Background and Purpose: The relation of poststroke blood pressure to stroke recurrence remains undetermined, and the optimal control of blood pressure has not been established. We

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE:The natural history and therapeutic management of dissecting vertebrobasilar aneurysms without ischemic or hemorrhagic stroke (nonstroke dissecting vertebrobasilar aneurysms) are not well-established. We conservatively followed patients with nonstroke dissecting vertebrobasilar aneurysms and evaluated the factors related to clinical and morphologic deterioration.

We report the case of a 59-year-old female aluminum encephalopathy patient who had chronic renal failure and took 3.0 g hydroxy-aluminum gel per day for the control of serum phosphorus level during a 15-year period. Nine months before her death she developed disorientation, memory disturbance, emotional incontinence, general convulsions and consciousness disturbance. Neuropathologically, the brain showed nerve cell atrophy and mild loss with stromal spongiosis, proliferation of astrocytes and microglia in the cerebral cortex, basal ganglia and thalamus. Some nerve cells were stained immunohistochemically by phosphorylated neurofilament, but apparent neurofibrillary tangles were not observed. Aluminum was detected in the nerve cells of the cerebral cortex by X-ray microanalysis. Despite the long-term intake of aluminum, there were no neuropathological findings of Alzheimer's disease. The findings in our case suggested that aluminum alone might not develop Alzheimer's disease.

No abstract

We analyzed the production and expression of three colony-stimulating factors (CSFs) in neonates to clarify the mechanism of leukocytosis at birth. Serial blood samples (n = 23) were collected from mothers, cord blood, and from newborn infants on days 1,5, and 30 after birth. The serum levels of granulo-cyte-CSF (G-CSF), granulocyte/macrophage-CSF (GM-CSF) and macro-phage-CSF (M-CSF) were measured by ELISA. The G-CSF levels on day 1 after birth were significantly higher than those thereafter, and they were also higher in the mothers than those on days 5 and 30 after birth. The GM-CSF levels did not change significantly during the neonatal period. The serum M-CSF levels were higher on postnatal day 1 than at other times, and gradually decreased thereafter. To confirm the production sites of G-CSF and M-CSF, the mRNA for these CSFs in peripheral mononuclear cells (MNCs) from healthy adults, mothers, and cord blood were analyzed by PCR. The expression of G-CSF and GM-CSF mRNA was undetectable in MNCs from adults, mothers, and cord blood, while these cells expressed low levels of M-CSF mRNA. After stimulation with lipopolysaccharide or phorbol myristate acetate, the MNCs expressed high levels of G-CSF and GM-CSF mRNA. The levels of G-CSF PCR products in cord MNCs were lower than those in adult and maternal MNCs. The expression of M-CSF mRNA was virtually unchanged by stimulation. To detect the localization of G-CSF and M-CSF in the placenta and umbilical cord, these tissues were immunocytochemically stained with anti-G-CSF and anti-M-CSF antibodies. G-CSF and M-CSF were expressed in trophoblasts and decidual stromal cells, whereas the umbilical cord did not express these CSFs. Moreover, large amounts of G-CSF and M-CSF were detected in the supernatant of cultured trophoblasts and decidual stromal cells. The expression of G-CSF and M-CSF in these cells was confirmed by PCR. These findings suggested that G-CSF and M-CSF produced in the placenta (trophoblasts and decidual stromal cells) are the major factors that induce leukocytosis in newborn infants at birth.