VOLUNTARY innervation of the normal striated musculature raises muscle temperature in approximate proportion to the performed external work.1 Disturbances of skeletal muscle innervation have been found by electromyographic studies in patients with clinical signs of a pyramidal tract lesion or paralysis agitans. The abnormal innervation patterns in these two clinical states may be associated with alterations in temperature of skeletal muscle. This problem has been investigated in a group of subjects without neuromuscular abnormality and patients with chronic unilateral cerebral hemiplegia or paralysis agitans syndrome.
TECHNIC
Temperature measurements were made in 57 experiments on 52 subjects, 18 of whom served as normal controls. The normal controls were ward patients at the Neurological Institute who showed no evidence of neuromuscular abnormality of the upper extremities by history, clinical examination and laboratory tests. Pertinent data on the subjects in the disease groups are given in tables 1 and 2. Standard thermoelectric