Study of "Post-Polio Syndrome"

Launched by NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF NEUROLOGICAL DISORDERS AND STROKE (NINDS) · Nov 3, 1999

Keywords

ClinConnect Summary

"Post-polio syndrome" defines the new muscle weaknesses and the variety of new difficulties with daily living that some patients experience 25-35 years after maximum recovery from acute paralytic poliomyelitis. The new weakness appears to be due to disintegration of the distal nerve terminals of the surviving motor neurons whose soma has been stressed for years to maintain large motor units via excessive distal sprouting. The factors responsible for the disintegration of axonal sprouts and manifestation of the new weakness and fatigue are unknown. Whether an immune response to the polioviru...

Gender

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Eligibility criteria

• • INCLUSION CRITERIA
• • Patients with prior history of a well documented acute paralytic poliomyelitis with or without development of new neuromuscular symptoms after a minimum of 15 years from the acute illness will be studied.
• • Patients will be screened in the outpatient clinic and will be studied as inpatients (or, if stable, as outpatients) for three day stay.
• • Severly disabled patients with unstable respiratory function or those who require intensive care nursing or respiratory assistance will be excluded from the study.