Daisuke Yamamoto1, Tomihiro Imai2, Emiko Tsuda1, Takayoshi Hozuki3, Rika Yamauchi4, Shin Hisahara1, Jun Kawamata1, Shun Shimohama1. 1. Department of Neurology, Sapporo Medical University School of Medicine, Sapporo, Japan. 2. Department of Occupational Therapy, Sapporo Medical University School of Health Sciences, Sapporo, Japan. Electronic address: toimai@sapmed.ac.jp. 3. Department of Neurology, Sapporo Shirakabadai Hospital, Sapporo, Japan. 4. Department of Neurology, Sunagawa City Medical Center, Sunagawa, Japan.
Abstract
OBJECTIVE: The ice-pack test is a convenient diagnostic testing procedure for myasthenia gravis (MG). We investigated the underlying mechanism of the ice-pack test performed on bilateral masseters. METHODS: We performed trigeminal repetitive nerve stimulation (RNS), excitation-contraction (E-C) coupling assessment (Imai's method) and bite force measurement before and after cooling of the masseters in MG patients and normal controls. After placing the ice-pack on the masseters for 3min, serial recordings of the three tests were performed at various time intervals during 10min after cooling. RESULTS: The bite force increased significantly after cooling in ice-pack-positive MG patients. The acceleration and acceleration ratio (acceleration at a given time to baseline acceleration) of jaw movement increased significantly after cooling of the masseters in ice-pack-positive MG patients compared to ice-pack-negative patients and normal controls. The prolonged effect of cooling continued until the end of recording even though decremental response to RNS had returned to baseline value. CONCLUSIONS: Cooling of myasthenic muscle may induce two effects. One is relatively short effect on electrical synaptic transmission at the endplate, and another is prolonged effect on E-C coupling in the muscle. SIGNIFICANCE: The ice-pack test induces a prolonged effect of ameliorating impaired E-C coupling in MG.
OBJECTIVE: The ice-pack test is a convenient diagnostic testing procedure for myasthenia gravis (MG). We investigated the underlying mechanism of the ice-pack test performed on bilateral masseters. METHODS: We performed trigeminal repetitive nerve stimulation (RNS), excitation-contraction (E-C) coupling assessment (Imai's method) and bite force measurement before and after cooling of the masseters in MGpatients and normal controls. After placing the ice-pack on the masseters for 3min, serial recordings of the three tests were performed at various time intervals during 10min after cooling. RESULTS: The bite force increased significantly after cooling in ice-pack-positive MGpatients. The acceleration and acceleration ratio (acceleration at a given time to baseline acceleration) of jaw movement increased significantly after cooling of the masseters in ice-pack-positive MGpatients compared to ice-pack-negative patients and normal controls. The prolonged effect of cooling continued until the end of recording even though decremental response to RNS had returned to baseline value. CONCLUSIONS: Cooling of myasthenic muscle may induce two effects. One is relatively short effect on electrical synaptic transmission at the endplate, and another is prolonged effect on E-C coupling in the muscle. SIGNIFICANCE: The ice-pack test induces a prolonged effect of ameliorating impaired E-C coupling in MG.