Post-polio sequelae

Postpoliomyelitis syndrome is a clinical syndrome characterized by late progression of symptoms, neuromuscular weakness, fatigue and pain, several (more than 20) Years after acute anterior poliomyelitis. In the United States, where it has been mainly described, frequency is estimated between 20 and 30p.100 in patients with sequelae of poliomyelitis. Although the cause is still unknown, postpoliomyelitis syndrome is likely due to degeneration and dysfunction of terminal axons of enlarged post-polio units, with a possible role of inflammatory reaction driven by persistence of the polio virus...

This article discusses three examples of delay (latency) in the appearance of signs and symptoms of poisoning after exposure to methylmercury. First, a case is presented of a 150-day delay period before the clinical manifestations of brain damage after a single brief (<1 day) exposure to dimethylmercury. The second example is taken from the Iraq outbreak of methylmercury poisoning in which the victims consumed contaminated bread for several weeks without any ill effects. Indeed, signs of poisoning did not appear until weeks or months after exposure stopped...

The physiatrist observes about his practice individuals with sequela of old poliomyelitics. A part of them have unusual fatigue and muscular pains and weakness. The hypothesis of an evolution of neuro-biological mechanism suggested by few authors isn't, actually, demonstrated. More probably, the modifications of lesional and, functional changes with disability observed are the consequence of elderly effects and decreasing of physical activites. We report a case of spinal cord compression by intramedullar tumor, associated with a post-polio syndrome...

OBJECTIVE: Seventy-nine percent of respondents to the 1990 National Post-Polio Survey reported difficulty "thinking of words I want to say," with 37% reporting frequent, moderate-to-severe word finding difficulty. This study was undertaken to objectively document polio survivors' word finding difficulty and to identify its relationship to fatigue, neuropsychologic processes requiring cortical activation, and a peripheral marker for brain dopamine secretion. DESIGN: In this study, 33 polio survivors were administered the Post-Polio Fatigue Questionnaire, Animal Naming and FAS Tests, and tests of attention and information processing speed...

Fatigue is the most commonly reported and most debilitating of post-polio sequelae affecting the >1.8 million North American polio survivors. Post-polio fatigue is characterized by subjective reports of difficulty with attention, cognition, and maintaining wakefulness. These symptoms resemble those reported in nearly 2 dozen outbreaks of post-viral fatigue syndromes (PVFS) that have recurred during this century and that are related clinically, historically, anatomically, or physiologically to poliovirus infections...

Nearly two-thirds of polio survivors report abnormal movements in sleep, with 52% reporting that their sleep is disturbed by these movements. Sleep studies were performed in seven polio survivors to document objectively abnormal movements in sleep. Two patients demonstrated generalized random myoclonus, with brief contractions and even ballistic movements of the arms and legs, slow repeated grasping movements of the hands, slow flexion of the arms, and contraction of the shoulder and pectoral muscles. Two other patients demonstrated periodic movements in sleep with muscle contractions and ballistic movements of the legs, two had periodic movements in sleep plus restless legs syndrome, and one had sleep starts involving only contraction of the arm muscles...

Poliomyelitis has almost been eradicated world-wide, but during the last decades polio survivors have noted new problems: late effects of polio and post-polio. In Denmark, 7-8000 polio survivors are disabled by poliomyelitis. Late effects of polio, defined as onset of new symptoms decades after the acute poliomyelitis, include fatigue and overuse muskuloskeletal problems. Post-polio is a sub-category of the late effects of polio and related to impaired neuro-muscular function with unexpected onset, which is not caused by the patient's age...

Patients who in earlier life suffered from acute poliomyelitis are reporting new and disabling symptoms that have been variously labelled the 'late sequelae' or 'post polio syndrome'. Systematic review of such patients has identified specific categories of disability. A practical investigation and management plan for such patients presenting to a general practitioner is proposed.

Over a four-year period, all in-patients at our department with the diagnosis of polio-sequelae were clinically examined for development of new neuromuscular deficit. 19 out of 125 patients (15%) had developed a postpolio syndrome. All 19 had acquired additional functional deficit and 17 new, localized pareses. Five patients had developed polio-related hypoventilation. The mean time from acute poliomyelitis to debut of the post-polio syndrome was 39 years. The post-polio syndrome occurred in patients with severe pareses in the acute stage, but was not related to age, sex or specific epidemic...

1996 is polio awareness year. This paper reviews the clinical syndrome of acute paralytic poliomyelitis and its sequelae. We discuss epidemiological studies of the syndrome of late functional deterioration many years after the acute infection and the current hypotheses of the pathophysiology of such disorders. Recent evidence has suggested that potentially treatable factors may be implicated in the majority of such patients and it is therefore important to exclude such disorders before attributing late functional deterioration to progressive post-polio muscular atrophy...

Fatigue is the most commonly reported and most disabling of all post-polio sequelae (PPS). Bromocriptine mesylate (Parlodel) was employed in a placebo-controlled trial in five survivors of paralytic polio who continued to report moderate to severe daily fatigue after complying with the conservative treatments prescribed for PPS. Placebo was given for 4 wk followed by increasing doses of bromocriptine mesylate, administered at 12:00 pm for 28 days, which reached a total dose of 12.5 mg/day. Three subjects reported marked symptom improvement on bromocriptine but not on placebo...

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Fatigue is the most commonly reported, most debilitating, and most poorly understood Post-Polio Sequelae (PPS). Postmortem studies of 50 years ago documented frequent and severe poliovirus-induced lesions within the Reticular Activating System (RAS). Recently, neuropsychological testing has documented marked attention deficits in polio survivors reporting severe fatigue. However, neither of these findings has yet been related to the pathophysiology of post-polio fatigue. Magnetic resonance imaging of the brain was performed in 22 polio survivors carefully screened to eliminate the effect of comorbidities...

Patients who have been affected by poliomyelitis may develop new symptoms such as muscle weakness, muscle atrophy, muscle or joint pain, and unexplained fatigue several decades after the onset of their poliomyelitis (post-polio syndrome [PPS]). We report on the results of our study of 59 patients with poliomyelitis using a number of instruments for disability assessment, including a 4- to 5-year follow-up. The main impact of disability for most patients is in mobility-related activities. Dependence in personal activities of daily living is fairly rare, whereas dependence and difficulties in instrumental activities of daily living (eg, cooking, transportation, cleaning, shopping) are more common and also more severe in persons with PPS...

Post-poliomyelitis respiratory impairment is extremely common and entails considerable risk of morbidity and mortality. Respiratory muscle weakness is the primary etiological factor but post-poliomyelitis individuals (PPIs) also have a high incidence of scoliosis, obesity, sleep disordered breathing, and bulbar muscle dysfunction, all of which can add to the risk. One hundred forty-five PPIs were managed by noninvasive alternatives to intermittent positive pressure ventilation (IPPV) via an indwelling tracheostomy...

Some individuals who had poliomyelitis 20 to 30 years ago are now reporting a recurrence of symptoms of weakness in the same muscle groups that were weakened during the initial onset of the disease. Electrophysiological findings on EMG and repetitive stimulation studies identify changes peculiar to this disease. Non-fatiguing progressive resistive exercises have been used to strengthen muscle groups demonstrating this secondary weakness after the muscles have been identified by electrophysiological studies...

Persons who had poliomyelitis report cold and discolored extremities and decreased muscle strength when exposed to mildly cool ambient temperatures. Bilateral digital cutaneous blood flow, skin temperature and median nerve latencies and amplitudes were measured at 30 degrees C, 25 degrees C and 20 degrees C in five post-polio subjects and age-matched controls. Cutaneous blood flow was lowest on the more affected side in the post-polio subjects but vasoconstriction with decreasing Ta was equal bilaterally in both groups...

Forty-two patients with a past history of poliomyelitis were evaluated at a post-polio clinic for new problems or impairments. Evaluation included a complete history, neurological and biomechanical examination and electrodiagnostic studies. Based on this evaluation patients were placed into three groups: 23 patients were considered to have or likely to have Progressive Post-Polio Muscular Atrophy (PPPMA); 17 patients were considered to have other post-polio sequelae; and two patients had problems unrelated to a past history of polio but mistaken for post-polio sequelae...

Thousands of persons who had poliomyelitis are reporting new physical symptoms that are eroding physical abilities, regained only after strenuous and lengthy rehabilitation, that were thought to have been permanently restored. These symptoms are causing persons to feel they are becoming disabled for a second time by the same disease. These new symptoms are psychologically traumatic also because they are unexpected, their cause is unknown and there is a lack of knowledge and understanding concerning them within the medical community...

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