In the diagnosis of functional weakness and sensory disturbance, positive physical signs are as important as absence of signs of disease. Motor signs, particularly Hoover's sign, are more reliable than sensory signs, but none should be used in isolation and must be interpreted in the overall context of the presentation. It should be borne in mind that a patient may have both a functional and an...

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVE Neonatal bulbar weakness (BW) has various etiologies and a broad prognostic range. We aimed to report outcomes in a large series of children with neonatal BW and explore the association of orofacial electrodiagnostic data with outcome. METHODS We retrospectively reviewed the files of children who presented with facial, lingual, laryngeal, or pharyngeal weakness at bir...

Richard Holton has developed a view of the nature of weak-willed actions, and I have done the same for akratic actions. How well does this view of mine fare in the sphere of weakness of will? Considerably better than Holton’s view. That is a thesis of this article. The article’s aim is to clarify the nature of weak-willed actions.

A failure in membrane excitability, defined as an inability of the sarcolemma and T-tubule to translate the neural discharge command into repetitive action potentials, represents an inviting cause of mechanical disfunction in both health and disease. A failure at this level would precipitate a disturbance in signal transmission between the T-tubule and the calcium release channels of the sarcop...

Transmission of signals from nerves to muscles is critical for life, so substantial safety factor mechanisms have evolved to ensure its success. Despite this, diseases can impair even this robust system. Characterizing these disease mechanisms greatly contributes to understanding this fundamental process. Neuromuscular transmission serves as a model for helping to understand neurotransmission t...

A 54-year-old man presented with progressive asymmetric leg pain and weakness. He had a history of invasive squamous cell carcinoma that was fully treated 2 years earlier. His leg symptoms progressed relentlessly during several months. Imaging studies demonstrated enhancement of the cauda equina and leptomeninges of the lower spinal cord. Initial cerebrospinal fluid examination showed an elevat...

A ubiquitous, vitamin-D deficiency is still unrecognized a n d u n d e r d i a g n o s e d . P r o x i m a l m u s c l e w e a k n e s s i s a c o m m o n symptom of vitamin-D deficiency and occurs before biochemical signs of its deficiency appears. Therefore, vitamin-D deficiency should be kept in the differential diagnosis for the muscle weakness, as it is reversible and easily treated with v...