[Adie's tonic pupil and migraine: a chance association?]. / Pupille tonique d'Adie et migraine: une association fortuite?

INTRODUCTION: Adie s tonic pupil is defined as a dilated pupil, constricting poorly to light and exhibiting light-near dissociation. CASE REPORT: The authors report an 18-year-old woman diagnosed with transient bilateral Adie's tonic pupil during a migraine attack. Work-up including neuroiaeaging disclosed no underlying detectable abnormalities. DISCUSSION: The association between tonic pupil and migraine is rarely reported. This type of transient mydriasis could result from postganglionic parasympathetic dysfunction, affecting the iris sphincter. This situation is different from the heterogeneous group with benign episodic unilateral mydriasis. CONCLUSION: Transient Adie's tonic pupil may be associated with migraine attacks. This association should be known to avoid unnecessary examinations.

Regional trends for bud burst and flowering of woody plants in Norway as related to climate change.

Data series for bud burst, beginning of flowering and petal fall for 20 species of deciduous trees and conifers at four sites in different regions of southern Norway have been analysed and related to temperature series. On average, the spring phenophases occurred 7 days earlier during the period 1971-2005. The most significant linear trends were observed for the earliest phases. The trends in this period were compared with trends in other periods, the longest one starting in 1927. Those starting in cold decades and ending in 2005 were in most instances statistically significant, whereas hardly any significant trend appeared for series starting in warm decades. This fact showed that the results of trend studies are very sensitive to the choice of starting year. There were significant decadal variations in 40% of the series. The dates of occurrence of the phenophases, varying from the first days of May to the first days of June, correlated with seasonal temperature series, in most cases strongest to mean temperatures for the seasons March-May and April-May. The North Atlantic Oscillation Index (NAOI) for January and February appeared to have some predictive power for the date of occurrence of the recorded phases. The basis for this may be that the oscillations described by the index are of importance for the fulfilment of physiological chilling requirements needed to break bud dormancy. The same genotypes of the trees were grown in region West Norway and in Central Norwegian region; during the period 1965-2005 the trends towards earlier bud burst were more pronounced and steeper at the western site.

[Sleep-related breathing disorders and normal or high-tension glaucoma: 35 patients with polysomnographic records]. / Troubles respiratoires nocturnes et glaucome à pression normale ou élevée. A propos de 35 patients hospitalisés pour polysomnographie.

PURPOSE: To look for early stage glaucoma symptoms in patients referred for sleep-related breathing disorders or sleep apnea syndrome. PATIENTS AND METHOD: Thirty-five patients between October 2001 and April 2002 consecutively admitted for polysomnographic evaluation were investigated. Each patient had complete ophthalmologic examination before the nocturnal record. A blue-on-yellow Humphrey computerized perimetry test was given, and a standard perimetry with a color vision test if abnormalities were found. The criteria studied were intraocular pressure, optic nerve cupping and aspect, visual field indices and visual field aspect, which were compared to the respiratory disturbance index. Twenty-seven subjects were included in this analysis, nine women and 18 men. RESULTS: In eight patients, the respiratory disturbance index was higher than 10. All intraocular pressures were normal. Visual field defects were found in two patients with both standard and blue-on-yellow perimetry, and in 12 patients with only blue-on-yellow perimetry. Mean deviation and visual field aspect correlated well with the respiratory disturbance index (p=0.026, p=0.033). Other visual field indices were not correlated with the respiratory disturbance index. CONCLUSION: In this study, we found visual field alterations with blue-on-yellow computerized perimetry that did not exist with standard perimetry. The visual field defects were more frequent when the respiratory disturbance index was poor.

[Comparison between Greenbaum's parabulbar anesthesia and Ripart's subtenon anesthesia in the anterior segment surgery]. / Comparaison de l'anesthésie parabulbaire selon Greenbaum et l'anesthésie sous-ténonienne de Ripart dans la chirurgie du segment antérieur.

PURPOSE: To compare two methods of sub-tenon anesthesia in 80 surgical procedures (phakoemulsification, glaucoma and combined surgery) in a prospective, single-surgeon study. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Forty patients requiring anterior segment surgery in each eye were randomised to receive subtenon anaesthesia by either Greenbaum's method (using a flexible plastic cannula) or Ripart's method (using a 23G hypodermic needle). Randomization dictated the mode of anaesthesia for the first eye, the other technique being used for the second eye. Anaesthesia consisted of 1.5ml lidocaïne 2% and 1.5ml bupivacaïne 0.5% in all cases, and was performed by the same surgeon (EDLM) immediately before surgery. Type of surgical procedure, duration, complications, presence of sub-conjunctival haemorrhage, were assessed by the surgeon, who also graded chemosis (0-3), nuclear hardness (1-4), and ocular akinesia (0-2) for each patient. Pain was scored subjectively by each patient (0-10) during the injection, peroperatively and postoperatively. RESULTS: Chemosis was significatively higher with Greenbaum's method than Ripart's method (p<0.01) and was sometimes undesirable for the surgeon. There was no difference in the pain score during the injection, preoperatively or postoperatively. Pain was usually very light and did not correlate with the duration of surgery. There was no akinesia in the majority of cases with either method, but the surgeon was sometimes limited by the akinesia of the medial rectus muscle and often by that of the inferior rectus muscle with elevation of the globe. CONCLUSION: Greenbaum's method and Ripart's method are two subtenon anesthesic techniques characterized by an immediate, intense and prolonged analgesia (sometimes 60mn). Complete akinesia is rare and this is sometimes limiting. Chemosis was more often associated with Greenbaum's method, but Ripart's method carries the potential for needle-related complications.

[Corneal endothelium in uveitis]. / Endothélium cornéen au cours des uvéites.

The authors report the results of a prospective study concerning corneal endothelium during uveitis. They compared 65 patients (87 eyes) suffering from uveitis (divided into four groups: anterior uveitis, pars planitis, posterior uveitis, total uveitis) with a control group (36 eyes, same age). The results showed a decrease of the endothelial cell counts in the uveitis group. However this difference was not significative (Student test t). There is no difference in the endothelial cell count between each group of uveitis.

[Keratoconus and familial topographic corneal anomalies]. / Kératocône et anomalies topographiques cornéennes familiales.

PURPOSE: Computer-assisted corneal topography, allows the detection of early abnormalities, including abortive or subclinical forms of keratoconus. So, it is possible to identify affected individuals with variable degrees, in family members of patients with keratoconus, to draw pedigrees, and to specify the mode of inheritance. METHODS: Computer-assisted digital videophotokeratoscope was used to map the corneas of 106 family members of 30 patients with keratoconus. RESULTS: Abnormalities observed included the inferior cornea markedly steeper than the superior cornea (I-S - 0.86 +/- 0.44 D) and a marked difference between the central corneal powers of the two eyes (delta PC = 0.72 +/- 0.22 D). However, there was no statistical difference with normal individuals for central corneal power. CONCLUSION: Pedigree analysis in these families suggests, in 50% of them, an autosomal dominant mode of inheritance. However, it is impossible to conclude for the other families, because of an insufficient number of cases.

A selective tissue culture medium for growth of compact (dwarf) mutants of apple.

Three strains of 'McIntosh' apple (Malus domestica Borkh.) with growth habits ranging from the standard parent type to extremely compact (dwarf) were grown in vitro as meristem-tip cultures on Murashige and Skoog medium containing a range of concentrations of benzyladenine (BA). All strains exhibited a similar optima (3 to 6 µM BA) for maximum shoot proliferation and culture weight increase. However, tolerance to supra-optimal concentration of this cytokinin was related to growth habit. For example, at 10 µM BA shoot production rates as a percent of the maximum rates were 90%, 20% and zero for the extreme compact, moderate compact and standard strains, respectively. Comparisons among field trees and meristem-tip cultures of all three strains revealed similarities in growth and development.