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Biomedical subjects

G Danta

Publications and source records attributed to G Danta.

At least 37 records · Page 2Linked to original sources

Occipital neuralgia.

The findings in 23 cases of occipital neuralgia are presented. The clinical features of the condition are pain and sensory change in the distribution of the relevant nerve, localised nerve trunk tenderness and a clear response to local forms of therapy. The clinical picture is often complicated by migrainous and trigeminal nerve features and the mechanisms by which these come about are discussed. Occipital neuralgia is generally neglected in both the standard textbooks and the literature. The condition occurs sufficiently commonly to warrant more consideration in the differential diagnosis of head pain than it has received to date.

Adult↗

Cardiac abnormality in polymyositis.

Thirteen patients with polymyositis were investigated for the presence of cardiac disease by clinical examination, chest x-ray, electrocardiogram, and systolic time intervals. 5 patients had evidence of cardiac involvement. Compared with the other 8 patients, their polymyositis was more long-standing, more severe, and had remained active. Electrocardiogram usually showed arrhythmias and conduction disturbances, and 4 of the 5 patients had abnormal systolic time intervals indicating left ventricular dysfunction. Left ventricular involvement in polymyositis is more frequent than previously recognized and systolic time intervals are a simple, noninvasive method of detecting this.

Adult↗

Intestinal giardiasis, steatorrhoea and peripheral nerve dysfunction.

Two patients presented with similar peripheral neuropathic symptoms. Muscle denervation was shown by electromyography and muscle biopsy. Motor and sensory nerve conduction studies were normal. Both patients had intestinal giardiasis: 1 had asymptomatic steatorrhoea, and the other had diarrhoea and abdominal pain. Treatment with metronidazole abolished the gastrointestinal symptoms. After a delay of several months the neurological symptoms also gradually improved. No other cause of peripheral neuropathy was apparent on investigation, and the relationship between the intestinal giardiasis and the peripheral neuropathy is discussed.

Adult↗

An investigation into reading epilepsy.

In summary, our main findings were firstly, that faulty visuolingual processing at the level of Brain's visual word schemas, with its intimate connection with the verbal memory pool, is the abnormality that is essential for initiation of spike activity in reading epilepsy. Secondly, visual input is not essential in production of reading epilepsy. Thirdly, we have demonstrated a subconscious voluntary control mechanism operating in our patient. Lastly, we have illustrated alternatives to drug therapy, which, in our patient and in other cases, has not been shown of great value.

Adult↗

Serial nerve conduction studies in patients with maturity onset diabetes mellitus.

Serial study of peripheral nerve conduction in 18 patients with recently diagnosed maturity onset diabetes mellitus during a period of treatment of hyperglycaemia for 21/2 years showed improvement in motor conduction progressive increase in mixed nerve conduction velocity, but at the same time progressive fall of amplitude of sensory nerve action potentials. It is argued that two independent metabolic processes may underlie peripheral nerve dysfunction in these patients, only one of which is benefically affected by control of hyperglycaemia.

Action Potentials↗

Chronic progressive external ophthalmoplegia.

The clinical features and investigative findings of 50 patients with chronic progressive external ophthalmoplegia (CPEO) were analysed. The group was found to be clinically, genetically and histologically heterogeneous. With the possible exception of patients with "ophthalmoplegia plus," namely those who in addition to muscular weakness had evidence of central and/or peripheral nervous system abnormality, there was no apparent justification for separating out from among the group patients' subgroups which were distinctive enough to be recognized as syndromes. CPEO therefore seems to represent a number of different degenerative disorders whose common denominator is ophthalmoplegia and for which there are to date no adequate criteria for further classification.

Adolescent↗

Electrophysiological study of amyotrophy associated with acute asthma (asthmatic amyotrophy).

A girl developed acute amyotrophy of the left arm five days after onset of an acute attack of bronchial asthma. Slow improvement in muscle power began nine months later. There was severe denervation with preservation of sensation and normal motor nerve conduction velocities when these were measurable. The patient is similar to 10 patients reported by Hopkins (1974).

Asthma↗

Familial carpal tunnel syndrome with onset in childhood.

Within three generations of one family four patients were found to have the carpal tunnel syndrome. In father and son, symptoms commenced in the first decade, and in both patients the median nerves were found to be constricted under the transverse carpal ligaments. The only other operative finding was considerably thickening of the transverse carpal ligaments in the father. Thickening of the transverse carpal ligaments is unusual in patients with the carpal tunnel syndrome but is a common finding in the relatively few patients with familial carpel tunnel syndrome so far described in the literature. It is suggested that thickening of the ligaments may constitute a familial disorder that can give rise to the carpal tunnel syndrome in childhood or later in life.

Adult↗

Judgment of the visual vertical and horizontal in patients with Parkinsonism.

Judgment of the visual vertical and horizontal in the upright body position was abnormal in 19 (29 percent) of 66 patients with Parkinson's disease. The magnitude of errors correlated with the degree of rigidity and of tremor in the limbs, but not with bradykinesia or other clinical features. The results suggest that the effect on visual perception of the vertical and horizontal coordinates in patients with parkinsonism is brought about by specific changes in the basal ganglia and is not, as in the case of other visual-motor tasks, determined merely by the overall severity of cerebral pathology.

Adult↗

Interactions of L-dopa and amantadine in patients with Parkinsonism.

Twenty-seven patients with Parkinson's disease participated in a double-blind crossover trial of L-dopa and amantadine. Each drug was given for six weeks, and six weeks were allowed to elapse between the two periods of treatment. Marked improvement occurred in patients given L-dopa first, whereas no clinical effect was observed in those patients treated first with amantadine. L-dopa was less beneficial to patients who had previously received amantadine, whereas amantadine became effective in patients who had previously taken L-dopa. The effect of pre-treatment with one drug on the therapeutic effectiveness of the other drug is reflected in changes of homovanillic acid levels in the cerebrospinal fluid.

Amantadine↗

Recovery of nerve conduction after a pneumatic tourniquet: observations on the hind-limb of the baboon.

A small pneumatic cuff inflated around the knee was used to produce tourniquet paralysis in baboons. A cuff pressure of 1,000 mm Hg maintained for one to three hours produced paralysis of distal muscles lasting up to three months. Nerve conduction studies showed that most of the motor fibres to the abductor hallucis muscle were blocked at the level of the cuff and that they conducted impulses normally in their distal parts. There was a significant correlation between the duration of compression and that of the subsequent conduction block. When tested two to three weeks after the tourniquet, the amplitude of the response of m. abductor hallucis to nerve stimulation distal to the cuff was usually slightly reduced compared with the precompression figure. This was assumed to mean that a small proportion of the motor fibres had undergone Wallerian degeneration as a result of compression. Maximal motor conduction velocity was reduced in recovering nerves. It was also reduced when a cuff pressure of 500 mm Hg was used, which was insufficient to produce persistent conduction block. In such cases a reduced velocity without evidence of block could be demonstrated 24 hours after compression. Ascending nerve action potentials were recorded from the sciatic nerve in the thigh, with stimulation at the ankle. Before compression the fastest afferent fibres had a significantly higher velocity than the fastest motor fibres in the same nerve trunk. Results after compression suggested that the high-velocity afferent fibres had a susceptibililty to the procedure similar to that of the fastest motor fibres.

Action Potentials↗