Quantitative analysis of abnormal spontaneous activities, motor unit action potentials and interference patterns were recorded in 55 subjects with traumatic peripheral nerve injury to understand the changes of electromyographic signals. We analyzed amplitudes of fibrillation potentials and positive sharp waves at rest, amplitude, duration, spike duration and polyphasicity of motor unit action potentials at minimal contraction, and the root mean square(RMS), and mean rectified voltage (MRV) at maximal contraction. The amplitudes of fibrillation potentials and positive sharp waves had negative correlations with the duration of peripheral nerve injury but the amplitudes of motor unit action potentials, RMS, and MRV had positive correlations. Therefore electromyographic evaluation could be used for the estimation of the duration of peripheral nerve injury.
Action Potentials ; Motor Activity ; Peripheral Nerve Injuries* ; Peripheral Nerves*

Forearm has a unique function of supination and pronation and for the performance of such movements, normal relationship between radius and ulna is indispensable. In ulnar shaft fracture, injuries are resulted mostly from .the external forces such as direct blows or indirect forces in some cases. There are many procedures for treatment of isolated ulnar fracture, but there are still controversies concerning the best management of these fractures. The authors treated fifteen cases surgically of ulnar shaft fracture from January 1982 to December 1986 in the Deparment of Orthopedic Surgery, National-Police Hospital. The results were as follows: 1. The most common age group was twenties with twelve cases(80.0%). 2. The most common cause of injuries were direct blow(80.0%). 3, Location of fracture were middle one third with nine cases(60.6%), while proximal one third accounts for four cases (26.7%) and distal ond third for two cases(13.3%). 4. Transverse fracture were the most common type (53.3%). 5. Displacement of fractures, out of fifteen cases, were witnessed in twelve cases (80.0%) and angulation were in eleven cases(73.3%). 6. In all cases we used operative method and had good functional results.
Forearm ; Humans ; Methods ; Orthopedics ; Pronation ; Radius ; Supination ; Ulna

Moving on the femoral srticular surface, the patella is doing a significant role in the patellofemoral mechanism as one of the most important components of the knee. The knowledge of patellar movement would be very helpful to understand the functional mechanism of the knee We studied the distance of patellar movement during the knee motion on the lateral X-ray view of 100 normal adult knees. The results were as follows :1. The average distance of patellar movement from full extension to full flexion of the knee was 8.4cm. 2. Patella moves average 1.7cm(20.2%) form 0° to 30° flexion, 2.6cm(31.0%) from 30° to 60° flexion, 1.7cm(20.2%) from 60° to 90° flexion, 1.3cm(15.5%) from 90° to 120° flexion and l.lcm(13.1%) from 120° to full flexion.
Adult ; Humans ; Knee ; Patella

Surface electromyogram in the lumbar paraspinal muscles was studied to evaluate back muscle impairment in twenty chronic low back pain patients and twenty control subjects. Turns-amplitude and power spectrum analysis of electromyographic signals were performed at different force levels during fatigue from sustained isometric contraction and recovery from fatigue in trunk extensor muscles. Results indicated that with increasing force level mean amplitude and Root Mean Square (RMS) values were increased, but mean and median frequencies increased initially until 20% Maximal Voluntary Contraction (MVC) and decreased tendency after then. Turns, mean amplitude, RMS, mean and median frequencies were all higher in control subject than those of low back pain patients. During sustained isometric contraction at 70% MVC, mean and median frequencies were linearly decreased, and the slopes were steeper in the patients group. Mean amplitude and RMS value showed decreased tendency during fatigue. During recovery from fatigue turns, mean and median frequencies increased especially in the first 3 minutes and nearly completely recovered in the 7~8 minutes in both patients and control groups. Therefore the mean amplitude and RMS value could be used as indicators of the level of muscle contraction and the mean and median frequencies reflect well the muscle fatigue in paralumbar muscle. These results validate the use of surface EMG spectral parameters as an objective measure of back muscle impairment in chronic low back pain patients.
Back Muscles* ; Back Pain ; Fatigue ; Humans ; Isometric Contraction ; Low Back Pain* ; Muscle Contraction ; Muscle Fatigue ; Muscles ; Paraspinal Muscles ; Spectrum Analysis

Adult ; Connective Tissue ; Extremities ; Head ; Histiocytoma, Malignant Fibrous ; Humans ; Maxilla ; Neck ; Radiotherapy ; Sarcoma

Intracranial hypotension (IH), often resulting from a cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) leak, is a notable cause of secondary headaches. Diagnosing IH through clinical assessment and neuroimaging can be challenging. Orthostatic headache (OH), characterized by neck stiffness, nausea, dizziness, phonophobia, and photophobia, is a key symptom of CSF leakage, which may stem from a variety of causes, including falling, surgery, CSF studies, or arachnoid diverticula. This study presents two OH patients with IH who were incidentally found to have an underlying meningocele.

Intracranial hypotension (IH), often resulting from a cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) leak, is a notable cause of secondary headaches. Diagnosing IH through clinical assessment and neuroimaging can be challenging. Orthostatic headache (OH), characterized by neck stiffness, nausea, dizziness, phonophobia, and photophobia, is a key symptom of CSF leakage, which may stem from a variety of causes, including falling, surgery, CSF studies, or arachnoid diverticula. This study presents two OH patients with IH who were incidentally found to have an underlying meningocele.

Intracranial hypotension (IH), often resulting from a cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) leak, is a notable cause of secondary headaches. Diagnosing IH through clinical assessment and neuroimaging can be challenging. Orthostatic headache (OH), characterized by neck stiffness, nausea, dizziness, phonophobia, and photophobia, is a key symptom of CSF leakage, which may stem from a variety of causes, including falling, surgery, CSF studies, or arachnoid diverticula. This study presents two OH patients with IH who were incidentally found to have an underlying meningocele.

Treatment options for patients with chronic kidney disease (CKD) are currently limited; therefore, there has been significant interest in applying mesenchymal stem/stromal cell (MSC)-based therapy to treat CKD. However, MSCs harvested from CKD patients tend to show diminished viability and proliferation due to sustained exposure to uremic toxins in the CKD environment, which limits their utility for cell therapy. The application of melatonin has been demonstrated to improve the therapeutic efficacy of MSCs derived from and engrafted to tissues in patients suffering from CKD, although the underlying biological mechanism has not been elucidated. In this study, we observed overexpression of hexokinase-2 (HK2) in serum samples of CKD patients and MSCs harvested from an adenine-fed CKD mouse model (CKD-mMSCs). HK2 upregulation led to increased production levels of methylglyoxal (MG), a toxic metabolic intermediate of abnormal glycolytic processes. The overabundance of HK2 and MG was associated with impaired mitochondrial function and low cell proliferation in CKD-mMSCs. Melatonin treatment inhibited the increases in HK2 and MG levels, and further improved mitochondrial function, glycolytic metabolism, and cell proliferation. Our findings suggest that identifying and characterizing metabolic regulators such as HK2 in CKD may improve the efficacy of MSCs for treating CKD and other kidney disorders.

BACKGROUND: To identify the prevalence and risk factors of poststroke depression(PSD) in patients admitted to department of rehabilitation medicine after stroke, to compare functional recovery of depressed patients and that of non-depressed patients, and to recognize the most useful depression scale that can predict functional recovery. METHOD: Of the hospitalized stroke patients in the department of Rehabilitation Medicine, 24 patients who were communicable were included in this study. To evaluate PSD, Beck depression inventory(BDI) and Korean form of Geriatric depression scale(KGDS) were used as self-rating scales. Hamilton depression scale(HAM-D) was used as an objective scale. Functional Independence measure(FIM) was measured at admission and discharge to evaluate functional recovery. RESULTS: In the 24 subjects, 17 patients(70.8%) and 9 patients(37.5%) were depressive by BDI and HAM-D. Of the 19 elderly patients, 16(84.2%) were depressive by KGDS. Factors such as age, level of education, religion, etiology or location of stroke were not significantly associated with PSD. And FIMscores were not significantly different in the depressed patients and non-depressed patients. The correlation coefficients of BDI, KGDS, HAM-D and FIMgain or efficiency were not statistically significant. CONCLUSION: The prevalence of PSDwas high in our study, but no association was found between PSD and functional recovery.
Aged ; Depression* ; Education ; Hip* ; Humans ; Inpatients* ; Prevalence ; Rehabilitation* ; Risk Factors ; Stroke ; Weights and Measures