[Possibilities of driver fitness diagnosis and training using a stationary training car]. / Möglichkeiten von Diagnostik und Training der Fahrtauglichkeit mittels stationärem Ubungs-Pkw.

The study presented had dealt with the potential of a stationary training car in assessing and improving the driving skills of patients having neurological disorders, with reaction testing and reaction training carried out by means of the training car. The aim had been to verify whether, and to what extent, such a device might contribute to driving fitness diagnosis and improvement. The sample was comprised of patients who, mostly following brain injury, participated in an in-patient rehabilitation programme. It was found that an individual's driving fitness cannot be diagnosed on the basis of laboratory testing alone. The deficits elicited by the tests have to be verified concerning their impact in real road traffic in every individual case, taking adaptive potential into account. In view of improved driving skills, the findings show performance improvements in various reaction tests as well as better driving sample ratings.

Combination therapy of extrapyramidal disease with trihexyphenidyl and L-dopa: an electromyographic study with specific reference to tremor.

An electromyographic method was used to study the effect of combination therapy with L-dopa and trihexyphenidyl on tremor in thirty patients suffering from extrapyramidal motor system disease. In this method tremor activity was measured and documented so that the course of the disease could be followed objectively. L-dopa alone was slightly more effective against tremor than was trihexyphenidyl alone. The combination of the two drugs was more effective than either drug used alone, and its side-effects were mild and definitely fewer than had been reported with L-dopa combined with a decarboxylase inhibitor. Good control of tremor with L-dopa and trihexyphenidyl was obtained clinically and verified electromyographically.

[Analysis of action potentials of muscles by a small general purpose computer (author's transl)]. / Analyse von Muskelaktionspotentialen mit Hilfe eines Prozess-Rechners

To measure the duration of action potentials by a computer, the following steps are necessary: 1. automatic selection of suitable potentials from the EMG 2. identification of equal potentials (action potentials of the single motor unit) 3. measuring the durations of potentials, defined by the distance between first and last deviation from the base line. We noticed that the automatic evaluation of durations of single potentials is greatly deteriorated by base-line fluctuations. Therefore we average about 16 action potentials, stored in the computer, of the same single motor unit and measure the duration of the averaged potential.

The differential diagnosis of scapuloperoneal amyotrophy.

This report deals with a scapuloperoneal syndrome which developed simultanously with pain and distal paresthesias. In addition there was a slight sensory disturbance of glove and stocking type distribution. Motor conduction velocity was within normal limits and all distal latencies of response were normal; only the sensory conduction velocity of the left median nerve was found to be decreased (42.1 m/s). Electromyographic investigations revealed only signs of myopathy. Histological findings (m. deltoideus, m. tibialis anterior) favoured a primary myopathic process. Biopsy of the n. suralis revealed no certain pathological changes. The affection appears to have an autosomal dominant mode of inheritance. The sensory disturbance and decreased reflexes indicate an involvement of the nervous system, but the question of relationship to the scapuloperoneal muscular atrophy cannot yet be answered.