Gene/Protein Disease Symptom Drug Enzyme Compound
Pivot Concepts:   Target Concepts:
Query: UMLS:C0013911 (emaciation)
 1,059 document(s) hit in 31,850,051 MEDLINE articles (0.00 seconds)

Senile dementia is irreversible and runs a relatively chronic course, causing physical emaciation and psychological burden to families who must take care of senile dementia at home. However, there has been no report concerning a psychological study of families with senile dementia. Therefore, the psychological aspects of them were examined. Concerning the results, most caretakers of Alzheimer-type dementia with markedly associated psychiatric symptoms showed notably neurotic and depressive tendencies. By family parameters, these tendencies were strongly observed in families of caretakers alone. These results suggest that an expansion of local medical care, specifically geared to the home, is required, and more attention needs to be paid to the psychological aspects of caretakers.
 ...
PMID:A study of psychological aspects of families living together with senile dementia. 236 89

A 44-year-old man suffered from repeated impairment of consciousness associated with flapping tremor, myoclonus and generalized convulsions, and died in coma 6 months after admission. He had had a psychosomatically underdeveloped childhood, with a propensity for legumes without a family history of the same or a record of consanguinity. On admission, he had disturbed consciousness and emaciation without other physical abnormalities. The EEG revealed diffuse slow waves with occasional appearance of triphasic waves. A high level of serum citrulline (534.7 nmol/ml) was recognized and the assay of urea cycle enzymes in the liver demonstrated decreased argininosuccinate synthetase (ASS) activity (0.062 U/g liver, 7.4% of that in normal liver), although no kinetic abnormality was found. Accordingly he was diagnosed as having type II citrullinemia. In addition, this case could be classified as cluster type of localization of the ASS in the liver by immunohistochemical study. There were characteristic findings concerning his clinical picture and laboratory data, such as a significant correlation between the grade of disturbed consciousness and arterial blood gas pH (r = 0.61, p less than 0.01). However, the blood ammonia level did not always correlate with the severity of disturbed consciousness. Oral treatment with sodium citrate and sodium benzoate was very effective, though transiently, for disturbed consciousness in this case. Pathological findings of the autopsied liver were fatty change and fibrosis. Neuropathologically, characteristic findings were brain edema with cerebellar tonsilar herniation, laminar necrosis with spongy formation in cerebral cortex, and Alzheimer type II glia. The relationship between citrullinemia and other hepatic encephalopathy was also discussed.
 ...
PMID:[An autopsied case of type II citrullinemia--transient effectiveness with either citrate or benzoate to the consciousness disturbance]. 269 30

The various factors which determine brain weight and volume of the lateral ventricles were studied in an autopsy material of 467 cases. The material consisted of 64 men and 17 women between 45-54 years and 196 men and 190 women between 70-79 years. The weights of the cerebral hemispheres and of the cerebellum and brainstem were determined separately. The volume of the lateral ventricles was determined by weighing the hemispheres with and without water in the lateral ventricles. The recorded variables were age, sex, body length, body weight, cerebral atherosclerosis, Alzheimer changes and alcoholism. Cerebral atherosclerosis and Alzheimer changes were quantitated by morphometric methods. The results were analysed by conventional and multivariate statistical methods. The following observations were made: In normal brains there was a significant correlation between the weight of the supra- and infratentorial parts. Similarly, there was a significant correlation between the size of the lateral ventricles and the weight of the cerebral hemispheres. Women had smaller brains than men even when the difference in body length was taken into account. The difference was approximately 110-115 g for the whole brain after correction for other variables. Women had also smaller lateral ventricles than men, but this difference was in proportion to the smaller size of their hemispheres. There was a physiologic decline in brain weight and a widening of the lateral ventricles with increasing age. This shrinkage probably started after the age of 55. There was a clear correlation between body length and brain weight. The estimated increase in brain weight was approximately 3 g per cm body length. There was a decreasing brain weight and an increasing ventricular size with a decreasing body mass index. This shows that emaciation leads to a decrease in brain size. Severe Alzheimer changes caused a statistically significant enlargement of the lateral ventricles both in men and women. There was a general trend for brain weight reduction in cases with severe Alzheimer changes but the decrease was statistically significant only in old women, and it could not be entirely excluded that the weight reduction in part was due to a concurrent emaciation rather than to the Alzheimer changes per se. In the majority of the cases, the Alzheimer changes were mild and had probably progressed slowly with age. A few cases had very severe changes.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 400 WORDS)
 ...
PMID:Variations in the size of the human brain. Influence of age, sex, body length, body mass index, alcoholism, Alzheimer changes, and cerebral atherosclerosis. 388 32

We used only dexmedetomidine to sedate a patient with Alzheimer disease, Parkinson's syndrome and emaciation for decubitus treatment in the prone position. The infusion rate of dexmedetomidine without a loading dose was increased until sufficient sedation was attained. The maximum plasma concentration and the plasma concentration in a stable state, which were calculated by pharmacokinetic simulation analysis, were 2.3 ng x ml(-1) and 1.5 ng x ml(-1), respectively. Respiration disorder did not occur and hemodynamic stability was preserved despite administration up to 11.5 mcg x kg(-1) x h(-1). An increase in the dose per weight was needed to increase the absolute dose because of emaciation. It was found by pharmacokinetic simulation analysis that the plasma concentration of dexmedetomidine required for decubitus treatment might be higher than the plasma concentration considered to be necessary for sedation in intensive care units. The simulation was conducted to administer dexmedetomidine, to estimate hemodynamic reaction, and to estimate the necessary plasma concentration. We conclude that dexmedetomidine is useful as an anesthetic agent for decubitus treatment in the prone position, although further investigations with regard to its safety are required.
 ...
PMID:[Pharmacokinetic simulation of high-dose administration of dexmedetomidine for decubitus treatment]. 1691 Apr 81