Botox Shots Help Kids With Cerebral Palsy

February 8, 2006 08:41:57 PM PST

In people with cerebral palsy, the brain loses the ability to moderate the activity of contracting muscles, which are stronger than muscles that produce extension, explained pediatric neurologist Dr. Pedro Weisleder, of Duke Children's Hospital in Durham, N.C. Using Botox to partially paralyze the stronger muscles gives cerebral palsy patients an opportunity to stretch and strengthen the weaker muscles.

The Botox is injected into a child's stronger muscles during an outpatient visit and the partially paralyzing effect on these muscles generally lasts about three months. During that time, the children work with a physical therapist to stretch and strengthen their weaker muscles, Weisleder said.

The long-term goal of this combined Botox/physical therapy treatment is to achieve better muscle strength balance, which may help restore normal muscle function, he said.

Not every cerebral palsy patient will benefit from this approach and the amount of Botox a child can receive at each visit is limited by their body size, Weisleder said.

More information

The Nemours Foundation has more about cerebral palsy.

Diabetics' Hearts Fueled by Fats

February 8, 2006 08:41:57 PM PST

A team at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis compared the heart function of 11 type 1 diabetics and 11 non-diabetics. They found that the cardiac muscle of people with diabetes is heavily dependent on fat for energy and relies very little on the usual energy source, glucose (sugar).

In comparison, the heart muscle of people without diabetes does not have a strong preference for fat and can use either glucose or fat as a fuel source, depending on the person's blood composition, hormone levels or how hard their heart is working.

"The diabetic heart's overdependence on fat could partly explain why diabetic patients suffer more pronounced manifestations of coronary artery disease," study senior author Dr. Robert J. Gropler, a professor of radiology, medicine and biomedical engineering, said in a prepared statement.

"The heart needs to use much more oxygen to metabolize fats than glucose, making the diabetic heart more sensitive to drops in oxygen levels that occur with coronary artery blockage," said Gropler, who is also director of the cardiovascular imaging laboratory at the Mallinckrodt Institute of Radiology at the School of Medicine.

"We believe it's not enough to control blood glucose in diabetes. You also have to target fat delivery to the heart. If you decrease fat delivery through a combination of diet, exercise and drugs, you'll improve the heart's ability to use other energy sources, which will improve health," he said.

The findings are currently online and appear in the February 7 print issue of the Journal of the American College of Cardiology.

And the same researchers are now involved in a larger study of heart muscle metabolism in type 2 diabetics. Patients in the study will be divided into two groups with one group receiving standard therapies to normalize blood glucose levels and the other group receiving additional therapies designed to decrease the amount of fat in the blood.

The study is still recruiting patients, and people with type 2 diabetes who would like to participate can call 314-362-8608.

More information

The U.S. National Diabetes Information Clearinghouse has more about diabetes, heart disease and stroke.