Type 1 diabetes mellitus (T1DM) is associated with a peripheral neuropathy that reduces nerve conduction velocity. This may impair high motor-unit discharge frequencies (MUDF), decrease muscle activation, and curtail the ability to sustain repetitive contractile tasks. We examined (1) whether MUDF, the contractile properties of the knee extensors, and the conduction velocity of persons with T1DM differed from controls; (2) whether persons with T1DM can maintain adequate MUDF during a fatigue protocol; and (3) the relationship between these parameters and impaired glycemic control. We studied male and female subjects with T1DM and controls matched for age, height, weight, and gender. Single motor unit recordings were made from vastus lateralis during maximal and submaximal contractions and during a fatigue protocol. Glycemic control was assessed from blood glucose concentration and glycosylated hemoglobin (HbA1c). Control femoral conduction velocities were comparable to literature values and those of the T1DM subjects were slower. These values correlated with plasma glucose and HbA1c. T1DM subjects fatigued 45% sooner than controls, and time to fatigue and conduction velocity were correlated (r = 0.54, P < 0.05). Discharge frequencies tended to be slower during 50% maximal voluntary contractile force in the T1DM subjects at task failure. Persons with T1DM had slower conduction velocities and lower MUDF than their controls, which apparently leads to impaired activation of muscle and decreased endurance during isometric fatigue.

In this paper a comparison was established from the clinical, neurological, psychological, and laboratory viewpoints, between the effects on the cental nervous system of a vasodilating medication, cinnarizine, currently accepted as effective, and buflomedil, a medicine recently introduced, which has shown good promise in the treatment of peripheral vascular diseases. During a 180-day period, 37 patients suffering from vascular cerebral insufficiency, aged between 43 and 86 years, were treated. The patients were randomized into two groups, each group receiving one of the treatments in a double-blind study. All patients were periodically administered clinical and neurological tests, and the Benton Test for visuo retention through which the intellectual level, recent memory, and visuo-motor coordination were examined. In addition, the patients were given a series of laboratory toxicity tests to ascertain the safety of the treatment. On completion of the study all data submitted to a statistical analysis. After studying the results, the authors reached the conclusion that both treatments were beneficial; when corresponding doses were used, buflomedil showed better results by improving the reasoning and the remote memory, and in the Benton test, better results in improving visuo-motor coordination were demonstrated by statistical analysis. Laboratory tests did not reveal any changes except in the serum cholesterol level, which decreased significantly in those patients who took buflomedil.

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