ABSTRACT
The decision to discharge in patients affected by acute exacerbation of COPD remains a common problem due to the complexity of the assessment of clinical recovery, with early readmission perceived as a marker of incompleteness of the received treatment. The neural respiratory drive, assessed by parasternal muscle electromyography, represents an estimate of the load imposed to the respiratory muscles and it may identify early clinical deterioration. The test is noninvasive, may be executed bedside, but requires experienced operators. Yet, feasibility and clinical interpretation outside reference centers seem to be the main unsolved issues in the implementation of the technique in clinical practice.
Subject(s)
Electromyography , Pulmonary Disease, Chronic Obstructive/physiopathology , Disease Progression , Humans , Patient Discharge , Respiratory Function Tests , Respiratory Muscles/innervation , Respiratory Muscles/physiopathologyABSTRACT
Botulism is a rare neuroparalytic disease caused by a potent neurotoxin produced by Clostridium botulinum. There are different clinical types of botulism. Early diagnosis of the condition is essential for effective treatment. We report a case of food-borne botulism in identical twins characterized by severe initial oral involvement and a review of the literature about the condition.
Subject(s)
Botulism/pathology , Food, Preserved/poisoning , Mouth Diseases/pathology , Xerostomia/etiology , Adult , Botulism/etiology , Deglutition Disorders/etiology , Diagnosis, Differential , Diseases in Twins/etiology , Eye Infections/pathology , Humans , Male , Mouth Diseases/etiology , Mouth Mucosa/pathology , Vegetables/poisoning , Xerostomia/pathologyABSTRACT
We investigated the pattern of volitional facial motor deficits in acute stroke patients. We assessed the strength of single facial movements and correlated it to the site of infarct classified on computed tomography scans. Exclusion criteria were previous stroke, cerebral hemorrhage, and subcortical stroke. Results showed that weakness in eyelid closure was associated with anterior cerebral artery (ACA) stroke. Weakness in lip opening was associated with middle cerebral artery (MCA) stroke. We suggest that sparing of upper facial movements in MCA stroke is due to the presence of an upper face motor representation in both the MCA and ACA territories.
