Moran, in an excellent review, defined idiopathic infantile arterial calcification as a rare disorder of undetermined etiology, characterized by deposition of calcific material along the internal elastic membrane of large, medium, and small arteries. Fibrous proliferation in the intima occurs and the arterial lumen is narrowed. The constellation of affected tissues varies but the coronary arteries are almost always involved whereas the arteries of the central nervous system are spared. Death from myocardial infarction usually results within the first six months of life. To date there have been only three survivors. We present the case history of a fourth survivor, a 22-year-old woman who, at the age of three months, was diagnosed as having idiopathic infantile arterial calcification.

Long-term prognosis of ACS survivors varied substantially according to conventional risk factor profile. Pravastatin reduced coronary risk within all risk levels; however, absolute risk remained high in treated patients with unfavorable profiles. Our risk stratification strategy enables identification of ACS survivors who remain at very high risk despite statin therapy.

Overinclusive thinking has been regarded by some authorities as an important aspect of the thought disorder found in schizophrenic patients (8). Norman Cameron (2, 3, 4, 5), who performed the pioneer studies in this field, defined overinclusive thinking as the inability to preserve conceptual boundaries, as a result of which distantly associated and even irrelevant ideas come to be regarded as essential parts of a concept. This abnormality necessarily makes thought more abstract and less precise. Furthermore, it can lead to overlapping concepts which share elements in common, when, normally, they should be mutually exclusive, a situation which allows the thought-disordered person to entertain two mutually incompatible ideas at the same time without recognizing the contradiction.

No abstract

Studies using objective tests have found that two relatively independent types of thought disorder occur in patients diagnosed as “schizophrenic”. In several studies (Payne, 1961) approximately half the acute schizophrenic patients showed an extreme degree of intellectual and motor retardation, more severe than that found even among retarded depressed patients, while half suffered from overinclusive thinking, as measured by the tests used. There was a significant tendency in one study (Payne and Hewlett, 1960) for these two types of thought disorder not to occur in the same acute schizophrenic patients.