Needle electromyography of the genioglossus muscle in the detection of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis / 中华神经科杂志

ABSTRACT

Objective To investigate the diagnostic value of spontaneous activities in genioglossus of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS).Methods A retrospective analysis of 79 patients diagnosed with ALS from January 2014 to December 2015 in Beijing Tiantan Hospital Affiliated to Capital Medical University was made.The patients were divided into two groups according to the clinical examinationwith (44 patients) or without bulbar symptoms (35 patients).The course of disease,spontaneous potentials and ALS-Functional Rating Scale (ALS-FRS) scores were discussed,together with the association between semi-quantitative evaluation of spontaneous potential of the genioglossus and ALS-FRS score.Results In ALS patients,the overall positive rate of glossal spontaneous potentials was 69.6％ (55/79),among which the positive rate was 82.9％ (29/35) in patients with bulbar symptoms and 59.1％ (26/44) in patients without bulbar symptoms,with statistically significant differences between the two groups (x2=5.206,P＜0.05).While the positive rate in sternocleidomastoid was only 13.9％ (11/79),and there was no statistically significant difference between patients with or without bulbar symptoms.Semi-quantitative evaluation of fibrillation potentials in genioglossus muscle was correlated with ALS-FRS score (r=-0.258,P＜0.05).Conclusion Compared with sternocleidomastoid muscle,genioglossus muscle has a higher positive rate of spontaneous potentials and a higher diagnostic value in patients with subclinical bulbar symptoms.