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Biomedical subjects

W Ziegler

Publications and source records attributed to W Ziegler.

At least 55 records · Page 3Linked to original sources
PubMed1993

Syllabic timing in dysarthria.

A new, intensity-based method of measuring syllable duration was used to assess syllabic timing in 75 patients with dysarthria of predominantly traumatic and cerebro-vascular origin and in 30 normal subjects. The applied speech tasks included repetitions of sentences containing chains of plosive-vowel-syllables. The logarithm of the duration of the syllable carrying sentence accent proved to be particularly highly correlated with perceived speech rate. Among the potential sources of temporal variability, segmental influences and the influence of sentence stress were examined. Further, the between-sentence variation of syllable duration was assessed. The resulting measures of variability were correlated with the severity of dysarthric impairment. A strengthening of normal effects was found in the consonant-related variation, whereas intrinsic vowel effects and the influence of sentence stress were largely reduced. These results are discussed from the viewpoint of timing theories in speech and limb motor control. They are considered to provide a valuable background against which the speech impairments of specific neurologic groups can be tested.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1993

[Prosodic disorders in neurologic diseases--a review of the literature].

The prosodic quality of speech comprises intonation, accent pattern, and rhythm. Among others, these dimensions contribute to the linguistic structure of an utterance and subserve emotional behaviour. Both cortical and subcortical dysfunctions can give rise to impaired speech prosody. The present paper reviews the clinical and linguistic features of the various dys- and aprosodic syndromes as well as their neuroanatomic substrates. 1. Sporadically, lesions of the left hemisphere present with dysprosody in terms of a "foreign accent". In most instances this syndrome seems to be due to apraxia of speech. 2. Some authors consider dysprosodic speech a characteristic feature of Broca's aphasia. The dysprosody of these patients predominantly reflects disturbed temporal organisation of speech utterances. Altered intonation contours, presumably, result from disordered sentence planning rather than from deficits of pitch processing. Wernicke aphasics may show increased variability of intonational patterns. 3. Impaired discrimination and identification of affective prosody has been observed in patients with temporoparietal lesion of the right hemisphere ("auditory affective agnosia"). With respect to linguistic prosody, controversial findings are reported on. Besides pitch extraction from acoustic signals the right hemisphere seems to provide categorical representations of emotional behaviour required for the "interpretation" of perceived intonation. 4. Damage to the right hemisphere can give rise to monotonous speech devoid of affective modulation ("motor aprosodia"). It is unsettled to which extent linguistic suprasegmental features are also distorted. The available data indicate an underlying dysfunction of basal ganglia loops and/or transcallosal projections. 5. Both Parkinson's and Huntington's disease may present with reduced prosodic modulation of speech. Probably, these deficits reflect disordered motor control of articulatory and phonatory functions. At least with respect to Parkinsonian patients perceptual and acoustic studies have so far failed to provide sufficient evidence of impaired prosodic planning.

Adult↗
PubMed1993

[Snow board accidents. Multicenter Swiss snow board study 1992/93 with the cooperation of the bfu].

Snowboarding has become increasingly popular in recent years. A prospective multicenter study was therefore performed during the winter 1992/93. 345 injuries were analysed and compared with 305 healthy snowboarders on the slopes. Preliminary results show predominantly injuries of the upper extremity comparative to those suffered from alpine skiing. Protection of the hand and wrist is recommended as well as an instruction for a special technique for falling as measurements for accident prevention.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1993

Reconstitution of a plasma-membrane H(+)-ATPase into bilayer lipid membrane.

The plasma membrane H(+)-ATPase of Neurospora has been reconstituted into planar lipid bilayer membranes by means of the vesicle-fusion technique described by Finkelstein and his collaborators (Zimmerberg et al., 1980; Cohen et al., 1980, 1984; Akabas et al., 1984). Enzyme was first transferred from isolated plasma membrane fragments into asolectin vesicles by a detergent-dialysis procedure (Perlin et al., 1984). After H(+)-pumping activity had been checked by quenching of acridine orange fluorescence, the vesicles were fused into performed bilayers. Critical features of the fusion process include (i) attachment of the vesicles to the bilayer in the presence of divalent cations (Mg++), and (ii) rapid osmotic swelling, which was enhanced by prior sonication or freeze-thawing of the vesicles, and/or by inclusions of physiologic channels. Enough proton pumps could be thus incorporated into bilayers to achieve ATP-driven, vanadate-sensitive currents of 0.04-0.4 pA. Aqueous solutions of low ionic strength were used to suppress conductance fluctuations due to the channels, and when that precaution was taken, we could demonstrate the proton pump the work against membrane potentials of at least 50 mV.

Acridine Orange↗
PubMed1993

[Munich Intelligibility Profile. Studies of reliability and validity].

The 'Münchner Verständlichkeitsprofil (MVP)' (Munich Intelligibility Profile) is a PC-based method for assessment of the intelligibility of dysarthric speakers. Analyses of its reliability and validity were based on a total of 101 patients and 16 normal speakers as well as a group of 45 listeners. The reliability of the overall MVP score was determined using non-parametric analyses of variance and between-listener correlations. Retest reliability was measured for a subgroup of 5 listeners. Test validity was analyzed by correlating MVP scores with three external criteria (expert ratings, listeners' ratings, transcripts). Further, relevant aspects of the test construction were tested empirically. Finally, regression analyses were carried out in order to demonstrate that different MVP lists are equivalent in predicting transcription-based intelligibility scores.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1993

[Uterine motility of cattle during late pregnancy, labor and puerperium. III. Use of flunixin meglumine and endocrine changes].

In the present study the effect of Flunixin meglumine (FM), a cyclooxygenase inhibitor, was investigated on postpartal prostaglandin production and uterine activity in the cow. For that purpose 8 cows were given FM in a dose of 2.2 mg/Kg b.w. twice daily (08.00 and 16.00 h) for the first 10 days p.p. Blood samples were collected at various times before, during and after parturition and the concentrations of 15-keto-13,14-dihydro-PGF2 alpha (PGFM), progesterone as well as adrenaline and noradrenaline determined. Eight cows served as controls. Uterine activity was measured by means of pressure microsensors and electrodes which were surgically implanted into the uterine wall before parturition. During the whole treatment period FM inhibited endogenous PG-production by more than 80% (p < 0.05). The suppressive effect of FM was maximal 4 h after the last injection and lasted no longer than 8 h. PGF2 alpha-suppression clearly decreased spontaneous uterine motility and reduced the myometrial response to ocytocin (5 IU i.v.) and PGF2 alpha (15 mg i.v.). Treatment with FM did not interfere with uterine involution, the return to cyclicity and the first postpartal cycle length. Also, no obvious effects were seen on catecholamine concentrations which fluctuated during parturition without regularly representing the actual stress situation. Our results demonstrate that FM is able to effectively inhibit PGF2 alpha-secretion as well as uterine activity in the cow. Further evaluation of FM as a tocolyticum or in the treatment of uterine infections is required.

Animals↗
PubMed1992

[Cerebellar dysarthria--a review of the literature].

This review summarizes and discusses the literature on speech deficits in cerebellar diseases and on the topography of cerebellar dysarthria. Clinical descriptions of dysarthric features in cerebellar diseases, parametric investigations of ataxic dysarthria, and experimental studies in animals concerning the effects of lesions on vocalization and the representation of sensorimotor orofacial functions in the cerebellum are considered. Signs of cerebellar dysarthria include a slowing down of articulatory movements, increased variability of pitch and loudness, monotonous and "scanning" speech, and articulatory impreciseness. The available data indicate that the paramedian regions of the superior cerebellar hemispheres are relevant for the development of cerebellar dysarthria.

Articulation Disorders↗
PubMed1992

[Diagnosis of dysarthria with the "Munich Intelligibility Profile"--construction of the procedure and its use].

No German-based methods for reliable assessment of the intelligibility of dysarthric speech have yet been described. The techniques usually applied in clinical diagnostics take no account of the various factors influencing the understanding of spoken language. They also fail to differentiate between individual patterns of impaired intelligibility. The intelligibility profile presented here controls for the most relevant influencing factors and allows us to discern therapeutically relevant patterns of disturbed intelligibility. The principles of its construction and some applications are presented.

Cerebellar Diseases↗
PubMed1991

Cerebellar voice tremor: an acoustic analysis.

Patients with cerebellar disease may exhibit tremulous phonation as part of their dysarthria. The results of an acoustic analysis of cerebellar voice tremor in a patient with hereditary ataxia and presenting with a purely cerebellar syndrome are reported. Analysis included computation of speech intensity contours, fundamental frequency contours, and spectral parameters from sustained productions of vowels and voiceless fricatives. Fundamental frequency contours during sustained phonation of vowels showed rhythmic oscillations at a rate of about 3 Hz. No concomitant periodicity could be detected for the parameters characterising voiceless fricative production. The results indicate an impairment of phonatory control in relation to the maintenance of a constant isometric activity of the internal laryngeal muscles. Cerebellar voice tremor may therefore be classified as a form of postural tremor.

Cerebellum↗
PubMed1991

Articulatory deficits in parkinsonian dysarthria: an acoustic analysis.

Twelve patients with idiopathic Parkinson's disease had acoustic speech analysis of sentence utterances to provide information on speech tempo and accuracy of articulation. As a measure of rate of speech the duration of opening-closing movements during articulation was determined from speech wave variables. The intensity of sound emission during articulatory closure as required for stop consonant production, for example, magnitude of p, magnitude of t, magnitude of k, was used as an index of the degree of closure. Speech tempo was not significantly different from normal. The patients, however, had a reduced capacity of completing articulatory occlusion. This was interpreted as reflecting a reduction in movement amplitude of the articulators. Articulatory "undershoot" was not uniform but influenced by linguistic demands in that the closures associated with a stressed syllable were performed at the expense of unstressed ones. Furthermore, switching between opening and closing movements of the articulators in sentence production seemed undisturbed. These results indicate that motor planning of speech differs from arm movement control.

Adult↗
PubMed1991

[Efficiency of various dental dust-aspiration-equipment regarding the treatment of cobalt-chromium alloys].

The comparative measuring of the dust-seizure-efficiency of aspirators is being carried out by a practice-related treatment of 5 cylindrical-shaped specimen made of a commercial cobalt-chromium-alloy with aluminum-oxide-grinding instruments and silicone-rubber-polishers. A small-filter-apparatus takes up the person related samplings of the occurring total-dust-amount, which is then being calculated by a gravimetric standard-measuring-procedure. The cobalt-chromium-dust-fraction in the total dust amount is determined through an x-ray-fluorescence-analysis. Workplace dust-aspiration-equipment of the firms KaVo, Freuding and Wassermann have been subjected to testing. The values of the efficiency of all aspirators turned out to be below the American Threshold Limit Value TLV-TWA (Threshold Limit Value-Time Weighted Average) of 0.5 mg/m3 for chromium. The strict TLV-TWA-value of 0.05 mg/m3 for cobalt it also--with the exception of the Freuding-aspirator A 84 with aspiration-tube--not exceeded.

Air Pollutants, Occupational↗