This Article  • References  • Full text PDF  • Reply to article  • Send to a friend  • Save in My Folder  • Save to citation manager  • Permissions  Citing Articles  • Citation map  • Citing articles on HighWire  • Contact me when this article is cited  Related Content  • Similar articles in this journal  Social Bookmarking   What's this?

Ultrastructural Study of the Motor End-Plates

Nobuyoshi Fukuhara, MD; Masaharu Takamori, MD; Ludwig Gutmann, MD; Shi-Ming Chou, MD, PhD

Arch Neurol. 1972;27(1):67-78.

Abstract
Sixty-three motor end-plates of the biopsied muscle fibers from four patients with Eaton-Lambert myasthenic syndrome were studied. Ultrastructural findings were characterized by (1) demyelination and remyelination of the preterminal intramuscular nerves; (2) degeneration and atrophy of the terminal axons; (3) widened junctional plates; (4) numerous elongated, widened, and irregularly ramified secondary synaptic clefts with vesicles subjacent to the postsynaptic membrane; and (5) "megaconial" mitochondria in the muscle fibers. The characteristic changes of the secondary synaptic clefts in Eaton-Lambert syndrome are thought to have resulted from repeated degeneration and regeneration of the terminal axons.

Author Affiliations
Morgantown, WVa

From the departments of pathology (neuropathology) (Dr. Chou) and neurology (Drs. Fukuhara, Takamori, and Gutmann), West Virginia University, Morgantown, WVa. Dr. Fukuhara is now with the Department of Neurology, Brain Research Institute, Niigata University, Niigata, Japan.

Footnotes
Accepted for publication Feb 24, 1972.

Reprint requests to Department of Pathology (Neuropathology), West Virginia University School of Medicine, Morgantown, WVa 26506 (Dr. Chou).

CiteULike    Connotea    Del.icio.us    Digg    Reddit    Technorati    Twitter     What's this?

THIS ARTICLE HAS BEEN CITED BY OTHER ARTICLES

Eaton-Lambert Syndrome in a 9-Year-Old Girl
Chelmicka-Schorr et al.
Arch Neurol 1979;36:572-574.
ABSTRACT