Gene/Protein Disease Symptom Drug Enzyme Compound
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Query: UMLS:C0851184 (thinning)
 11,252 document(s) hit in 31,850,051 MEDLINE articles (0.00 seconds)

A 43 year old male presented with slowly progressive weakness of limbs and hypertrophy of triceps, brachioradialis and calf muscles for four years. There was thinning of quadriceps muscles in both thighs. Histological study was compatible with Becker muscular dystrophy (BMD). Genomic DNA analysis showed a deletion of the Hind III fragments, spanning exons 45-47. A junction fragment of 11.0 kb was observed along with a deletion of a 3.4 kb PstI fragment containing exon 51 in the patient, and in one of his two sisters. The clinical and laboratory characteristics in this patient are in keeping with what has been described 'quadriceps myopathy' and fall within the phenotypic variants of BMD as has been shown by others.
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PMID:Detection of deletion in the dystrophin gene of a patient with quadriceps myopathy. 1075 17

Global changes of scalp hair represent the cumulative end result of discrete changes of individual hair follicle structure and/or function. Monitoring of such changes requires an accurate non-invasive method. The phototrichogram (PTG) appears to be an appropriate choice to do so. However, a known weakness of the method is the lack of detection of less pigmented or thinning hair. Balding scalp of male subjects with androgenetic alopecia (AGA) was analysed with our previously published PTG method and with contrast enhanced (CE-)PTG followed by biopsy and transverse section examination with the light microscope. As compared with PTG, the CE-PTG method significantly improved detection not only of thin but also of thick hair. Equal numbers of thick (diameter > 40 mm) hair were detected with CE-PTG and with histology. CE-PTG was also able to detect the severely miniaturised hair fiber (down to 8 mm diameter) and was comparable to scalp biopsy analysis. The latter could identify hair fibres, which did not reach the scalp surface, a measure that is considered as not clinically significant. All growth stages - anagen, catagen and telogen - as well as the empty follicle stage could clearly be observed with CE-PTG. Staging of the more severely affected hair follicles was not always possible neither with CE-PTG nor histology - even with serial sectioning. The finding of such technological advantages makes the CE-PTG a first choice method for detailed analysis of hair cycling in androgenetic alopecia - a scalp disorder characterised by extreme hair follicle miniaturisation, decreased hair pigmentation and hair thinning.
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PMID:Contrast enhanced phototrichogram (CE-PTG): an improved non-invasive technique for measurement of scalp hair dynamics in androgenetic alopecia--validation study with histology after transverse sectioning of scalp biopsies. 1139 39

Gravid Nya:NYLAR mice, infected with Toxoplasma gondii on gestation day 7, experienced embryo resorptions, abortions, stillbirths, and a reduction in average litter size by one-third. Postnatally, all congenitally infected pups showed growth retardation, cachexia, and hind limb weakness. Some pups developed necrotic petechiae on the ears and tail, and a blood-tinged nasal discharge. Coronal sections of the cerebellum at age 1 month revealed developmental abnormalities including: persistence of remnants of an external granular layer; fragmented and disoriented Bergmann glial foot processes; numerous ectopic granule cells stranded in the molecular layer; focal disorganization and edema of the Purkinje cell layer; and thinning of the internal granular layer. Our working hypothesis is that the cerebellar anomalies originated with parasite invasion of the fetal vascular endothelium leading to vasculitis and microcirculatory dysfunction, perivascular edema, perfusion impairment, and tissue anoxia. In the cerebellar folia, the cellular migration defects are attributed to edema-induced swelling and fragmentation of the Bergmann glial foot processes that guide migrating neurons, whereas the focal loss of Purkinje and granule cells is ascribed to hypoxia-ischemia. Although Toxoplasma cysts were detected in the cerebellum, morphologic evidence of parasite association with neuropathology was not obtained.
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PMID:Cerebellar anomalies in congenital murine toxoplasmosis. 1210 72

Reactions to oral contraceptive therapy tend to be maximal during the first few months of use. They include nausea or epigastric discomfort, malaise, dizziness, nervousness, fatigue, weakness, leg cramps, headache, and depression. The estrogenic component is thought to be the cause. There may also be a psychogenic basis reflecting apprehension. Breast tenderness is an occasional complaint and intermenstrual spotting or breakthrough bleeding is often reported. Increasing dosage has reduced this symptom. Dysmenorrhea prior to treatment may be improved but occasionally it is aggravated. Drug-induced amenorrhea presents a double problem in that failure to resume medication 7 days after completion of a cycle results in a risk of conception. Episodes of severe uterine bleeding in patients discontinuing use after several months or years have been reported. Other side effects include a skin reaction resembling acne, pruritus, hirsutism, thinning of scalp hair, increased skin pigmentation, and weight gain or loss. Serious vascular complications and hepatic dysfunction have been shown and deviation of thyroid function may be shown by increase of serum protein-bound iodine (PBI). Clinical signs of hyperthyroidism have not been described. Oral contraception is associated with elevated plasma cortisol (hydrocortisone) levels and decreased urinary levels of 17-hydroxycorticosteroids (17-OCHS). Suppression of ovarian activity by oral contraceptives is rapidly reversible. Fear of carcinogenesis has caused much alarm but no proof as of the present time. Safety of long term use will require additional years of experience.
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PMID:Side-effects and possible complications of oral contraceptive drugs. 1225 41

After atraumatic birth, three neonates presented with muscle hypotonia and weakness. Flaccid paresis of the upper extremities, spasticity of the lower extremities, dissociate sensory loss and autonomic dysfunction developed later. This ruled out the initial, tentative diagnoses of cerebral palsy, spinal muscular atrophy or hereditary neuropathy. Diagnostic imaging revealed marked thinning of the cervical spinal cord in all patients. The possible aetiology of these lesions is considered. In all cases, an antenatal or perinatal infarction is thought to be the most probable cause. Different clinical pictures following intrauterine spinal cord ischemia are discussed. Spinal cord lesion must be considered even after atraumatic birth.
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PMID:Cervical spinal cord atrophy in the atraumatically born neonate: one form of prenatal or perinatal ischaemic insult? 1269 May 68

A candidate for refractive surgery presented with classic (type I) Ehlers-Danlos syndrome (EDS). Clinical examination revealed blue sclera, limbus-to-limbus corneal thinning, myopia, and astigmatism. Orbscan (Bausch & Lomb) pachymetry mapping provided a striking demonstration of the limbus-to-limbus thinning with a central corneal thickness of 360 microm in the right eye and 383 microm in the left eye and midperipheral corneal thickness ranging from 370 to 438 microm and 376 to 434 microm, respectively. Despite the theoretical biomechanical weakness from the thin cornea and defective collagen, regular surface topography was maintained without the development of keratoconus. Although all types of EDS remain a contraindication to laser refractive surgery, Orbscan mapping provides a valuable insight into corneal shape and thickness in this condition.
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PMID:Orbscan mapping in Ehlers-Danlos syndrome. 1531 10

We investigated early peripheral nervous system impairment in PMP22-transgenic rats ("CMT rat"), an established animal model for Charcot-Marie-Tooth disease 1A, at postnatal day 30 (P30), when the clinical phenotype is not yet apparent. Hemizygous CMT1A rats and wildtype littermates were studied by means of behavioral examination, electrophysiology, molecular biology, and light microscopy analysis. Behavioral studies only showed, a mild, but significant, decrease in toe spread 1-5, suggesting a weakness of distal foot muscles in CMT1A rats compared with normal littermates. Nerve conduction studies disclosed a severe slowing in motor conduction velocity, a temporal dispersion and a dramatic decrease of amplitude of motor waves in P30 transgenic animals. Coherently with a demyelinating process, affected nerves showed a significant thinning of myelin. Interestingly, axonal diameter and area were unchanged, but expression of non-phosphorylated neurofilaments was increased in CMT1A rats compared with normal controls. Our results confirm the fidelity of this animal model to human disease. Similarly, in young CMT1A patients, the MCV is significantly reduced and the muscle weakness is confined to distal segments, whereas morphological and morphometrical signs of axonal atrophy are absent. However, the presence of a molecular and functional damage of the axons suggests that this may be the correct moment to start neuroprotective therapies.
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PMID:Early abnormalities in sciatic nerve function and structure in a rat model of Charcot-Marie-Tooth type 1A disease. 1547 94

The majority of pituitary tumors that cause Cushing's disease are small (<1 cm diameter), and most disease morbidity is due to the effects of elevated, non-suppressible, ACTH levels that these tumors secrete. Tumor-derived ACTH leads to adrenal-derived steroid hypersecretion and results in many disabling and sometimes life-threatening symptoms including abnormal fat deposition, skin thinning, psychological disturbances, hypertension, diabetes, osteoporosis and muscle weakness. Cushing's disease is associated with high morbidity and ultimately mortality. In experienced specialized centers, 70% of corticotroph microadenomas can be successfully resected by transsphenoidal pituitary surgery. However, surgical "cure" rates for larger ACTH-secreting pituitary tumors are achieved in only 30% of cases, and recent reports highlight a significant recurrence rate after longer term follow-up even in smaller tumors. Post-surgical persistence of ACTH hypersecretion may require pituitary-directed radiation, but this treatment may take some time to be effective, and like extensive surgical pituitary tumor resection, ultimately leads to partial- or total hypopituitarism in approximately 80% of cases. Although hypercortisolism may be completely resolved by adrenalectomy, this procedure does not suppress, and may act as a stimulus to pituitary tumor growth, and is associated with other co-morbidity. Although some currently available drug-based treatments for Cushing's disease effectively control hypercortisolism, their drawback has been that they do not impact on pituitary tumor growth. Recent studies have identified the potential utility of peroxisome-proliferator activating receptor-gamma (PPAR-gamma) novel ligands in in vitro, and in vivo Cushing's disease models, and have paved the way for early clinical studies to develop novel therapeutic approaches in Cushing's disease.
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PMID:PPAR-gamma in Cushing's disease. 1641 39

A proportion of patients with myasthenia gravis (MG) without acetylcholine receptor (AChR) antibodies have antibodies to muscle-specific kinase (MuSK). MG with MuSK antibodies (MuSK-MG) is often associated with persistent bulbar involvement, including marked facial weakness and tongue muscle wasting. The extent of muscle wasting in MuSK-MG, and whether it is also found in the few acetylcholine receptor (AChR-MG) patients who have persistent bulbar involvement, is not clear. We studied 12 MuSK-MG patients and recruited 14 AChR-MG patients matched broadly for age, sex ratio, duration of disease and degree of ocular, bulbar and facial weakness. We used coronal and sagittal T1-weighted (T1W) and T2-weighted (T2W) magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) to assess muscle wasting in facial and tongue muscles. Hyperintense signal on T1W MRI and comparison of axial T1W sequences with cUTE sequences were used to assess fibrous/fatty tissue in the tongue. We compared the results with those of four patients with myotonic dystrophy and 12 healthy individuals. We correlated the changes with clinical and treatment histories, and established a new ocular-bulbar-facial-respiratory (OBFR) score. At the time of study, none of the clinical measures, including the OBFR score, differed between the two MG groups. MRI demonstrated thinning of the buccinator, orbicularis oris (O.oris) and orbicularis oculi (O.oculi) muscles in MuSK-MG patients compared with healthy controls, whereas thinning of these muscles was not significant in AChR-MG. Tongue areas with T1W high signal were increased in MuSK-MG patients and the intensity of the signal on axial T1W sequences was greater in MuSK-MG than in controls. To look for possible correlations between imaging and clinical findings, we pooled results from all MG patients. The duration of treatment with prednisolone at >40 mg on alternate days (AD) correlated positively with the percentage of tongue area with high signal (P = 0.006) and negatively with MRI measurements of individual muscles and with the mean muscle dimensions (P = 0.001). The new OBFR score correlated positively with current Myasthenia Gravis Foundation of America grades and with the percentage of high signal (P = 0.004) and negatively with the mean muscle dimensions (P < 0.001). The results show that bulbar and facial muscle weakness and wasting are associated with significant muscle atrophy and fatty replacement in MuSK-MG, which was not found in the AChR-MG patients. MuSK antibodies per se may predispose to muscle thinning, but the difficulties in obtaining clinical remission under steroid therapy in some patients, resulting in long duration of treatment with higher doses (>40 mg AD), may be an additional factor.
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PMID:MRI and clinical studies of facial and bulbar muscle involvement in MuSK antibody-associated myasthenia gravis. 1667 91

A case of adult-onset ataxia-telangiectasia (AT) is presented, with debut at the age of 18 years and survival into the fourth decade. The clinical picture included cerebellar ataxia, distal weakness and hypopalesthesia in the lower limbs, oculomotor apraxia, dysarthria, and conjunctival telangiectasiae. Carcinoembrionic antigen was raised in plasma. MR imaging showed atrophy of the cerebellar vermis and thinning of the spinal cord. Deficiencies of gamma-aminobutyric acid and glutamate have been found in the cerebellar cortex in a case of AT. These were attributed to the loss of Purkinje cells and granule cells. In spite of some ataxias having improved with the gabaergic drugs gabapentin and tiagabine, the administration of gabapentin, acetazolamide and a placebo, did not benefit this patient. Pregabalin, 225 mg/day, ameliorated the ataxia unexpectedly, with further improvement after the addition of tiagabine. The authors suggest that the beneficial effect observed might have been due, either to the higher affinity of pregabalin towards alpha2-delta, a subtype of the alpha2-delta subunit which forms part of the voltage-gated calcium channel; either to the profusion of this subtype in the Purkinje cell layer, or to its larger capacity to let calcium into the neuron; or to the combination of these. These differences with gabapentin could explain the higher power of pregabalin in the stimulation of the cerebellar structures, thus justifying the improvement of ataxia in this case of AT. A synergistic effect with pregabalin is proposed as the cause of the improvement obtained with the addition of tiagabine.
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PMID:[Adult-onset ataxia-telangiectasia. A clinical and therapeutic observation]. 1701 92


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