Attention and Short-term Memory Impairments in Patients with Acute Bipolar Disorder: A Comparison Study with Schizophrenia and Normal Controls / 대한정신약물학회지

INTRODUCTION: There are several studies that suggest bipolar and schizophrenic patients have similar pattern of cognitive impairments. The goal of this study is to examine whether there are common cognitive deficits between bipolar and schizophrenic patients in the attention and short-term memory domains using Vienna Test System. METHODS: Cognitive functions were assessed with a computerized neurocognitive test (Vienna Test System) in admitted patients with bipolar disorder (N=63), schizophrenia (N=65), and normal controls (N=64). The assessments were done with four subtests of Vienna Test System including Cross-over, Continuous Attention, Corsi's block tapping test and Work performance series. RESULTS: The performances of the bipolar and schizophrenic groups were significantly below that of the control group on the measures of attention and short-term memory. there were no significant differences between bipolar and schizophrenic groups. CONCLUSION: The results indicate that acute bipolar disorder and acute schizophrenia are not distinguishable in some neurocognitive domains such as attention and short-term memory. We may suggest that there is possible common factor underlying the neurocognitive impairments of bipolar disorder and schizophrenia.

Tumor Angiogenesis and Vascular Endothelial Growth Factor Expression in Cervical Intraepithelial Neoplasia

Angiogenesis is an essential requirement for development, progression, and metastasis of malignant tumors. Vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) is one of the important angiogenic factors. Recently the role of angiogenesis has been known in premalignant lesions. This study was performed to determine whether the angiogenesis and VEGF expression were increased in association with histological grade of cervical intraepithelial neoplasia (CIN) and to see the relationship between the angiogenesis and VEGF. Immunostainings for factor VIII and VEGF were performed on 52 cases of cervical neoplasia (12 cases of CIN I, 11 cases of CIN II, 15 cases of CIN III, 7 cases of microinvasive squamous cell carcinoma, and 7 cases of invasive carcinoma) and 5 cases of normal cervix. The results showed a significant increase of microvessel count from normal cervix through CIN grades to invasive squamous cell cacinoma. VEGF expression was increased in proportion to the CIN grades. There was no significant correlation between microvessel count and VEGF expression. In conclusion, the tumor angiogenesis is an early event in tumorigenesis of uterine cervix. In addition, no significant relationship between the microvessel count and VEGF expression in CIN suggests the possibility of other growth factors affecting mainly angiogenesis of premalignant lesion of uterine cervix.