Peritoneal dialysis (PD) catheter-related infection is still is the most troublesome problem for continuation of PD without the need to switch to hemodialysis. We have been performing subcutaneous pathway diversion (SPD) as a surgical treatment for refractory exit-site and tunnel infection (ESTI). To clarify the efficacy and safety of SPD, we conducted a retrospective study. From August 2008 to...

The viscoelastic properties of the RBC membrane are in part determined by a submembrane network of proteins consisting of spectrin alpha beta heterodimers (SpD) assembled head-to-head to form spectrin tetramers (SpT) and spectrin oligomers (SpO). SpT, in turn, are connected into a two-dimensional network by the linkage of distal ends of SpT to protein 4.1 and actin. With the micropipette techni...

Background There are overlaps between autism and schizophrenia but these are particularly pronounced, especially in social domains, for higher functioning individuals with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) or schizotypal personality disorder (SPD). It is not known whether these overlapping social deficits result from shared or distinct brain mechanisms. We therefore compared social cognition in A...

Metallic materials usually exhibit higher strength but lower ductility after being plastically deformed by conventional techniques such as rolling, drawing and extrusion. In contrast, nanostructured metals and alloys processed by severe plastic deformation (SPD) have demonstrated both high strength and high ductility. This extraordinary mechanical behavior is attributed to the unique nanostruct...

The aim of the study was to evaluate the latent structure of DSM-IV schizotypal personality disorder (SPD) diagnostic criteria. The sample consisted of 564 consecutively admitted inpatients and outpatients. Exploratory latent class analysis identified a four-class model as the best fitting model for DSM-IV SPD criteria. The first of the SPD latent classes was mainly characterized by odd thinkin...

Background: Reduced, left-lateralized P3 amplitude has been reported in several studies focusing on electrophysiologic function in schizophrenia. Also, several lines of evidence suggest a similarity between schizophrenia and schizotypal personality disorder (SPD). This study was undertaken to determine the replicability of our previous finding of a left-lateralized P3 amplitude deficit in SPD. ...

Polyamine biosynthesis in intact cells can be exquisitely controlled with exogenous polyamines through the regulation of rate-limiting biosynthetic enzymes, particularly ornithine decarboxylase (ODC). In an attempt to exploit this phenomenon as an antiproliferative strategy, certain polyamine analogues have been identified [Porter, Cavanaugh, Stolowich, Ganis, Kelly & Bergeron (1985) Cancer Res...

The fusiform gyrus is important for face and object recognition, is abnormal in schizophrenia, but has not been studied in schizotypal personality disorder (SPD). Thin-slice MR images showed no differences, either in right, left or total fusiform gyri volumes, between subjects with SPD (N=21) and normal controls (N=19). However, there was a correlation between severity of illusions and magical ...

Verbal dichotic listening performance was examined in 42 right-handed men and women with DSM-IV-defined schizotypal personality disorder (SPD) and 68 right-handed controls. As expected, both male and female control groups showed a right ear advantage on a verbal dichotic listening task. Although SPD subjects in general had lower accuracy scores than comparison subjects, only male SPD subjects s...

Studies of schizotypal personality disorder (SPD) are important because the condition is genetically related to schizophrenia and because data accumulating to confirm its biological underpinnings are challenging some traditional views about the nature of per-sonality disorders. This review of 17 structural imaging studies in SPD indicates that individuals with this disorder show brain abnormali...