Aktuelle Probleme der Muskelpathologie

Local sites of low accommodation of peripheral motor axons and the pathogenesis of fasciculation in amyotrophic lateral sclerosis

“…Since the important contributions of Wohlfart (26,27) and Coers (28) it has been generally accepted that collateral regeneration from residual motor fibres is important in amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, being responsible for enlarged motor unit territory and "giant" motor unit action potentials but in recent years it has been assumed that the collateral sprouting occurs from the intramuscular part of the nerve fibre which is the common site in partial denervation (ie loss of some motor fibres with survival of others passing to the same muscle) as described by Edds (29). The important observation by Wohlfart (27) was that in amyotrophic lateral sclerosis there is considerable excess of collateral branches from nodes of Ranvier at all levels of surviving motor neurones from the anterior horn to the intramuscular part of the axon and its terminal knob.…”