BACKGROUND The "other Babinski sign" consists in the co-contraction of the orbicularis and frontalis muscles, causing an eyebrow elevation during ipsilateral eye closure. It cannot be voluntarily reproduced. AIMS OF THE STUDY To determine the utility of this sign in the differential diagnosis of hyperkinetic facial disorders. METHODS The presence of the sign was assessed in consecutive pati...

Many patients arrive in the emergency department with acute lumbar and cervical muscle spasm (focal dystonia) that occurs either spontaneously or secondary to nonimpact axial injuries (i.e., lifting and twisting). Current treatment options, such as opioids, NSAIDs and anxiolytics, provide either minimal or no relief or precipitate undesirable side effects. My hypothesis was that benztropine, an...

We studied the effects of botulinum A toxin in 101 patients with hemifacial spasm and 11 patients with blepharospasm in an open trial and double blind manner. All patients in the open trial and 6 patients in the double blind trial improved after the first injection of botulinum toxin. There was no improvement with placebo. The peak effect ranged from one to 6 days after injection and mean peak ...

OBJECTIVE Phospholipase C-δ1 activity is enhanced in patients with coronary artery spasm, and a p122 protein was recently cloned to potentiate phospholipase C-δ1 activity. To investigate the role of p122 in enhanced vasomotility, we examined p122 expression in the cultured skin fibroblasts obtained from patients with and without coronary spasm, intracellular Ca(2+) concentration ([Ca(2+)]i) [co...

OBJECTIVES This study was conducted to clarify the incidence of coronary spasm in emergency patients with suspected acute coronary syndrome (ACS) and acute chest pain at rest. BACKGROUND Chest pain at rest is a frequent symptom in the emergency room. Acute coronary syndrome is suspected in patients with elevation of cardiac markers, ischemic electrocardiographic changes, or simply typical cli...

The article is dedicated to the management of internal mammary artery spasm intraand postoperatively based on the accumulated evidence in the literature. It provides stepwise decision algorithms for safely resolving the spasm and prevention of relapse. INTRODUCTION The left internal mammary artery (IMA) is the most widely used graft and is predominantly anastomosed to the left anterior descendi...

BACKGROUND Coronary artery spasm plays an important role in the pathogenesis of vasospastic angina, and contributes to the development of several acute coronary syndromes. Endothelial nitric oxide synthase (ecNOS) catalyzes the synthesis of nitric oxide, which regulates vascular tone, and may be related to coronary vasospasm. The present study investigated whether coronary spasm is related to p...

OBJECTIVE To investigate the correlation between the electrophysiological and radiological findings of primary hemifacial spasm patients. SUBJECTS Patients with primary hemifacial spasm who had had no botulinum toxin treatment previously were included in the study. DESIGN In this prospective study patients underwent cerebral magnetic resonance imaging,a magnetic resonance angiography invest...

In the rat an intracisternal injection of blood induces an angiographically demonstrable biphasic cerebral arterial vasospasm. Chemical destruction of the central serotoninergic and dopaminergic pathways prior to the cisternal blood injection does not affect the spasm pattern after the subarachnoid haemorrhage. It is suggested that neither system plays a role in the development of spasm.

Methods: Lacosamide (Vimpat), a recently released, novel anticonvulsant was used to treat one patient with hemifacial spasm and a second patient with both benign essential blepharospasm and hemifacial spasm. Lacosamide selectively enhances the slow inactivation of voltage-gated sodium channels resulting in stabilization of hyperexcitable neuronal membranes and inhibition of repetitive neuronal ...