INTRODUCTION First described in 1956, stiff person syndrome is characterized by episodes of slowly progressive stiffness and rigidity in both the paraspinal and limb muscles. Although considered a rare disorder, stiff person syndrome is likely to be under-diagnosed due to a general lack of awareness of the disease in the medical community. CASE PRESENTATION A 27-year-old Hispanic woman presen...

Our statistical thermodynamics model of solution of stiff, platelike, biaxial particles interacting solely via repulsion on contact (athermal limit) [Phys. Rev. E 62, 5011 (2000)] is extended to incorporate dispersion interactions between the particles. Dispersion forces between anisotropic particles are accounted for using the Imura-Okano approach. Numerical calculations specialized to solutio...

Over the past 25 years, monoclonal antibodies (mAb) have become important elements in the therapeutic concepts for numerous clinical specialities, including oncology, gastroenterology, hemostaseology and endocrinology. One of the most dynamic fields of their use is the treatment of autoimmune diseases. Although the number of existing mAb interfering with the immune system has increased remarkab...

Incarceration of stomach in a diaphragmatic hernia with or without simultaneous inclusion of bowel usually signals a surgical emergency. Symptoms of pain, vomiting and occasionally bleeding, together with roentgenographic studies should lead to easy recognition and appropriate surgical therapy. Rarely, strangulation occurs early; then the above symptoms may be overshadowed by the rapid onset of...

In this paper, we introduce and evaluate a novel sonoelastographic technique for imaging shear velocity distributions from propagating shear wave interference patterns (termed crawling waves). A mathematical relationship between local crawling wave spatial phase derivates and shear velocity is presented with phase derivatives estimated using an autocorrelation-based technique. Results from homo...

glipizide has been found to form inclusion complexes with β-cyclodextrin (β-cd) in solution and in solid state. the present study was undertaken to determine a suitable method for scaling up glipizide-β-cd inclusion complex formation and to evaluate the effect of some parameters on the efficiency of complexation. the solid inclusion complexes of glipizide and β-cd were prepared at a molar ratio...

Stiff-person syndrome or Moersch-Woltmann is a very rare and disabling neurologic disorder characterized by muscle rigidity and episodic spasms involving axial and limb musculature. It is an autoimmune disorder resulting in a malfunction of aminobutyric acid mediated inhibitory networks in the central nervous system. We describe a patient of stiff person syndrome.

Four patients had a chronic progressive disorder beginning in middle age and involving stiffness and painful spasms of the lower limbs. Spasms were spontaneous, reflex, and induced by voluntary movement. Patients had rigidity and abnormal postures of one or both legs. There was no truncal rigidity or exaggerated lumbar lordosis. Despite the presence of symptoms for up to 16 years, symptoms and ...

A female patient had permanent axial muscular rigidity similar to the "stiff-man syndrome", together with axial myoclonus triggered by stretch reflexes and by supramaximal stimulation of the supraorbital nerve. The disorder responded to treatment with diazepam and baclofen. This disorder bore a marked similarity to the so-called "jerking stiff-man syndrome".

PURPOSE To evaluate the impact of a change in the manufacturing of the AneuRx stent-graft on the long-term results of endovascular abdominal aortic aneurysm (AAA) repair. METHODS The first 70 AAA patients treated with the AneuRx stent-graft between October 1996 and December 1998 were reviewed. The early stiff bifurcated design (STIFF) was used in 23 patients (mean age 71.7 +/- 9.3 years, rang...