Despite having had normal speech until age 21 when he contracted varicella encephalitis, this 53-year-old man had always considered himself a stutterer. Neurologic examination revealed lightning-like facial and neck contractions during speech, which were absent at rest (video). Brain and cervical spine MRI had normal results. Surface EMG confirmed intermittent high-amplitude, short-duration bur...

BACKGROUND Acquired generalized repetitive myoclonus may be mistaken for tremor. Distinguishing myoclonus has etiologic and therapeutic implications. OBJECTIVE To describe isolated generalized polymyoclonus and the outcomes of etiologic evaluations at the time of diagnosis. DESIGN Computer search of the Mayo Movement Neurophysiology Laboratory database and medical records linkage system. ...

Background: Various movement disorders can be found in ataxia–telangiectasia (AT), including ataxia, dystonia, chorea, and myoclonus, but myoclonus has rarely been described as the predominant feature in AT. Case Report: We report two AT patients with prominent myoclonus, illustrating an unusual presentation of this disorder. Sequencing of the ATM gene in the first patient revealed a homozygous...

Objective Observational study to evaluate long-term effects of deep brain stimulation (DBS) the globus pallidus internus (GPi) and ventral intermediate thalamic nucleus (VIM) on patients with medically refractory myoclonus dystonia (MD). Background More recently, pallidal as well DBS have been applied successfully in MD but data are sparse. Methods We retrospectively analyzed a cohort seven eit...

Etomidate is a hypnotic drug used as an intravenous anaesthetic induction agent. causes myoclonic movements in 50-80% patients after which makes it less desirable for induction. Aim: Present study was to determine the effect of priming preventing injection with etomidate adult undergoing cardiac surgery. Materials and Methods: 108 ASA grade III scheduled elective surgery were allocated randomly...

The term "myoclonus" sounds esoteric, yet it is part of our normal physiology, occurring as a muscle jerk on drowsiness or falling asleep, during rapid eye movement (REM) sleep, and as hiccoughs. Myoclonus is also a developmental feature of the human nervous system, comprising some of the earliest fetal movements. In pathologic settings, myoclonus may be the only neurologic abnormality, as in e...

The present study investigates whether clonazepam exerts its antimyoclonic action through a GABA independent mechanism. We have studied the antimyoclonic effect of clonazepam and compared it with that of aminooxyacetic acid (AOAA), a GABA transaminase inhibitor, against myoclonus induced by picrotoxin, a GABA receptor antagonist and allylglycine, a drug which inhibits synthesis and release of G...

Tremor is defined as a rhythmical, involuntary oscillatory movement of a body part. Although neurological examination reveals information regarding its frequency, regularity, amplitude, and activation conditions, the electrophysiological investigations help in confirming the tremor, in differentiating it from other hyperkinetic disorders like myoclonus, and may provide etiological clues. Accele...

Two patients are described who developed action, reflex myoclonus during acute renal failure. In both cases the myoclonus was abolished after the intravenous administration of clonazepam. We suggest that the characteristic action myoclonus, which occurs in both acute renal failure and postanoxic encephalopathy, is caused by a disturbance of function in the lower brainstem reticular formation.

18 neonates aged 5-60 days with Benign neonatal sleep myoclonus were identified. Fifteen neonates had been misdiagnosed as neonatal seizures before referral. All treatments were withdrawn once the diagnosis of benign neonatal sleep myoclonus was made. Benign neonatal sleep myoclonus should be considered early in the differential diagnosis of neonatal seizures.