OBJECTIVE To evaluate the long-term aerodynamic, acoustic, and electromyographic effects of serial botulinum toxin (BT) injections in patients with adductor spasmodic dysphonia. DESIGN Two-year, nonrandomized, controlled, before-after study. SETTING Ambulatory care clinic at a single academic medical center. PATIENTS A convenience sample of 91 patients with adductor spasmodic dysphonia ev...

Seventeen patients with choreiform, athetoid, or ballistic involuntary movements, or with spasmodic torticollis, were treated with tetrabenazine in doses of 25 to 200 mg daily for periods varying from two weeks to more than six months. Randomized ciné film of the patients' involuntary movements, taken before, during, and after treatment was assessed individually by seven `blind' observers. Eigh...

This paper reports on an evidence-based review of laryngeal electromyography (EMG) as a technique for use in the diagnosis, prognosis, and treatment of laryngeal movement disorders including the laryngeal dystonias, vocal fold paralysis, and other neurolaryngological disorders. The authors performed a systematic review of the medical literature from 1944 through 2001 on the clinical application...

OBJECTIVES This study characterized the relationship between relative fundamental frequency (RFF) and listeners' perceptions of vocal effort and overall spasmodic dysphonia severity in the voices of 19 individuals with adductor spasmodic dysphonia. METHODS Twenty inexperienced listeners evaluated the vocal effort and overall severity of voices using visual analog scales. The squared correlati...

BACKGROUND Sleep complaints and various sleep symptoms are common in elderly persons with cardiac diseases. Nightmares are associated with profound sleep disturbances. METHODS The present questionnaire survey with questions on sleep symptoms, nightmares and cardiac symptoms comprised 6103 elderly subjects (39.5% men). RESULTS Nightmares occurred rather often in 6.9% and very often in 2.1% o...

OBJECTIVE: Botulinum A toxin has been reported to provide excellent symptomatic relief for patients with dystonia. To analyse the treatment, complications, and outcome of patients receiving botulinum A toxin injection, the case records of 170 patients attending the Botox Clinic at the Kwong Wah Hospital from 1 December 1992 to 31 December 1996 were reviewed. Of these 170 patients, 130 (76.5%) h...

BACKGROUND Spasmodic torticollis is a movement disorder of the nuchal muscles, characterized by tremor or by tonic posturing of the head in a rotated, twisted, or abnormally flexed or extended position or some combination of these positions. The abnormal posturing of the head allows this disorder to be clinically diagnosed. Psychiatric symptoms frequently accompany or precede the diagnosis of t...

The changes in airway occlusion pressure and airflow, occurring during two spasmodic breathing patterns, were studied and compared with normal breathing pattern in 12 anaesthetized cats. The inspiratory effort developed during the sniff-like aspiration reflex elicited by mechanical stimulation of the nasopharynx under control conditions proved to be very similar in character and intensity to th...

Introduction Typically, cervical dystonia (CD), or spasmodic torticollis, is described as a condition in which the cervical paraspinal muscle groups in the neck undergo uncontrollable and prolonged spasm. It has been well described in the literature that CD presents in most patients with an extreme head tilt or tremor due to spasm. This has become the all-encompassing definition of CD to many c...