A middle-aged gentleman presented with acute nonradiating continuous lumbalgia after lifting some weights. Examination was unremarkable.He was started on anti-inflammatory drugs and advised rest. Three days later, he returned with worsening pain radiating along left L5 distribution. Left ankle reflex was absent, and straight leg raising test was positive at 30° with no motor deficits. Magnetic ...

Off(j. Civil Surgeon, Backer gunge. At a meeting 0f the Calcutta Medical Society held on the 11th of June, Dr. Cobb read a paper on Friedreich's Disease, or Hereditary Ataxia, which was reported in the Indian Medical Gazette for July. The patient, as is usual in such cases, was a child. The prominent symptoms present were considerable inco-ordination of the lower limbs; slight losa of sensation...

Influences exerted by tactile stimuli on the muscle activity were investigated with two methods: (1) analysis of kinematics and electromyographic (EMG) activity of eight forelimb muscles during contact placing (CP) reactions elicited by tactile stimuli applied to the dorsal, medial or lateral sides of the paw in cats, and (2) the Hoffmann (H)-reflex technique to quantify the effects of the tact...

Introduction Spasticity is a motor disorder characterized by a velocitydependent increase in tonic stretch reflexes [1], commonly seen in many neurological disorders. Clinically, spasticity is measured by an examiner rotating a joint and simultaneously estimating the resistance according to an ordinal scale. However, the limited reliability of the measurement and the impossibility to discrimina...

The sensitivity of soleus H-reflexes, T-reflexes, and short-latency stretch reflexes (M1) to presynaptic inhibition evoked by a weak tap applied to the biceps femoris tendon or stimulation of the common peroneal nerve (CPN) was compared in 17 healthy human subjects. The H-reflex was strongly depressed for a period lasting up to 300-400 ms (depression to 48 +/- 23%, mean +/- SD, of control at a ...

The following paper is the first part of our investigation into the feasibility of arm-free paraplegic standing. A novel control strategy for unsupported paraplegic standing which utilizes the residual sensory and motor abilities of the thoracic spinal cord injured subjects is proposed. The strategy is based on voluntary and reflex activity of the paraplegic person's upper body and artificially...

OBJECTIVE The aims of this study were: (i) to compare the neuro-prosthetic effect of implantable peroneal nerve stimulation to the orthotic effect of a standard of care intervention (no device, shoe or ankle foot orthosis) on walking, as assessed by spatiotemporal parameters; and (ii) to examine whether there is evidence of an enhanced lower-limb flexion reflex with peroneal nerve stimulation a...

Eng, Janice J. and J. A. Hoffer. Regional variability of stretch length (Hoffer et al. 1989, 1992). During active movements, reflex amplitude in the cat medial gastrocnemius muscle during a extrafusal fibers can shorten while the muscle is lengthening postural task. J. Neurophysiol. 78: 1150–1154, 1997. The relationand vice-versa, and thus muscle spindle lengths cannot be ship between local fib...