The Jaw Jerk in Normal Young Adults

OBJECTIVE: To obtain the mean value of parameters of the jaw jerk and to investigate gender difference on the jaw jerk in normal young adults in Korea. METHOD: In young 40 subjects (20 males and 20 females), the jaw jerks were elicited by chin tapping in the relaxed masseter muscles of both sides. RESULTS: The jaw jerks were recorded in 100% of the total number of chin-taps. The mean latency was 5.39 ms in the males and 5.14 ms in the females (p>0.05). The mean amplitude was 0.75 mV in the males and 0.59 mV in the females (p>0.05). The mean duration was 8.18 ms in the males and 7.85 ms in the females (p>0.05). CONCLUSION: No significant differences were found in the parameters of the jaw jerk between males and females in this study.

Local Steroid Injection in Carpal Tunnel Syndrome

OBJECTIVE: The purpose of this study was to evaluate therapeutic effect of local steroid injection in carpal tunnel syndrome, and to make a comparison between therapeutic effect in patients with and without diabetic neuropathy. METHOD: 30 patients (40 hands) with carpal tunnel syndrome diagnosed clinically and electrophysiologically were injected with 40mg of methylprednisone. Patients were evaluated with the visual analogue scale after 4 weeks and 8 weeks. According to the therapeutic responses, the patients were grouped into: excellent; good; poor; failed; recurrent. RESULTS: After 4 weeks, symptom relief was noted in the 95% of all cases: 100% of the patients without diabetic neuropathy; 82% of the patients with diabetic neuropathy. After 8 weeks, symptom relief was noted in the 82.5% of all cases: 86% of the patients without diabetic neuropathy; 73% of the patients with diabetic neuropathy. There was no statistically significant difference between the patients with and without diabetic neuropathy (p>0.05). CONCLUSION: We concluded that local steroid injection in carpal tunnel syndrome was an effective therapeutic modality for a short term and local steroid injection in the carpal tunnel syndrome with diabetic neuropathy diagnosed by palmar test also had a good effect.

Tuberculous Spondylitis Aggravated by Spinal Manipulative Therapy: A case report

A 43 years old woman had suffered from a lower back pain for 2 months. She experienced pain aggravation after spinal manipulative therapy that was practiced by non-licentiate. Physical examination showed tenderness on L1 and L2 spinous processes. Radionuclide bone scan with 99mTc-MDP showed increased radioactivity of L1, L2 vertebral bodies. The MRI finding showed low signal intensity of L1 and L2 vertebral bodies in T1-weighted image and high signal intensity in T2-weighted image. Needle biopsy finding showed fibrosis and inflammatory cell invasion of bone marrow. We concluded that she had tuberculous spondylitis and non-detection or negligent treatment of a preexisting disease contributed to aggravation of her symptoms. We report one case of tuberculous spondylitis aggravated by spinal manipulative therapy with review of literatures.