Infantile spasms are a severe epileptic encephalopathy with a variety of etiologies that occur in infancy and early childhood. Subjects with infantile spasms are at a higher risk for evolving into intractable epileptic spasms, tending to be refractory to conventional antiepileptic drugs. Genetic polymorphisms of the P-glycoprotein-encoding gene ABCB1 are suspected to be associated with pharmaco...

OBJECTIVE The present study was done in order to obtain a baseline profile of infantile spasms and associated neurological disorders. PATIENT AND METHODS The study included 50 patients with infantile spasm in Queen Rania Hospital for children in Jordan. The following data were obtained: sex, age at onset of spasms, details of seizure, family history of epilepsy, significant pre-/peri/ post-na...

sheep of 118-135 days increase sharply their cortisol output in response to low corticotropin concentrations. At 140145 days (term = 145 days) the response of adrenal cells to corticotropin stimulation was essentially the same with a small increase only over total output at 118-135 days. Corticosterone production from the foetal adrenal was always no more than half of that for cortisol, and fel...

PURPOSE OF REVIEW This article reviews the most significant advances in the field of infantile spasm during the past year, with emphasis on best practise for treatment, and on some new etiological genetic and metabolic causes for the spasms, and new advances in the knowledge of tuberous sclerosis. RECENT FINDINGS Up-to-date information comparing corticotrophin, oral steroids and vigabatrin sh...

OBJECTIVE Spinal cord injury (SCI) leads to permanent motor and sensory deficits due to the damage of ascending and descending fiber tracts. In addition, malfunctions such as neuropathic pain or muscle spasms develop in many patients, possibly caused by injury-induced plastic changes of neuronal circuits above and below the lesion. New treatment strategies for spinal cord injury aim at enhancin...

BACKGROUND The corticotropin-releasing factor is a stress-related neuropeptide that modulates locus coeruleus activity. As locus coeruleus has been involved in pain and stress-related patologies, we tested whether the pain-induced anxiety is a result of the corticotropin-releasing factor released in the locus coeruleus. METHODS Complete Freund's adjuvant-induced monoarthritis was used as infl...

The corticotropin-induced increase of total intracellular and receptor-bound cyclic AMP in isolated rat adrenocortical cells was strictly dependent on extracellular Ca(2+). A rise in bound cyclic AMP with rising Ca(2+) concentrations was accompanied by a decrease in free cyclic AMP-receptor sites. A Ca(2+)-transport inhibitor abolished the rise in bound cyclic AMP induced by corticotropin. Thes...

Dyspnoea during generalised spasms is reported in three tetraplegic patients. Intraoesophageal electromyographic evidence strongly suggests that the dyspnoea is a result of diaphragmatic spasms. Utilisation of this EMG technique in other tetraplegic patients may add to our knowledge of variations in the distribution of the phrenic nerve nucleus within the spinal cord.

We systematically reviewed the files of 51 infants presenting with infantile spasms and hypsarrhythmia in order to study the initial treatment strategies and the long term outcome. 80% of the infants were classified as symptomatic. In the nine participating centres, different treatment protocols were used, but the large majority of the children received vigabatrin as first line treatment. Secon...