Splinting for carpal tunnel syndrome: prognostic indicators of success.

Objectives: To identify (combinations of) prognostic indicators for the long term success of splinting in patients with electrophysiologically confirmed idiopathic carpal tunnel syndrome (CTS).

Methods: This study was conducted within the framework of a randomised controlled trial on the efficacy of splinting and surgery for CTS. Patients randomised to splinting received a wrist splint, which they had to wear during the night for at least six weeks.

Autoradiographic study of striatal dopamine re-uptake sites and dopamine D1 and D2 receptors in a 6-hydroxydopamine and quinolinic acid double-lesion rat model of striatonigral degeneration (multiple system atrophy) and effects of embryonic ventral mesencephalic, striatal or co-grafts.

The influence of embryonic mesencephalic, striatal and mesencephalic/striatal co-grafts on amphetamine- and apomorphine-induced rotation behaviour was assessed in a rat model of multiple system atrophy/striatonigral degeneration type using dopamine D1 ([3H]SCH23390) and D2 ([3H]spiperone) receptor and dopamine re-uptake ([3H]mazindol) autoradiography. Male Wistar rats subjected to a sequential unilateral 6-hydroxydopamine lesion of the medial forebrain bundle followed by a quinolinic acid lesion of the ipsilateral striatum were divided into four treatment groups, receiving either mesencephalic, striatal, mesencephalic/striatal co-grafts or sham grafts. Amphetamine- and apomorphine-induced rotation behaviour was recorded prior to and up to 10 weeks following transplantation.

Reversal of behavioural abnormalities by fetal allografts in a novel rat model of striatonigral degeneration.

We have developed a rodent model of striatonigral degeneration, one of the core pathologies underlying the disease multiple system atrophy (MSA). 6-Hydroxydopamine (6-OHDA) was administered into the left medial forebrain bundle of male Wistar rats, followed 3-4 weeks later by intrastriatal injection of quinolinic acid into the ipsilateral striatum. The 6-OHDA lesion resulted in ipsilateral rotation to (+)-amphetamine and contralateral rotation to apomorphine.

Follow-up magnetic resonance imaging in Hallervorden-Spatz disease.

Bilateral high signal emitting areas in the globus pallidus surrounded by low signal emitting areas have been described as a typical MRI finding in Hallervorden-Spatz disease (HSD). We made a diagnosis of HSD in an 11-year-old girl with progressive dystonia of 4 years duration who showed these typical MRI abnormalities. An initial MRI at the age of 9 was normal.

Copper-zinc superoxide dismutase in cerebrospinal fluid: implications for oxygen-radical stress in the central nervous system.

We determined the concentration of copper zinc superoxide dismutase (CuZnSOD) in cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) and plasma of 36 persons without neurological illness or with various central and peripheral nervous system disorders not supposed to generate abnormal radical formation. The CuZnSOD concentration in CSF was significantly higher compared with plasma, suggesting the presence of a high oxygen-radical load on the central nervous system. Our data may be considered to reflect normal values.