[Chronic constitutional tetany. Clinical and electromyographic aspects of 50 cases]

The authors present 50 cases of "chronic constitutional tetany" observed in the E.M.T. laboratory of the Ospedali Riuniti di Finale e Pietra Ligure in the last 7 years. We consider various parameters regarding the sindrome (sex, age, season, headache etc.). We have studied all the cases from the electromyographic point of view, with adequate method, to reproduce, in the periods of latency, the characteristic E.M.G. and clinical features. The "tetanigenic threshold" appears abnormally low in these patients. In the today etiologic and physiopathologic doubt, the clinical and electromyographic criteria, assume a fundamental relevancy in the study of these patients, often defined as "functionalis".