We studied the larval morphology of dendrobatid frog genus Silverstoneia and closely related species Colostethinae. After describing external, buccopharyngeal, muscle, chondrocranium morphology, we delimit 17 new characters, including following 12 unambiguously optimized synapomorphies Silverstoneia: (a) medial emargination on upper (b) lower labia, (c) distinct gamma-shaped crest in prenarial ...

Agents that reduce skeletal muscle tone may have a number of useful clinical applications, e.g., for muscle spasticity and other muscle disorders. Recently, we reported that the venoms of two species of Australian theraphosid (Araneae, Theraphosidae) spiders (Coremiocnemis tropix and Selenotholus foelschei) reduced the baseline tension of chick biventer cervicis nerve-muscle preparation. The pu...

Persons with neck pain exhibit altered patterns of muscle patterning, but limited investigations have been carried out on these alterations or muscle patterning in healthy volunteers. This study investigated the tissue motion of the dorsal neck muscles at the C4 segmental level in 15 healthy subjects during manually resisted head extension. Doppler-based tissue velocity ultrasound imaging (TVI)...

BACKGROUND Sri Lankan Russell's viper (Daboia russelii) envenoming is reported to cause myotoxicity and neurotoxicity, which are different to the effects of envenoming by most other populations of Russell's vipers. This study aimed to investigate evidence of myotoxicity in Russell's viper envenoming, response to antivenom and the toxins responsible for myotoxicity. METHODOLOGY AND FINDINGS Cl...

In this study, venoms from species in the Colubrinae, Homalopsinae, Natricinae, Pseudoxyrhophiinae and Psammophiinae snake families were assayed for activity in the chick biventer cervicis skeletal nerve muscle preparation. Boiga dendrophila, Boiga cynodon, Boiga dendrophila gemincincta, Boiga drapiezii, Boiga irregularis, Boiga nigriceps and Telescopus dhara venoms (10 microg/ml) displayed pos...

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES The effects of local anesthetics (LA) on neuromuscular transmission and their influence on the neuromuscular blockade produced by competitive neuromuscular blockers have not been fully investigated. The objective of this study was to evaluate, in vitro, the effects of lidocaine and 50% enantiomeric excess bupivacaine (S75-R25) on the neuromuscular blockade produced by ...