There have been a number of reports on the effect of electrical stimulation on denervated rat skeletal muscle. However, there are no systemic studies on the immediate effects of electrical stimulation on rat skeletal muscle. In the present study, we report on the immediate effects of various dosages of electrical stimulation on the morphology, histochemistry, and ultrastructure of rat Gastrocnemius muscle.
Method and materials: Spraque-Dawley rats weighing up to 250g were used. In all experiments, the right sciatic nerve of the right leg was exposed and stimulated by a monopolar electrode. The left leg in all experiments was not stimulated and served as a control. Five groups of rats with five rats in each group were used for five different time current studies. Stimulus duration of 150 microseconds and frequency of ten Hz were maintained in all five groups. A five volt current was employed for periods of 30 and 60 minutes. In another set, ten volts was employed for period of 30, 60 and 200 minutes.
Results: In all five groups, there was no significant variation in fiber size, percentage of fibers, and mean fiber diameter, as compared to the control muscle. However, there was a increase in the number of ragged red fibers (as seen by the trichrome stain) on the stimulated side and the control side. The stimulated muscles of these groups showed large aggregates of mitochondria in subsarcolemma. The mitochondria were swollen and occured in a variety of shapes. Mitochondria cristae were convoluted and partially destroyed.
Sciatic nerve of stimulated side showed no morphological changes in all five groups.
The mitochondrial changes in group IV and V, suggested that current strength of ten volts for 60 and 200 minutes may constitute maximum stimulus, possible of inducing a pathological response in the normal rat skeletal muscle.

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The analysis of the course of disability in 27 cases [12 males and 15 females] with chronic type of Werdnig-Hoffmann disease [intermediate type of SPMA according to Emery 1981] revealed the following.
1) A new scale of Motor Ability Level for Werdnig-Hoffmann disease was constructed based on the analysis which, incidentally, were revealed to be the same as the scale of Fukuyama-type congenital muscular dystrophy.
2) There was no consistent pattern in the course of disability in Werdnig-Hoffmann disease, but quite a disversity was witnessed depending on individual cases. But we could divide them into four groups according to the rate of motor progress, and the peak motor level.
3) The patients of Werdnig-Hoffmann disease are usually severely disabled physically, but not at all impaired intellectually and they could be generally accepted to regular education.
4) There is a conspicuous superiority in female cases in motor development, especially gait, suggesting a strong sex difference in phonotypes of this hereditary conditions.

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Twenty-six patients with functional swallowing problems were studied by videofluorography (VFG) to determine: (1) choking and incidence of aspiration, (2) the influence of posture in swallowing, (3) the influence of food form to swallow. It was found that one third of patients with the evidence of laryngeal penetration (aspiration) in VFG had not experienced choking. Therefore, the absence of choking in medical history does not necessarily indicate that the patient is able to swallow safely. VFG showed that feeding in reclining position was to ease swallowing, although the upright posture has been conventionally recommended in training of dysphagia. The jelly (semi-solid) form of contrast media in VFG was found to reflect more in the oral stage and less in the pharyngeal stage in functional dysphagic patients.

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In 10 patients suffering from ataxia, we examined the effect on upper limb function of a tapping exercise performed in time to a rhythmic sound. Eight of the patients had spinocerebellar degeneration, one had tabes dorsalis, and the remaining patient had severely impaired deep sensation in the upper limbs secondary to an abnormality at the atlas and axis.
The rhythmic tapping exercise consisted of alternately tapping two points in time to a beep tone rhythmically generated from a computer. Forty taps comprised one performance of the exercise. The beep tone was emitted at rates of 40, 60, 80, …, 200 beeps per minute. The right hand and the left hand each performed the series of taps at the different beep rates.
Motor skill was assessed by measuring the interval between successive taps and the duration of the press for each tap. These temporal measures were sampled on line by an MSX computer to which the device for pressing was wired.
The rhythmic tapping exercise was effective, though to varying degrees, in seven of the subjects. The remaining three subjects experienced on beneficial effect from the exercise, and in fact performance even became worse in some instances. Failure to improve may have been due to impairment somewhere in the motor learning system of the cerebellum. If the body can be considered to have a clock-pulse function something like that of a computer, the rhythmic tapping exercise might not help improve motor skill of the hands in patients whose internal clock-pulse functions are impaired.

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We tried to clarify characteristics of radiological development in hip joint in the infants with cerebral palsy (CP) during first year of life.
Subjects included 324 cases (648 hips) who have been refferred to our hospital under suspicion of CP and whose X-ray of hip joint were examined before 14 months of age. We divided them into four groups according to present condition. Group A; 95 cases who have developed moderate to severe CP and were unable to walk until 3 years of age. Group B; 34 cases who have developed minimal to slight CP and became able to walk by 3 years of age. Group C; 102 cases who became able to walk in normal pattern with physiotherapy for over 6 months. These three groups were treated with physiotherapy according to Vojta's method. Group D; 93 cases who bacame able to walk normaly by one and half years of age without any physical or orthopedic treatment. We regarded this as normal control.
(1) The acetabular angle showed a tendency to become smaller with aging process in group A and D. The cases with acetabular angle more than 30° were seen more in girls than in boys. But we could not find any significant difference among the groups.
(2) The OE (CE) angle which indicates the degree of centrality of the nucleus became significantly larger with aging process in all the groups. The cases with OE angle less than 0 degree were found significantly more in girls than in boys. There was no difference among the groups.
(3) The shape of the acetabular beak developed from prominent type to convex type month by month. The cases with prominent type were found significantly more in group A than in group D. We could not find any significance in sex difference.
(4) The nucleus of femoral capital epiphysis began to appear in punctate or cloud-like shape and developed round to oval shape as they grew. The incidence of immature development in the nucleus was significantly higher in boys than in girls and in groups A, B and C than in group D.
The development of acetabular and OE (CE) angle depended on age and sex regardless of the presence of CP. On the other hand the development of the shape of the acetabuler beak and in the nucleus of femoral capital epiphysis were significantly slower in group A than in normal control.

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[in Japanese]

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[in Japanese]

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