Gene/Protein Disease Symptom Drug Enzyme Compound
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Query: UMLS:C0026838 (spasticity)
 6,471 document(s) hit in 31,850,051 MEDLINE articles (0.00 seconds)

Botulinum toxin is a dreaded biological toxin elaborated by Clostridium botulinum. The action of this toxin is to cause paralysis of both voluntary and involuntary muscles. The unique property of paralysing capability of muscles has been used for the benefit of human beings. Dr Allan Scot, an ophthalmologist, first used the toxin in a patient with squint in 1981 and since then the botulinum toxin is being used in various disorders characterised by muscle overactivity such as spasticity in both children and adult, dystonic conditions such as blepharospasm, cervical dystonia, spasmodic dysphonia, writer's cramp, etc, hemifacial spasm and headache. Its main action is at the terminal nerve endings of myoneural junction and it prevents release of acetylcholine from vesicles thus causing chemical denervation. Its action persists for 3 to 4 months on an average. Its side effects such as drooping, diplopia, dysphagia, depending on the sites of injection, are few and usually transient. Generalised anaphylaxis is almost unknown. Now botulinum toxin is being used in non-neurological conditions where muscles are under spasmodic state such as achalasia cardia, anal fissure, spasm of urethral sphincter, etc. Because of wider safety range and fewer complications, botulinum toxin has been an important therapeutic armamentarium in different branches of medicine and surgery.
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PMID:Botulinum toxin: a dreaded toxin for use in human being. 1245 15

Botulinum toxin, the most potent known biological neurotoxin, holds great promise in the therapy of many diseases. It has been used effectively to treat strabismus, dystonias and other movement disorders, and spasticity. However, a number of potential new therapeutic indications have emerged and attracted a considerable amount of interest from the scientific community. These emerging indications included treatment for conditions associated with pain (e.g. headaches, myofascial pain, chronic low back pain), hypersecretion of glands (e.g. hyperhidrosis, sialorrhea, intrinsic rhinitis), and excessive or dyssynergic muscle contraction, and for cosmesis (e.g. myokymia, bruxism, anal fissure). There is a need for more controlled clinical trials, dose-ranging studies to determine optimal treatment, validated clinical scales and studies developed to assess the value of electromyographic guidance and skill of investigators on the outcome of treatment for some of these diseases. The long-term cost effectiveness of treatment and immunoresistance from repeated injections are also important clinical issues to address.
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PMID:Emerging therapeutic applications of botulinum toxin. 1260 5

Since its introduction in the late 1970s for the treatment of strabismus and blepharospasm, botulinum toxin (BoNT) has been increasingly used in the interventional treatment of several other disorders characterized by excessive or inappropriate muscle contractions. The use of this pluripotential agent has extended to a plethora of conditions including: focal dystonia; spasticity; inappropriate contraction in most sphincters of the body such as those associated with spasmodic dysphonia, esophageal achalasia, chronic anal fissure, and vaginismus; eye movement disorders; other hyperkinetic disorders including tics and tremors; autonomic disorders such as hyperhidrosis; genitourinary disorders such as overactive and neurogenic bladder, non-bacterial prostatitis and benign prostatic hyperplasia; and aesthetically undesirable hyperfunctional facial lines. In addition, BoNT is being investigated for the control of the pain, and for the management of tension or migraine headaches and myofascial pain syndrome. BoNT injections have several advantages over drugs and surgical therapies in the management of intractable or chronic disease. Systemic pharmacologic effects are rare; permanent destruction of tissue does not occur. Graded degrees of relaxation may be achieved by varying the dose injected; most adverse effects are transient. Finally, patient acceptance is high. In this paper, clinical experience over the last years with BoNT in urological impaired patients will be illustrated. Moreover, this paper presents current data on the use of BoNT to treat pelvic floor disorders.
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PMID:Management of bladder, prostatic and pelvic floor disorders with botulinum neurotoxin. 1572 17

The therapeutic possibilities of botulinum toxin are manifold and certainly not yet fully exhausted. Apart from the classical indications--focal dystonia and focal spasticity--its use in the management of wrinkles has become well known. Moreover, the toxin is now being administered in many medical fields, including many other kinetic disorders like rare dystonias and tremor. The toxin is also used in a great number of autonomic disorders such as focal hyperhidrosis and even rhinitis. Substantial advances have been made in the field of urology after injections into the sphincter and detrusor muscle. Studies for approval are meanwhile under way concerning the treatment of detrusor hyperreflexia. Gastroenterology is another important field for application of botulinum toxin--be it to the esophagus (e.g. achalasia), stomach, gallbladder, or anorectum. Anal fissure is considered a particularly common indication. Controlled studies for many indications are frequently lacking because of the limited incidence of some of these disorders and symptoms.
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PMID:Other indications of botulinum toxin therapy. 1641 1