Body Tremor Research Articles

POIKILOTHERMIA IN AN ACHONDROPLASTIC DWARF

Poikilothermia may be defined as a state wherein the body temperature of an organism tends to approach at all times that of the surrounding medium. No thermostatic control from within is present to maintain a constant body temperature by increasing or decreasing heat production and storage as the environmental temperature changes. A transient state of poikilothermia is occasionally observed in premature infants, but it seldom persists after the first week of life. It is usually regarded as a sign of immaturity of the central nervous system. Aside from this, poikilothermia in human beings is a rare condition. The only case that has come to our attention is that reported by Davidson and Friedman. 1 Their patient was an infant who during his twenty-nine days of life showed instability of body temperature, tremors, athetosis and xanthochromia of the spinal fluid. At autopsy the hypothalamic nuclei were found to be extensively invaded

THYROID GLAND DISTURBANCE AS A CAUSE OF UNEXPLAINED FEVER

THERE ARE a certain group of patients who have a moderate rise in temperature (99-100°) and for which no explanation or cause can be found. These patients are usually suspected of having pulmonary tuberculosis, undulant fever, or a hidden focus of infection. The fever is often found during a routine employment or insurance examination. This group, as a rule, have no symptoms. Those who do have symptoms complain of fatigability, nervousness, irritability, insomnia, tense-ness and a feeling of body tremor. To this may be added weight loss of moderate degree, such as 5 to 10 lb. Frequently these patients have had some infection pre-ceding the onset of the fever. They are studied from all angles, including physical and laboratory examinations, without a definite diagnosis being established. In the physical examination there are three findings which were found to be common to all, namely, an enlarged thyroid gland, usually adenomatous in character; second, an increase in pulse rate, around 80 to 100 per minute...

Barbiturate-Coriamyrtin Antagonism

At the time when we established the antidotal action of picrotoxin on the barbiturates we indicated our intention of investigating the action of other picrotoxin-like substances. This paper reports the antidotal action of coriamyrtin in rabbits subjected to lethal doses of amytal, pernoston and nembutal. The same method of procedure was followed in this work as in our early investigations of picrotoxin., The animals were given single lethal doses of the barbiturate in increasing increments up to the limit of effective therapeusis and as soon as narcosis occurred coriamyrtin was administered in fractional doses at intervals P.R.N. The initial dose of coriamyrtin was so graded as to elicit a mild state of reflex stimulation, evidenced by an increased rate of respiration and a manifestation of such gross reflexes as the whisker twitch, winking and (or) nystagmus, jerking movements of the limbs and ears, and coarse body tremors. Great care was taken in the lower barbituratized groups to grade the initial dose of coriamyrtin so as to avoid throwing the animal into violent convulsions. Mild seizures in such cases are inconsequential and pass off within a few minutes. When the respiration rate became slow again and the gross reflexes disappeared, to determine the degree of depression pinching the tip of the tail or ear was done. This served as an index for the quantitative estimation of the succeeding dose of coriamyrtin. Our technique was to try to maintain such a degree of sensitivity as to elicit a reaction of resistance to this mechanical mode of stimulation at all times. This procedure was repeated until the effects of the barbiturate were palpably beginning to wear off, as evidenced by the persistence of the induced hypersensitivity. The barbiturates were administered intraperitoneally as a 5% aqueous solution while the coriamyrtin was injected intravenously as a 0.1% solution.