Age-related botulinum toxin effects on muscle fiber conduction velocity in non-injected muscles.

Objective: We studied systemic effects of botulinum toxin (BTX) treatment on muscle fiber conduction velocity (MFCV) and possible effects of age.

Methods: MFCV was determined by an invasive EMG method in the biceps brachii muscle. Seventeen BTX treated patients and 58 controls were investigated.

P300 after head injury: pseudodelay caused by reduced P3A amplitude.

Objective: We compared conventional P300 analysis with source analysis in normal subjects and head-injury patients. Based on earlier findings of improved P300 component identification and reduced P3B latency variability with source analysis in normal subjects, our aim was to investigate whether source analysis could improve the distinction between these groups.

Methods: In total, 21 healthy control subjects and 21 patients with mild to moderate head injury were included in this study.

Indices of slowness of information processing in head injury patients: tests for selective attention related to ERP latencies.

We explored the relation between neuropsychological (attention tests involving time constraints) and neurophysiological (N2 and P3 event-related potential (ERP) latencies) indices of slowness of information processing after closed head injury (CHI). A group of 44 CHI patients performed worse than healthy controls on most neuropsychological indices, and had significantly longer ERP latencies. Significant correlations between neuropsychological measures and ERP latencies were found only for the 3 subtasks of the Stroop test.

Neonatal loss of motor function in human spina bifida aperta.

Objective: In neonates with spina bifida aperta (SBA), leg movements innervated by spinal segments located caudal to the meningomyelocele are transiently present. This study in neonates with SBA aimed to determine whether the presence of leg movements indicates functional integrity of neuronal innervation and whether these leg movements disappear as a result of dysfunction of upper motor neurons (axons originating cranial to the meningomyelocele) and/or of lower motor neurons (located caudal to the meningomyelocele).

Methods: Leg movements were investigated in neonates with SBA at postnatal day 1 (n = 18) and day 7 (n = 10).

Prognostic significance of amplitude-integrated EEG during the first 72 hours after birth in severely asphyxiated neonates.

Amplitude-integrated EEG (aEEG) is used to select patients for neuroprotective therapy after perinatal asphyxia because of its prognostic accuracy within several hours after birth. We aimed to determine the natural course of aEEG patterns during the first 72 h of life, in relation to neurologic outcome, in a group of severely asphyxiated term infants. Thirty infants, admitted to our neonatal intensive care unit from October 1998 until February 2001, were studied retrospectively.

A new surface electromyography analysis method to determine spread of muscle fiber conduction velocities.

Muscle fiber conduction velocity (MFCV) estimation from surface signals is widely used to study muscle function, e.g., in neuromuscular disease and in fatigue studies.