Gene/Protein Disease Symptom Drug Enzyme Compound
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Query: UMLS:C0085584 (encephalopathy)
 18,178 document(s) hit in 31,850,051 MEDLINE articles (0.00 seconds)

Experimental transmission of the Stetsonville, Wisconsin, U.S.A. source of transmissible mink encephalopathy (TME) to outbred Syrian golden hamsters resulted in two distinct syndromes, termed hyper (HY) and drowsy (DY), that diverge by the third hamster passage. The syndromes differed with respect to clinical signs, incubation period, brain titre, brain lesion profile and pathogenicity in mink. HY hamster TME had an incubation period of 65 +/- 1 days and was characterized by clinical signs of hyperaesthesia and cerebellar ataxia. Lethargy and the absence of hyperexcitability or cerebellar ataxia were representative of DY hamster TME which had an incubation period of 168 +/- 2 days. At endstage, HY and DY infected animals had brain titres of 10(9.5) LD50/g and 10(7.4) LD50/g of tissue, respectively, indicating that the replication kinetics of these two strains is different. Hamster TME passaged back into mink revealed that only DY retained mink pathogenicity. This suggests that the DY agent is the major mink pathogen in the Stetsonville TME source that is also pathogenic in hamsters after a long incubation period. The HY agent is likely to be a minor component of the original TME mink brain that replicates more rapidly than DY agent in hamsters, but alone is non-pathogenic in mink. The presence of the HY and DY strains of agent that retain their biological characteristics on repeated hamster passage in the Stetsonville TME source requires that the informational molecule encoding these transmissible agents has the capacity to account for this biological diversity.
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PMID:Identification of two biologically distinct strains of transmissible mink encephalopathy in hamsters. 153 75

Thallium poisoning is one of the most complex and serious toxicities known to man. The symptomatology of its toxicity is usually nonspecific due to the multi-organ involvement. The initial symptoms of thallium poisoning may include fever, gastrointestinal problems, delirium, convulsions and coma. Symptoms may appear rapidly, but more commonly the acute toxicity subsides to be replaced by a gradual development of mild gastrointestinal disturbances, polyneuritis, encephalopathy, tachycardia, skin eruptions, stomatitis, atrophic changes of the skin, nail changes (Mee's lines), and skin hyperesthesia (mainly in the soles of the feet and the tibia). Degenerative changes of the heart, liver and kidney, subarchanoid hemorrhage, bone marrow depression, and increased radiopacity of the liver may also occur. Development of psychotic behavior with hallucinations and dementia has also been reported. In humans the most characteristic sign of thallium toxicity is alopecia which usually appears in cases when death is delayed for 15-20 days. Other signs and symptoms may develop at any stage of toxicity. The current therapy for thallium poisoning is the use of prussian blue and potassium chloride. Potassium therapy is probably the single most effective agent in the treatment of thallium poisoning. Further research, however, is needed to find an optimal antidote for thallium.
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PMID:Thallium poisoning: a review. 633 55