Hird

Abstract: Hirayama disease (HirD) is a juvenile spinal muscular atrophy predominantly affecting young men with an initially progressive course followed by a stable plateau within several years. It is a matter of debate whether HirD is a widespread motor neuron or more focal cervical cord disease. Whether the supraspinal pathways of the corticospinal tract (CST) are also affected has not been studied systematically. We analyzed CST integrity in seven HirD patients and 11 controls of similar age and gender using diffusion tensor imaging at a 1.5-T scanner and central motor conduction time (CMCT) using transcranial magnetic stimulation. The apparent diffusion coefficient, fractional anisotropy, and axial and radial diffusivity coefficients were determined bilaterally at four representative CST levels and along the whole CST using a probabilistic fiber tracking approach. There were no differences between the initially affected and the contralateral side in HirD patients and no difference between HirD patients and controls for both the ROI-based and the whole CST analyses. Radial diffusivity of the CST was positively correlated with years of disease progression in HirD patients. CMCT was normal in HirD patients. Combined anatomical and functional measurements established normal integrity of the supraspinal CST in HirD patients lending support to the notion that HirD is a pure spinal motor neuron disorder.

Abstract: We conducted a cohort study of acute, noninfectious liver injury among oral antimicrobial users. Potential cases were identified in the HealthCore Integrated Research Database (HIRD(SM)) population ...

Abstract: There can be few pleasures in academic life sweeter than receiving a thoughtful critique of one’s work. Being asked to respond puts a cherry on the cake. So it is frustrating to have to respond to an ‘Invitation to Dialogue’, which is no such thing. I am unwilling to begin with a defence against misrepresentation, but this reading of my piece is so partial that I have no choice. Hird claims ‘Wilton argues MTF transsexualism represents a “shallow” reading of the body’ and that I suggest ‘being a woman despite male corporeality reifies hegmonic regimes of gender’. Furthermore, I ‘cherry pick’ among MTF accounts, (to the extent of ‘relying on Morris and Griggs’) to isolate those which reinforce the ‘wrong body’ paradigm. Other offences include exploiting the ‘pretty grim’ details of surgical procedures, refusing to discuss the historical medicalization of lesbianism, ignoring the social punishments meted out to transsexuals and ‘failure to recognize’ that the socio-corporeal identity formation processes I describe are common to all. This critique is not so much a reading as reading-between-the-lines. I do acknowledge ‘the various punishments meted out to those who transgress gender rules or whose gender is illegible – social exclusion, mockery, rejection and sometimes violence’ (p. 247).1 I have discussed the historical medicalization of lesbianism ad nauseam (Wilton, 1995, 1997a, 1997b, 1997c, 1998, 2000) and the presumptive parallels suggested by Hird (from which I suspect we would draw polarized conclusions) simply belong in a different argument from the one made in Out/Performing Our Selves (OPOS). The charge that I regard MTF identity construction as a special case ignores my carefully stated point that MTF accounts of ancilliary cosmetic surgery are ‘oddly reminiscent of the confessions of non-transsexual cosmetic surgery junkies anxious to uphold gender norms’ (p. 244). Indeed, the entire article is about the need to evaluate Debating Transgender