Evaluation of epileptic patients by means of magnetoencephalography

Long-term consequences of subtle stimuli during the first twenty-four hours of seizure-induced brain injury

Chronically epileptic (induced by a single systemic injection of lithium and pilocarpine about 30 days before the experiment began) male rats were trained within a radial maze while they were administered either GABA-pentin (Neurontin), or prednisolone or given no treatment. There was no significant improvement in learning or memory between the groups. Numbers of trials per day were positively correlated with the time required to display the overt stereotyped forelimb clonus after the single pilocarpine injection. The numbers of correct trials completed during the first few days of acquisition were significantly greater for the rats that had receive weak (1 microT) complex, pulsed magnetic fields over the right hemisphere during the first 24 hr. after seizure induction than for those who received the same field over the left hemisphere or that had been exposed to reference conditions. Implications of the enhanced sensitivity of limbic neurons to subtle electromagnetic interaction during electrical lability are discussed.

Magnetocardiographic patterns in complicated and uncomplicated pregnancies

Magnetocardiographic (MCG) patterns, produced by the electrical activity of the heart, were investigated in 38 full term pregnant women (17 pre-eclamptic and 21 with uncomplicated pregnancies), by means of a superconducting quantum interference device (SQUID). The most important difference was noted in the waveform amplitudes of the MCG recordings; these were appreciably lower in women with pre-eclampsia compared to those in the normal control series, although in both groups the emitted magnetic fields ranged at approximately the same frequency band. Electrocardiographic (ECG) QRS complexes were represented clearly only in the low MCG waveform amplitudes, and these were related to the presence of widespread obliterative endarteritis in the fetal vasculature of the placentae. The above MCG findings are consistent with an increased contractibility of the myocardium in pregnant women with hypertensive disease secondary to the increased peripheral resistance.