BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE:The quantification and clinical significance of WD in CSTs following supratentorial stroke are not well understood. We evaluated the anisotropy by using DTI and signalintensity changes on conventional MR imaging in the CST to determine whether these findings are correlated with limb motor deficit in patients with MCA ischemic stroke.

Activation of glutamate receptors induces an excitotoxic neurodegenerative process characterised in some brain areas by the formation of calcium precipitates. To examine the pathogenesis of basal ganglia calcification (BGC), an improved procedure of X-ray microanalysis was used to study experimental excitotoxic calcification in the rat. Three weeks after injection of ibotenic acid (IBO) in the rat basal forebrain, calcified inclusions within hypertrophied astrocytes were characterised. They appeared to form part of a filamentous structure localised in the cytoplasm in association with normal mitochondria and other organelles. Larger inclusions were surrounded by reactive microglia. The main inorganic components in these deposits were Ca and P, frequently accompanied by S. Al, Si and K. The shape and Ca/P molar ratio of the large deposits (>10 microm) indicate that they may be biological apatites. Aluminosilicates were detected as small deposits (<4 microm) free of other mineral constituents. To our knowledge this is the first report showing that IBO lesion induces brain accumulation of aluminosilicates similar to that described in Alzheimer's or Fahr's patients. Our data indicate that precipitation of Ca and Al may reduce their IBO-induced increased concentration. In conclusion, the experimental model and the improved efficiency of X-ray analysis described may help us to understand the pathogenesis of BGC.

A single injection of LA in US-SPB with needle insertion at the separation of the TN and CPN results in a similar success rate at 30 minutes; however, more patients in the US-SPB group than in the NS-SPB group had complete block at 15 minutes.

Our new series of first-episode naive-schizophrenic patients (1) points out DAT dysfunction as an illness trait due to the significantly lower DAT binding in schizophrenic patients in comparison to healthy subjects; (2) supports the results of other authors who describe PS in never-treated patients; (3) confirms that [(123)I] FP-CIT does not allow us to predict which patients will develop parkinsonism due to the lack of differences between DIP and NoDIP patients; and (4) confirms a null effect of antipsychotics on DAT due to the lack of differences in [(123)I] FP-CIT before and after a 4-week-treatment period.

In this paper, we study dynamical aspects of the two-dimensional (2D) gonihedric spin model using both numerical and analytical methods. This spin model has vanishing microscopic surface tension and it actually describes an ensemble of loops living on a 2D surface. The self-avoidance of loops is parametrized by a parameter . The = 0 model can be mapped to one of the six-vertex models discussed by Baxter, and it does not have critical behavior. We have found that allowing for 0 does not lead to critical behavior either. Finite-size effects are rather severe, and in order to understand these effects, a finite-volume calculation for non-self-avoiding loops is presented. This model, like his 3D counterpart, exhibits very slow dynamics, but a careful analysis of dynamical observables reveals nonglassy evolution (unlike its 3D counterpart). We find, also in this = 0 case, the law that governs the long-time, low-temperature evolution of the system, through a dual description in terms of defects. A power, rather than logarithmic, law for the approach to equilibrium has been found.