Facilitation of oral sensitivity by electrical stimulation of the faucial pillars

Dysphagia is common in neurological disease. However, our understanding of swallowing and its central nervous control is limited. Sensory information plays a vital role in the initiation of the swallowing reflex and is often reduced in stroke patients. We hypothesized that the sensitivity threshold of the anterior faucial pillar could be facilitated by either electrical stimulation (ES) or taste and smell information. The sensitivity threshold was measured by ES in the anterior faucial pillar region. The measurement was repeated 5 min after baseline. Thirty minutes after baseline, the participants underwent a test for taste and smell. Immediately after the test, the ES was repeated. Thirty healthy volunteers with a mean age of 275.1 participated in the trial. Mean sensitivity threshold at baseline was 1.9 +/- 0.59 mA. The values 5 min after baseline (1.74 +/- 0.56 mA, p=0.027) and 30 min after baseline (1.67 +/- 0.58 mA, p=0.011) were significantly lower compared to the baseline, but there was no difference between the latter (p=0.321). After 5 min, a potentially facilitating effect was found on oral sensitivity by ES of the faucial pillar area. Thirty minutes later, this effect was still present. Trial registration Clinicaltrials.gov, NCT03240965. Registered 7th August 2017-https://clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT03240965

Antinuclear antibodies define a subgroup of paraneoplastic neuropathies: clinical and immunological data

Objective: Paraneoplastic neuropathy is a clinical and immunological heterogeneous disorder and attempts have been made to classify subgroups of this disease. Only 30–50% of the clinical defined cases have antineuronal antibodies. Methods: The clinical and immunological features of 36 patients with paraneoplastic neuropathy from the authors' database were analysed including the type and course of the neuropathy, associated tumours, and the presence of antineuronal and other autoantibodies. Results: Antineuronal antibodies were detected in 17/36 patients (47%) and anti-Hu was the most frequent antineuronal antibody. Nine patients had high titre antinuclear antibodies (ANA, median titre 1/1000) without antineuronal antibodies. ANA reactivities were different in most patients. Comparison of the ANA positive and ANA negative patients revealed that ANA positive paraneoplastic neuropathy is more frequently associated with breast cancer but is not associated with lung cancer (p<0.05). The main clinical type in these patients was sensorimotor neuropathy. No ANA positive patient had central nervous system involvement. Although the Rankin score at the time of diagnosis was not different, the functional outcome in ANA positive patients was better than in ANA negative patients (p<0.05). Conclusions: Paraneoplastic neuropathy is a heterogeneous disorder. ANA may define a subgroup of paraneoplastic neuropathy with different clinical and immunological features and may be related to better prognosis of the neuropathic symptoms