OBJECTIVE The sensorimotor organization (SMO) of the motor hand area is abnormal in focal hand dystonia and likely contributes to symptom manifestation. In healthy subjects SMO is changed by training with proprioceptive stimulation. Here we test whether similar interventions reverse the abnormal SMO in musician's dystonia and writer's cramp. If so, they could be developed for therapeutic applic...

Apart from their role in the immune defence against pathogens evidence of a role of antimicrobial peptides (AMPs) in autoimmune diseases has accumulated in the past years. The aim of this project was to examine the functional impact of the human cathelicidin LL-37 and the mouse cathelicidin-related AMP (CRAMP) on the pathogenesis of lupus and arthritis. Serum LL-37 and anti-LL-37 levels were me...

Patients with occupational hand dystonias have task-specific involuntary co-contraction and overflow of activity to inappropriate muscles. This interferes with highly skilled movements such as handwriting (writer's cramp) or playing a musical instrument (musician's cramp). Transcranial stimulation methods that probe mechanisms of synaptic plasticity in the motor cortex show an abnormal modifiab...

We report nine patients with muscle aching, cramps, stiffness, exercise intolerance, and peripheral nerve hyperexcitability. Neurologic examination showed calf fasciculations in seven, quadriceps myokymia in two, and deltoid myokymia in one patient. Two patients had mild increase in serum creatine kinase. Muscle biopsy showed either no abnormality (three patients) or mild neurogenic changes (fo...

Rippling muscle disease (RMD) is a rare muscle disorder characterised by muscle stiffness, exercise induced myalgia, and cramp-like sensations. It is genetically heterogeneous and can be acquired, but most cases show autosomal dominant inheritance due to mutations in the caveolin-3 (CAV3) gene. We report a novel heterozygous missense mutation in CAV3 in a Belgian family with autosomal dominant ...

BACKGROUND Pain resulting from muscle cramps is one of the most common outcomes of hemodialysis. One of the mechanisms associated with muscle cramps is unnatural muscle metabolism. Because acupressure improves muscle metabolism through the releasing of energy, this study was performed with the purpose of determining the impact of acupressure on muscle cramps. MATERIALS AND METHODS This study ...

Initiation and successive development of organs induce mechanical stresses at the cellular level. Using the tomato shoot apex, a new study now proposes that mechanical strain regulates the plasma membrane abundance of the PIN1 auxin transporter, thereby reinforcing a positive feed-back loop between growth and auxin accumulation.