The observation that patients with multiple sclerosis may show marked improvement in various symptomatic phenomena when given vasodilating drugs has previously been reported.1-3 The phenomenon has been designated "pharmacological reduction of abnormality." Often it is transient, often lasting; its therapeutic implications are a separate problem altogether. More recently, reactivation of absent abdominal reflexes with similar drugs was observed (visually) in 10 cases by one of us (R. M. B.).
In this study, a standard method of electronically recording the abdominal reflexes has been developed; a normal control pattern is recognized, and patients with known multiple sclerosis have been tested before and after the administration of various drugs.
Method and Procedure
An electrocardiograph machine (Edin)* was utilized to amplify and record the electrical changes accompanying the superficial abdominal reflexes. This proved to be simple in application and dependable, and correlated well with visual observation of reflex contractions.Four of the