Association of bcl-2, bax, bcl-xL and interleukin-1 beta-converting enzyme expression with initial response to chemotherapy in acute myeloid leukemia.

Bcl-2 expression is able to confer drug resistance to chemotherapy-induced programmed cell death. Bax, a partner protein of bcl-2 with extensive aminoacid homology, is a promoter of apoptosis. Apparently the equilibrium of bcl-2 and bax hetero- and homodimers is important for the susceptibility of cells for stimuli inducing apoptosis.

Transient decrease in number of motor units after immobilisation in man.

On the day after the removal of a long leg cast, when the patient could just bend his knee, the electrical activity in the disused quadriceps muscle showed changes that indicated a reduction in the number of motor units. At 10 to 75% of maximum force the number of turns and the mean amplitude of the needle-recorded EMG were reduced in the disused muscle. Eight days later, when half the initial loss of force had been regained, the electrical activity was normal.

Diagnostic yield of the analysis of the pattern of electrical activity of muscle and of individual motor unit potentials in neurogenic involvement.

The pattern of electrical activity and the properties of individual motor unit potentials were analysed in the flexor muscles of the forearm of 15 patients with motor neurone disease and 15 patients with a lesion of the brachial plexus. The best diagnostic yield from the pattern of electrical activity was obtained when the force was 30% of maximum: The number of spikes (turns/15 s) was diminished in 70% of the patients; none showed the increase in turns characteristic of myopathy. The decrease in the number of turns was often associated with an increased incidence of long time intervals between turns and with an increased amplitude between turns.

Diagnostic yield of analysis of the pattern of electrical activity and of individual motor unit potentials in myopathy.

The analysis of the pattern of electrical activity and of individual motor unit potentials in the same muscle both identified about 90% of 41 patients as having a myopathy. The pattern of electrical activity was analysed during a force which was a fixed fraction of maximum; individual motor unit potentials were analysed during weak effort. The two methods supplement each other as some of the patients were identified only by one or by the other of the two procedures.