spinal polio

(noun)

Spinal polio is characterized by asymmetric paralysis that most often involves the legs.

Related Terms

Examples of spinal polio in the following topics:

  • Poliomyelitis

    • Spinal polio is the most common form, characterized by asymmetric paralysis that most often involves the legs .
    • Bulbar polio leads to weakness of muscles innervated by cranial nerves.
    • Bulbospinal polio is a combination of bulbar and spinal paralysis.
    • Although major polio epidemics were unknown before the late 19th century, polio was one of the most dreaded childhood diseases of the 20th century.
    • Developed in the 1950s, polio vaccines are credited with reducing the global number of polio cases per year from many hundreds of thousands to today under a thousand.

  • West Nile Virus

    • West Nile meningitis, which causes inflammation of the meninges (the protective membranes that cover the brain and spinal cord)
    • West Nile poliomyelitis (spinal cord inflammation, which results in a syndrome similar to polio that may cause acute flaccid paralysis).

  • The Salk Vaccine Field Trial

    • The Salk polio vaccine field trial incorporated a double blind placebo control methodolgy to determine the effectiveness of the vaccine.
    • The Salk polio vaccine field trials constitute one of the most famous and one of the largest statistical studies ever conducted.
    • The injected Salk vaccine confers IgG-mediated immunity in the bloodstream, which prevents polio infection from progressing to viremia and protects the motor neurons, thus eliminating the risk of bulbar polio and post-polio syndrome.
    • Roosevelt, whose paralysis was generally believed to have been caused by polio).
    • In the U.S, following a mass immunization campaign promoted by the March of Dimes, the annual number of polio cases fell from 35,000 in 1953 to 5,600 by 1957.

  • Reticular Formation

    • Somatic motor control - Some motor neurons send their axons to the reticular formation nuclei, giving rise to the reticulospinal tracts of the spinal cord.
    • The nerve fibers in these pathways act in the spinal cord to block the transmission of some pain signals to the brain.
    • Lesions in the reticular formation have been found in the brains of people who have post-polio syndrome.

  • Spinal Cord

    • The spinal cord also controls motor reflexes.
    • In the United States, there around 10,000 spinal cord injuries each year.
    • Because the spinal cord is the information superhighway connecting the brain with the body, damage to the spinal cord can lead to paralysis.
    • The extent of the paralysis depends on the location of the injury along the spinal cord and whether the spinal cord was completely severed.
    • For example, if the spinal cord is damaged at the level of the neck, it can cause paralysis from the neck down, whereas damage to the spinal column further down may limit paralysis to the legs.

  • Overview of the Spinal Cord

    • A lumbar puncture (spinal tap) is an example of a medical procedure that directly targets the spinal cord.
    • The spinal cord is divided into cervical, thoracic, and lumbar regions.
    • The spinal nerves of the thoracic region supply the thorax and abdomen.
    • Thirty-one pairs of spinal nerves (sensory and motor) branch from the human spinal cord.
    • The spinal nerve emerges from the spinal column through the opening (intervertebral foramen) between adjacent vertebrae.

  • Spinal Cord Trauma

    • A spinal cord injury (SCI) refers to any injury to the spinal cord that is caused by trauma and not disease.
    • A spinal cord injury (SCI) refers to any injury to the spinal cord that is caused by trauma instead of disease.
    • The American Spinal Injury Association (ASIA) first published an international classification of spinal cord injury in 1982, called the International Standards for Neurological and Functional Classification of Spinal Cord Injury.
    • An incomplete spinal cord injury involves preservation of motor or sensory function below the level of injury in the spinal cord.
    • Autonomic dysreflexia (AD) occurs most often in spinal cord-injured individuals with spinal lesions above the T6 spinal cord level, although, it has been known to occur in patients with a lesion as low as T10.

  • Branches of Spinal Nerves

    • The spinal nerves branch into the dorsal ramus, ventral ramus, the meningeal branches, and the rami communicantes.
    • Nerves emerging from a plexus contain fibers from various spinal nerves, which are now carried together to some target location.
    • The meningeal branches (recurrent meningeal or sinuvertebral nerves): These branch from the spinal nerve and re-enter the intervertebral foramen to serve the ligaments, dura, blood vessels, intervertebral discs, facet joints, and periosteum of the vertebrae.
    • This diagram depicts the course and branches of a typical thoracic spinal nerve.

  • Vaccines and Immunity

    • Polio was one disease that represented a milestone in the use of vaccines.
    • The success of the polio vaccine paved the way for the routine dispensation of childhood vaccines against measles, mumps, rubella, chickenpox, and other diseases.
    • This type of scenario happened as recently as 2007 in Nigeria where mutations in a polio vaccine led to an epidemic of polio in that country.

  • Spinal Cord Grey Matter and Spinal Roots

    • The length of the spinal cord is much shorter than the length of the bony spinal column.
    • The spinal cord is compressed dorsoventrally, giving it an elliptical shape .
    • Each segment of the spinal cord is associated with a pair of ganglia, called dorsal root ganglia, which are situated just outside of the spinal cord.
    • Hence, the spinal ganglia can be regarded as grey matter of the spinal cord that became translocated to the periphery.
    • Describe the grey matter and spinal roots of the spinal cord