rss
J Neurol Neurosurg Psychiatry 2004;75:1541-1546 doi:10.1136/jnnp.2003.029215
  • Paper

Effects of botulinum toxin type A on vibration induced facilitation of motor evoked potentials in spasmodic torticollis

  1. P P Urban1,
  2. R Rolke1,2
  1. 1Department of Neurology, University of Mainz, Germany
  2. 2Institute of Physiology and Pathophysiology, University of Mainz, Germany
  1. Correspondence to:
 Dr P D P P Urban
 Department of Neurology, University of Mainz, Langenbeckstr. 1, D 55101 Mainz; urbanneurologie.klinik.uni-mainz.de
  • Received 26 September 2003
  • Accepted 5 February 2004
  • Revised 14 January 2004

Abstract

Background and aim: It has not been clarified if botulinum toxin (BTX) injection leads to muscle spindle dysfunction in man. This study aimed to test the hypothesis that BTX application reduces the facilitation of a magnetic evoked response (MEP).

Methods: We used the vibration induced facilitation of an MEP of the sternocleidomastoid muscle (SCM) as a surrogate marker for muscle spindle function in 20 healthy subjects and 10 patients with idiopathic rotational torticollis in whom BTX was injected unilaterally.

Results: The increase in the amplitude and area of the MEPs in the clinically not affected and untreated SCM of the patients did not differ significantly from the controls. At baseline, the vibration induced increase in the affected SCM of the patients was significantly lower than in the control group. Six weeks after BTX application, the observed facilitation decreased significantly (amplitude and area: p<0.001) when compared with baseline values. Twelve weeks after BTX application, facilitation showed an increase in the values of the amplitude (p<0.001), but not of the area when compared with the six week examination.

Conclusions: We demonstrated that the vibration induced MEP facilitation in the SCM of patients with torticollis significantly decreased six weeks after BTX application and again increased after 12 weeks in part when looking at MEP amplitude. This observation is suggestive of denervation and reinnervation of the muscle spindles after BTX injection.

Footnotes

  • This work was supported by BMBF grant 01EM0107 (German Research Network on Neuropathic Pain, GNNP).

  • Competing interests: none declared

This Article

  1. Abstract
  2. Full text
  3. PDF

Responses

  1. Submit a response
  2. No responses published

Register for free content

The full back archive is now available for all BMJ Journals. Institutional subscribers may access the entire archive as part of their subscription. Personal subscribers will also have access to all content when logged in. Non-subscribers who register have free access to all articles published before 2006 right back to volume 1 issue 1. Register here to access the free archive of all BMJ Journals.

Don't forget to sign up for content alerts so you keep up to date with all the articles as they are published.

BMJ Careers - Latest neurology and neurosurgery jobs