PubMed Health⌕ Search

Biomedical subjects

C Marsden

Publications and source records attributed to C Marsden.

28 records · Page 2Linked to original sources
PubMed1988

Writer's cramp: a controlled trial of habit reversal treatment.

In uncontrolled studies, several behavioural methods, including habit reversal, were said to be useful in writer's cramp. In this controlled study, 23 subjects with writer's cramp recruited from a neurology clinic were randomly allocated to five sessions over four weeks of either habit reversal training or a control treatment of relaxation training. Three subjects dropped out. Twenty patients (9 habit reversers, 11 controls) completed the trial up to three months follow-up. Outcome measures included observation of writing within the session, assessment of writing tasks completed at home, and blind ratings by an independent assessor. The results showed that habit reversal was no better than relaxation. Taking both treatments together, patients improved to three months follow-up on seven of nine measures, but remained substantially handicapped.

Adult↗
PubMed1988

Care giver fidelity in a pediatric bone marrow transplant team.

This study is an ethnography of the ethics of one pediatric bone marrow transplant team. Fidelity emerged as a central ethical principle guiding these care givers in their relationships to patients and families. Four implicit promises were identified within the relationship of the professional to the patient and family: the promise to attempt a cure; the promise to care for the child, physically and psychologically; the promise to treat the child and family with dignity; and the promise to stand by the child and family in the process of death. Data were collected at the weekly team meetings. Statements of care givers were examined for evidence of their efforts to keep these promises and the times they failed at this task. Differences were found in the way members of the team interpreted the meaning of fidelity in practice.

Bone Marrow Transplantation↗
PubMed1986

The effect of percutaneous motor cortex stimulation on H reflexes in muscles of the arm and leg in intact man.

The technique of electrical stimulation of the brain via scalp electrodes has been used to activate corticospinal pathways in intact man. The intensity of stimulation was adjusted to be below the threshold necessary to evoke a direct electromyographic response when the muscles being tested were totally relaxed. Changes in spinal cord excitability were measured using H-reflex (monosynaptic) testing. By this means it was found that subthreshold scalp stimulation can produce a descending corticospinal volley even in the absence of a direct muscle response. The time course of changes in spinal cord excitability was evaluated by evoking test H reflexes at different intervals relative to the scalp stimulus. In wrist and finger flexor muscles of seven subjects, a single subthreshold scalp shock produced an initial peak facilitation of the H reflex which on average lasted for 2.5 ms. The end of the initial facilitation was marked by a return of the H reflex towards basal levels and on one occasion by a frank inhibition. It is suggested that the initial facilitation is produced by arrival at the motoneurones of monosynaptic excitatory post-synaptic potentials (e.p.s.p.s) and is truncated by the subsequent arrival of disynaptic inhibitory post-synaptic potentials (i.p.s.p.s). The initial facilitation was followed by a second phase of facilitation of the H reflex. The second phase was weaker, more variable and longer lasting (from 5 to 20 ms) than the first phase. The threshold of scalp stimulus intensity required to produce an effect on the H reflex was the same for the first and second phases of facilitation. Several possible explanations are discussed for the mechanism responsible for the late and long-lasting facilitation. In two subjects wrist and finger extensor muscles were studied. The time course of H-reflex changes was similar to that of the flexors except that the initial facilitation was followed by a frank inhibition in both subjects. In one subject thenar muscles and tibialis anterior were studied and behaved similarly to wrist and finger flexor muscles. Effects on the soleus H reflex was studied in seven subjects. In five of these subjects, in contrast to the other muscles studied, the initial event was an inhibition of the H reflex. This inhibition also could be seen preceding the usual period of facilitation in averaged rectified surface electromyogram (e.m.g.) records when scalp stimuli were given during weak voluntary activation of soleus.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 400 WORDS)

Arm↗
PubMed1983

Differential pulse voltammetry in vivo--evidence that uric acid contributes to the indole oxidation peak.

Previous studies using differential pulse voltammetry have shown that indoleamines contribute to the oxidation peak at +280-300 mV (peak 3) measured in the rat striatum in vivo using carbon fibre electrodes. In this study, using similar techniques, it is shown that 5-hydroxyindoleacetic acid and uric acid oxidize at a similar potential (+270-290 mV) in vitro. Additionally, by microinfusing uric acid or its metabolizing enzyme uricase, it is shown that uric acid oxidation contributes to about 30% of the height of peak 3 measured in the rat striatum in vivo. These results indicate that care needs to be taken in interpreting changes in the height of the in vivo peak 3 since it is not solely due to the oxidation of brain indoleamines.

Animals↗