[Ability to drive with cerebrovascular diseases : Position paper of the German societies DGNB, DGN, DGNC, DGNR, DSG and GNP]. / Fahreignung bei Hirngefäßerkrankungen : Positionspapier der DGNB, DGN, DGNC, DGNR, DSG und GNP.

The regulations for ability to drive with cerebrovascular diseases in the German Driving License Regulations (Fahrerlaubnisverordnung, FeV) and German Guidelines for the Evaluation of Driving Ability of the Federal Highway Research Institute (BASt) are not up to date with the current medical knowledge and are not consistent with comparable regulations regarding cardiovascular diseases. This is particularly true for the assessment of future risks for a sudden loss of control during driving. The present position paper of six medical and neuropsychological societies in Germany presents the current conditions for the assessment of driving ability of patients a cerebrovascular diesease and recommends an estimation of the ability to drive founded on the current state of scientific knowledge. It addresses the following: 1. Physical and mental functional limitations and the possibilities for compensation, which if necessary enable a fitness to drive under conditions or within limits, including the importance of behavioral or personality changes and cognitive deficiencies that interfere with safety. 2. The potential danger due to a sudden loss of control as a result of a transient ischemic attack (TIA) new stroke event, or another cardiovascular event while driving. A summary in the form of a table provides physicians and expert assessors with assistance for the most important cerebrovascular diseases.

[Prolonged weaning during early neurological and neurosurgical rehabilitation : S2k guideline published by the Weaning Committee of the German Neurorehabilitation Society (DGNR)]. / Prolongiertes Weaning in der neurologisch-neurochirurgischen Frührehabilitation : S2k-Leitlinie herausgegeben von der Weaning-Kommission der Deutschen Gesellschaft für Neurorehabilitation e. V. (DGNR).

Prolonged weaning of patients with neurological or neurosurgery disorders is associated with specific characteristics, which are taken into account by the German Society for Neurorehabilitation (DGNR) in its own guideline. The current S2k guideline of the German Society for Pneumology and Respiratory Medicine is referred to explicitly with regard to definitions (e.g., weaning and weaning failure), weaning categories, pathophysiology of weaning failure, and general weaning strategies. In early neurological and neurosurgery rehabilitation, patients with central of respiratory regulation disturbances (e.g., cerebral stem lesions), swallowing disturbances (neurogenic dysphagia), neuromuscular problems (e.g., critical illness polyneuropathy, Guillain-Barre syndrome, paraplegia, Myasthenia gravis) and/or cognitive disturbances (e.g., disturbed consciousness and vigilance disorders, severe communication disorders), whose care during the weaning of ventilation requires, in addition to intensive medical competence, neurological or neurosurgical and neurorehabilitation expertise. In Germany, this competence is present in centers of early neurological and neurosurgery rehabilitation, as a hospital treatment. The guideline is based on a systematic search of guideline databases and MEDLINE. Consensus was established by means of a nominal group process and Delphi procedure moderated by the Association of the Scientific Medical Societies in Germany (AWMF). In the present guideline of the DGNR, the special structural and substantive characteristics of early neurological and neurosurgery rehabilitation and existing studies on weaning in early rehabilitation facilities are examined.Addressees of the guideline are neurologists, neurosurgeons, anesthesiologists, palliative physicians, speech therapists, intensive care staff, ergotherapists, physiotherapists, and neuropsychologists. In addition, this guideline is intended to provide information to specialists for physical medicine and rehabilitation (PMR), pneumologists, internists, respiratory therapists, the German Medical Service of Health Insurance Funds (MDK) and the German Association of Health Insurance Funds (MDS). The main goal of this guideline is to convey the current knowledge on the subject of "Prolonged weaning in early neurological and neurosurgery rehabilitation".

Fast-to-slow transformation in stimulated rat muscle.

Several previous studies have failed to demonstrate changes due to chronic stimulation in contractile speed of innervated fast rat muscles, and it has been suggested that the adaptive capacity of skeletal muscle in this species is limited. We have reassessed this contention. Fast muscles of the rat hind limb were stimulated continuously at 10 or 20 Hz for 55-61 days. The maximum shortening velocity of the extensor digitorum longus muscles was reduced to 50% of the control value. The proportion of type 1 fibers increased from 4% in control muscle to 34% in stimulated muscles and there was a corresponding reduction in type 2B/D fibers. The proportion of type 2A fibers after stimulation was similar to that in control muscles. These results, taken together with our published analyses of myosin isoform composition of these muscles, show that the mechanisms that control gene expression in response to activity are not exclusive to larger mammals.

Stimulation-induced expression of slow muscle myosin in a fast muscle of the rat. Evidence of an unrestricted adaptive capacity.

Fast muscles of the rat hind limb were stimulated continuously at 10 or 20 Hz for periods of 55-61 days by means of an implantable neuromuscular stimulator. Gel electrophoresis clearly demonstrated the presence in stimulated muscles of slow myosin light and heavy chains, although fast isoforms were still present in all cases. Thus, contrary to previous reports, induction of slow myosin isoforms does occur in this, as in other, mammalian species. The time course of the response to stimulation appears to be more extended than that seen in the rabbit.

A test-retest study of cerebral blood flow during somatosensory stimulation in depressed patients with schizophrenia and major depression.

Six depressed patients with schizophrenia and 6 depressed patients with major depression were investigated before and during somatosensory stimulation (SS) with Tc-99m HMPAO SPECT. 8 controls were investigated only under resting conditions. The results can be summarized as follows: 1. Both psychiatric patient groups were hypofrontal (dorsolateral prefrontal cortex) compared to controls. 2. Hypofrontality was further enhanced by SS, significantly only in affective psychoses in the right inferior frontal lobe and in the right frontal hemisphere in total, in schizophrenia in the left dorsolateral prefrontal cortex. 3. Within the frontal lobes different regions were affected by SS in the two diagnostic groups. 4. In the right inferior parietal lobe SS response was significantly different in the two illnesses with schizophrenia showing a relative decrease, affective psychoses showing a relative increase of activity. 5. SS produced an increase of cerebral blood flow in subcortical regions (statistically significant contralateral to SS in thalamus and basal ganglia, ipsilateral to SS in cerebellum), a pattern which was common to all psychiatric patients. 6. Somatosensory cortex flow was not changed by SS. In conclusion, we could not fully confirm our hypotheses that similar blood flow abnormalities in different illnesses during SS are only caused by similarities in depressive psychopathology. Instead, depressed patients with schizophrenia were different from depressed patients with major depression in showing decreased activity in interrelating brain regions participating in an attentional network.

Effects of long-impulse electrical stimulation on atrophy and fibre type composition of chronically denervated fast rabbit muscle.

The efficacy of electrical stimulation on a chronically denervated muscle depends on stimulus parameters, which have an important influence on the development of atrophy. Stimulus frequency and/or total activity are particularly responsible for the development of some histological, biochemical and contractile features. The present study in 18 rabbits deals with a recently developed electrical stimulus, which had proved effective in maintaining muscle force following denervation. This current has (1) unusual long bidirectional rectangular impulses (20 ms) and (2) a frequency of 25 Hz, which is between the frequencies of fast- and slow-firing motor units. Electrical stimulation began 28 (in one animal 53) days after total motor and sensory denervation of the right hindleg, and was continued until the end of the experiment, up to 205 days. To mimic a therapeutic regimen, which should be agreeable to patients, daily treatment times were kept to a minimum (2 x 6 min), and surface electrodes were used. Morphometric evaluation of the fast flexor digitorum sublimis muscle showed that such electrical stimulation was able to preserve fibre diameter at a level of 72-86% of the initial values for several months, while unstimulated fibres showed the usual atrophy with a decrease of diameters below 40% of normal. The stimulation induced a "hybrid" fibre type with properties of a slow muscle (rich in mitochondria in NADH-dependent tetrazolium reductase staining and electron microscopy) as well as of a fast-twitch muscle (fibre type IIb in myofibrillar ATPase stainings).

[Early forms of compassion]. / Frühe Formen des Mitleids.

The present study deals with the problem of whether early forms of compassion are already evident in the first year of life. For this purpose, tape recordings of other children crying were played as acoustic stimuli to 210 newborns and infants. Vocal and motor reactions were observed, and numerous measures were evaluated. It was found that a) children cry with another child from birth on; b) this responsive crying becomes less frequent as the child grows older; c) the motor reactions become increasingly differentiated; d) the responsive crying does not disappear entirely despite increasing cognitive abilities, although it is partly transformed into a more restrained reaction with a sad expression; e) hungry children react more strongly than satiated children, children with siblings more often than only children, and girls more often than boys; f) responsive crying to an indifferent acoustic stimulus was observed very rarely. This leads to the conclusion that early forms of compassion already exist in the first year of life. Two such forms are described. It is assumed that compassion is already present in a primitive form at birth, and is thus inborn.

Detailed analysis of intraoperative changes monitoring brain stem acoustic evoked potentials.

A series of 31 neurosurgical procedures in the posterior fossa monitored intraoperatively with ipsilateral brain stem acoustic evoked potentials (BAEPs) is analyzed for intraoperative potential changes. The evaluation of patients included pre- and postoperative BAEP recordings and pure tone audiometry. The series included 25 tumors, 4 neurovascular decompressions, 1 basilar artery aneurysm, and 1 arteriovenous malformation. Two intraoperative findings correlated significantly with a postoperative decrease in hearing: an amplitude reduction of more than 50% for Waves I to V and the loss of one of the waves, even if it was a wave that first appeared intraoperatively. We could attribute no significance to reversible or irreversible latency increases for all waves. The transient loss of one of the peaks followed by its reappearance was also insignificant with regard to postoperative hearing. A good prognostic sign was the intraoperative appearance of a peak undetectable on the preoperative recordings. These findings suggest that in intraoperative BAEP monitoring the observation of amplitude reduction is more important than that of latency increases. The surgeon should be informed when an amplitude reduction of more than 50% occurs before the peak is lost totally, as it is impossible to predict whether this peak will reappear intraoperatively.

Effect of click-polarity on abnormality of intraoperatively monitored brainstem acoustic evoked potentials.

The configuration of brainstem acoustic evoked potentials (BAEP) is influenced by the type of click stimuli used and may thus affect detectability of abnormalities. In a group of 19 patients with lesions in the posterior fossa BAEP were recorded pre- and intraoperatively. Repeat recordings were performed in each patient in two alternating series with rarefaction and condensation click stimuli. The findings demonstrated that intraoperative potential changes in latency and amplitude were different between the two stimulation modes, but did not vary significantly in their incidence. It was also not possible to predict from the preoperative BAEP which click polarity would demonstrate intraoperative changes more markedly, taking latency and amplitude as parameters. Two conclusions are drawn from this study: None of the two stimulation modes is superior in detecting intraoperative changes and therefore no recommendation can be made which click polarity to use. When working with only one click polarity it is recommended to use occasional control recordings with the other click polarity.

Early physiological effects of lithium treatment: electrooculographic and adaptometric findings in patients with affective and schizoaffective psychoses.

Electrooculography allows to measure the fundocorneal potential, a standing potential of the eye, under the conditions of light and dark adaptation. The results are expressed as the so-called Arden ratio. As was demon-strated by others in healthy volunteers, the Arden ratio, on the average, de-creases under Lithium treatment. However, in individual cases it can also remain unchanged or even rise. We have performed electrooculographic and adaptometric examinations in ten patients with affective disorders (DSM-III, 296. XX) and schizoaffective psychoses (DSM-III, 295.70). The criteria for the assignment of patients to lithium treatment were derived from a study by Angst. Arden ratios were determined six times, respectively, before lithium application and after a therapeutic lithium serum level (0.6-0.8 mmol/l) had been reached (cf. 5). The values observed during lithium treatment were significantly lower than those measured before lithium application. Dark adaptation, as measured using an adaptometer according to Goldmann-Weekers, was disturbed under lithium. The potential predictor function of these findings with regard to the lithium response is being investigated by means of a prospective study.

[Intra- and perioperative acoustic evoked brain stem potentials in cerebellopontile angle operations]. / Intra- und perioperative akustisch evozierte Hirnstammpotentiale bei Kleinhirnbrückenwinkel-Operationen.

From a series of 35 cases with intraoperative monitoring of acoustic evoked brainstem responses 4 cases with cerebellopontine angle surgery are presented in detail. The aim of neuromonitoring is to provide the surgeon with an additional instrument to assess the functional state of the hearing pathway with objective neurophysiological criteria during dissection near the eighth nerve and brainstem. Thus, a near total loss of potential during a neurovascular decompression of the trigeminal nerve could be reversed by modifying the surgical procedure. In 2 cases of acoustic neurinoma with preserved wave I this peak was obtainable throughout the procedure with a good postoperative result. Transient amplitude attenuation and latency increase was seen with a meningioma, which normalized before the end of operation with good postoperative hearing and brain-stem function. The relationship between intraoperative BAEP changes and postoperative brain-stem and eighth nerve function, and the value of neuromonitoring are discussed with regard to surgery around the internal auditory meatus and the eighth nerve.

Repeatedly reversible alteration of acoustic-evoked brainstem responses with a cystic craniopharyngioma.

The case of a cystic craniopharyngioma in a young patient, in which the tumor extended in the parasellar and retrosellar region down to the left cerebellopontine angle, is described. The postoperative reversibility of alterations in the acoustic-evoked brainstem responses after repeated surgical intervention and refilling of the cyst is described. The correlations between clinical and CT findings and the repeated alterations in the evoked responses are presented. The evoked responses were instrumental in following the postoperative course and timing CT controls. It is stressed that alterations in evoked responses were used as a reliable indication to evacuate cyst fluid via a Rickham-reservoir, although hearing was still intact, thus keeping the number of repeated CT scans lower.

[Existence of a retinaculum musculorum extensorum immum in man]. / Uber die Existenz eines Retinaculum musculorum extensorum imum beim Menschen.

The considerable variability of the Mm. extensor hallucis longus et brevis and the medial portion of the M. extensor digitorum brevis reflects the higher strain acting on the medial part of the forefoot. These functional conditions result probably not only in the increased development of the muscles mentioned above but also in the formation of a Retinaculum musculorum extensorum imum, which does, in fact, occur in 64.2% of extremities examined. 2 major forms of this retinaculum can be differentiated: A Retinaculum musculorum extensorum imum fibrosum (52.3%) and musculofibrosum (11.9%). The fibrous form again occurs in 2 varieties, namely a complete (47%) and an incomplete (5.3%) one.