Creatine metabolism in paralyses due to various causes, especially injuries to the spinal cord.

Abstract

CREATINE intolerance is characteristic of the various types of muscular dystrophies.* However, it has been described in many other conditions. Among the neurological diseases it has been noted chiefly in progressive muscular atrophy † and anterior poliomyelitis.‡ Of great importance is its occurrence both in acute anterior poliomyelitis and in the severe residuals. It has been reported in many non-neurological disorders but from few observations, as in immobilization 11 and amputation. 12 Among the patients with injuries to the spinal cord were many with disturbances in metabolism of heat, water, sugar, etc. As a part of the studies of disturbances in metabolism there was included one on creatine tolerance. The clinical material consisted of 14 patients with severe hemiplegia and 3 with crural paraplegia of cerebral origin, 9 patients who had been submitted to an anterior rhizotomy, and 6 patients with severe residuals of anterior poliomyelitis. This portion of the