Search PubMed⌕ Search

Biomedical subjects

O Sjaastad

Publications and source records attributed to O Sjaastad.

At least 145 records · Page 8Linked to original sources
PubMed1987

"Hemicrania continua": a third Norwegian case.

Another case of hemicrania continua is described--that of a 54-year-old woman, who for the past 3 years has had continuous, left-sided headache. Before this period she had non-continuous headache, otherwise resembling the present one, for 3-4 years. In the chronic stage, the headache fluctuates considerably. Indomethacin in a dosage of 150 mg/day abolishes the headache completely. In hemicrania continua, there may thus, as in chronic paroxysmal hemicrania, be a non-chronic stage, antedating the chronic one. The relative importance of the two stages cannot be assessed at present.

Female↗
PubMed1987

Chronic paroxysmal hemicrania: a case report. Long-lasting remission in the chronic stage.

In a 38-year-old woman who had had CPH since the middle 1960s and had been successfully treated with indomethacin (dosage usually within the limits of 50-175 mg/day) for approximately 10 years, the requirement for indomethacin was gradually reduced to nought in the spring of 1985. She was then pain-free without indomethacin for almost 1 1/2 years. In the late fall of 1986 she had a 3-week exacerbation. In recent months, she again seems to have a slowly increasing, although clearly fluctuating, indomethacin requirement. Long-lasting remissions may thus appear even in the chronic stage. The remission could be a spontaneous one or it could in some way be related to the protracted indomethacin treatment; the authors favour the former possibility. The recurrence of symptoms after a while shows that the attack-generating potential has not been permanently extinguished by indomethacin.

Adult↗
PubMed1987

Cluster headache pathogenesis: a pupillometric study.

Thirty-two cluster headache patients and healthy controls (n = 16-20 for the various tests) were examined by means of a Whitaker pupillometer during pain-free intervals. Eye drops of the sympathomimetic agents tyramine, hydroxyamphetamine, and phenylephrine were instilled into the conjunctival sacs on separate occasions, and pupillary diameters recorded at standard time intervals. The mydriatic responses of the two pupils were compared. A moderate, but statistically significant, basal relative miosis was found on the pain side in cluster headache. The symptomatic-side pupils were less responsive than their counterparts when stimulated with tyramine and hydroxyamphetamine, the difference being statistically significant for the OH-amphetamine test. With the phenylephrine test, however, the mydriasis on the symptomatic side significantly exceeded that of the contralateral pupil. This pattern of reactions does not quite correspond to those of "ordinary" Horner's syndrome (1st, 2nd, and 3rd neuron lesion). There are, however, gross similarities with the recently reported pattern in central sympathetic neuron dysfunction. In cluster headache there is probably a "Horner-like picture" rather than a proper Horner's syndrome.

Adult↗
PubMed1987

Headache and the influence of stress. A personal view.

Most headaches, including the chronic ones, have an organic background. This applies in particular to the unilateral headaches, but also probably to some of the global ones. In spite of this, there seems to be a clear, but variable influence of stress in the various types of headache. This effect may be a dual one. Thus, in migraine the effect of the low-degree, daily, annoying stress may be much worse than that of major stress, which may in fact prevent a headache almost even completely. A distinction should be made between the influence of stress on the headache as such and on the separate attacks. An example of this may be cluster headache: the mechanism underlying the long-term development may be under influences of external stressors, whereas the shortlasting, solitary attacks are scarcely influenced by such factors. The negative influence of stress is probably most apparent in common migraine and the acute form of tension headache. Headaches like the "atypical facial neuralgia" have been thought to have a strong, psychogenic background. Atypical facial neuralgia is one of the unilateral headaches, and bears a great similarity to cervicogenic headache. In the latter headache, attacks may even be precipitated mechanically, so that a psychogenesis or a marked stress-influence seems to be unlikely. In some cases of classic migraine, attacks seem to appear in their own inherent, stereotypical rhythm irrespective of outer events of a possible harmful nature.

Acute Disease↗
PubMed1986

Homocarnosinosis: influence of dietary restriction of histidine.

Homocarnosinosis, an inherited disorder, is characterized by an elevated level of the dipeptide homocarnosine (Hca) in the CSF and the brain and, in addition, by carnosinuria and serum carnosinase deficiency. In three children with homocarnosinosis the biochemical aberration co-exists with paraplegia, retinitis pigmentosa, and a progressive mental deficiency. In the mother, however, only the biochemical aberration was present without clinical symptoms. In order to study whether this elevated level of Hca and increased excretion of carnosine (Car) could be reduced towards normal, a dietary regiment with restriction of histidine (His) was maintained for nearly 2 1/2 years for two of the patients, 33 and 39 years old, with homocarnosinosis associated with neurological symptoms. His was reduced by about 90% in the CSF, in the plasma and in the urine. Within 5-6 months CSF Hca was reduced by about 70%, and urinary Car by 22 and 42%. The clinical neurological symptoms, however, did not alter significantly together with these biochemical changes.

Adult↗
PubMed1986

Chronic paroxysmal hemicrania. X. On the autonomic involvement.

In four patients with chronic paroxysmal hemicrania, two of whom could precipitate attacks mechanically, various autonomic function tests were carried out in connection with attacks. Not all features could be studied in all patients. Forehead sweating and temperature were measured. Sweating, tearing, and nasal secretion were studied after systemic atropine administration, which reduced attack-related sweating, tearing, and nasal secretion markedly. Intra-ocular pressure was measured before and after the topical administration of an alpha-receptor blocking agent, thymoxamine. After topical thymoxamine no definite intra-ocular pressure increase occurred during precipitated attacks. In attacks precipitated by head movements, forehead sweating occurred seconds (up to 30 sec) before the pain. This study indicates that at least in some CPH cases, forehead sweating is not caused by the pain. Nor is the pain secondary to increase in intra-ocular pressure. The thymoxamine experiments seem to indicate that alpha-receptors in some way may be connected with the intra-ocular pressure increase during attack.

Atropine↗
PubMed1986

Electrical stimulation in multiple sclerosis. Comparison of transcutaneous electrical stimulation and epidural spinal cord stimulation.

Forty-nine multiple sclerosis patients with bladder symptoms and/or walking disability were subjected to a therapeutic trial with electrical spinal cord stimulation and transcutaneous electrical stimulation, a second aim being to compare these two treatments. A clear subjective improvement in bladder symptoms was achieved in the majority of the cases, and this was substantiated by objective parameters. In a proportion of cases a more moderate improvement seems to have been achieved in a variety of symptoms. Transcutaneous electrical stimulation seems to be a useful selection procedure for later electrical spinal cord stimulation.

Adult↗
PubMed1985

Migraine and therapy.

Explore the source record for details and available documents.

Anti-Inflammatory Agents, Non-Steroidal↗
PubMed1985

A new syndrome: thrombocytopathia, muscle fatigue, asplenia, miosis, migraine, dyslexia and ichthyosis.

A new multifacetted syndrome inherited as an autosomal, dominant trait is described encompassing not only two hitherto undescribed hereditary defects--thrombocytopathia and asplenia--but also muscle contractile defect, migraine-like headache, miosis, dyslexia and ichthyosis. None of these defects has so far been assigned to a specific chromosome or linkage group. Further studies on the various aspects of the syndrome are in progress.

Child↗