ABSTRACT
INTRODUCTION: Chronic idiopathic spastic paraparesis (CHISPA) have been associated to HTLV-I virus infection, and unknown environmental factors have been suggested to play a role in its pathogenesis. METHOD: Based in our previous studies we wanted to know if the lack of refrigerators and the mycotoxin contamination of food might have any relationship with the presence of CHISPA in patients living at southeastern Colombia. RESULTS: Interestingly only four out of 15 patients with CHISPA had some method of refrigeration, in, 14 out of these 15 patients at least a metabolite of Fusarium was detected. CONCLUSIONS: The fact that mycotoxins found in the urine samples of these patients are immunosuppressors and demyelinating allow us to suggest that these toxins could be the most important environmental cofactors leading to the susceptible people to the clinically established disease.
Subject(s)
Air Conditioning , Mycotoxins/adverse effects , Paraparesis, Tropical Spastic/etiology , Adult , Aged , Chronic Disease , Colombia , Deltaretrovirus Infections/virology , Female , Foodborne Diseases/complications , Human T-lymphotropic virus 1/isolation & purification , Humans , Male , Middle Aged , Mycotoxins/urine , Paraparesis, Tropical Spastic/virologyABSTRACT
INTRODUCTION AND OBJECTIVE: The physiological and pathological effects of cigarettes on the nervous system have been widely studied, but none of the investigations carried out has enabled us to determine the degree to which nicotine may affect the central pathways of somatosensorial evoked potentials in humans. MATERIAL AND METHODS: Following parameters established internationally for investigation of the effects of nicotine on the nervous system, we find that the N18 wave obtained by stimulation of the median nerve before smoking completely disappears after smoking for 3 minutes and reappears 10 minutes after smoking has stopped. CONCLUSIONS: Therefore, we conclude that the action of nicotine on these evoked potentials is mainly subcortical, and for this reason it is essential to investigate the toxicological history before carrying out any clinical or neurophysiological study, since this might affect the results obtained.
