Muscular-tonic syndrome
Muscular-tonic syndrome is a serious problem of our time. By this syndrome is meant a decrease in muscle tone. This is not an ordinary lack of physical fitness, insufficient training of the muscular system. This pathology, the essence of which is reduced to a progressive decrease in muscle tone.
Epidemiology
According to statistics, in most cases, the reason for the decrease in muscle tone is a decrease in the tone that occurs as a result of violations of peripheral parts. This may be a violation of automatism and contractility of nerve fibers, muscle tissue (65% of cases). In the remaining 35% of cases, the pathogenesis is based on a disruption of the activity of the corresponding parts of the brain.
Congenital pathologies are observed in 40% of cases, acquired - in 60% of cases. Can be treated in 55% of cases. In other cases, the disease progresses, up to disability. In 65% of cases, pain is observed. In 25% of cases, a convulsive syndrome also joins.
Causes of the muscular-tonic syndrome
There can be many reasons. They can be conditionally divided into two groups - congenital and acquired. Congenital pathologies are genetically determined. They are deviations in the genotype, which are transmitted from generation to generation, and cause an inborn decline in tone.
As for the acquired pathologies - it can be trauma, damage to muscles, membranes, skin. Quite often the cause is hypothermia, nervous disorders. Decreased tone can be caused by a violation of the normal state of the muscles, a violation of nerve conduction, or a disruption in the normal functioning of the cerebral cortex, and other relevant areas of the brain that are responsible for movement, impaired tissue conductivity.
The cause may be infection of the brain and the conductive pathways, including neurosyphilis, meningitis, in which the brain is affected respectively, pale treponema, meningococci. An inflammatory process can develop.
Risk factors
People at risk of getting nervous and hormonal regulation prevail, who have muscle tone lowering, and normal motor activity (towards decrease) are also at risk. Also, the risk increases significantly in people who suffer from pathology of the musculoskeletal system, disorders of the nervous system, the psyche. Increased risk in people prone to obesity, with metabolic disorders, with violations of vascular tone. Also, people who suffer from vitamin deficiency, insufficiency of minerals who are often exposed to intoxication are at risk.
Pathogenesis
At the heart of pathogenesis is a violation of muscle tone, nervous regulation, conduction of the nerve tissue, as well as contractility of muscle fibers. It is also worth noting that quite often the pathogenesis is associated with disorders of the regulating brain regions, in which the formation or normal conduct of nerve impulses from the respective head regions to the controlled areas is disrupted, and they act directly.
Symptoms of the muscular-tonic syndrome
Early manifestations are that a person becomes more difficult to move. Muscles lose their tone: they can be softer, saggy, and as a result they are not capable of contractile activity. All this limits the movements, making them less controllable and uncoordinated. Especially well it is shown at disturbance of a tonus of extremities: an arm or a leg or foot it is impossible to lift, or to move. Further progression of the disease may result in disability.
For more information on the symptoms, forms and stages of the muscular-tonic syndrome, see this article .
Complications and consequences
There are many different consequences. In the absence of adequate treatment, the muscle-tonic syndrome always progresses and ends with paralysis, disability. If you treat and adhere to all the recommendations of a doctor, lead an active lifestyle, treat treatment in a holistic way, you can fully recover.
Diagnostics of the muscular-tonic syndrome
The diagnosis is based on the definition of the state of the muscles, their tone, reactivity. The degree of irritability and conductivity of the nervous system is also checked. If you have any symptoms that directly or indirectly indicate a decrease in muscle tone, you need to see a doctor as soon as possible. It can be a surgeon, a traumatologist, a vertebrologist.
As a last resort, the therapist who will direct to the necessary experts can help or assist, will appoint inspection. Laboratory, instrumental methods of research are used. An important place is given to differential diagnosis. Also the main reflexes are checked, examination is conducted, clinical methods of research, such as palpation, percussion, auscultation are applied. Important information can give functional tests.
Analyzes
Of laboratory tests, most often used methods such as clinical analysis of blood, urine. Even an analysis of stool can be informative. In some cases, with suspected spinal cord injury, the development of cerebrospinal fluid infection, it may be necessary to study the cerebrospinal fluid. The fence is performed during the puncture (most often lumbar).
If bacterial infection is suspected, bacteriological and microbiological examination (seeding), microbiocenosis analysis, dysbacteriosis, microbiological screening are carried out. In some cases, studies may be required to determine tumor markers, as well as factors of the inflammatory, rheumatic process, autoimmune aggression. If a virus or parasitic infection is suspected, a mycological, microbiological or virological examination is performed.
Instrumental diagnostics
The main instrumental methods are ultrasound, X-ray methods, electromyography, which allows you to record the intensity and strength of muscle contractions. Also used are electroneurography, somnographic methods, which make it possible to determine the electrical activity of the nervous system. The electroencephalogram allows you to fix the electrical activity of the brain.
Differential diagnosis
It is based on the formulation of a differential diagnosis, the essence of which is the need to differentiate the signs of similar diseases and syndromes. So, first of all it is important to differentiate the disturbances in the activity of the nervous system from violations of activity and irritability of the muscle fiber. Also at the heart of the pathology may lie the usual decrease in muscle tone. Then it is necessary to differentiate the pathology of nervous and muscular conduction from the characteristic disorders of the brain and its individual parts. It is also important to differentiate this syndrome from other diseases that have similar manifestations.
Encephalopathy
This pathology is associated with impaired electrical activity of the brain, in which there is a disturbance of circulatory processes, and, first of all, circulation of blood in the brain. The essence of the processes is roughly the same: first, the impulse is perceived by the receptors, then it is transmitted to the brain via the afferent nerve fibers. If the development of encephalopathy occurs, there is a disruption in the activity of the brain departments responsible for processing the information received, as well as the circulatory processes. As a result, an attenuated, or distorted, nerve impulse enters the efferent pathways, which leads to a violation of the muscle tone.
Myasthenia gravis
It is a genetic pathology, which is caused by genetic disorders of the structure and function of muscles, as well as their tone. A characteristic feature of myasthenia gravis is the progressive decrease in muscle tone, which is based on the degeneration of muscle fibers, the reduction of reserve nutrients in the cell and tissues. It is accompanied not only by a decrease in tone, but also by pain syndrome, seizures and spasms.
Myofascial syndrome
At the heart of pathogenesis is a violation of the muscle tone and normal functional state of the fascia (connective tissue envelope surrounding the muscle). Most often, myofascial syndrome is a consequence of a trauma or inflammatory process. Quite often it occurs in athletes, whose muscles are subjected to increased physical exertion. Often observed with sudden movements, overload of the muscular system.
Spondyloarthrosis
Spondylarthrosis means a degenerative-dystrophic disorder of a polyethological nature. At the heart of the pathogenesis of spondylarthrosis is the primary lesion of the articular cartilage. Subsequently, the subchondral and metaphyseal layers of the bone are involved in the pathological process. Further progression of the disease is accompanied by damage to the synovial membrane, ligaments, muscles. In this case, there are clearly expressed signs of osteophyte formation, and pain syndrome appears, movements in the joint are sharply limited. It ends with loss of mobility of the joint.
Muscular dystrophy
It is characterized by dystrophic processes in the muscular system, in which there is a decrease in reserve nutrients in the muscle tissue, which entails a violation of trophism. Accordingly, the muscle does not receive the necessary amount of nutrients, oxygen, as well as delayed metabolic products and carbon dioxide. The intoxication of muscle tissue is increasing, the supplies of nutrients and oxygen continue to be depleted. With muscular dystrophy , the degradation of the basic structural elements of the muscle fiber is gradually occurring, the muscle is destroyed, and its functional activity is reduced. The process is usually irreversible.
Treatment of the muscular-tonic syndrome
How to remove the muscle-tonic syndrome? This syndrome is effectively removed by massage. At the heart of the massage is a thorough elaboration of the muscles, aimed at relaxing the stressed areas and increasing the tone of relaxed, atonic sites. It is important to follow the sequence of the massage: first, light strokes are performed. Then they turn into more rigid methods of squeezing, followed by rubbing, which allows the muscles to warm up well and prepare them for further procedures - kneading. It is kneading is considered the main procedure of massage, which allows you to maximally work out the muscles, stretch them. The kneading should take an average of 15 minutes. After that, you should lower the tempo, then go back to squeezing, then - to light strokes with vibration techniques. At this time, you can apply the elements of active-passive gymnastics. Work follows the zone with reduced tone, as well as nearby areas.
About other methods of treatment of muscular-tonic syndrome read in this article .
Prevention
The basis of prevention is a sufficient level of motor activity - this is the main and basic preventive measure. It is also important to eat right, to include in the diet the necessary amount of vitamin, minerals, regularly undergo preventive examinations, if necessary - to be treated promptly. In addition, with a tendency to congenital, genetically determined tone disorders, it is important to undergo genetic screening and further medico-biological counseling.
Forecast
It's hard to say unequivocally. This can only be done by a doctor, since it is important to know the cause of the pathology. For example, if the cause was a violation of muscle nutrition, it is enough to pick up vitamins, change the nutrition, pick up the correct motor mode, and the tone will restore itself. There are cases, for example, with a congenital genetic abnormality, when treatment does not work. Then you can expect disability.
Muscular-tonic syndrome and the army
Usually the decision on the suitability for service in the army is taken by the commission. Usually a young man is recognized as "not fit" for the army, since a pronounced muscular-tonic syndrome does not allow him to perform the required physical exertion. Nevertheless, each individual case is treated strictly individually. It all depends on the severity of the disease, its severity, its flow characteristics. There are cases when people with similar pathologies were drafted into the army.
Medical expert editor
Portnov Alexey Alexandrovich
Education: Kiev National Medical University. A.A. Bogomolets, Specialty - "General Medicine"
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Anyone who has at least once encountered small seals in the muscles that bring unbearable pain when you press them, of course, knows what the myofascial syndrome is, and will not advise anyone to encounter this in his life.