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Contents 1 Hello 2 Connexin 3 Paramyotonia congenita 4 Sumwun needz tuu lern tuu spel 5 Try dhis tuul 6 Suggestion in Figure 7 BFNC 7.1 Action potential

[edit] Hello

Thanks for your contributions to Wikipedia. I agree that it would be nice if Sodium ion channel had a good image of a channel. I am not a great illustrator, but if you have identified some existing images, I could try to transform them into GFDL for the article. Use the "email this user" link at my user page. --JWSchmidt 22:36, 24 July 2006 (UTC)

Welcome from your fellow neuro program nerd. --Chinasaur 02:59, 9 August 2006 (UTC)

And hello from another neuro program nerd (and former roommate). Epugachev 04:45, 5 September 2006 (UTC)

Hello back at you both...it's a small internet --Dpryan 19:55, 13 September 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Connexin

Hi Dpryan, thanks for the heads up. Go ahead and remove the categorization. Peace, delldot | talk 21:45, 8 August 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Paramyotonia congenita

You have done a good job on this article, I've rated it as B-class and made some suggestions on the Talk page. It could be submitted for GA status with those changes. --apers0n 13:19, 2 October 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Sumwun needz tuu lern tuu spel

I look at it as a lot of ded peepl that never traid spelling literally. "Jee" as a name for a letter is total nonsense to me, so even when I'm using standard spelling, the error isn't mine. It's ancient. Only in words like "analogy" versus "analogous" does standard spelling make sense, and even then, I don't see much point in hiding the trivial difference between a glottal and a palatal stop, both voiced. Brewhaha@edmc.net 08:57, 4 July 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Try dhis tuul

I appreciate your effort to distinguish neurology from neuroscience, and, once someone works out a bug in the way categories are displayed, then I think category:neurology will be superior.This tool was superior to the way subcategories are displayed on the category itself. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Brewhaha@edmc.net (talk • contribs) 14:56, 6 September 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Suggestion in Figure

Dear Dpryan: regarding your Image "Inward-rectification.png", could you add which trace corresponds to -60 mV and which to + 60 mV. It would better to understand the idea of inward-rectification in this way (probably, it should then be changed in the definition of inwardly rectifying channels). Thanks a lot, --Mazorquero 13:12, 31 July 2007 (UTC)

[edit] BFNC

Hi Dpryan- Question. I was the user who added the "anecdote" to the BFNC site that you undid. Why do you say that the treatment of potassium actually increases seizures? Our Neurologist is treating my 3 children who all have BFNC w/Myokymia simply through diet with added dietary potassium (bananas etc.) I know as a mother of 3 whose children suffered for years and 2 of them took phenobarbital for over 18 months of their lives unnecessarily that this information would have been useful to know prior to 2006. I'm new to Wikipedia and can see you are obviously familiar with it and how changes edits are made. Respectfully- I just wonder in what fashion such information could be passed onto others. If I could have known this information in 2003 I could have spared my son the wretched effects that Phenobarbital had on him. Sincerely- Allie Gillies alliegillies@yahoo.com —Preceding unsigned comment added by 71.162.82.41 (talk) 17:44, August 29, 2007 (UTC)

I took the liberty of doing some moving/reformatting, hopefully you don't mind. There's a difficult balancing act we have to perform when writing about/recommending treatments on wikipedia. On one hand, we want to list all relevant treatments, no matter how new, so that those in need of information can learn what they need to know. On the other hand, we don't want to talk about unproven or anecdotal therapies, especially if they might be prone to overuse. Most editors play things on the safe side, so you'll find articles are pretty conservative in their recommendations for treatment. For BFNC I haven't found any literature recommending potassium administration as a method of treatment, in fact they all recommend a barbiturate of some form. This doesn't mean potassium supplementation won't work or that your neurologist is wrong, just that it's not the "gold standard." If you or your neurologist can find a reference to this treatment for BFNC then it should be added back into the article (and I'd be happy to help with the edits).

As for potassium being a seizure trigger, this is pretty well documented. I'll point you to the article on action potentials for a base reference. Basically, as potassium levels in blood serum or cerebral spinal fluid increase the potassium reversal potential slowly becomes more depolarized. Since this reversal potential is largely responsible for setting the resting potential of neurons it is not surprising, then, that the resting potential will become more depolarized as well. This makes it easier for neurons to fire, which is a problem for those with BFNC as their neurons already have prolonged action potentials (which is why they have the convulsions). Now, moderate supplementation of potassium isn't going to result in these large changes in neuronal excitability and in fact might be doing other things which will end up being beneficial (your physician likely has some ideas here, otherwise he/she probably wouldn't have recommended this regiment). However, without recommended levels or physician oversight this is one of those treatments that people could easily overdo...which could lead to the increased seizures I mentioned. I hope this was helpful. Let me know if something wasn't clear. I've tried to link to pages that explain topics that most people may not be familiar with, but I tend to lay on the jargon a bit heavy so that may not have explained everything properly. Also, drop me a note below if you've read this, otherwise I'll send it to the email address that you provided. --Dpryan 21:52, 29 August 2007 (UTC)

Thanks Dpryan for the info. I will have to inquire with my Neurologist about the Potassium treatment. In previous talks he had said that since it is a potassium channel blocker issue and since the children have the other symptoms of Myokymia, excessive sweating, & migraines. A family in Germany was studied and a document was written on them: http://www.pnas.org/cgi/content/full/98/21/12272#F1 . Our Neurologist said that since the children's Potassium levels were in the normal range in bloodwork regardless of whether they were having a good day (no myokymia) or a bad day (myokymia episodes at night) then their bodies must not be properly processing the Potassium and that we should give more potassium during times of excessive sweating and excercise since these activities and occurences increased their episodes of myokymia. Since we have introduced the increased Potassium (going on 18 months now for my 2 older ones ages 4 and 2 1/2, and 8 months for my one year old) there has been a marked reduction of myokymia in my oldest son and seizures for all. Our oldest was treated with pheonbarbital for the first 15 months of his life and still continued to have seizures while on it, and my daughter was on it for 11 1/2 months and also continued to have the seizures as well. My youngest never went on phenobarbital and had just as many seizures as the other 2 had while on it and had a marked reduction in seizures once he was able to eat food starting at 4 months with his first food being bananas. They all now have at least one banana a day and one 4 oz glass of OJ to provide potassium and on the days they do extended outside play with lots of running and sweating they each get an additional banana and gatorade (all by order of the Neuro). When my son gets his myokymia episodes (now about once every other week- used to be several times a night) we give him a banana when he wakes up in pain and gatorade. Anyway- I'm interested in this obviously because its affects my family greatly as it does my extended family. My husband suffered from this as a child and continues to have the muscle cramps and the migraines associated with this. He is one of 8 children all of whom suffer from some form of this or another and of our 13 other nieces and nephews 4 others are affected. Thanks for your response to my question. I appreciate it. Allie Gillies alliegillies@yahoo.com —Preceding unsigned comment added by 71.162.82.41 (talk) 00:57, August 30, 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Action potential

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