SELECTIVE DESTRUCTION OF LARGE MOTONEURONS BY POLIOMYELITIS VIRUS: I. CONDUCTION VELOCITY OF MOTOR NERVE FIBERS OF CHRONIC POLIOMYELITIS PATIENTS

Publisher Website
Google Scholar
Abstract
Maximal muscle action potentials evoked by appropriate motor nerve stimulations and conduction velocities of the fastest nerve fibers innervating these muscles were studied in 26 human chronic poliomyelitis patients. The conduction velocities of the fastest residual motor nerve fibers are slower than normal in this disease and vary directly with the action potential amplitude (i.e., functional ability) of the muscles they innervate. The most probable cause of slow conduction is thought to be the selective destruction by the virus of those motoneurons with the thickest axons. The mechanism of this proposed preferential invasion and killing by the virus[long dash]e.g., metabolic, mechanical, etc.[long dash]requires further study. The results are discussed in the light of some of the pathological physiology of the disease.

This publication has 7 references indexed in Scilit: