triterpenes for diabetic neuropathy: a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled, pilot clinical study.

Background: Diabetic neuropathy (DN), a common complication of diabetes mellitus, results from hyperglycemia, poor microcirculation and attendant nerve damage. Currently available treatments relieve symptoms, but do not modify the neurodegeneration underlying DN. (CA) triterpenes improved microcirculation in earlier clinical studies, and showed neurotropic effects in preclinical models suggesting a potential disease modifying effect in DN.

Effect of expectancy and personality on cortical excitability in Parkinson's disease.

Our previous studies in Parkinson's disease have shown that both levodopa and expectancy of receiving levodopa reduce cortical excitability. We designed this study to evaluate how degree of expectancy and other individual factors modulate placebo response in Parkinson's patients. Twenty-six Parkinson's patients were randomized to 1 of 3 groups: 0%, 50%, and 100% expectancy of receiving levodopa.

Using modafinil to treat fatigue in Parkinson disease: a double-blind, placebo-controlled pilot study.

Background: Fatigue is a major nonmotor symptom in Parkinson disease(PD). It is associated with reduced activity and lower quality of life.

Objective: To determine if modafinil improves subjective fatigue and physical fatigability in PD.

Polyneuronal innervation of single muscle fibers in cat eye muscle: inferior oblique.

Single muscle fibers with multiple axonal endplates (multiply innervated fibers) are normally present in adult extraocular muscles (EOMs), while most other mammalian skeletal muscles contain fibers with a single myoneural junction. Recent findings by others led us to investigate for the presence of polyneuronal innervation (innervation of a single muscle fiber by >1 motoneuron) in the inferior oblique (IO) muscle of pentobarbital anesthetized cats. The IO muscle nerve branches, as they coursed through the orbit, were further divided for independent or simultaneous electrical stimulation with bipolar electrodes.

Lateral rectus muscle changes after bilateral neonatal labyrinthectomy in the ferret.

The vestibular system is essential to the coordination of eye movements during head movements. Exercise, such as the eye movements mediated by the vestibular system, is a major factor in the development of muscle fiber types and the strength of muscle. In this study, the contents of the inner ear were removed (labyrinthectomy) from (LAB) ferrets at postnatal day 10 (P10) and raised with control (SHAM) animals.

Extraocular connective tissues: a role in human eye movements?

Purpose: This study presents a detailed anatomic analysis of the undisturbed connective tissues that surround the horizontal extraocular muscles (EOMs) of humans. Emphasis is placed on those EOM orbital side tissues that, in previous MRI studies, were assumed to couple the muscle to the pulley.

Methods: Serial 5-mum sections were prepared from paraffin-embedded blocks of the lateral and medial rectus muscles and their surrounding connective tissues.

Can stooped posture explain multidirectional postural instability in patients with Parkinson's disease?

To determine the effects of the stooped posture of patients with Parkinson's disease (PD) on postural stability, we compared the kinetic, kinematic, and electromyographic responses of seven subjects with PD and 11 control subjects to eight directions of surface translations. Control subjects were studied in an upright posture and in a stooped posture that mimicked the posture of the PD subjects. When control subjects adopted a stooped posture, peak center of pressure displacements slowed and decreased, reducing stability margins toward values observed in PD subjects.

Stimulation-evoked eye movements with and without the lateral rectus muscle pulley.

Recent studies have suggested that extraocular muscle (EOM) pulleys, composed of collagen, elastin, and smooth muscle, are among the tissues surrounding the eye. High-resolution magnetic-resonance imaging appears to indicate that the pulleys serve to both constrain and alter the pulling paths of the EOMs. The active pulley hypothesis suggests that the orbital layer of the EOMs inserts on the pulley and serves to control it.

Extraocular motor unit and whole-muscle contractile properties in the squirrel monkey. Summation of forces and fiber morphology.

In order to understand the neural control of movement, many investigations have examined the contractile properties of single motor units contracting in isolation, and a great majority of those studies have been done in the cat. Fewer studies, again primarily in the cat, have examined motor units acting in concert in both hind-limb and extraocular muscles. It has been shown, in general, that when individual motor unit forces are added together they do not always add linearly, which makes our understanding of motor control somewhat more complicated.

Short-term effects of botulinum toxin on the lateral rectus muscle of the cat.

Botulinum toxin type A (BTX) is often used as an alternative to surgery for the treatment of strabismus and many other motor or cosmetic problems. Although numerous studies established BTX as a powerful transmission-blocking agent at the neuromuscular junction, no evaluation of extraocular muscle (EOM) contractile properties after administration of BTX exists. Some anatomical studies on EOM fiber types suggested a long-term preferential effect of BTX on orbital layer, singly innervated muscle fibers.