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...

Muscle ultrasound (MUS) is increasingly used by neurologists, neuropediatricians, neurosurgeons, specialized radiologists and anaesthesiologists for the imaging-supported diagnosis of neuromuscular disorders. Especially, MUS highly sensitive in detecting fasciculations motor neuron diseases, revealing intensive care unit acquired weakness. Hereditary inflammatory myopathies are associated with ...

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...

Writer's cramp is a task-specific focal hand dystonia characterized by involuntary excessive muscle contractions during writing. Although abnormal striatal dopamine receptor binding has been implicated in the pathophysiology of writer's cramp and other primary dystonias, endogenous dopamine release during task performance has not been previously investigated in writer's cramp. Using positron em...

Neuronal plasticity is to be kept within operational limits to serve its purpose as a safe memory system that shapes and focuses sensory and motor representations. Temporal and spatial properties of motor cortical plasticity were assessed in patients with writer's cramp using a model of long-term potentiation (LTP) and long-term depression (LTD) of synaptic efficacy. Paired associative stimulat...

Radiation plexopathy produces numbness, weakness, and reflex changes.1 Excess motor unit activity (EMUA) after irradiation manifests as myokymia and neuromyotonia in affected muscles.2,3 A 65-year-old woman presented with a pulling sensation in the left axilla and intermittent depression of the left arm of 3 to 4 months duration. Ten months earlier she had completed chemotherapy and radiation t...

Previous research has demonstrated a relationship between the regularity of motor production and the ability to make accurate perceptual judgments. The current study investigated the temporal abilities of two groups of patients with known movement problems (musicians' and writers' cramp), some of whom have had many years of training in temporal discrimination. Patients and controls (musician an...

Neurophysiological studies in animals show that basal ganglia are involved not only in motor and nonmotor timing functions but also in integrating tactile and visual signals delivered in the peripersonal space. We tested temporal discrimination of cross-modal and unimodal stimuli in 13 controls and 14 patients with writer's cramp, a disorder supposedly linked to dysfunction of basal ganglia. Su...

248 Indian Journal of Medical and Paediatric Oncology | Volume 38 | Issue 2 | April-June 2017 oil instead of standard MCT. In the next month, his ketone level was equal to 4.8 mg/dl and the patient developed calf muscle pain and cramp in his legs. Additional magnesium at dosage 350 mg/day was prescribed for correcting this problem and the patient returned to normal. With these nutritional modif...

INTRODUCTION A recognised feature of Parkinson’s disease is the presence of muscle cramps. These are often attributed to dopaminomimetic medications and are known as early morning dystonia or ‘off’ dystonia. While these usually affect the truncal and upper limb musculature, patients can occasionally present with cramp-like calf pains which are frequently worse at night. The symptoms may be conf...