We have discovered a variant associated with susceptibility to periodic limb movements in sleep. The inverse correlation of the variant with iron stores is consistent with the suspected involvement of iron depletion in the pathogenesis of the disease.

No abstract

We identified a marker in LINGO1 showing genome-wide significant association (P = 1.2 × 10−9, odds ratio = 1.55) with essential tremor. LINGO1 has potent, negative regulatory influences on neuronal survival and is also important in regulating both central-nervous-system axon regeneration and oligodendrocyte maturation. An increase in the number of fusiform swellings of Purkinje cell axons in LINGO1 knockout models highlights the potential role of LINGO1 in essential tremor pathophysiology.

The most common forms of dystonia are those that develop in adults and affect a relatively isolated region of the body. Although these adult-onset focal dystonias are most prevalent, knowledge of their etiologies and pathogenesis has lagged behind some of the rarer generalized dystonias, where the identification of genetic defects has facilitated both basic and clinical research. This summary provides a brief review of the clinical manifestations of the adult-onset focal dystonias, focussing attention on less well-understood clinical manifestations that need further study. It also provides a simple conceptual model for the similarities and differences among the different adult-onset focal dystonias, as a rationale for lumping them together as a class of disorders while at the same time splitting them into subtypes. The concluding section outlines some of the most important research questions for the future. Answers to these questions are critical for advancing our understanding of this group of disorders, and for developing novel therapeutics.

This preliminary analysis indicates that 80% of the patients in group B remained steroid-free 1 year postoperatively, with lower tacrolimus trough levels and no difference in other adverse events.

The role of HLA antibodies in chronic allograft rejection was examined utilizing a unique resource of sera collected annually and stored over a 12-year period from patients with rejected or retained grafts. In patients selected for not having preformed HLA antibodies, 679 postoperative serial serum samples from 39 patients who rejected their grafts and 26 with functioning grafts were tested for HLA Class I and Class II antibodies by flow cytometry and for MICA antibodies by cytotoxicity on recombinant cell lines. HLA antibodies were found in 72% of patients who rejected grafts, compared to 46% with functioning transplants (p < 0.05). In addition, the incidence of IgG HLA plus MICA antibodies was higher (77%) among those with failed transplants than those with functioning transplants (42%) (p < 0.01). Finally, if patients with IgM anti-HLA antibodies were included, 95% of the 39 patients who rejected their grafts had HLA or MICA antibodies, compared to 58% with functioning grafts (p < 0.01). Patients who rejected transplants had HLA and MICA antibodies more frequently than those with functioning grafts. These antibodies found in the peripheral circulation, were not necessarily donorspecific, but their association with failure is consistent with a causality hypothesis.

This 1-year interim analysis of a long-term, prospective, randomized renal-transplant study indicates that decreasing maintenance dosage of Tacro with adjunctive Siro or MMF appears to point to improved long-term function, with reasonably few adverse events.

No abstract