Electrodiagnostic changes in muscles after tetanus toxin

• Published in: Experimental neurology Vol. 8; no. 2; pp. 182 - 194
• Main Authors: Prabhu, Venkatray G, Oester, Y.T
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Elsevier Inc 01.01.1963
• ISSN: 0014-4886; 1090-2430
• DOI: 10.1016/0014-4886(63)90043-8

Local tetanus was produced in the tibialis anterior muscles of rabbits by a single intramuscular injection of tetanus toxin (200 guinea-pig MLD). Electrodiagnostic data collected from the muscles of these rabbits were compared with similar data from the tibialis anterior muscles of another group of rabbits denervated by nerve section. Strength-duration curves in both groups of muscle exhibited a pronounced sharp slope. The curves were complex, containing discontinuities both in the initial and recovery stages. Chronaxie values, rheobase values, and responses to repetitive stimulation in advanced local tetanus were comparable to those in chronic denervation. All these electrodiagnostic findings from muscles in local tetanus, along with the electromyographic findings reported elsewhere, indicate that muscle treated with local injection of tetanus toxin undergoes a change which by these criteria is not distinguished from the same changes in muscle denervated by nerve section.