[Cardiac injury in acute cerebral vasculopathy]. / Sofferenza cardiaca in corso di vasculopatia cerebrale acuta.

Cardiac complications, including focal myocytolysis, electrocardiographic changes, arrhythmias and left ventricular wall motion abnormalities, frequently occur following stroke and contribute to worsen the prognosis. Their clinical spectrum seems to be related to the type of cerebrovascular disease and its localization. Thus, the incidence of arrhythmias and pulmonary edema is significantly higher in subarachnoid hemorrhage than in ischemic stroke, and the lesions in the right insular cortex are a major risk for complex arrhythmias and sudden death. Elevated plasma norepinephrine levels are frequently associated with these events and strongly suggest an underlying sympathetically mediated mechanism. The autonomic and cardiovascular effects of stroke, however, are modulated by concomitant factors such as pre-existent cardiac diseases, electrolyte disorders and, probably, by genetic alterations in the ionic control of myocyte repolarization. Although beta-blockers have been reported to prevent myocardial damage following stroke, adequate clinical trials are lacking, and the widespread use of these drugs in acute cerebrovascular disease is not supported by evidence.

Cerebral autosomal dominant arteriopathy with subcortical infarcts and leukoencephalopathy, genetic homogeneity, and mapping of the locus within a 2-cM interval.

Cerebral autosomal dominant arteriopathy with subcortical infarcts and leukoencephalopathy (CADASIL) is a recently identified autosomal dominant cerebral arteriopathy characterized by the recurrence of subcortical infarcts leading to dementia. A genetic linkage analysis conducted in two large families recently allowed us to map the affected gene on chromosome 19 in a 12-cM interval bracketed by D19S221 and D19S215. In the present study, these first 2 families and 13 additional ones, including a total of 199 potentially informative meiosis, have been genotyped with eight polymorphic markers located between D19S221 and D19S215. All families were linked to chromosome 19. The highest combined lod score (Zmax = 37.24 at theta = .01) was obtained with marker D19S841, a new CAn microsatellite marker that we isolated from chromosome 19 cosmids. The recombinant events observed within these families were used to refine the genetic mapping of CADASIL within a 2-cM interval that is now bracketed by D19S226 and D19S199 on 19p13.1. These data strongly suggest the genetic homogeneity of this recently identified condition and establish the value of its clinical and neuroimaging diagnostic criteria. Besides their importance for the ongoing positional cloning of the CADASIL gene, these data help to refine the genetic mapping of CADASIL relative to familial hemiplegic migraine and hereditary paroxysmal cerebellar ataxia, conditions that we both mapped within the same chromosome 19 region.

The effectiveness of oral midazolam as a hypnotic compared with lorazepam.

A double-blind closed sequential scheme study was carried out in 82 patients with insomnia to compare the hypnotic effectiveness of 15 mg midazolam and 1 mg lorazepam. Pairs of randomized patients were treated on one and the same night with midazolam or lorazepam, respectively. Eight parameters were recorded for each member of the pair. The time taken to fall asleep, the duration of sleep and the overall assessment of response showed that midazolam was significantly superior to lorazepam: the number of awakenings and evaluation by the patient verged on statistical significance. Both drugs were equal for the quality of sleep, dreams and the patient's condition on awakening. No side-effects were observed in any of the patients.