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CURRENT SCIENCE REVIEWS By Joe Bruman January 2001 Page 1 of 3 Meeting ANA 2000; Ann Neur 2000;48:407ff: Selected abstracts from the American Neurological Association annual meeting 15-18 October 2000 will be reviewed elsewhere than this CSR because of their large number. Meeting presentations are preliminary, and may or may not be archived later in Annals of Neurology, the Association's peer-review journal. (Not to be confused with Neurology, journal of the American Academy Of Neurology.) Calabresi P et al; Neur 2000;55:1249-1255: Review of current knowledge suggests, since different types of brain cells in the striatum vary widely in their vulnerability to insults of energy metabolism or to defects in glutamate-mediated neurotransmission, the vulnerability might arise from cellular anomalies at the molecular level. That variety might possibly lead to therapeutic drugs that act specifically against the different neuronal disorders. Baldereschi M et al; Neur 2000;55:1358-1363: By means of records, screening, and examination they followed 4341 elderly, parkinsonism-free Italians in a community-based study lasting 3 years, during which time 68 of the subjects developed varied kinds of parkinsonism, of which PD was most common. Average annual incidence in age range 65-80 years of all parkinsonism types was about 530/100,000 people; of PD alone, 326/100,000. In the latter range, PD incidence among men was twice that among women. Parkinson Study Group; Neur 2000;55:1540-1547: In a test of the Single-Photon-Emission Computed Tomography (SPECT) marker (dopamine transporter) DOPASCAN, they compared scans of 96 patients having either parkinsonism (PD or PSP) or not (Essential Tremor or healthy controls) at several centers, finding that DOPASCAN/SPECT imaging not only distinguishes the two groups, but also can indicate the degree of dopaminergic degeneration in a parkinsonian subject. Elble R; Neur 2000;55:1547-1551: He measured tremor frequency in 44 patients diagnosed with essential tremor exclusively, over a period of 4 years, finding that it slows with advancing age. The average tremor frequency at age 60 was 6.28 Hz, decreasing thereafter by about 0.06 to 0.08 Hz/year. Kompoliti K et al; Neur 2000;55:1572-1574: Previous questionnaire studies indicated that PD motor symptoms worsen in premenstrual period of women, presumably following the variation of estrogen and progesterone levels. In this study of 10 subjects, PD symptom severity did fluctuate, but didn't correlate with estrogen or progesterone levels. CURRENT SCIENCE REVIEWS By Joe Bruman January 2001 Page 2 of 3 Bachoud-Levi A et al; Lancet, 9 December 2000:1975-1979: They grafted human fetal neural tissue in the striatum of 5 patients with Huntington's Disease (HD), 3 of whom showed clinical improvement as well as evidence from MRI and PET scans that the grafts survived and functioned. [As in PD, HD is marked by loss of neurons in the caudate and putamen of the striatum, but the mediating neurotransmitter is gamma-amino- butyric acid (GABA) rather than dopamine. [This success should increase the demand, and political pressure, for support of embryonic (stem cell) research and use. JRB] Lancet, 9 December 2000:1945 (editorial) Somewhat sceptical commentary on the item cited above. Lancet, 9 December 2000:1993 (news item) Comment on previous report (in abstracts from ANA 125 meeting cited above) that monkeys deprived of estrogen by removal of ovaries suffered consequent loss of dopamine-producing neurons in the substantia nigra. Lancet, 16 December 2000:2099 (letters): Discussing prior report (CSR OCT 00) about impaired defensive response to hypoxia in PD patients. ANZICS Clinical Trials;Lancet, 23/30 December 2000:3139-3143: Since dopamine is a diuretic and natriuretic, it's given to ICU patients at risk of imminent kidney failure. But a controlled 328-subject trial showed that the benefits are minimal. JAMA, 27 December 2000:3175,3180 (editorials) Long and pompous commentaries on ethical issues in two areas of controversial (to JAMA) medical research: embryonic stem cells, and transplantation of genetically altered human cells. In other news, JAMA supports the bill, passed in the House and coming up in the Senate, forbidding doctor-assisted suicide. BMJ, 9 December 2000:1427 (editorial) BMJ joins the fray on stem cell research, suggesting the UK government should permit but carefully regulate it. Kis B et al;J Neur N'surg Psych 2000;69:838: Comment on earlier study report (which I missed) that 15 out of 41 first-degree relatives of patients with familial PD on examination showed impaired frontal executive function, which might turn out to be a preclinical diagnostic clue. Merello M et al; J Neur N'surg Psych 2000;69:787-791: They studied 40 consecutive PD patients who received posteroventral pallidotomy, in which placement of the lesion site was first determined by high-resolution magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), but revised during the actual surgery by means of single-cell microrecording, with significant differences between the two. CURRENT SCIENCE REVIEWS By Joe Bruman January 2001 Page 3 of 3 Graham J et al; Brain 2000:123:2423-2431: Iron concentration and distribution in the brain seems to be an important factor in PD. Authors here describe a simple non-invasive magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) technique called "partially refocused interleaved multiple echo (PRIME) sequence" to measure iron content, and a proof trial with PD subjects and healthy controls. Kishore A et al; Brain 2000;123:2491-2500: By studying test results in recipients of unilateral pallidotomy with varying lesion volumes, they explored the functional anatomy of the globus pallidus internus (GPi) but their observed conclusions also were variable. -- J. R. Bruman (818) 789-3694 3527 Cody Road Sherman Oaks, CA 91403-5013