PURPOSE To evaluate whether intraoperative neurophysiologic monitoring (IONM) with combined muscle motor evoked potentials (mMEPs) and somatosensory evoked potentials is useful for more aggressive and safe resection in intramedullary spinal cord tumour (IMSCT) surgery. MATERIALS AND METHODS We reviewed data from consecutive patients who underwent surgery for IMSCT between 1998 and April 2012....

OBJECTIVE To evaluate the incidence of carpal tunnel syndrome (CTS) in pregnancy through a validated and multiperspective assessment of CTS and to assess the course of carpal tunnel syndrome after pregnancy. METHODS During 2000-2001, the Italian CTS study group in 7 Italian centers studied the occurrence of CTS in women during the last period of pregnancy. The group enrolled and followed-up (...

BACKGROUND The precise mechanism and optimal measure of anesthetic-induced unconsciousness has yet to be elucidated. Preferential inhibition of feedback connectivity from frontal to parietal brain networks is one potential neurophysiologic correlate, but has only been demonstrated in animals or under limited conditions in healthy volunteers. METHODS AND FINDINGS We recruited eighteen patients...

UNLABELLED A population of neurons resident in the caudal ventrolateral medulla are excited by noxious cutaneous and visceral stimuli from large portions of the body. These neurons act as monitors of ascending nociceptive information, and we hypothesized that they would be inhibited by spinally administered analgesics in a clinically relevant fashion. Rats were anesthetized with oxygen/ halotha...

The reported relationships between nerve conduction studies (NCS) and outcome measures in carpal tunnel syndrome (CTS) are weak to moderate. However, selection of patients may have confounded nonrandomized studies. NCS have potentially great value in selecting patients for a specific treatment and in objectively assessing the efficacy of treatments in CTS, especially if they correlate significa...

BACKGROUND Metachromatic leukodystrophy (MLD) is a lysosomal storage disease caused by the deficiency of arylsulfatase A (ARSA). Clinically, the disease is heterogeneous with respect to the age of onset, affection of peripheral and central nervous systems, and progression. OBJECTIVES To analyze mutations in the ARSA gene of a patient with adult-onset MLD with no signs of peripheral polyneurop...

Carpal tunnel syndrome (CTS) usually presents bilaterally and a secondary nature should be suspected in patients with unilateral symptoms, especially those with a long-standing history, and when the symptomatic hand shows severe neurophysiologic impairment, while the contralateral hand is neurophysiologically intact. Space-occupying lesions are known to cause CTS and the incidence of space-occu...

AIMS Although several stimulation techniques are available to elicit sacral reflexes, no comparative data on their utility has been published. The aim of the present study was to determine the most sensitive stimulation technique used for neurophysiologic recording of the penilo-cavernosus reflex. METHODS Neurophysiologic measurement of the penilo-cavernosus reflex on single and double pulse ...

The objective of this study was to establish a correlation between histopathology and radiological characteristics as well as location of brain stem tumors. Results of therapy were also analysed in relation to the radiological characteristics. Forty four patients were evaluated from a clinical and neuroradiological viewpoint (CT and MRI). In 14 of them we ruled out a surgical therapy. However 3...

In over half a century numerous studies have demonstrated that different odorants produce individually different spatial patterns of neural receptor activity on the olfactory mucosa. However, the thought that these differential activity patterns could be the neural code underlying olfactory perception has not been tested directly. In the present study using operant techniques, rats were trained...