We report the occurrence of writer's cramp in a 31 year old B27 positive man with a recent past history of Reiter's syndrome. Although aware of the close linguistic relation between the pen and the penis, we have not previously encountered the two diseases in a single patient.

In this paper, kinematic characteristics of writing are compared in 5 patient with writer’s cramp who performed a set of standardized writing task. The kinematic characteristics thumb and forefinger force before and during cramp. The effect of writing on different inclined supporting surfaces is also investigated. Our results indicate that inclined surfaces aspects of writing discomfort in writ...

BACKGROUND Skeletal muscle cramps affect over a third of the ambulatory elderly population. Quinine is the established treatment, but there are safety concerns, and evidence for efficacy is conflicting. A recent meta-analysis established a small advantage for quinine, but identified the need for additional studies. N-of-1 trials compare two treatments, in a randomised, double-blind, multiple cr...

Cathelicidins are mammalian defense peptides with direct antimicrobial activity and the potential to exert other immunomodulatory effects during the innate immune response. One such function of human cathelicidin is direct binding and inhibition of bacterially derived lipopolysaccharide (LPS), a ligand of toll-like receptor 4 (TLR4) . Here, we show that physiological concentrations of exogenous...

BACKGROUND Dystonia is characterized by involuntary muscle contractions that lead to abnormal postures and/or repetitive movements. Task-specific dystonia only manifests during a specific activity. CASE REPORT We report a case of a female with writer's cramp who developed a second task-specific hand dystonia (tremor and abnormal posturing of the hand while using a computer mouse) many years a...

UNLABELLED Bacterial proteases contribute to virulence by cleaving host or bacterial proteins to promote survival and dissemination. Omptins are a family of proteases embedded in the outer membrane of Gram-negative bacteria that cleave various substrates, including host antimicrobial peptides, with a preference for cleaving at dibasic motifs. OmpT, the enterohemorrhagic Escherichia coli (EHEC) ...

BACKGROUND Inflammation has been closely linked to auto-immunogenic processes in atherosclerosis. Plasmacytoid dendritic cells (pDCs) are specialized to produce type-I interferons in response to pathogenic single-stranded nucleic acids, but can also sense self-DNA released from dying cells or in neutrophil extracellular traps complexed to the antimicrobial peptide Cramp/LL37 in autoimmune disea...