What's the difference between spasm and twitch?

Spasm


Definition:

  • (v. t.) An involuntary and unnatural contraction of one or more muscles or muscular fibers.
  • (v. t.) A sudden, violent, and temporary effort or emotion; as, a spasm of repentance.

Example Sentences:

  • (1) The generally accepted hypothesis is a coronary spasm but a direct cardiotoxicity of 5-FU cannot be.
  • (2) Oculomotor paresis with cyclic spasms is a rare syndrome, usually noticeable at birth or developing during the first year of life.
  • (3) The ophthalmic headache's crisis is caused, in fact, by a spasm of convergence on an unknown exophory of which the amplitude of fusion is satisfying, and the presence of which can only be seen with test under screen.
  • (4) The present case indicates that the possibility of osseous spines impinging on the facial nerve should be considered in all cases of facial spasm.
  • (5) The coronary arteriography reveals a spasm in the normal left anterior descendens artery.
  • (6) Increasing awareness of disorders such as coronary arterial spasm, functional impairment of subendocardial blood flow and the possible role of variant patterns of anatomic distribution of the coronary arterial tree, will provide a better understanding of their significance as determining or contributing factors in patients with the anginal syndrome.
  • (7) Thus one may speculate that endothelin plays a role in the coronary spasm which has been shown in patients with angina pectoris.
  • (8) in 1937, the arterial spasm may have occurred at the time of cerebral embolism.
  • (9) Coronary spasm was provoked by ergonovine maleate in four of 12 patients in group A (33%) and in three patients in group B (18%).
  • (10) In 2 cases, sublingual nitroglycerin failed to completely relieve the spasm.
  • (11) Furthermore, an association of tiapride-corticoids was effective in treating post-anaesthetic spasm of the glottis.
  • (12) Case histories of two patients with hypertensive LES and normal peristalsis in the body of the esophagus are contrasted to that of a patient with a hypertensive LES and diffuse esophageal spasm.
  • (13) Whether they affect ureteral motility in vivo or whether they can counteract ureteral spasm associated with ureteral stones have not been established.
  • (14) Thrombotic occlusion, in association with varying degrees of plaque disruption and coronary artery spasm, represents the major cause of acute myocardial infarction (AMI).
  • (15) The patients with spasm on top of a fixed organic lesion underwent a successful aorto-coronary bypass graft together with resection of the pre- and sub-aortic nerve plexus.
  • (16) In vitro tests with isolated trachea or ileum of guinea pigs show that flupirtine possesses no or very weak antagonism against histamine-induced spasms.
  • (17) The spasms were inhibited by gallopamil (100 nM) and diltiazem (1 microM).
  • (18) Indeed this procedure is the only one which can act in a fitted manner on muscular spasms responsible of more than 60% of convergent squints.
  • (19) Such an exercise response should suggest significant fixed coronary stenosis in addition to coronary spasm.
  • (20) Evidence is provided for the concept of enlarged spasms (phenomenon of the spastic dominant) common to peptic ulcer.

Twitch


Definition:

  • (v. t.) To pull with a sudden jerk; to pluck with a short, quick motion; to snatch; as, to twitch one by the sleeve; to twitch a thing out of another's hand; to twitch off clusters of grapes.
  • (n.) The act of twitching; a pull with a jerk; a short, sudden, quick pull; as, a twitch by the sleeve.
  • (n.) A short, spastic contraction of the fibers or muscles; a simple muscular contraction; as, convulsive twitches; a twitch in the side.
  • (n.) A stick with a hole in one end through which passes a loop, which can be drawn tightly over the upper lip or an ear of a horse. By twisting the stick the compression is made sufficiently painful to keep the animal quiet during a slight surgical operation.

Example Sentences:

  • (1) Comparison of the S100 alpha-binding protein profiles in fast- and slow-twitch fibers of various species revealed few, if any, species- or fiber type-specific S100 binding proteins.
  • (2) Twitch-tetanus ratios were calculated and found not to be related to unit contraction time.6.
  • (3) Hyperosmolar buffer slightly increased the sensitivity and maximal response to methacholine as well as the cholinergic twitch to electric field stimulation.
  • (4) The present results suggest that TMB-8 blocks twitches by preventing the release of Ca++ ions bound to the intracellular surface of the t-tubular membrane which is often called the store of 'trigger-calcium' ions.
  • (5) The twitches elicited by 0.1 msec pulses were abolished by tetrodotoxin, but were not reduced by dimethyltubocurarine or by hexamethonium.
  • (6) Starting from the observation that the part above 6 Hz of the power spectrum of force tremor during isometric contractions can be related to the unfused twitches of motor units firing asynchronously, an attempt was made to study the usefulness of force tremor spectral analysis as a global descriptor of motoneurone pool activity.
  • (7) The soleus, deep portions of the vastus lateralis, and superficial portions of the vastus lateralis muscles were examined to represent slow-twitch-oxidative, fast-twitch-oxidative-glycolytic, and fast-twitch-glycolytic skeletal muscle fiber types, respectively.
  • (8) Epinephrine potentiates muscle twitches via the second messenger, cAMP, secondary to hormone binding to membrane-bound beta-receptors.
  • (9) In physiological studies CDS mimics clonidine's action as an inhibitor of the electrically induced twitch response and as a partial agonist of the epinephrine-induced platelet aggregation.
  • (10) Facial twitch was followed by the generalized convulsion, further progressing to trembling of the limbs and then kicking of the hindlimb (full seizure) after 55 days of age.
  • (11) Stimulating the dorsal root at L5 was found to produce hindleg twitches in EAE rats with complete hindlimb paralysis.
  • (12) The anesthesiologist assessed the degree of neuromuscular blockade intraoperatively prior to pharmacologic reversal either by the standard method of visually counting the number of evoked thumb twitches elicited by supramaximal train-of-four stimulation of the ulnar nerve (i.e., thumb train-of-four count), or by an alternative method such as 1) visually counting the number of evoked orbicularis oculi muscle twitches elicited by supramaximal train-of-four stimulation of the facial nerve, or 2) observing the patient for clinical evidence of partial recovery (e.g., swallowing or attempts to breathe).
  • (13) Measurements of mouth opening were made for up to 10 min after loss of the adductor pollicis twitch and cessation of muscle fasciculations.
  • (14) On the other hand, the lack of any twitch-potentiating effect by naloxone methylbromide, a quaternary derivative of naloxone, suggests that opioids which potentiate the twitch must enter the lipid phase of the membrane to act.
  • (15) The relaxant effect of catecholamines on the twitch is temperature and rate dependent.
  • (16) Disopyramide 5 X 10(-5) - 10(-3) mol litre-1 produced a concentration-dependent reduction of twitch amplitude in the indirectly stimulated chick biventer cervicis preparation, but greater concentrations were required to reduce twitches elicited directly in the presence of erabutoxin-b 1 microgram ml-1.
  • (17) The pigeon's metapatagialis muscle consists of three slips, two twitch and one tonic, and these slips are distinguishable at the gross anatomical level.
  • (18) There was a good correlation between the two methods of measurement for both twitch height and train-of-four ratio (correlation coefficients 0.93 and 0.97, respectively).
  • (19) Head twitches induced by 1-(2,5-dimethoxy-4-iodophenyl)-2-aminopropane (DOI) could be abolished by low doses of RP 62203 in mice (ED50 = 0.44 mg kg-1, p.o.)
  • (20) Chronic stimulation of the denervated SOL resulted in twitch times-to-peak and half-relaxation times that varied in a graded manner between values longer than those in the normal SOL to values as fast as those in the normal EDL, depending upon the pattern used.