We have investigated whether or not we could apply the motor age assessment method to the course of motor disabilities due to Duchenne type muscular dystrophy (DMD), and obtained the following results which were quantitatively analyzed.
(1) The motor age was closely related to and parallel with Ueda's classification method for degree of motor disability and proved useful for the analysis of motor disabilities due to DMD.
(2) The use of motor destruction rate calculated from the motor age made it possible to clarify that (i) the motor disability advanced rapidly in the initial stages of onset but slowly in the middle to final stages and that (ii) the motor destruction rate was already close to 60% when classified by Ueda's second diability stage, and reached 80-90% when inability of gait was recognized.

View full abstract

It is well known that EMG reaction time (EMG-RT) of a muscle depends upon the posture, for instance, EMG-RT of the triceps brachii is shorter at facilitating position of the shoulder than at neutral position. Our previous studies showed that the dependence of EMG-RT on posture diminished significantly in patients with cerebellar lesion, which recovered transiently after PNF therapy. In this study we examined postural dependence of EMG-latencies induced by classical stimulation of the motor cortex in monkeys before and after destruction of cerebellar nuclei, and tried to analyse the neural mechanism of PNF effect.
The classical stimulation (pulse duration 1msec, pulse amplitude 50μA-2mA, pulse frequency 60Hz, stimulus duration 2sec, stimulation intervals were more than 30sec) of the cortical motor area of monkeys under general anesthesia (ketamine HCl) induced EMG activities of the contralateral forelimb muscles, of which latencies were influenced by position changes of the shoulder (protraction and retraction). The dependence of EMG-latencies on the posture disappeared after destruction of cerebellar nuclei, the lateral and the interpositus, ipsilateral to the responding limb. The postural dependence of EMG-latencies appeared after repeated stimulation of the cortical motor area with 5sec stimulation intervals.
The results may indicate that kinesthetic information from the responding limb would modify the excitability of the motor cortex and the cerebellar nuclei would be functioning to modulate the transmission of this information, and the repeated stimulation in short intervals is effective for the restoration of the postural dependence of EMG-latencies.
It was concluded that reinforced kinesthetic input to the central nervous system by repetition of voluntary movements under the maximal resistance in short intervals would be an important factor for proprioceptive neuromuscular facilitation (PNF) techniques to be effective.

View full abstract

Using ^99mTc-Albumin scanning, we have studied the blood flow in the lower extremities of the hemiplegic patients.
After injection of 5-10 mCi of ^99mTc-Human-Serum-Albumin into v. mediana cubiti by the Oldendolf method, we recorded the RI count from the both knees. We have examined 68 hemiplegic patients (male: 26, female: 42, right: 31, left: 37, average age: 61. 7 years, average Brunnstrom stage of the lower extremity: 3.73, average duration post-stroke:20.2 months). We counted the accumulation of the isotope in the both knees 1 and 30 minutes after injection, and calculated the percentage (paretic side/right and left sides), and named them as “1-minute-value” and “30-minutes-value”.
RESULTS
1) Before 15 months after the attack, the paretic leg has more blood flow than the non-paretic leg.
2) After 15 months after the attack, on the contrary, the paretic leg has less blood flow than the non-paretic leg.
3) These tendency is clear in the left-sided hemiplegic patients than the right-sided.
4) There is no relation between the blood flow and the Brunnstromm stage.
5) There is no relation between the blood flow and the age.
6) There is no relation between the blood flow and the ability of walking.

View full abstract

[in Japanese]

View full abstract