Gene/Protein Disease Symptom Drug Enzyme Compound
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Query: UMLS:C0027066 (myoclonus)
 4,275 document(s) hit in 31,850,051 MEDLINE articles (0.00 seconds)

Botulinum toxin type A is one of the seven serotype /A-G/ produced by the anerobic bacterium Clostridium botulinum. It is one of the most potent toxins available. Botulinum toxin binds to the motor nerve end-plate and prevents acetylcholin release, causing presynaptic neuromuscular blockade. The toxin is being increasingly used in the treatment of several form of disorders characterized by excessive or inappropriate muscle contraction, including stroke, cerebral palsy, multiple sclerosis. Botulinum toxin type A has brought a new approach to the effective treatment of dystonias. It has demonstrated additional analgesic effect. Among recently describes applications are the treatment of tics, tremors, hyperhydrosis, myoclonus, etc.
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PMID:[Advances in botulinum toxin applications]. 1059 94

Spinal myoclonus is a rare movement disorder characterized by myoclonic involvement of a group of muscles supplied by a few contiguous segments of the spinal cord. Structural lesions are usually the cause, but in primary spinal myoclonus the etiology remains unknown. We present the case of a 26-year-old woman with cervical spinal myoclonus in which both clinical and electromyographic findings pointed to the segment C1-C3 as the origin of the myoclonus. Laboratorial examinations were normal and no structural lesion was found in magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). Botulinum toxin type A was injected in infrahyoid muscles and cervical paraspinal musculature. The patient remained free of symptoms for almost five months. The pathophysiology of spinal myoclonus remains speculative, but there is evidence that various possible mechanisms can be involved: loss of inhibitory function of local dorsal horn interneurons, abnormal hyperactivity of local anterior horn neurons, aberrant local axons re-excitations and loss of inhibition from suprasegmentar descending pathways.
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PMID:A case of primary spinal myoclonus: clinical presentation and possible mechanisms involved. 1271 32