Recent studies of the spinal cord and cerebellum have highlighted the importance of atrophy in the development of neurological impairment in multiple sclerosis. We have therefore developed a technique to quantify the volume of another area commonly involved pathologically in multiple sclerosis: the cerebral white matter. The technique we describe extracts the brain from the skull on four contiguous 5 mm periventricular slices using an algorithm integrated in an image analysis package, and quantifies their volume. Intra-observer scan-rescan reproducibility was 0.56%. We have applied this technique serially to 29 patients with multiple sclerosis selected for an 18-month treatment trial with a monoclonal antibody against CD4+ lymphocytes (deemed clinically ineffective). A decrease in volume beyond the 95% confidence limits for measurement variation was seen in 16 patients by the end of the 18-month period. The rate of development of atrophy was significantly higher in those who had a sustained deterioration in their Kurtzke expanded disability status scale (EDSS) score compared with those who did not (respective means: -6.4 ml year-1 and -1.8 ml year-1, P < 0.05) but in both groups these changes differed significantly from baseline (P < 0.05). Baseline T2 lesion load, change in T2 lesion load over 18 months and the volume of new gadolinium enhancing lesions on monthly scans for the first 10 months showed no correlation with the development of atrophy. This study demonstrates that progressive cerebral atrophy can be detected in individual patients with multiple sclerosis, correlates with worsening disability and gives additional information to that obtained with conventional MRI. The effect of putative therapies aimed at preventing disability could be objectively assessed by this measure.

SummaryA computerised database of operating theatre activity was used to estimate the costs of regional and general anaesthesia for varicose vein and inguinal hernia surgery. Data retrieved for each procedure included the anaesthetic technique and drugs used, and the duration of anaesthesia, surgery and recovery. The costs of anaesthetic drugs and disposables, salary costs of the anaesthetic personnel and maintenance costs for anaesthetic equipment were considered. Drugs and disposables accounted for < 25% of the total cost of an anaesthetic. Anaesthetic times were 5 min longer for regional anaesthesia, but recovery times were 10 min shorter following regional anaesthesia for varicose vein surgery. Staff costs were dependent on the length of time each staff member spent with the patient. Although the number of cases was small, provision of a field block and sedation for inguinal hernia repair was considerably cheaper than other anaesthetic techniques.Keywords Anaesthetic costs: regional; general. Cost containment has become a priority in all areas of health care. Clinicians must work within tightly controlled budgets in spite of increasing demand for services, expectations of higher standards, and the introduction of new drugs and techniques. A common view is that anaesthetic costs are insignificant because they are a relatively small component of the total for each surgical episode. This is superficially true; the Audit Commission reported that anaesthetic services comprised only 3% of NHS trust expenditure [1]. However, this adds up to a large sum of money across the service. Anaesthesia for any surgical procedure involves a wide choice of drugs, techniques and monitoring procedures, each with very different cost implications. Selection of any particular method must be determined by the relative costs, as well as the clinical benefits, if the challenge of providing highquality care within limited resources is to be met.The cost of each anaesthetic is the sum of a number of components. Information about the price of drugs (the commonest focus for debate) is readily available, but choices based solely on drug acquisition costs ignore many other factors that contribute to the cost of an anaesthetic, including capital and recurrent expenditure on equipment, the prices of disposable equipment, and the salaries of the anaesthetist, anaesthetic assistant and recovery staff. Personnel costs are dependent on the time spent by the patient in the anaesthetic room, operating theatre and recovery area, each of which may be affected by the anaesthetic technique or drugs used. This study used data from a computerised database of operating theatre activity to compare the costs of general and regional anaesthesia for patients undergoing varicose vein and inguinal hernia surgery. Methods Data collectionThe Ninewells Hospital operating theatre management system was established in 1989 using the Financial Information Project (FIP) Galaxy Theatre System, a software package marketed by Sanderson GA Ltd (1±2 Venture Way, Aston Scien...

BackgroundDe novo mutations are emerging as an important cause of neurocognitive impairment, and whole exome sequencing of case-parent trios is a powerful way of detecting them. Here, we report the findings in four such trios.MethodsThe Deciphering Developmental Disorders study is using whole exome sequencing in family trios to investigate children with severe, sporadic, undiagnosed developmental delay. Three of our patients were ascertained from the first 1133 children to have been investigated through this large-scale study. Case 4 was a phenotypically isolated case recruited into an undiagnosed rare disorders sequencing study.ResultsProtein-altering de novo mutations in PURA were identified in four subjects. They include two different frameshifts, one inframe deletion and one missense mutation. PURA encodes Pur-α, a highly conserved multifunctional protein that has an important role in normal postnatal brain development in animal models. The associated human phenotype of de novo heterozygous mutations in this gene is variable, but moderate to severe neurodevelopmental delay and learning disability are common to all. Neonatal hypotonia, early feeding difficulties and seizures, or ‘seizure-like’ movements, were also common.Additionally, it is suspected that anterior pituitary dysregulation may be within the spectrum of this disorder. Psychomotor developmental outcomes appear variable between patients, and we propose a possible genotype–phenotype correlation, with disruption of Pur repeat III resulting in a more severe phenotype.ConclusionsThese findings provide definitive evidence for the role of PURA in causing a variable syndrome of neurodevelopmental delay, learning disability, neonatal hypotonia, feeding difficulties, abnormal movements and epilepsy in humans, and help clarify the role of PURA in the previously described 5q31.3 microdeletion phenotype.

Campath 1H treatment was associated with a sustained and marked reduction in the volume of Gd enhancement, indicating suppression of active inflammation. Nevertheless, many patients developed increasing brain and spinal cord atrophy, T1 hypointensity, and disability. This study highlights the potential role for novel MR techniques in monitoring the effect of treatment on the pathologic process in MS.

We investigated the relationship between local tissue destruction, diffuse cerebral atrophy and clinical progression in patients with established multiple sclerosis (MS). Twenty-nine patients with MS (13 patients with relapsing--remitting and 16 with secondary progressive disease) were included in a prospective serial study. Cerebral volumes, T1 hypointense lesion volumes, T2 hyperintense lesion volumes at baseline and at 18 months follow-up, and the volume of monthly enhancing lesions from month 0 to month 9 were assessed on magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) brain scans using highly reproducible semi-automated quantitative techniques. The main outcome measures were the MRI parameters and disability on Kurtzkes' Expanded Disability Status Scale. There was a significant correlation between the change (increase) in T1 lesion volume and progressive cerebral atrophy, whereas no correlation between the T2 lesion volume and atrophy was seen over the same follow-up period. The change in T1 lesion volume correlated more strongly than did T2 lesion volume change with the change in disability. We conclude that hypointense abnormalities detected in T1-weighted brain scans and cerebral atrophy may be directly linked. Although one should bear in mind some potential for reversibility due to inflammatory, oedematous lesions, these MR measures are a useful marker of progressive tissue damage and clinical progression in established MS.

Overall there were no striking features in the clinical presentation to distinguish pituitary inflammation from pituitary adenoma. The prognosis was generally good.

In this study, we evaluated the intra- and interobserver variabilities in measuring lesion load of brain MRI abnormalities present on proton-density scans from patients with MS, using using both manual outlining or a semiautomated local thresholding technique (LTT). We also evaluated how these variabilities were affected by the use of standard rules for lesion load measurements, training, and different measurement strategies. The intraobserver variabilities obtained after establishing rules for lesion load measurements and training were not significantly different from those obtained before any consensus among the observers, both for manual outlining and for the LTT. On the contrary, the interobserver variabilities obtained with manual outlining or the LTT were significantly reduced when rules for lesion load measurements were used. For manual outlining, the intraobserver variability did not significantly change when the measurements were performed after an experienced radiologist identified lesions or when using adjacent slices and the corresponding T2-weighted images as reference for lesion identification. On the contrary, for the LTT, the intraobserver variability was significantly reduced by the use of the radiologic marking. The interobserver variabilities for both manual outlining and the LTT were reduced compared with the free condition when these measurement strategies were used. Our findings demonstrate that both lesion identification and outlining are important sources of variation for MRI lesion load measurements in MS and that there are simple strategies to reduce such variation that might be useful when planning clinical trials.

We performed fast fluid-attenuated inversion recovery (fFLAIR) and conventional spin echo (CSE) brain MRI in 32 multiple sclerosis (MS) patients (eight each benign, relapsing-remitting, primary progressive, and secondary progressive). We compared number and site of lesions detected on each sequence. With initial separate assessment, we identified a total of 3,668 lesions-2,892 by CSE and 2,943 by fFLAIR. Following simultaneous review of the sequences, we identified an additional 217 lesions on fFLAIR and 229 on CSE. fFLAIR detected fewer lesions in the posterior fossa (66 versus 138, p = 0.001), fewer small (< 5 mm) discrete cerebral white matter lesions (671 versus 829, p = 0.0002), more subcortical lesions (542 versus 306, p < 0.0001), and more large discrete lesions (419 versus 385, p = 0.0006). Its relatively poor detection of posterior fossa lesions makes it premature for fFLAIR to replace CSE as the primary sequence for detecting MS lesions in clinical trials.