Relation between executive cognitive functioning and the adverse consequences of alcohol use in social drinkers.

The purpose of this study was to assess the relation between Executive Cognitive Functioning (ECF) and the adverse consequences of alcohol consumption. ECF encompasses "higher order" cognitive abilities involved in goal-directed behavior, such as attentional control, mental flexibility, planning, and self-monitoring. Impaired ECF has been shown to result in a variety of negative consequences, including excessive drug and alcohol use. Subjects were 79 nonalcoholic male social drinkers between 17 to 30 years of age. ECF was measured using three neuropsychological tests: the Wisconsin Card Sorting Test (WCST), the Conditional Associative Learning Test (CAT), and the Sequential Matching Memory Test (SMMT). Adverse drinking consequences were measured using the Drinker Inventory of Consequences (DrInC). The DrInC assesses drinking consequences in five domains: Physical, Intrapersonal, Interpersonal, Social Responsibility, and Impulse Control. Scores from the neuropsychological tests were reduced into two latent variables: one representing the WCST and the other representing the CAT and SMMT. The results indicated that errors on the CAT/SMMT variable were positively related to adverse consequences in each domain, except for physical consequences. A similar association was found between the WCST variable and impulse control consequences. These findings indicate that performance on tests measuring ECF is related to the severity of drinking consequences. Therefore, prevention and treatment outcomes may be improved by incorporating cognitive habilitation into current interventions.

Saphenous nerve injury and regeneration on one side of a rat suppresses the ability of the contralateral nerve to evoke plasma extravasation.

Leakage of Evans blue dye from the circulation into the skin has been used to measure plasma extravasation evoked by antidromic nerve stimulation of the saphenous nerves in anaesthetised rats. Normal animals and ones in which one saphenous nerve had been cut and left to regenerate some time before were studied. Saphenous nerve injury on one side of a rat significantly reduced the ability of the contralateral, uninjured nerve to evoke plasma extravasation compared with the response measured in totally uninjured control animals. This suppression of plasma extravasation was not dependent on activation of nerve fibres in the regenerated nerve. The effect was evident by 6 weeks after injury and persisted for at least another 20 weeks. At the moment the mechanism underlying this suppression of neurogenic plasma extravasation is unknown.

Outbreak of enterovirus 71 infection in Victoria, Australia, with a high incidence of neurologic involvement.

An outbreak of infections caused by enterovirus 71 occurred in southeastern Australia during the winter of 1986. Infection was confirmed by virus isolation or serology in 114 patients, 65 of whom were admitted to hospital. Fifty-one percent of inpatients were infants younger than 12 months old and 85% were younger than 5 years old. Many cases of hand, foot and mouth disease occurred in the community during the epidemic, but 51% (33 of 65) of patients admitted to hospital had central nervous system involvement, often associated with severe symptoms. Six patients had encephalitis and one had a poliomyelitis-like paralytic illness. Various skin manifestations other than hand, foot and mouth disease occurred, especially in young children, and 25 patients had significant respiratory disease including at least 7 with pneumonia. Enterovirus 71 is one of very few viruses that cause hand, foot and mouth disease as well as a variety of other clinical manifestations. The most important of these is meningoencephalitis, which causes significant morbidity, especially in infants and young children.

Further characterization of 41 isolates of adenovirus types 19/37 by serum neutralization and DNA restriction enzyme analysis.

Forty-one strains of adenovirus type 19/37 (Ad19/37) mainly isolated from patients with keratoconjunctivitis or conjunctivitis between 1974 and 1984 were re-evaluated by serum neutralization (SN), haemagglutination inhibition (HI) and DNA restriction analysis. Of 19 isolates which were neutralized to high titre by antiserum prepared against prototype Ad19, 5 showed cross-reactivity with 32-64 units of Ad37 antiserum, while of 22 strains neutralized by high titre by Ad37 antiserum, 3 showed cross-reactivity with 32 units of Ad19 antiserum. By DNA restriction analysis, all Ad19 isolates were identical to each other and to Ad19A virus. Using endonuclease Bgl 1, three variants were observed among the Ad37 isolates.