Impairment of emotional facial expression and prosody discrimination due to ischemic cerebellar lesions.

A growing literature points to a specific role of the cerebellum in affect processing. However, understanding of affect processing disturbances following discrete cerebellar lesions is limited. We administered the Tübingen Affect Battery to assess recognition of emotional facial expression and emotional prosody in 15 patients with a cerebellar infarction and 10 age-matched controls. On emotional facial expression tasks, patients compared to controls showed impaired selection and matching of facial affect. On prosody tasks, patients showed marked impairments in naming affect and discriminating incongruencies. These deficits were more pronounced for negative affects. Our results confirm a significant role of the cerebellum in processing emotional recognition, a component of social cognition.

Observation of Fermi pressure in a gas of trapped atoms.

We report the attainment of simultaneous quantum degeneracy in a mixed gas of bosons (lithium-7) and fermions (lithium-6). The Fermi gas has been cooled to a temperature of 0.25 times the Fermi temperature by thermal collisions with the evaporatively cooled bosons. At this temperature, the spatial size of the gas is strongly affected by the Fermi pressure resulting from the Pauli exclusion principle and gives clear experimental evidence for quantum degeneracy.

Profound midbrain atrophy in patients with Wilson's disease and neurological symptoms?

Wilson's disease (WD) is characterized by impaired hepatic copper secretion and subsequent copper accumulation in many organs predominantly liver and brain, secondary to loss of function mutations in the copper transport protein ATP7B. If the disease is recognized too late or treatment is not adequate, brain copper accumulation leads to progressive neurodegeneration with a variety of clinical symptoms. The nigrostriatal dopaminergic system seems rather vulnerable. Midbrain atrophy, however, has not been recognized as one of the prime features of patients with WD. Here we report quantification of midbrain diameter in 41 patients with WD. Data were correlated to the severity of neurological symptoms and the integrity of dopaminergic neurons measured via dopamine transporter binding. For control, we measured midbrain diameter in 18 patients with no evidence for brainstem dysfunction and 5 patients with progressive supranuclear palsy (PSP). Patients with WD had a reduced midbrain diameter (15.5 +/- 0.4 mm) compared to controls (18.5 +/- 0.2 mm). WD patients without neurological symptoms had midbrain diameter that were not different from controls (18.0 +/- 0.3 mm), while patients with neurological symptoms showed midbrain atrophy similar to patients with PSP (14.4 +/- 0.3 mm versus 14.1 +/- 0.3). There was a strong and significant correlation between midbrain atrophy and the severity of neurological symptoms (r= -0.68, p < 0.001) while midbrain atrophy and dopamine transporter binding correlated significantly but was less pronounced (r=0.46, p < 0.001). In summary, we were able to show, that midbrain diameter is an easy to perform quantification of neurodegeneration induced by brain copper accumulation and that other structures than substantia nigra dopaminergic neurons seem to contribute to midbrain atrophy in WD.

Experience with beta-blocker therapy in patients with advanced heart failure evaluated for HTx.

BACKGROUND: The aim of this study was to review our experience with beta-blocker therapy on top of high-dose angiotensin-converting enzyme inhibitors (ACE-I) in patients with advanced heart failure evaluated for heart transplantation, and to question the value of intended heart transplantation for patients receiving this therapy. METHODS: Three hundred eighteen patients (New York Heart Association (NYHA) function class III 34%, class IV 66%, average left ventricular ejection fraction (LVEF) 16%, and average cardiac index 2.2 l/min per m(2) at time of referral) were treated with digitalis, loop diuretics, maximally uptitrated ACE-I, beta-blockers (if tolerated), and intravenous support (if needed). After 3 months, patients were retrospectively stratified into those receiving beta-blockers plus ACE-I (Group A, n = 126), ACE-I (Group B, n = 135), and ACE-I plus intravenous support (Group C, n = 57). Endpoint 1 of the study was combined urgent heart transplantation, mechanical assist device implantation, and pretransplant death during a follow-up of 12 to 48 (mean 19 +/- 11) months. Endpoint 2 was posttransplant mortality up to 48 (mean 14 +/- 8) months. RESULTS: In the pretransplantation period the survival rate was 58% and the mortality rate was 20%. Between Groups A and B there was a significant difference in mortality (9% vs 27%, p = 0.001) due to a lower sudden-death rate in Group A (6% vs 17%, p < 0.01). While between Groups A and C all event rates of Endpoint 1 differed significantly, between Group C and Group B total mortality (30% vs 27%) was similar. However, in Group C urgent heart transplantation (HTx) was more often performed than in Group B (54% vs 11%, p < 0.0001). Seventy of 318 patients (22%) underwent heart transplantation (16% urgent, 6% elective). Posttransplant actuarial survival of the entire transplanted cohort (n = 70, 12 deaths) was significantly lower (log rank p < 0.01) than event-free survival in Group A (n = 126, 18 events), significantly higher (log rank p < 0. 0001) than event-free survival in Group C (n = 57, 34 events), and similar to that in Group B (n = 135, 52 events). CONCLUSION: This experience suggests that it may be particularly useful to add a beta-blocker to ACE-I therapy in patients referred for heart transplantation. In patients who tolerate this treatment, heart transplantation does not seem to provide additional survival benefit in the short term (2 years).

Impact of cerebellar lesion on syntactic processing evidenced by event-related potentials.

In concern to the uncertain neural signature of the cerebellum in syntax processing, we investigated the Syntactic Positive Shift (SPS) for sentences with syntax violations in patients with cerebellar damage. In opposite to controls, patients showed no SPS around 300-650ms for syntax violations. Interestingly, Minimum-Norm analysis of SPS revealed increased activity in supramarginal and homologous Broca area for syntax violations in patients with cerebellar infarction. Overall, our findings support the still growing knowledge of the involvement of the cerebellum in cerebral networks in syntactic processing as evidenced by a sensitive ERP component.

Effect of partial crystallization on the mechanical properties and cytotoxicity of bioactive glass from the 3CaO.P(2)O(5)-SiO(2)-MgO system.

The aim of this study is to report on the development and characterization of bioactive glass and glass-ceramics from the 3CaO.P(2)O(5)-SiO(2)-MgO-system, using different degrees of cristallinity for applications as an implant material. A methodology was proposed to induce crystallization of phases. Bioglass samples of the nominal composition (wt %) 57.75 CaO.P(2)O(5)-30 SiO(2)-17.25MgO were heat treated at temperatures ranging from 700 to 1100°C for 4h. The findings from the research illustrate how partial crystallization and phase transformations modified the microstructure of the based glassy material, resulting in improved mechanical properties. The maximum gain was measured for samples treated at 975°C, having a hardness of 6.2GPa, an indentation fracture toughness of 1.7MPam(1/2) and a bending strength of 120MPa, representing an increase of 30, 55 and 70%, respectively, when compared to the nucleated glass. The highest elastic modulus of about 130GPa was determined for samples treated at 1100°C. As a preliminary biological evaluation, "in vitro" cytotoxicity tests were realized to determine the cytotoxic level of the materials, using the neutral red uptake method with NCTC clones L929 from the American Type Culture Collection (ATCC) bank. On the other hand, no significant influence of the partial crystallization on cytotoxicity was observed. The results provide support for implant materials based on the 3CaO.P(2)O(5)-SiO(2)-MgO-system.