Since the early 1970s there has been an ongoing debate regarding the wisdom of promoting unassisted spontaneous breathing throughout the course of critical illness in patients with severe respiratory failure. The basis of this debate has focused on the clinical relevance of opposite problems. Historically, the term "disuse atrophy" has described a situation wherein sustained inactivity of the r...

Dermatomyositis (DM) is an autoimmune disease that mainly affects the skin, muscle, and lung. The pathogenesis of skin inflammation in DM is not well understood. We present a 40-year-old male who presented with four months history of generalized skin lesion, pain and weakness. He had elevated transaminases with detectable muscle weakness. This case highlights the need to consider dermatomyositi...

Immune mediated necrotizing myopathy (IMNM) is a unique form of myositis that is characterized by distinct muscle biopsy features including abundant myofiber necrosis, degeneration, and regeneration with only minimal, if any, inflammation on muscle biopsy. IMNM is clinically similar to idiopathic inflammatory myopathy (IIM); hence, muscle biopsy is essential to diagnose IMNM. Herein we describe...

Respiratory muscle function was assessed in six patients with the Lambert-Eaton myasthenic syndrome. Five had histologically proved small cell carcinoma of the lung; the sixth later developed metastases from an unknown primary site. Two patients had ventilatory failure, one without respiratory symptoms; another, who had emphysema, had dyspnoea and orthopnoea. The remaining three patients had no...

[Purpose] This study investigated the relationship between muscle weakness and activation of the cerebral cortex in the early period after unicompartmental knee arthroplasty (UKA). [Subjects] The subjects were 11 patients who underwent UKA. [Methods] They performed maximum isometric knee extension using a muscle force measurement device before, and 1 and 2 weeks after UKA. They were simultaneou...

Contraction time, time to peak rate of tension development, half-relaxation time and maximum twitch tension of partially denervated flexor carpi ulnaris muscle were measured in children with brachial plexus birth palsy. The extent of weakness of the affected muscle was assessed by expressing its maximum twitch tension as a percentage of the tension of the contralateral normal muscle. Contractio...

For many individuals who have experienced a stroke, muscle weakness is the most prominent impairment. Both the theoretical and statistical relationships between muscle weakness and performance at functional activities suggest that weakness may be an appropriate target for therapeutic interventions. Researchers investigating the outcomes of strengthening regimens after stroke have routinely show...

Dermatomyositis (DM) is a rare idiopathic inflammatory myopathy with characteristic skin lesions. Case series have shown an association between dermatomyositis and malignancy. Malignancy has been found in 15-25% of the adult patients with dermatomyositis. A 50-year-old new case of breast cancer, was admitted with muscle weakness and inability to walk. Physical examination revealed fever, perior...

BACKGROUND Although muscle weakness is a hallmark of facioscapulohumeral muscular dystrophy (FSHD), the molecular mechanisms that lead to weakness in FSHD remain largely unknown. Recent studies suggest aberrant expression of genes involved in skeletal muscle development and sarcomere contractility, and activation of pathways involved in sarcomeric protein degradation. This study will investigat...

OBJECTIVE Survivors of severe critical illness frequently develop substantial and persistent physical complications, including muscle weakness, impaired physical function, and decreased health-related quality of life. Our objective was to determine the longitudinal epidemiology of muscle weakness, physical function, and health-related quality of life and their associations with critical illness...