The involvement of immune reactions in cardiac damage during acute myocardial infarction: role of cell-mediated immune response.

This study was undertaken with the aim of investigating humoral and cell-mediated immune response in acute myocardial infarction (AMI) as possible mechanisms involved in the infarction enlargement. Twenty three patients with first AMI and 15 healthy volunteers were examined. Of the AMI patients, 14 had extensive infarction (group A), while 9 patients had small infarction (group B).

Stress-induced rise in serum anti-brain autoantibody levels in the rat.

Sera from Wistar rats subjected to different stress procedures were tested by ELISA for the presence of autoantibodies with specificity for neuron-specific enolase (NSE) and S100 protein that are preferentially localized in neurons and glia, respectively. Autoantibodies were present in sera of animals before exposure to stress, and raised with age. Anti-NSE and anti-S100 autoantibody levels were increased one day after termination of restraint (2 hours daily, 10 days) and electric tail shock (80 shocks daily, 19 days), and in fifth and tenth week of overcrowding stress.

Motor control physiology below spinal cord injury: residual volitional control of motor units in paretic and paralyzed muscles.

We have described motor control in people with different degrees of SCI by using surface polyelectromyographic recordings during single- and multijoint volitional motor tasks. We have shown that neurobiologic conditions of the injured spinal cord can be expressed in two main categories: "new anatomy" and "reduced anatomy". The evidence for a variety of definite features of motor control elicited by volitional effort for the performance of a present or even clinically absent motor task suggests that we can benefit from animal experimental neurobiologic studies while we are progressing toward the application of this new knowledge for the restoration of impaired spinal cord function in humans.

Leflunomide, a novel immunomodulating drug, inhibits homotypic adhesion of peripheral blood and synovial fluid mononuclear cells in rheumatoid arthritis.

Objective And Design: A novel immunomodulating drug, leflunomide has been shown recently to be effective and well tolerated in patients suffering from rheumatoid arthritis (RA). The present study evaluated the effect of the drug on cell adhesion in RA.

Material And Treatment: Peripheral blood and synovial fluid mononuclear cells were obtained from a clinical trial, undertaken primarily to evaluate the efficacy and pharmacokinetic profile of multiple-dose pulsing leflunomide therapy in RA patients.

Effect of fatiguing maximal voluntary contraction on excitatory and inhibitory responses elicited by transcranial magnetic motor cortex stimulation.

Vertex transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) elicited tibialis anterior motor evoked potentials (MEPs) and silent periods (SPs) that were recorded during and following isometric maximal volitional contraction (MVC). During MVC in 6 healthy subjects, MEP amplitudes in the exercised muscle showed an increasing trend from an initial value of 4539 +/- 809 muV (mean +/- SE) to 550 +/- 908 muV (P < 0.13) while force and EMG decreased (P < 0.

Motor control after spinal cord injury: assessment using surface EMG.

The brain motor control assessment (BMCA) protocol is a comprehensive multichannel surface EMG recording used to characterize motor control features in persons with upper motor neuron dysfunction. Key information is contained in the overall temporal pattern of motor unit activity, observed in the EMG (RMS) envelope. In paralysis, a rudimentary form of suprasegmental control of tonic and phasic reflexes can be demonstrated.

Omental transposition in chronic spinal cord injury.

The results of omental transposition in chronic spinal cord injury have been reported in 160 patients operated upon in the United States, Great Britain, China, Japan, India and Mexico, with detailed outcomes reported in few studies. Recovery of function to a greater degree than expected by natural history has been reported. In this series, 15 patients with chronic traumatic spinal cord injury (> 1.

Modification of motor control of wrist extension by mesh-glove electrical afferent stimulation in stroke patients.

Objective: To study the effect of mesh-glove afferent stimulation on motor control of voluntary wrist movement in stroke patients who have chronic neurological deficits.

Design: Case series. Motor control was evaluated by surface EMG of the arm muscles and kinematics of voluntary wrist movements on 3 occasions: before and immediately after the initial session of mesh-glove stimulation, and then after a daily mesh-glove stimulation program conducted over several months.

Safety and effectiveness of leflunomide in the treatment of patients with active rheumatoid arthritis. Results of a randomized, placebo-controlled, phase II study.

Objective: To assess the safety and effectiveness of leflunomide versus placebo in patients with active rheumatoid arthritis (RA) treated for 6 months.

Methods: Four hundred two patients were randomly assigned to receive placebo or leflunomide at 5 mg, 10 mg, or 25 mg daily. A washout period of 6-12 weeks from prior second-line therapy was required.

Influence of concurrent tasks on gait: a dual-task approach.

We studied the effect of concurrent tasks on motor control of gait with dual-task methodology. Ten healthy subjects were instructed to perform different cognitive and motor tasks during gait on a conductive walkway. Footswitch signals were recorded and stride time and double-support time were calculated.

Experimental allergic encephalomyelitis in adult DA rats subjected to neonatal handling or gentling.

The present study investigated the effect of daily handling and gentling between postnatal days 1 and 28 on experimental allergic encephalomyelitis (EAE) in 8-week old DA rats. Handling consisted of removing pups from the mother, and placing them in the novel cage for 15 min. The gentling procedure included handling accompanied by 3 min of dorsal tactile stimulation before returning the pups to the nest cage.

Suppression of experimental allergic encephalomyelitis in offspring of DA and Wistar rats following immunization of mother with encephalitogen.

Immunization of female rats with encephalitogen before gestation, during gestation, and during lactation differentially decreased susceptibility to experimental allergic encephalomyelitis (EAE) in their offspring. The most pronounced suppression, revealed by lowered incidence and weaker clinical signs of the disease, was observed in offspring of mothers immunized before gestation and during lactation in both Dark August (EAE-susceptible), and Wistar (EAE-relatively resistant) rat strains. Induction of EAE in mothers during pregnancy only delayed the onset of the disease in DA progeny.

Early and late motor evoked potentials reflect preset agonist-antagonist organization in lower limb muscles.

A single transcranial magnetic stimulus can evoke two involuntary muscle responses in lower limb muscles of healthy humans. The purpose of the present study was to find out if these responses, when evoked during the processing period of a simple or choice reaction time task, such as ankle dorsiflexion, have specific characteristics related to the task. During the auditory reaction time, a transcranial magnetic stimulus was delivered to observe changes in the excitability of the central nervous system.

Maternal deprivation and early weaning modulate experimental allergic encephalomyelitis in the rat.

The present experiment deals with the effect of maternal deprivation (MD) and early weaning (EW) on the development and course of experimental allergic encephalomyelitis (EAE) in Dark August (DA) rats. Five litters (five to nine pups per liter) were subjected to MD (4 h daily) from Day 1 until Day 28. EW rats were weaned on Day 15 (EW-15, five litters) or Day 21 (EW-21, four litters).

Neurophysiological assessment of the motor and sensory spinal pathways in chronic spinal cord injury.

Introduction of transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) has provided means to study non-invasively corticospinal functions in humans. The purpose of the present study was to obtain an objective evaluation of spinal cord functions in spinal cord injury (SCI) subjects using TMS, multichannel surface EMG and somatosensory-evoked potentials (SSEP). Multichannel surface EMG recording was performed during reinforcement manoeuvres and during vibratory tonic reflex.

Effect of Met-enkephalin and opioid antagonists on rat macrophages.

Effects of Met-enkephalin (Met-ENK) and opioid antagonists on H2O2 release by peritoneal macrophages from DA and AO rats were investigated. Met-ENK increased and decreased H2O2 production by macrophages of DA and AO rats, respectively. These effects were antagonized by low, but not high, concentrations of naloxone and ICI 174864.

Focal depression of cortical excitability induced by fatiguing muscle contraction: a transcranial magnetic stimulation study.

Motor evoked potentials (MEPs) elicited by transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) and transcranial electrical stimulation (TES) of the motor cortex were recorded in separate sessions to assess changes in motor cortex excitability after a fatiguing isometric maximal voluntary contraction (MVC) of the right ankle dorsal flexor muscles. Five healthy male subjects, aged 37.4 +/- 4.

Mesh-glove. 2. Modulation of residual upper limb motor control after stroke with whole-hand electric stimulation.

The effects of whole-hand electrical stimulation via a wired mesh-glove upon the residual motor control of the upper extremity are described. Clinical observations were made in 2 patients with nonfunctional upper limbs, 4 and 2 years after stroke, who had been enrolled in the home mesh-glove program for 6 and 4 months, respectively. The stimulation paradigm is novel and the target of stimulation is the hand.

Mesh-glove. 1. A method for whole-hand electrical stimulation in upper motor neuron dysfunction.

A newly devised method for electrical stimulation via a wired mesh-glove is described. The stimulation paradigm is novel in that a whole hand is the target of stimulation. Specific standardized stimulation modalities are reviewed.

Neonatal sound stress and development of experimental allergic encephalomyelitis in Lewis and DA rats.

This experiment deals with the effect of neonatal sound stress on the susceptibility of rats in adult life to the induction of experimental allergic encephalomyelitis (EAE). Two inbred strains of rats, Lewis and DA, highly susceptible to EAE were used. On postnatal days 15, 18 and 21, animals of both sexes were sound stressed in a sound attenuated chamber (90dB, 60 rings/5 sec during 1 h, on a variable interval schedule) in the presence or absence of the mother.