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Biomedical subjects

P Hudgson

Publications and source records attributed to P Hudgson.

At least 19 recordsLinked to original sources

Phrenic neuropathy in association with diabetes.

We report the case of a 51-year-old man who presented with breathlessness on exertion and orthopnoea in association with Type 2 diabetes mellitus. Investigation showed bilateral diaphragmatic paralysis due to phrenic neuropathy. There was no evidence of neuropathy or microvascular disease elsewhere. Phrenic neuropathy may be an important, albeit rare, complication of diabetes and diaphragmatic function should be considered in any patient with unexplained breathlessness and orthopnoea.

Diabetes Mellitus, Type 2

Neuromuscular disease, respiratory failure and cor pulmonale.

Respiratory muscle weakness is an uncommon cause of chronic respiratory failure and a rare cause of cor pulmonale. The problem may not be apparent unless specific physical signs are sought or appropriate investigations performed. We present three patients who presented diagnostic difficulty for prolonged periods until the presence of respiratory muscle weakness was considered. Once the diagnosis was established treatment with nocturnal nasal intermittent positive pressure ventilation produced a dramatic improvement in symptoms and allowed a return to a near normal lifestyle.

Adult

Breathing during sleep in patients with myotonic dystrophy and non-myotonic respiratory muscle weakness.

Sleep apnoea and hypopnoea have been reported in myotonic dystrophy, but it is unclear whether this is simply attributable to the respiratory muscle weakness which is common in this condition. We therefore investigated whether breathing and oxygenation during sleep were more abnormal in patients with myotonic dystrophy than in patients with non-myotonic muscle weakness. Seven subjects were studied in each of three groups: normal controls, myotonic dystrophy and non-myotonic weakness. Patients in the latter group were chosen to represent a similar range of severity of respiratory muscle weakness to those with myotonic dystrophy. Detailed polysomnography was performed; the severity of breathing disorders during sleep was quantified in terms of the frequencies of apnoea and hypopnoea and the degree of arterial desaturation. The myotonic patients showed more frequent apnoea and hypopnoea and more severe desaturation than the other two groups; the results in the non-myotonic patients were generally intermediate. The results suggest that abnormal breathing during sleep is common in myotonic dystrophy and is not due solely to the direct effects of respiratory muscle weakness. Somnolence, which is a well recognized symptom of myotonic dystrophy, was not clearly attributable to the sleep apnoea/hypopnoea syndrome nor to abnormal sleep architecture in the myotonic patients.

Adult

Distal spinal muscular atrophy. A clinical and genetic study of 8 kindreds.

Twelve patients (8 kindreds) with distal SMA are described, and an analysis presented of their clinical and genetic features. Distal SMA accounted for 10% of all patients with SMA in a total population survey of this disease in North-East England. The parental consanguinity rate is high, occurring in 3 of the 8 kindreds reported; the sex ratio was 1.0; the segregation ratio of sibs did not differ from 0.25. Intrafamilial concordance for clinical features of the disease is high. This current data is consistent with a suggested aetiology of two separate autosomal recessive genes. Clinical features are discussed and a review of the literature presented. The disease is only slowly progressive, but one of the genetic types may present with infantile or early juvenile onset; there is no evidence that it shortens life. 50% of cases did not have a normal gait after 4 years of age; 50% could not run after 17 years of age; and 50% could not walk unaided after 28 years of age. Details of prognosis, and principles of genetic counselling in this disease are discussed.

Adolescent

Syringomyelia.

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England

Anterior-horn cell degeneration and gross calf hypertrophy with adolescent onset. A new spinal muscular atrophy syndrome.

A new variant of spinal muscular atrophy (S.M.A.), characterised by adolescent onset, gross hypertrophy of calves, and a slowly progressive clinical course, was found in 5 patients, 3 of them in a series of 102 cases being studied in North-East England. Biopsy and electrophysiological studies indicated the presence of chronic progressive degeneration of anterior-horn cells.

Adolescent

Moebius syndrome, peripheral neuropathy and hypogonadotrophic hypogonadism.

The association of congenital ophthalmoplegia and facial paresis (Moebius syndrome) with a variety of other developmental somatic defects has been widely recognised. Its co-existence with hypogonadism of hypothalamic/pituitary origin and subclinical peripheral neuropathy has been reported and in this paper we describe the second case of the Moebius syndrome in association with hypogonadotrophic hypogonadism and a progressive peripheral neuropathy of mixed axonal and demyelinating type.

Adolescent

A clinical and genetic study of spinal muscular atrophy of adult onset: the autosomal recessive form as a discrete disease entity.

A clinical and genetic study of spinal muscular atrophy (SMA) of adult onset is reported. A genetic analysis of all cases of SMA occurring over a ten-year period in North-east England (48 index cases) has shown that chronic proximal SMA of adult onset is a distinct clinical and genetic entity, and is not a variant of the more common and relatively benign late juvenile cases. Nine cases of SMA of adult onset have been studied, occurring in 6 families. The median age of clinical onset was 35 years and the mean age at initial medical presentation was 37 years. The sex ratio was 5:4 (males:females). The condition is relatively benign and there is no evidence to date that life expectancy is shortened; there is usually no premonitory evidence of muscular weakness in early adult life. The muscular involvement is relatively symmetrical and the distal musculature is well preserved; clinical progression of the disease is interrupted by periods of apparent arrest. No patient was able to walk completely unaided twenty years after the initial clinical onset; the median age of patients in the study was 61 years but only one was confined to a wheelchair. In the early stages the recessive form of familial motor neuron disease must be excluded. A segregation analysis of sibs born after index cases was undertaken (segregation ratio of 0.20). This finding is consistent with autosomal recessive inheritance with an extended period during which the disease might initially present. The presence of new dominant mutations cannot be excluded, but is unlikely to account for more than 10% of cases. The carrier rate in the English population is estimated to be 1 in 300, with a gene frequency q = 0.00165. Prevalence is 0.32 per 100,000 in the general population. Empirical risks for genetic counselling are presented.

Adolescent

Experimental serotonin myopathy.

One hundred and eight Wistar rats were injected with serotonin (20 mg per kilogram of body weight intraperitoneally) or imipramine hydrochloride (20 mg per kilogram intraperitoneally), or both, in a single cycle or in multiple (up to 18 weeks) weekly cycles. In contrast to previous reports, a characteristic myopathy was produced with serotonin alone, identical to that produced by serotonin and imipramine in combination. Imipramine alone produced no significant change. The myopathy produced was characterized by (1) preferential damage to myofibers with high oxidative capacity (types I and IIA), (2) prominent regenerative activity occurring as early as 48 hours, and (3) degeneratio of capillary endothelium (thickening, vacuolar degeneration, proliferation of marginal folds, dissolution of mitochondria). Small groups of degenerating fibers and increased connective tissue were not observed. There was no loss of myofibers or fat replacement. The changes suggested repeated acute insults followed the complete recovery. These observations suggest that although the pathogenesis of serotonin and serotonin-imipramine myopathy is primarily ischemic, it is not a satisfactory model of human Duchenne muscular dystrophy.

Animals

Localised nodular myositis: a clinical and pathological variant of polymyositis.

Three cases of a painful, inflammatory, nodular myopathy in young and middle-aged adult males are described. In two of the cases the nodular process gradually evolved into a diffuse proximal myopathy accompanied by dysphagia, and manifesting the so-called "facioscapulohumeral syndrome". The electromyogram (EMG) in all three cases was "myopathic" in type and in two cases abnormalities consistent with an inflammatory muscle disorder were seen. Muscle biopsy revealed a consistent pattern of intense, predominantly interstitial, pleomorphic infiltration of muscle with scattered foci of muscle fibre destruction and regeneration, which resembled muscle infarcts. It is suggested that this syndrome, whilst readily recognizable from both the clinical and pathological standpoints, is not a nosological entity in its own right but rather an unusual presentation of polymyositis.

Adult

Carnitine-palmityl-transferase deficiency.

An increasing number of cases of myopathy due to disordered lipid metabolism have recently been recognised and these appear to fall into two contrasting clinical and biochemical categories. Some patients present with steadily prograssive proximal weakness which sometimes responds to steroid therapy and which is due to carnitine deficiency in skeletal muscle. In the second category, patients usually present with muscle cramps on exertion then followed by myoglobinuria without established proximal myopathy and their symptoms are associated with deficiency of carnitine palmityl transferase in skeletal muscle. In this paper we report a patient who has well-documented carnitine palmityl transferase deficiency, whose symptoms were triggered by violent exercise after fasting and in whom there was variable histochemical and ultrastructural evidence of lipid accumulation in muscle biopsy samples. Development of the patient's symptoms was suppressed by a high carbohydrate diet.

Acyltransferases

Polymositis.

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Adult