Male gender or the absence of conventional autoantibodies does not preclude the diagnosis or need for treatment, and patients with cholestatic changes warrant cholangiography and possible combination therapy with ursodeoxycholic acid. Different ethnic groups commonly have advanced hepatic fibrosis, rapidly progressive disease, or cholestatic features, and elderly patients
typically respond well to corticosteroid therapy. Pregnancy is usually well-tolerated by mother and foetus but requires protection against postpartum exacerbation. Special populations must be recognized and treated with tailored regimens. (C) 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.”
“Objective: To describe the sleep patterns of early cocaine abstinence in chronic users
by polysomnographic and subjective measures.
Methods: 28 cocaine-dependent participants (ages 24-55) underwent polysomnographic sleep (PSG) recording on the 1st, find more 2nd and 3rd weeks of abstinence on a research dedicated inpatient facility. Objective measures of total sleep time, total REM time, slow wave sleep, sleep efficiency and a subjective measure (sleep quality) along with demographic data were collected from three different long term research studies over a five year period. Data were reanalysed to allow greater statistical power for comparisons.
Results: Progressive weeks of abstinence had Selleck AG-881 main effects on all assessed PSG sleep measures showing decreased total sleep time, REM sleep, stages 1 and 2 sleep, and sleep efficiency: increases in sleep onset and REM latencies and a slight increase in slow-wave sleep time were also present. Total sleep time and slow wave sleep were negatively
associated with years of cocaine use. Total sleep time was positively associated with the amount of current ethanol use. Sex differences were found with females having more total REM time and an increase at a near significance level in slow wave sleep. Subjective measures were reported as improving with increasing abstinence over the same time period.
Conclusions: Chronic cocaine CX-6258 in vitro users show a general deterioration in objective sleep measures over a three-week period despite an increase in subjective overall sleep quality providing further evidence for “”occult insomnia”" during early cocaine abstinence. (C) 2010 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.”
“This paper deals with an unusual case of Alzheimer’s disease with early onset, no family history, myoclonus, tonic generalized seizures and pseudo-periodic spikes on EEG. The demise occurred after 8 years of progressive cognitive deterioration; the pathological examination showed “”Pick-like”" atrophy, neurofibrillary tangles, senile plaques, congophilic angiopathy and cerebellar amyloid plaques. The genetical research could not support the hypothesis of a mutation of Presenilin 1 and 2 genes.