggesting an epileptic origin of these episodes. The study of nocturnal sleep in MTLE patients is useful in helping the clinicians in the diagnostic and therapeutic workup of these patients.

Ivabradina, un bloqueador selectivo de la corriente If. Aspectos farmacológicos y tolerabilidad / Ivabradine: a selective If current inhibitor. Pharmacological characteristics and tolerability

La frecuencia cardiaca es el principal determinante de las demandas miocárdicas de O2 y del flujo sanguíneo coronario. La frecuencia cardiaca depende de la actividad eléctrica espontánea de las células marcapasos del nódulo sinoauricular. Estas células presentan una fase de despolarización diastólica que desplaza el potencial de membrana hacia su valor umbral y se inicia un nuevo potencial de acción que se propaga a través del miocardio y produce una respuesta contráctil. La corriente If de entrada de iones Na+ y K+ a través de canales activados por la hiperpolarización y modulados por nucleótidos cíclicos (HCN) es la principal determinante de la inclinación de la fase de lenta despolarización diastólica. Los canales se abren cuando el potencial de membrana se hiperpolariza y se modulan por la concentración celular de adenosinmonofosfato cíclico. La ivabradina es un bloqueador específico de la If. Para ello debe atravesar la membrana y alcanzar su receptor, que se encuentra en la boca intracelular del poro del canal. Como consecuencia, produce una reducción dependiente de la dosis de la frecuencia cardiaca, que reduce las demandas miocárdicas de O2 y aumenta el flujo sanguíneo coronario. Sin embargo, a concentraciones terapéuticas no inhibe otras corrientes iónicas cardiacas, razón por la que no modifica la presión arterial, la contractilidad o las propiedades electrofisiológicas cardiacas. En este artículo se revisa el mecanismo de acción, las propiedades farmacocinéticas y farmacodinámicas y las reacciones adversas y contraindicaciones de la ivabradina (AU)

The heart rate is the main determinant of both myocardial oxygen demand and coronary blood flow. Heart rate is determined by spontaneous electrical activity in the pacemaker cells of the sinoatrial node. These cells exhibit a diastolic depolarization phase that drives the membrane potential towards the threshold value for initiating a new action potential, which propagates throughout the myocardium and triggers a contractile response. The If current, an inward current of Na+ and K+ ions through hyperpolarization- activated cyclic-nucleotide-gated (HCN) channels, is the main determinant of the slope of the slow diastolic depolarization phase. These channels open in response to membrane hyperpolarization and are modulated by the intracellular cAMP concentration. Ivabradine specifically blocks the If current. To do so, it crosses the membrane and binds to a receptor located on the intracellular side of the channel pore. As a result, ivabradine produces a dose-dependent decrease in heart rate that reduces myocardial oxygen demand and increases coronary blood flow. However, at therapeutic concentrations, it does not affect other cardiac ionic currents, which is why ivabradine does not alter blood pressure, cardiac contractility, or cardiac electrophysiological parameters. This article reviews ivabradine’s mechanism of action, pharmacodynamic and pharmacokinetic properties, side effects, and interactions (AU)

[Use of systematic organization of the EEG in the diagnosis of psychopathologic states]. / Ispol'zovanie sistemnoi organizatsii EEG pri diagnostike psikhopatologicheskikh sostoianii.

A group of patients with paranoid schizophrenia treated with aminazine and leponex were examined. Using the component analysis, the integral characteristics of the EEGs--the main components describing principal organizational variants of the background EEG--were obtained. An analysis of the components showed the generalized synchronous and activating effects of the deep cerebral structures to be involved in the formation of these variants of the EEG organization. The components obtained proved to be important for the prognosis of therapy efficacy and the selection of an optimal psychotropic agent.

[Effect of medical treatment on the antithymic activity of schizophrenic patients' serum]. / Vliianie lekarstvennoi terapii na antitimicheskuiu aktivnost' syvorotki krovi bol'nykh shizofreniei.

In 16 schizophrenic patients treated with aminazin changes of the serum antithymic activity (ATA) were studied in relation to the drug pharmacokinetics and peculiarities of the patients' psychic status. It was found that in a part of the patients the serum ATA level sharply fell immediately after the treatment onset; the psychopathological disturbances in these patients were reduced, and the patients developed remissions of a good quality. In another part of the patients the high serum ATA remained unchanged throughout the whole observation period. These patients were resistant to the drug therapy and had pronounced schizophrenic defects in their status.

Narcolepsy and automatic behavior: a case report.

Narcolepsy is characterized by excessive daytime sleepiness and cataplexy, which may be accompanied by hypnogogic or hypnopompic hallucinations and sleep paralysis. Automatic behavior is a relatively newly recognized symptom of the narcolepsy syndrome. This case report describes a particularly troublesome sort of automatic behavior--shoplifting--in a narcoleptic patient. It illustrates how a sleep-laboratory evaluation was used to confirm the diagnosis of narcolepsy and considers aspects of the treatment of the problem.