[Damage of teres minor branch of axillary nerve].

Atrophy demarcating to musculus teres minor is seen in magnetic resonance imaging of the shoulder region in 3 to 5.5% of investigations. We describe seven patients with prolonged or recurrent pain of the shoulder region, who were diagnosed in ENMG with damage of the axillary nerve brand to m.

Quantitative EEG in occupational chronic solvent encephalopathy.

The aim of this study was to characterize the quantitative analyzed EEG (electroencephalogram) findings (qEEG) in chronic solvent encephalopathy (CSE) patients and study whether the qEEG findings associate with the duration and intensity of the solvent exposure. Also, the diagnostic value of qEEG in CSE is discussed. The EEG of 47 male CSE patients was analyzed.

P300 of auditory event related potentials in occupational chronic solvent encephalopathy.

This retrospective study characterized the P300 component of the auditory event related potential (ERP) and assessed its diagnostic value in occupational chronic solvent encephalopathy (CSE). The P300 was recorded on 86 CSE patients by the classical oddball paradigm. In addition to the laboratory's reference values, we used an age and education matched control group that consisted of 104 blue-collar workers with no known occupational solvent exposure.

Cognitive and neurophysiological outcome of cardiac arrest survivors treated with therapeutic hypothermia.

Background And Purpose: Cognitive deficits are common in survivors of cardiac arrest (CA). The aim of this study was to examine the effect of therapeutic hypothermia after CA on cognitive functioning and neurophysiological outcome.

Methods: A cohort of 70 consecutive adult patients resuscitated from out-of-hospital ventricular fibrillation CA were randomly assigned to therapeutic hypothermia of 33 degrees C for 24 hours accomplished by external cooling or normothermia.

Sensorimotor cortex localization: comparison of magnetoencephalography, functional MR imaging, and intraoperative cortical mapping.

Purpose: To prospectively evaluate magnetoencephalography (MEG) and functional magnetic resonance (MR) imaging, as compared with intraoperative cortical mapping, for identification of the central sulcus.

Materials And Methods: Fifteen patients (six men, nine women; age range, 25-58 years) with a lesion near the primary sensorimotor cortex (13 gliomas, one cavernous hemangioma, and one meningioma) were examined after institutional review board approval and written informed consent from each patient were obtained. At MEG, evoked magnetic fields to median nerve stimulation were recorded; at functional MR imaging, hemodynamic responses to self-paced palmar flexion of the wrist were imaged.

Somatosensory and brainstem auditory evoked potentials in cardiac arrest patients treated with hypothermia.

Objective: To evaluate the prognostic value of short-latency median nerve somatosensory evoked potentials and brainstem auditory evoked potentials in outcome prediction for comatose cardiac arrest patients treated with hypothermia.

Design: Prospective, randomized, controlled trial of mild hypothermia after out-of-hospital cardiac arrest; a substudy of the European Hypothermia After Cardiac Arrest study.

Setting: Intensive care unit of a tertiary referral hospital (Helsinki University Central Hospital).

Facilitation of the spinal H-reflex by auditory stimulation in dyslexic adults.

Dyslexic subjects show a variety of mild sensory and motor deficits that have been assumed to reflect dysfunction of the large-diameter 'magnocells' in different parts of the brain. Hearing as a warning sense relies on rapidly-conducting fibers, and on the basis of the magnocellular deficit theory, we wondered whether auditory alerting would be weakened in dyslexic adults. We quantified the strength of sound-induced spinal facilitation in seven dyslexic and eight normal-reading adults by measuring the amplitudes of H-reflex, a monosynaptic spinal reflex, after loud binaural sounds.

Three-dimensional integration of brain anatomy and function to facilitate intraoperative navigation around the sensorimotor strip.

We studied 12 patients with brain tumors in the vicinity of the sensorimotor region to provide a preoperative three-dimensional visualization of the functional anatomy of the rolandic cortex. We also evaluated the role of cortex-muscle coherence analysis and anatomical landmarks in identifying the sensorimotor cortex. The functional landmarks were based on neuromagnetic recordings with a whole-scalp magnetometer, coregistred with magnetic resonance images.

Body burden of aluminum in relation to central nervous system function among metal inert-gas welders.

Objectives: The relationship between elevated internal aluminum loads and central nervous system function was studied among aluminum welders, and the threshold level for adverse effect was defined.

Methods: For 65 aluminum welders and 25 current mild steel welders body burden was estimated, and the aluminum concentrations in serum (S-Al) and urine (U-Al) were analyzed with graphite furnace atomic absorption spectrometry with Zeeman background correction. Referents and low-exposure and high-exposure groups were defined according to an aggregated measure of aluminum body burden, the group median S-Al levels being 0.

Human brain activity during exposure to radiofrequency fields emitted by cellular phones.

Objectives: The aim of this study was to explore the possible influence of radiofrequency (RF) radiation exposure on human brain function.

Methods: The electroencephalographic (EEG) activity of 19 volunteers was quantitatively analyzed. Ten of the subjects were men (28-48 years of age) and 9 were women (32-57 years of age).

Does P3 reflect attentional or memory performances, or cognition more generally?

The study evaluated the off-line relationship of attention, memory and other cognitive performances with the auditory event-related potentials P3 (P300) and N2. The sample comprised 200 middle-aged construction workers. Verbal, visuomotor and memory tests were administered.

Characterization and partial purification of CD34+ progenitor cell ecto-phosphatidic acid phosphohydrolase.

Phosphatidic acid and its hydrolysis product, diacylglycerol, play potentially vital roles as extracellular messengers in numerous cellular systems and may play a key role in regulating hematopoiesis. In this study, we describe an ecto-phosphatidic acid phosphohydrolase that potentially regulates cellular responses to phosphatidic acid on bone marrow derived human hematopoietic progenitors. We partially purified hematopoietic progenitor ecto-PAPase using a novel in-gel phosphatase assay and then characterized the enzyme on phenotypically defined subpopulations of hematopoietic CD34+ progenitors isolated by flow cytometry.

Occupational exposure to lead and neuropsychological dysfunction.

Objective: To evaluate the neuropsychological effects of current low level and previous higher levels of exposure to lead and evaluate the relation between effects of lead and bone lead.

Methods: A neuropsychological test battery was given to 54 storage battery workers with well documented long term exposure to lead. The effect was studied in two subgroups: those whose blood lead had never exceeded 2.

Nerve lesions after therapy for childhood acute lymphoblastic leukemia.

Background: The objective of the current study was to use somatosensory evoked potentials (SEP) to detect signs of nerve lesions in the peripheral nerve and in the central nervous system (CNS) after 3 years of treatment for childhood acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL).

Methods: The somatosensory potentials evoked by stimulation of the median nerve and posterior tibial nerve were recorded in 31 children with ALL after 3 years of therapy. All patients were examined clinically.

Effects of low level exposure to lead on neurophysiological functions among lead battery workers.

Objectives: Assessment of neurophysiological functions in workers with low level exposure to lead and evaluation of the efficacy of bone lead measurements in the prediction of effects of lead.

Methods: Exposure to lead of 60 workers from a lead battery battery factory was estimated from historical blood lead measurements and analysis of lead in the tibial and calcaneal bones with x ray fluorescence. Peripheral and central nervous system functions were assessed by measuring conduction velocities, sensory distal latencies, sensory amplitudes, and vibration thresholds as well as by quantitative measurement of the absolute and relative powers and mean frequencies of different electroencephalograph (EEG) channels.

Recombinant expression of a type IV, cAMP-specific phosphodiesterase: characterization and structure-function studies of deletion mutants.

A potential role for cAMP in regulating the differentiation of myoblasts has led us to examine the components of the cAMP signaling system, including the type IV, cAMP-specific phosphodiesterases. The full coding sequence of the phosphodiesterase PDE4D1 was inserted in the bacterial expression vector pGEX-KG. N- and C-terminal truncations were also placed in the same vector, allowing the expression and purification of glutathione S-transferase (GST)-PDE fusion proteins using glutathione-Sepharose.

Chemotherapy for acute lymphoblastic leukemia may cause subtle changes of the spinal cord detectable by somatosensory evoked potentials.

Intrathecal chemotherapy has been determined to cause transient or permanent paraparesis due to myelopathy in patients with leukemia or other malignancies. To systematically evaluate the effect of methotrexate on spinal cord function, somatosensory evoked potentials (SEP) were measured in children with acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL). A prospective evaluation was performed in 38 consecutive children aged 1.

Vincristine therapy for children with acute lymphoblastic leukemia impairs conduction in the entire peripheral nerve.

Somatosensory evoked potentials were measured prospectively in 38 children with acute lymphoblastic leukemia to evaluate the side effects of vincristine therapy on conduction of the peripheral nerves. Nineteen patients at standard risk received vincristine 12 mg/m2 during induction therapy and 19 patients at intermediate or high risk received 6 mg/m2 during induction therapy and an additional 6 mg/m2 during delayed intensification therapy. These latencies were compared with those of 38 age-, height-, and sex-matched controls.

Internal load of aluminum and the central nervous system function of aluminum welders.

Objectives: Because the brain is the recognized target organ for aluminum toxicity, internal aluminum load and central nervous system functions were investigated among aluminum welders in a shipyard.

Methods: Seventeen male welders with a mean age of 37 (range 24-48) years and a history of about four years of metal inert-gas welding on aluminum were the subjects. Aluminum in serum (S-Al) and urine (U-Al) was analyzed with graphite-furnace atomic absorption spectrophotometry.

Protein kinase A regulation of cAMP phosphodiesterase expression in rat skeletal myoblasts.

We have been studying cAMP signaling in L6 myoblasts because of its potential role in regulating the differentiation of these cells into multinucleate myotubes. Previous studies have shown that treatment of L6 myoblasts with cAMP analogs causes an increase in cAMP phosphodiesterase activity. To assess the role of protein kinase A in this cAMP-mediated increase in cAMP phosphodiesterase activity, L6 myoblasts were transfected with a plasmid containing the cDNA for a mutant regulatory subunit of protein kinase A, which functions as a dominant negative inhibitor of this enzyme.

A prospective one-year follow-up study with somatosensory potentials evoked by stimulation of the median nerve in patients with cerebral infarct.

Somatosensory potentials evoked by stimulation of the median nerve (median nerve SEPs) were studied in a prospective and sequential series of 40 patients with first supratentorial and nonhaemorrhagic cerebral infarct. In 35 patients the SEPs were recorded three times during the first year after the stroke. The location of the infarcted zone was reflected in the number of detected abnormalities: most patients with infarct changes extending to the gray matter of the Rolandic cortex showed abnormalities in the median nerve SEPs, and all patients with involvement of both precentral and postcentral cortical gray matter had abnormal median nerve SEPs.

A prospective 1 year follow-up study with somatosensory potentials evoked by stimulation of the posterior tibial nerve in patients with supratentorial cerebral infarction.

Somatosensory potentials evoked by stimulation of the posterior tibial nerve (tibial nerve SEPs) were studied in 40 patients with supratentorial non-haemorrhagic cerebral infarction and in 25 control subjects, SEPs were recorded twice in 39 patients and thrice in 35 patients. The first examination was carried out 4-19 days after the onset of the symptoms, the second examination 56-100 days after the stroke, and the third examination 348-393 days after the stroke. Increased side-to-side differences in the P57 and N75 peak latencies and absence of the P40 peak were the most frequent abnormal findings.

Median nerve and posterior tibial nerve somatosensory evoked potentials in the non-affected hemisphere: a prospective one-year follow-up study in patients with supratentorial cerebral infarction.

Somatosensory potentials in the non-affected hemisphere evoked by simulation of both the median nerve (median nerve SEPs) and the posterior tibial nerve (tibial nerve SEPs) were studied in 40 patients with supratentorial nonhaemorrhagic cerebral infarction three times during a one-year follow-up period. The EP-N20 interpeak latencies (IPLs) of the median nerve SEPs were on average longer in the patient group than in the control group (especially in patients with evidence of mass displacements in the cerebral computed tomography), whereas no significant differences were observed in the amplitudes of the median nerve SEPs. The P57-N75 amplitudes of the tibial nerve SEPs were on average lower in the patient group than in the control group.

Prognostic significance of somatosensory potentials evoked by stimulation of the median and posterior tibial nerves: a prospective 1-year follow-up study in patients with supratentorial cerebral infarction.

A prospective 1-year follow-up examination was carried out in 35 patients with supratentorial cerebral infarction. The median nerve SEPs were performed 3-15 days and the tibial nerve SEPs 4-19 days after the stroke. The functional outcome was assessed 1 year after the stroke.