Symptomatic zinc deficiency in a one-year-old child precipitated by changing from formula to cow's milk.

The case of a one-year-old girl with symptomatic zinc deficiency is presented. She had been misdiagnosed as having impetigo and/or candidiasis and had been treated with topical antifungal agents and both oral and topical antibiotic agents without success during the four months before she presented. Zinc replacement led to rapid improvement.

Electrical control of gastric emptying in denervated and reinnervated canine stomach: a pilot study.

Gastric emptying of solids is abnormally slow after vagotomy. To determine whether it was possible to accelerate emptying by electrical stimulation either of the gastric wall directly or of a "foreign" nerve brought in to reinnervate the stomach, eight dogs underwent truncal vagotomy (TV); five of the dogs received intercostal nerve muscle pedicle (NMP) implants. Gastric atony was demonstrated postoperatively in all animals up to 4 months later by means of radiological contrast studies.

Contractile response to electrical stimulation of the small intestine in anesthetized and awake dogs.

To test whether small bowel contraction can be induced by electrostimulation similar to in vitro results in anesthetized and awake animals, five dogs had stainless steel electrodes implanted on the serosal surface of the jejunum and ileum. Fifty milliamperes of 500-microseconds 910-Hz currents induced a 50-80-mm Hg pressure increase in the jejunum with a threshold of 25 mA. Transverse stimulation was studied long-term in two dogs.

An artificial myotatic reflex: a potential avenue to fine motor control.

When a striated muscle becomes paralyzed, not only its motor function, but its sensory innervation may be impaired. Methods of rehabilitation have previously focused only on motor innervation, although striated muscles are submitted to self-regulation of length and tension. Indeed, reinnervated muscle may not contract appropriately unless sensory information is available, nor is it known whether sensory receptors are included in the reinnervation process.

Excitation thresholds for nerve pedicles: a preliminary report.

Ongoing interest in the rehabilitation of paralyzed musculature in the head and neck has focused on the electronic stimulation of nerve-muscle pedicles that have been reimplanted into the incapacitated effector(s). Despite visual and histochemical evidence of reinnervation, it is still not known whether the excitability of a nerve-muscle pedicle (or for that matter a direct nerve implant) is equivalent to or better than that of reinnervated or normal muscle. Such information is necessary for the eventual construction of an implantable stimulator.