BACKGROUND:Patients with tuberous sclerosis (Morbus Bourneville-Pringle) may show hamartomatous tumors of different organ systems. 50% of patients display astrocytic hamartomas of the retina. The skeletal system is affected in 40%: peri-, en- or exostoses, or cysts may occur. To the best of our knowledge, there are only three descriptions of an involvement of the facial skeleton in the literature.PATIENT:A 54-year-old man presented with recurrent dacryocystitis and lacrimal duct obstruction. Tuberous sclerosis and epilepsy were present since childhood. Besides typical skin lesions and intracranial calcified astrocytomas a retinal astrocytoma was detected in his left eye. Coronal CT scan revealed endonasal bone thickening involving the nasal floor, conchae and lateral walls. Evidence of maxillary and ethmoidal sinusitis was also present.CONCLUSION:The endonasal findings in our patient are most likely a manifestation of tuberous sclerosis of the facial skeleton. They may have favored the development of marked sinusitis and lacrimal duct obstruction.

Twenty psychiatric patients on lithium medication were examined with 7-Li-magnetic resonance spectroscopy of the brain. Patients on long-term lithium treatment (>6 months) were compared with a short-term group who had been taking lithium for between 4 and 8 weeks. Patients met DSM-III-R criteria for either recurrent unipolar depressive disorder (DSM-III-R 296.3x) or schizoaffective disorder, depressive type (DSM-III-R 295.70). The brain:serum lithium ratio was 0.76 +/- 0.26; there was no significant difference between short-term and long-term treatment In the group of long-term treatment patients there was a positive correlation between lithium dose per day and brain lithium concentration (R = .72, p < .01), and between lithium plasma concentration and brain lithium concentration (R = .65, p < .05). In the short-term group, however, there was no significant correlation for these parameters. No differences between unipolar and schizoaffective disorder were found. (C) 1997 Society of Biological Psychiatry.

BACKGROUND: Patients with tuberous sclerosis (Morbus Bourneville-Pringle) may show hamartomatous tumors of different organ systems. 50% of patients display astrocytic hamartomas of the retina. The skeletal system is affected in 40%: peri-, en- or exostoses, or cysts may occur. To the best of our knowledge, there are only three descriptions of an involvement of the facial skeleton in the literature. PATIENT: A 54-year-old man presented with recurrent dacryocystitis and lacrimal duct obstruction. Tuberous sclerosis and epilepsy were present since childhood. Besides typical skin lesions and intracranial calcified astrocytomas a retinal astrocytoma was detected in his left eye. Coronal CT scan revealed endonasal bone thickening involving the nasal floor, conchae and lateral walls. Evidence of maxillary and ethmoidal sinusitis was also present. CONCLUSION: The endonasal findings in our patient are most likely a manifestation of tuberous sclerosis of the facial skeleton. They may have favored the development of marked sinusitis and lacrimal duct obstruction.

In der folgenden Studie werden mittels der magnetresonanzspektroskopischen Methode in vivo Hirnlithiumsignalen bzw. -konzentrationen bestimmt. Es wurde ein Kollektiv von Patienten, die Lithium über sechs bis acht Wochen einnahmen, mit einer Gruppe, der Lithium sechs Monate oder länger verabreicht wurde, verglichen.

The response of the rhabdomyosarcoma R1H of the rat to fractionated irradiation has been reported to be almost independent of the dose per fraction in the range from 0.43 to 10 Gy. To elucidate whether recovery from radiation injury is impaired in fractionated irradiation or not, tumours were exposed on 5 days per week over 6 weeks either to a single daily dose or to two daily fractions separated by an interfraction interval of 2 h. Tumour response was assessed by net growth delay. Skin damage was scored for comparison. A significant reduction in tumour response (p < 0.009) and skin damage (p < 0.001) was observed when the daily dose was administered in a twice daily irradiation regimen, indicating that recovery from radiation injury does occur in the course of fractionated irradiation in our tumour system. As tumour response was almost independent of the dose per fraction for time intervals between fractions of at least 8 h, a possible explanation might be that recovery is compensated by improved reoxygenation.