OBJECTIVES To determine whether acute exercise associated muscle cramping (EAMC) in distance runners is related to changes in serum electrolyte concentrations and hydration status. METHODS A cohort of 72 runners participating in an ultra-distance road race was followed up for the development of EAMC. All subjects were weighed before and immediately after the race. Blood samples were taken bef...

Cryptococcus neoformans is an important human opportunistic pathogen and a facultative intracellular parasite, particularly in HIV-infected individuals. Little is known about metal ion transport in this organism. C. neoformans encodes a single member of the Nramp (natural resistance-associated macrophage protein) family of bivalent cation transporters, known as Cramp, which we have cloned and e...

Mental rotation of body parts determines activation of cortical and subcortical systems involved in motor planning and execution, such as motor and premotor areas and basal ganglia. These structures are severely impaired in several movement disorders, including dystonia. Writer's cramp is the most common form of focal hand dystonia. This study investigates whether patients affected by writer's ...

OBJECTIVES To quantify the treatment effect of local botulinum toxin injections in writer's cramp a newly developed rating scale of writing performance and a computer assisted analysis of writing speed were used in 31 patients undergoing botulinum toxin therapy. METHODS Baseline data of the writer's cramp rating scale (WCRS, see appendix) and computer based writing speed analysis were compare...

Auto-immunity is believed to contribute to inflammation in atherosclerosis. The antimicrobial peptide LL-37, a fragment of the cathelicidin protein precursor hCAP18, was previously identified as an autoantigen in psoriasis. Given the reported link between psoriasis and coronary artery disease, the biological relevance of the autoantigen to atherosclerosis was tested in vitro using a truncated (...

We aimed to determine the prevalence and characteristics of muscle cramps in patients with diabetes compared with healthy volunteers. Frequency, severity (using visual analog scale [VAS]), duration, and disability due to muscle cramps were evaluated, as is standard in clinical trials. Information about each patient’s clinical status was collected, including patient demographics, neuropathy (dia...

Writer's cramp is a task-specific focal hand dystonia. The abnormality of task specificity is a curious one and indicates that we need to learn more about the coupling of motor programs and their effectors. Writer's cramp appears to be triggered by spending much time writing by an individual with a fertile physiological substrate for producing the disorder. The fertile background, which is like...

SYNOPSIS Thirty-nine patients with the idiopathic blepharospasm-oromandibular dystonia syndrome are described. All presented in adult life, usually in the sixth decade; women were more commonly affected than men. Thirteen had blepharospasm alone, nine had oromandibular dystonia alone, and 17 had both. Torticollis or dystonic writer's cramp preceded the syndrome in two patients. Eight other pati...