Non-patterned electrical stimulation of the posterior structures of the lumbar spinal cord in subjects with complete, long-standing spinal cord injury, can induce patterned, locomotor-like activity. We show that epidural spinal cord stimulation can elicit step-like EMG activity and locomotor synergies in paraplegic subjects. An electrical train of stimuli applied over the second lumbar segment with a frequency of 25 to 60 Hz and an amplitude of 5-9 V was effective in inducing rhythmic, alternating stance and swing phases of the lower limbs. This finding suggests that spinal circuitry in humans has the capability of generating locomotor-like activity even when isolated from brain control, and that externally controlled sustained electrical stimulation of the spinal cord can replace the tonic drive generated by the brain.
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PLoS Comput Biol
January 2025
Department of Mathematics and Statistics, Middlebury College, Middlebury, Vermont, United States of America.
Chronic pain is a wide-spread condition that is debilitating and expensive to manage, costing the United States alone around $600 billion in 2010. In a common symptom of chronic pain called allodynia, non-painful stimuli produce painful responses with highly variable presentations across individuals. While the specific mechanisms remain unclear, allodynia is hypothesized to be caused by the dysregulation of excitatory-inhibitory (E-I) balance in pain-processing neural circuitry in the dorsal horn of the spinal cord.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFOper Neurosurg (Hagerstown)
September 2024
Department of Neurosurgery, New York University, New York, New York, USA.
Background And Objective: Neurofibromatosis-1 (NF1) dystrophic scoliosis is a challenging disease to manage surgically, with multiplanar curves progressing rapidly and unpredictably. Conservative management with bracing is often unsuccessful, and many patients necessitate instrumented fusion to halt progression of their curves. In rare cases, patients can present with spontaneous vertebral subluxation, significantly complicating the surgical management of this already complex disease process.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFNeurosurgery
September 2024
Department of Clinical Neuroscience, Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm, Sweden.
Background And Objectives: Vertebral artery injury (VAI) because of traumatic subaxial cervical spine injury is a rare but potentially devastating condition as it could lead to stroke. The aim of this study was to examine the incidence, risk factors, outcomes, and radiographic predictors of VAI in patients surgically treated for subaxial cervical spine injuries at a tertiary care trauma center.
Methods: This is a retrospective population-based cohort study, including all patients surgically treated for traumatic subaxial cervical spine injuries at the study center between 2006 and 2018.
Neurol Sci
January 2025
Hematology Unit, Careggi University Hospital, Florence, Italy.
Background: The coexistence of sickle cell anemia and multiple sclerosis in a single patient presents a rare and challenging clinical scenario, possibly favoured by the interplay between chronic inflammatory states and autoimmune processes.
Methos/results: We present the case of a 36-year-old woman with sickle cell anemia who developed progressive neurological symptoms leading to frequent falls and paraparesis; magnetic resonance imaging showed many periventricular, infratentorial, and both cervical and dorsal spinal cord lesions, leading to a diagnosis of multiple sclerosis. After a multidisciplinary approach the patient was successfully started on ofatumumab.
Cureus
December 2024
Department of Orthopaedics, Tokyo Metropolitan Bokutoh Hospital, Tokyo, JPN.
Hypertrophic pachymeningitis (HP) is a rare inflammatory disease that causes the thickening of the dura mater. Its etiology is mainly classified as idiopathic or secondary, and autoimmune disease is one of the main causes of secondary HP. Antineutrophil cytoplasmic antibody (ANCA)-associated vasculitis and IgG4-related disease are common among autoimmune diseases.
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