Because of its unique ability to exert long-lasting synaptic transmission blockade, botulinum neurotoxin A (BoNT/A) is used to treat a wide variety of disorders involving peripheral nerve terminal hyperexcitability. However, it has been a matter of debate whether this toxin has central or peripheral sites of action. We employed a rat model in which BoNT/A1 or BoNT/A2 was unilaterally injected i...

Within the limits of the Guillain-Barré syndrome, the pattern of clinical deficit is variable. Motor deficit may begin proximally or distally in the extremities and sensory deficit is sometimes, but not always present. Longitudinal studies were performed in 13 patients, starting during the progressive phase. The severity of the clinical deficit was related to the amplitude of the compound muscl...

INTRODUCTION Critical illness polyneuropathy (CIP) is a clinical condition frequently seen in patients being treated in critical care units in the final stage of sepsis. The etiopathology of CIP is still unclear, and the onset time of appearance of the electrophysiological findings has not been elucidated. The very little research that has been carried out on this topic is limited to clinical e...

Spinal motor evoked potentials (SMEP) were recorded from tibialis anterior muscle after epidural stimulation of the spinal cord at the low cervical or high thoracic level during scoliosis surgery. By using a double stimulus pulse to produce temporal summation within the spinal cord a maximal CMAP response was readily achieved despite good surgical anaesthesia.

BACKGROUND Following acute organophosphorus (OP) poisoning patients complain of numbness without objective sensory abnormalities or other features of OP induced delayed polyneuropathy. The aim of this study was to measure peripheral nerve function after acute exposure to OP. METHODS A cohort study was conducted with age, gender and occupation matched controls. Motor nerve conduction velocity ...

The Delphinium alkaloids methyllycaconitine (MLA), nudicauline, 14-deacetylnudicauline (14-DN), barbinine, and deltaline were investigated for their effects on neuromuscular transmission in lizards. The substituent at C14 provides the only structural difference among the alkaloids MLA, nudicauline, 14-DN, and barbinine. Deltaline lacks the N-(methylsuccinyl)anthranilic acid at C18 common to the...

OBJECTIVE Little is known about the pattern of service receipt and outcomes from clinics implementing best practice guidelines in child mental health. This study aimed to determine these variables for a clinic that implemented an attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) treatment guideline proposed by the Children's Medication Algorithm Project (CMAP). METHODS Secondary analyses of med...

OBJECTIVE The aim of the present study was to investigate any relationship between serum ubiquitin levels and electroneurographic changes in peripheral nerves for patients with type 2 diabetes. RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODS The study involved 34 patients (19 men, 15 women; mean age 46 +/- 13 years) with type 2 diabetes. Serum ubiquitin values were measured by sandwich enzyme-linked immunosorben...

BACKGROUND Few studies have focused on peripheral nerve conduction during exposure to microgravity. The -6° head-down tilt (HDT) comprises an experimental model used to simulate the space flight environment. This study investigated nerve conduction characteristics of rhesus monkeys before and after prolonged exposure to HDT. METHODS Six rhesus monkeys (3-4 years old) were tilted backward 6° f...

We derive the necessary and sufficient condition for the L∞−monotonicity of finite difference θ-scheme for a diffusion equation. We confirm that the discretization ratio ∆t = O(∆x) is necessary for the monotonicity except for the implicit scheme. In case of the heat equation, we get an explicit formula, which is weaker than the classical CFL condition. Key-words: Theta-scheme, monotonicity. ∗ W...