ROLE OF EPIDURAL MEDICATION IN LUMBOSCIATIC SYNDROME

Role of epidural medication through caudal route was studied in 109 patients having lumbago with or without sciatica to highlight the value of this mode of treatment which relieved symptoms in more than 70% of cases without hospitalisation and without being off work for long periods as in usual methods of conservative treatment.KEY WORDS: Epidural medication, Backache, Lumbago, Sciatica     

Acrodysostosis syndrome

A case of a 7-year-old boy who presented with a pontine space occupying lesion and had typical findings of acrodysostosis is presented. His 9-year-old sister and 5-year-old brother also showed similar skeletal features. His mother had short stature and a similar facial and limb features but normal radiographs, whereas the father had short stature but normal limbs and face. The pedigree of this family is suggestive of a syndrome caused by a dominant gene. The rarity of this disorder with an interesting pedigree chart prompted us to present this case and highlight the important diagnostic features and inheritance of this condition.     

Management of zygomatic complex fracture in armed forces

Introduction: The Armed Forces personnel are exposed to various kinds of injuries due to the nature of their duties. Increase in motorized population without taking protective measures and rise in violence has contributed towards maxillofacial injuries. The aim of this study was to determine the incidence, aetiology and management of injuries resulting in fracture of the Zygomatic complex in Armed Forces personnel and their families.     

Spectral features control temporal plasticity in auditory cortex.

Cortical responses are adjusted and optimized throughout life to meet changing behavioral demands and to compensate for peripheral damage. The cholinergic nucleus basalis (NB) gates cortical plasticity and focuses learning on behaviorally meaningful stimuli. By systematically varying the acoustic parameters of the sound paired with NB activation, we have previously shown that tone frequency and amplitude modulation rate alter the topography and selectivity of frequency tuning in primary auditory cortex. This result suggests that network-level rules operate in the cortex to guide reorganization based on specific features of the sensory input associated with NB activity. This report summarizes recent evidence that temporal response properties of cortical neurons are influenced by the spectral characteristics of sounds associated with cholinergic modulation. For example, repeated pairing of a spectrally complex (ripple) stimulus decreased the minimum response latency for the ripple, but lengthened the minimum latency for tones. Pairing a rapid train of tones with NB activation only increased the maximum following rate of cortical neurons when the carrier frequency of each train was randomly varied. These results suggest that spectral and temporal parameters of acoustic experiences interact to shape spectrotemporal selectivity in the cortex. Additional experiments with more complex stimuli are needed to clarify how the cortex learns natural sounds such as speech.     

Architecture and frontal cortical connections of the premotor cortex (area 6) in the rhesus monkey

The premotor cortex (area 6) has several architectonic sectors that can be delineated on the basis of cytoarchitectonic and myeloarchitectonic features. Area 6 may be broadly subdivided into a dorsal and a ventral sector at the spur of the arcuate sulcus. Dorsal 6 lacks a granular layer IV, but ventral 6 has an emergent layer IV that separates laminae III and V. Dorsal 6 has a higher myelin content than ventral 6. Dorsal area 6 is further subdivided into a caudal and a rostral sector on the basis of the presence of large pyramidal cells in the caudal but not in the rostral sector. The rostral sector of area 6 can be subdivided into a medial region distinguished from a more laterally situated area by the presence of more compact and darkly stained cells in layers III and V. Ventral area 6 can be subdivided into an upper and lower division. The upper part has more prominent pyramidal cells in layers III and V, and a better developed outer Baillarger band and vertical plexus than the lower division. The efferent and afferent connections of area 6 were studied with anterograde and retrograde tracers. The frontal connections of dorsal area 6 are restricted to neighboring dorsal frontal regions. Only the caudal sector of dorsal area 6 is connected with the motor cortex. In contrast, ventral area 6 is not only connected with the prefrontal cortex, but also directly with the motor cortex, the parainsular gustatory area, and with somatosensory areas in the frontal operculum. The widespread connections of ventral area 6 may be related to the specialization of the head, neck, and face structures that are represented ventrally within the premotor cortex.