No abstract

There are no studies on event-related cognitive potentials in frontotemporal dementia (FTD). In order to evaluate the aptitude and usefulness of the event-related P300 potential in this disease, we prospectively examined 60 cases: 11 patients with FTD diagnosed according to the Lund and Manchester criteria and Neary consensus criteria, 33 patients with a probable Alzheimer’s disease diagnosis following NINCDS-ADRDA criteria, and 16 normal controls. P300 latency, amplitude and reaction time were recorded using an auditory oddball paradigm. In this sample, P300 potential could be reliably performed by 10/11 FTD patients, notwithstanding their language or executive function deficiencies. The FTD group P300 mean latency was midway between the normal controls and the Alzheimer’s disease group (ANOVA F_2, 74199 = 16.5; p = 0.00003). The latency range of the FTD patients were within normal values (average plus 1.96 standard deviation of the values of the control group), except for one case with a latency of 448 ms. Post hoc Newman-Keuls analysis showed that the P300 latencies of the control and FTD groups did not differ significantly (p = 0.15) and that the Alzheimer’s disease group had a delayed P300 latency that differed significantly from that of the FTD (p = 0.002) and control group (p = 0.0002). However, there was overlapping in P300 latency values of the three groups. Despite these differences in latencies, the reaction time was significantly increased in the FTD and the Alzheimer’s disease groups. These findings indicate that the P300 potential is less affected in patients with FTD than those with Alzheimer’s disease. This fact could aid in FTD diagnosis, differential diagnosis with Alzheimer’s disease and possibly its clinical management.

No abstract

Metallothionein (MT) is a cysteine-rich protein that binds metals and is present in a number of normal cells, mainly during fetal life. It has been suggested that the developmental profile of metallothionein is similar to oncofetal gene products, and therefore, it could be potentially used as a prognostic tumor marker. We explored this concept by performing immunohistochemical stain for metallothionein in 155 axiliary lymph nodenegative breast carcinomas. Traditional tumor prognosticators of breast cancer including histologic type, nuclear grade, and estrogen receptor content were also analyzed to determine whether or not metallothionein is an independent marker of behavior. Moderate to strong metallothionein immunoreactivity of tumor cells correlated with decreased disease free (p < 0.02), and overall survivals (p < 0.03). No correlation was found between MT and histologic type and nuclear grade of tumors. Similarly, there was no statistically significant relationship between MT and estrogen receptor contents. It is concluded that overexpression of metallothionein is an independent indicator of poor prognosis in node-negative breast carcinomas.

Late phonological development in Spanish children with bilateral hearing loss / Desarrollo fonologico tardio en ninos espanoles con perdidas auditivas bilaterales. Infancia y Aprendizaje,