In this study, the initiation and development of muscle cramp are investigated. For this, we used a 64-channel surface electromyogram (EMG) to study the triceps surae muscle during both cramp and maximal voluntary contraction (MVC) in four cramp-prone subjects and during cramp only in another four cramp-prone subjects. The results show that cramp presents itself as a contraction of a slowly mov...

The study is aimed at investigating the occurrence of writers cramp in office workers, drawn from ten major offices of Kanpur to determine the nature and relationship of various emotional factors in the development of this disability. The observations on writers cramp cases were compared with a group of normal and diseased controls. Out of a surveyed population of 3,325 office workers, there we...

BACKGROUND Oral therapies and chemodenervation procedures are often unrewarding in the treatment of focal, task-specific hand disorders such as writer's cramp or primary writing tremor (PWT). METHODS A portable writing orthotic device (WOD) was evaluated on 15 consecutively recruited writer's cramp and PWT subjects. We measured overall impairment at baseline and after 2 weeks of at-home use w...

Antimicrobial peptides have established an important role in the defense against extracellular infections, but the expression of cationic peptides within macrophages as an antibacterial effector mechanism against intracellular pathogens has not been demonstrated. Macrophage expression of the murine cathelicidin-related antimicrobial peptide (CRAMP) was increased after infection by the intracell...

Cathelicidins are a family of endogenous antimicrobial peptides that exert diverse immune functions, including both direct bacterial killing and immunomodulatory effects. In this study, we examined the contribution of the murine cathelicidin, cathelicidin-related antimicrobial peptide (CRAMP), to innate mucosal immunity in a mouse model of Gram-negative pneumonia. CRAMP expression is induced in...

A case of interstitial myositis associated with a localised lipoatrophy is reported. The patient is a 24 year old man who presented with severe painful cramps and fasciculations localised to one limb. The rarity of both disorders, and their likely common autoimmune mechanism, suggest that this is not a chance association.

The pain syndrome repetition strain injury (RSI) has been variously interpreted as a psychogenic disorder, an overuse injury of upper limb musculature, and a state of peripheral neural irritability. A review of the history of work-related upper limb disorders was undertaken to ascertain whether RSI is a new medical phenomenon or an older syndrome in a new guise. In the mid-nineteenth century th...

BACKGROUND Night-time calf cramping affects approximately 1 in 3 adults. The aim of this study was to explore the experience of night-time calf cramp; if and where people seek treatment advice; and perceived treatment effectiveness. METHODS 80 adults who experienced night-time calf cramp at least once per week were recruited from the Hunter region, NSW, Australia through newspaper, radio and ...

Antimicrobial peptides are present in most living species and constitute important effector molecules of innate immunity. Recently, we and others have detected antimicrobial peptides in the brain. This is an organ that is rarely infected, which has mainly been ascribed to the protective functions of the blood-brain barrier (BBB) and meninges. Since the bactericidal properties of the BBB and men...

OBJECTIVE To determine whether there are diffusion abnormalities along the fibers connecting sensorimotor regions, including the primary sensorimotor areas and the striatum, in patients with writer's cramp using voxel-based diffusion analysis and fiber tracking. Recent studies have shown structural changes in these regions in writer's cramp. DESIGN Patient and control group comparison. SETT...