Objective: To demonstrate the relationship between dopamicergic amacrine (DA) cells and AII amacrine cells and to characterize DA cells of the rabbit retina. Methods: Retinal whole mounts were doubleor triple-labeled using antibodies against tyrosine hydroxylase (TH), calretinin (CR), and vesicular glutamate transporter 1 (VGLUT1) which selectively label DA cells, AII amacrine cells, and all bi...

Anxiety disorder is a commonly used diagnosis that may mask underlying conditions. Stiff person syndrome (SPS) is a rare neuroimmunological disorder characterized by progressive rigidity and painful muscle spasms affecting axial and lower extremity musculature. These episodes can be triggered by sudden movement, noise, or emotional stress, which may present as a psychiatric condition. We report...

BACKGROUND Stiff Person Syndrome (SPS) is a relatively rare but often overlooked autoimmune neurological disorder that targets antigens within the brain's inhibitory pathways resulting in incapacitating stiffness and spasms that impact on the patients' quality of life. Although a number of immunomodulating therapies significantly improve the patients' symptoms, the exact pathogenic mechanisms r...

Case report An eight year old boy presented with polyuria and polydipsia for 1 month. On examination, liver was not palpable but spleen was enlarged (6cm). Blood sugar was 460 mg/dl and type1 DM was confirmed. Ultrasonography showed portal vein cavernoma with normal liver and pancreas. Endoscopy revealed grade 2 esophageal varices. Thus diagnosis of EHPVO with portal hypertension was also confi...

Autoimmune epilepsies are a heterogeneous group of recently described refractory epilepsies. They have been characterized by a variety of clinical, serological and radiological features. A range of anti-neuronal antibodies, which are usually found in limbic encephalitis, including antibodies to GAD, VGKC-complex antibodies, NMDA-R, amongst others, have been associated with some of these disorde...

The classification of adults with diabetes mellitus can be invalidated by patients who initially present as NIDDM but who later become frankly insulin dependent. In some of these, the pathogenesis could be similar to that in IDDM, namely autoimmune destruction of the pancreatic p-cells. We studied 102 patients >35 yr of age at diabetes onset who had initially been nonketotic and non-insulin-dep...

Glutamic acid decarboxylase (GAD) has been shown to be a target of autoantibodies in insulin-dependent diabetes (IDD). Two forms of GAD, with molecular weights of 67,000 and 65,000, have been cloned from separate genes. As pancreatic islet beta cell destruction DD is an autoimmune process mediated by T cells, we sought to determine if recombinant GAD67 was recognized by T cells in IDD subjects ...

Chronic intestinal pseudoobstruction (CIP) can be a severe burden and even a life-threatening disorder. Typically, several years of uncertainty are passing before diagnosis. We are reporting the case of a young woman with a decade of severe, progressive gastrointestinal dysmotility. Unusually, she had also developed an autonomic neuropathy, and a stiff limb syndrome.In addition to achalasia and...

OBJECTIVE Decreased heart rate variability (HRV) has been reported in generalized anxiety disorder (GAD), but the results are mixed. Little is known about the impact of comorbid major depression (MD) on HRV in GAD patients. Both issues necessitate further investigation. METHODS Twenty unmedicated, physically healthy GAD patients, 20 GAD patients with a secondary diagnosis of MD, 40 MD patient...