azacosterol and Peripheral-Nervous-System-Diseases

We report the occurrence of neurologic complications in 23 patients who underwent gastric restriction surgery for the treatment of morbid obesity. Complications occurred 3 to 20 months after surgery. All the patients had had protracted vomiting for the first 3 months after the operation. The following syndromes were found: chronic or subacute symmetric polyneuropathy (12 patients), acute severe polyneuropathy (1 patient), burning feet syndrome (2 patients), meralgia paresthetica (3 patients), myotonic syndrome (1 patient), posterolateral myelopathy (2 patients), and Wernicke-Korsakoff encephalopathy (2 patients). The patients suffering from burning feet syndrome and those with Wernicke-Korsakoff encephalopathy showed a clear improvement after parenteral thiamine treatment. As to the rest of the patients, the occurrence of the complications seems to be linked to nutritional causes, although no such deficiencies were detected.

Topics: Adult; Azacosterol; Female; Humans; Male; Middle Aged; Myotonia; Obesity, Morbid; Peripheral Nervous System Diseases; Postoperative Complications; Stomach; Wernicke Encephalopathy

In both fast and slow muscles of rats treated with 20--25 diazacholesterol there were qualitative alterations, such as changes of fiber outlines, numerous moth-eaten fibers and rare ring fibers. In addition there were generally larger groups of Type I and intermediate fibers than in normal controls ("type-grouping" tendency) in the preparations for oxidative enzymes in the extensor digitorum longus (EDL) of myotonic animals. Quantitative evaluations of EDL and soleus of myotonic rats revealed moderate hypothrophy of Type I and Type II fibers with an increase in the numbers of Type I and of Type III fibers in the EDL and a significant decrease of the nondominant fibers in the soleus muscle. The data are discussed in the light of a neurally mediated and/or direct action of the drug on the muscle fiber.

Topics: Animals; Azacosterol; Female; Mitochondria, Muscle; Muscles; Myotonia; Peripheral Nervous System Diseases; Rats; Staining and Labeling