ABSTRACT
Eighty untreated patients suspected to have leprosy were submitted to neurophysiological examination and later compared with the clinical diagnosis. Among the patients who had leprosy confirmed, 98% had EMG abnormalities. Motor and sensory amplitude reduction was the earliest and the most frequent abnormality. Low conduction velocity of the ulnar nerve across the elbow was present in over 55% of the patients. A "mosaic" peripheral polyneuropathy was the most characteristic finding, and seems to be helpful to the diagnosis of leprosy. All of the clinical forms showed EMG abnormalities, and even some asymptomatic contacts, however the abnormalities increase from the undetermined and tuberculous to the borderline and Virchow's forms.
Subject(s)
Leprosy/diagnosis , Peripheral Nervous System Diseases/diagnosis , Electromyography , Evoked Potentials, Somatosensory , Humans , Leprosy/complications , Leprosy/physiopathology , Synaptic TransmissionABSTRACT
EMG examination was performed in 41 patients with Chagas' disease, belonging to the several clinical forms of the disease. Constant and direct relationship between the amount of muscle skeletal denervation and the clinical forms has been shown. In addition light peripheral axonal neuropathy was seen. Both muscular and sensory denervation was intense in the group with cardio-digestive form, moderate in the groups with either cardiac or digestive form and light in the group with the indeterminate form. The severity of the clinical symptoms was not related with the amount of peripheral denervation.
Subject(s)
Chagas Disease/physiopathology , Motor Neurons/physiology , Nerve Degeneration , Peripheral Nerves/physiology , Adolescent , Adult , Age Factors , Chagas Cardiomyopathy/physiopathology , Chagas Disease/complications , Electromyography , Female , Humans , Male , Middle Aged , Peripheral Nervous System Diseases/etiology , Synaptic TransmissionABSTRACT
Neurophysiological examination before and after the administration of benzonidazole, has shown peripheral polyneuropathy induced by this drug in most of the patients treated for chronic Chagas' disease. The polyneuropathy was mostly axonal and it was dose dependent being more severe in patients who had denervation of skeletal muscles before receiving the drug.
Subject(s)
Chagas Disease/drug therapy , Nitroimidazoles/adverse effects , Polyneuropathies/chemically induced , Trypanocidal Agents/adverse effects , Adult , Clinical Trials as Topic , Electromyography , Female , Humans , Male , Middle Aged , Nitroimidazoles/therapeutic use , Peripheral Nerves/drug effects , Trypanocidal Agents/therapeutic useABSTRACT
Twenty haemophilic patients were examined neurologically and found to have varying degrees of muscle atrophy. The pathogenesis of the atrophy was investigated by electromyography, serum muscle enzyme levels, and muscle biopsies. In most cases the EMG showed such abnormalities as reduced numbers of functioning motor units and "myopathic" motor unit potentials. Serum enzyme levels were frequently raised, and type 2 fibre atrophy was found in the three patients who underwent muscle biopsy. These findings suggest the presence of neuromyopathic involvement in haemophilic patients.
Subject(s)
Hemophilia A/complications , Hemophilia B/complications , Muscles/pathology , Neuromuscular Diseases/complications , Adolescent , Adult , Child , Child, Preschool , Electromyography , Hemophilia A/pathology , Histocytochemistry , Humans , Muscles/enzymology , Muscular Atrophy/complications , Neuromuscular Diseases/pathologyABSTRACT
The number of motor units in a muscle, the abductor pollicis longus (APL), supplied by the radial nerve was estimated. In 40 APL muscles of control subjects, the mean number of motor units was found to be 421 +/- 99 (SD). Ten patients underwent conventional EMG examination to confirm the clinical suspicion of denervation in radial nerve territory. All presented a significant reduction in the number of motor units in the APL muscle. These results show that this method is useful in the evaluation of muscles supplied by the radial nerve.
Subject(s)
Forearm/innervation , Motor Neurons/cytology , Radial Nerve/physiopathology , Adolescent , Adult , Aged , Brachial Plexus/physiopathology , Cell Count , Denervation , Evoked Potentials , Female , Humans , Male , Middle Aged , Neuromuscular Diseases/physiopathology , Spinal Nerve Roots/physiopathologyABSTRACT
Sensory conduction velocities of the median nerve were studied from digit to palm and from palm to wrist in normal subjects and in patients with the carpal tunnel syndrome. Definite slowing was noted in the palm to wrist segment, even in the early carpal tunnel syndrome. It was noted that 37% of normal women over 40 years of age had electrophysiological evidence of the carpal tunnel syndrome.
