Vibration therapy reduces plasma IL6 and muscle soreness after downhill running.

OBJECTIVE: In this study, the effects of vibration therapy (VT) on delayed-onset muscle soreness (DOMS) and associated inflammatory markers after downhill running were determined. METHODS: 29 male recreational runners (33 (8) years; V(O2)peak 57 (6) ml kg(-1) min(-1)) completed a 40-min downhill run and were randomly allocated to a VT group or Control group. For 5 days post-run, the VT group underwent once-daily sessions of VT on the upper and lower legs. DOMS was assessed pre-run and for 5 days post-run by visual analogue scale. Immune cell subsets and plasma inflammatory markers were assessed pre-run, post-run, 24 and 120 h post-run by full differential cell count, and by ELISA and enzyme immunoassay, respectively. Data were analysed as per cent change from pre-run (ANOVA) and the magnitude of the treatment effect (Cohen's effect size statistics). RESULTS: VT significantly reduced calf pain 96 h post-run (-50% (40%), 90% confidence limits) and gluteal pain 96 h (-50% (40%)) and 120 h post-run (-30% (30%)); decreased interleukin 6 (IL6) 24 h (-46% (31%)) and 120 h post-run (-65% (30%)); substantially decreased histamine 24 h (-40% (50%)) and 120 h post-run (-37% (48%)); substantially increased neutrophils (8.6% (8.1%)) and significantly decreased lymphocytes (-17% (12%)) 24 h post-run. There were no clear substantial effects of VT on other leukocyte subsets and inflammatory markers. CONCLUSION: VT reduces muscle soreness and IL6. It may stimulate lymphocyte and neutrophil responses and may be a useful modality in treating muscle inflammation.

Sciatic nerve entrapment by pentazocine-induced muscle fibrosis: a case report.

A progressive bilateral sciatic neuropathy appeared in a 52-year-old man as an unusual complication of pentazocine-induced muscle fibrosis. Surgical neurolysis showed that the sciatic nerves were firmly compressed by large fibrous bands involving the entire gluteal musculature.

Effects of a levo-5-hydroxytryptophan-dihydroergocristine combination on depression and neuropsychic performance: a double-blind placebo-controlled clinical trial in elderly patients.

Fifty elderly patients (mean age, 68 years) affected by depression were treated with a combination (P3007) containing 3 mg of dihydroergocristine and 100 mg of levo-5-hydroxytryptophan or placebo for 60 days in a double-blind trial. Efficacy of treatment was evaluated by means of neuropsychic tests and rating scales for depression before treatment and after 30 and 60 days. Patients treated with the drug combination showed significant improvements in their depressive state and psychic performance, whereas no change was observed in patients receiving placebo. The treatment was well tolerated.

Spinal arachnoiditis due to aspergillus meningitis in a previously healthy patient.

A 30-year-old, previously healthy, non-addicted man presented with a chronic spinal meningitis complicated by arachnoiditis and spinal cord compression. Biopsy showed a chronic granulomatous leptomeningitis, in which some cells contained branching septate organisms that were immunostained with an antiserum to Aspergillus fumigatus. Precipitins to A. fumigatus were detected in cerebrospinal fluid (CSF), but not in blood, and aspergillus infection was apparently restricted to the leptomeninges. Clinically successful treatment led to the disappearance of CSF precipitins and oligoclonal bands.

[Myasthenia gravis syndrome following administration of d-penicillamine (author's transl)]. / Syndrome myasthénique secondaire à l'administration de d-pénicillamine.

The authors report a case of myasthenia gravis syndrome appearing six months after the start of d-Penicillamine treatment for rheumatoid polyarthritis and disappearing rapidly and definitively after cessation of that treatment. In connection with the case the authors review some forty similar cases in the literature and consider the principal clinical, electrophysiological and immunological aspects. They also discuss the etiopathogenic hypotheses and treatment of this iatrogenic complication.

[Clinical and polygraphic study of 2 cases of "nocturnal myoclonus" sensitive to clonazepam]. / Etude clinique et polygraphique de deux observations de "nocturnal myoclonus" sensibles au clonazépam.

Polygraphic sleep recordings were performed in two patients with nocturnal myoclonus. The beneficial effect of Clonazepam has been confirmed in the two cases.

[Neurological complications of infectious mononucleosis (author's transl)]. / Les complications neurologiques de la mononucléose infectieuse

The authors report three different and rare forms of neurological complication associated with infectious mononucleosis. The first two, which are faily unusual in their clinical signs, occurred during the course of two typical cases of mononucleosis, one in the form of progressively regressive myelitis and the other in that of amyotrophic paralysis of the shoulder. The third occurred in isolation, after an encephalitic attack combined with a state of epileptic mal, with no other accompanying infectious sign. On the basis of these three single cases, and recent data in the literature about the Epstein-Barr virus, the authors briefly recapitulate the neurological clinical forms of infectious monouncleosis and the means of serological diagnosis; they discuss the frequency and pathogeny of these complications and tentatively suggest certain similarities with other nervous disorders observed in the course of proliferative or dysglobulinaemic diseases.

[Shy-Drager syndrome. Clinico-pathological report (author's transl)]. / Le syndrome de Shy-Drager. Confrontation anatomo-clinique.

Presentation of a caucasian female (70-year-old) who suffered from urinary incontinence and orthostatic hypotension (Shy-Drager syndrome) and died six years after the onset of the dysautonomic clinical disorders. Neuropathological examination demonstrated putamino-nigral degeneration, olivo-ponto-cerebellar atrophy, neuronal depletion in the brain-stem and the spinal cord, mainly in the intermedio-lateral horns. The cerebral cortex did not exhibit senile alteration as often seen in ageing brain. A review of the literature, including 43 autopsied cases, confirmed that the Shy-Drager syndrome results from a diffuse neuronal loss mainly in the putamen, the pigmented nuclei, part of the brain-stem and the spinal cord (multiple system atrophy, with minimal cerebral cortex involvement). The disease occurs sporadically in adults, more frequently in man (sex ratio : 2.5/1). (Acta neurol. belg., 1980, 80, 271-286).

[Sensorimotor polyneuropathy induced by almitrine dimesylate. Anatomo-clinical study of a case]. / Polyneuropathie sensitivo-motrice induite par le bismésilate d'almitrine. Etude anatomo-clinique d'une observation.

A 65-year-old male patient with chronic obstructive long disease developed a severe motor and sensory polyneuropathy during the treatment with almitrine bismesylate (Vectarion). Electrophysiological and neuropathological investigations demonstrated a distal axonopathy. A medicamentous origin was suspected since other causal factors were lacking. Eight months after stopping of treatment, the functional recovery was complete. The authors discuss the recent data recorded in the literature concerning the neurological complications induced by this new drug, which is increasingly administered in diseases of the respiratory tract.

[Bilateral, symmetrical and simultaneous putamino-capsulo-caudal infarction]. / Infarctus putamino-capsulo-caudés bilatéraux, symétriques et simultanés.

The first case, to our knowledge, of bilateral, symmetric and simultaneous infarction in the basal territory of the middle cerebral arteries is reported. The patient presented with a pseudo-rostral brainstem syndrome, including loss of oculo-vestibular reflexes, severe tetraparesia and akinetic mutism-like disturbance of consciousness. The lesions were due to embolism, caused by atrial fibrillation, occluding the ostium of the lenticulostriate arteries. It involved only the putamino-capsulo-caudal regions, concerning the whole anterior and posterior dorsal capsules. The term tetraparetic mutism is proposed to describe this new clinico-pathological syndrome, which is the sum of a capsular tetraparesia, due to the lesion of the geniculate and cortico-spinal fibres at the level of the genu and posterior limbs, and of a capsular akinetic mutism, due to the lesion of the reticular thalamo-cortical tracts at the level of the anterior limbs. These total capsular infarcts moreover involved all the oculomotor cortico-reticular tracts, which could explain the absence of oculo-vestibular reflexes.