Voice and Swallowing Disorders After Thyroid Surgery.

Objective: The aim of the study was to evaluate voice and swallowing function following thyroid surgery, to identify dynamic changes during the follow-up period of 12-18 month and to find possible indicative signs of permanent or temporary vocal fold palsy.

Methods: All participants (N = 110) were prospectively enrolled from the preoperative thyroid surgery patients between September 2013 and December 2016. All subjects underwent preoperatively, first week and 12-18 month postoperatively videolaryngostroboscopy, filled in subjective evaluation of voice (voice handicap index, [VHI]) and swallowing (swallowing impairment score) complaints.

Constitutional risk factors for focal neuropathies in patients referred for electromyography.

Background And Purpose: It is well established that patient-related constitutional features predispose to focal peripheral neuropathies. Some of these risk factors were investigated in common focal neuropathies encountered in patients referred for electromyography.

Methods: Gender, age, height and body mass index (BMI) were analysed retrospectively as risk factors for 11 focal neuropathies.

Fulminant inflammatory neuropathy mimicking cerebral death.

We report a case of a 44-year-old woman who developed rapidly progressive tetraparesis followed by respiratory failure and abolition of brainstem reflexes. Electrodiagnostic studies excluded the possibility of cerebral death and confirmed the diagnosis of acute motor-sensory axonal neuropathy. The initial fulminant course of the disease was followed by slow recovery to independence in daily activities.

Reference values for F wave parameters in healthy 3-20 year old subjects.

Objective: To create a reference value database for F wave parameters from healthy subjects aged 3-20 yr.

Methods: We studied the following parameters: minimum F wave latency minus distal motor latency (FMINLAT), number of F waves/20 stimuli (FNUMBER) and F wave dispersion (FDISP). The median, ulnar, peroneal and tibial nerves were studied.

Clinical and laboratory-reconfirmed myasthenia gravis: a population-based study.

The aim of this study was to compare the clinically based prevalence of myasthenia gravis (MG) with the prevalence of laboratory-confirmed cases. All patients with a diagnosis of MG living in Estonia as on 1 January 1997 were asked to participate in re-examination. The criteria for laboratory-supported MG were weakness and rapid fatigue and a positive outcome of at least one of three laboratory tests: (i) blinded acetylcholinesterase inhibitor test; (ii) determination of antibodies to acetylcholine receptor and (iii) neurophysiological examination using repetitive nerve stimulation and single-fibre EMG.