European neurology
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Clinical electrophysiological and neuroradiological examination of a case of unilateral intention and action myoclonus is reported. Brachial arteriography revealed an angioma located mainly in the lateral portion of the right posterior thalamus. ⋯ Our case, together with some cases previously described, raises the possibility that volitional myoclonus may be related to a relatively circumscribed damage of some diencephalic and/or mesencephalic structures. The rare occurrence of a hyperkinetic syndrome as principal symptom of a cerebral vascular malformation should be borne in mind in view of the potential risk of a stereotactic surgical procedure designated to alleviate the involuntary movements.
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In a group of 60 patients of which 30 were affected by myasthenia, we used the regional curare test. The results were evaluated from a critical point of view and were then compared with the results obtained by the repetitive stimulation of the circumflex nerve, deriving from deltoid muscle. We considered too the specificity of the regional curare test for the evaluation of ocular myasthenia.
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Slow conducted components of sensory nerve action potentials were investigated in median and in sural nerves of controls and in patients with peripheral nerve diseases. In the normal group the slow components showed no relation to age which is in contrast to the maximum velocity. In both the median nerve and sural nerve of about 20% of the patients with neuropathy exclusively a decrease of the conduction velocity of slow components was found, the other investigated parameters were normal. Possible causes are an alternation of the myelin sheath or changes in the properties of the nodal gap membrane.