title: Clinical value of electrodiagnostic studies in neuromuscular disorders.
abstract: EMG and conduction studies provide the physician with a precise means of defining the multiple diseases affecting the peripheral motor-sensory unit. These studies frequently provide clues that may be useful in arriving at the appropriate therapeutic decisions and in determining prognosis. Normal results may also support a suspected clinical diagnosis of inorganic illness, providing no evidence of central nervous system disease can be defined. Like any other test, however, results of EMG may be false-negative in bona fide neuromuscular disorders. This is particularly true early in a disease process; in neuropathies restricted primarily to small, unmyelinated nerve fibers; and in certain of the less virulent diseases of muscle and muscle energy metabolism.
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000690:Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000503:physiopathology; D004568:Electrodiagnosis; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009468:Neuromuscular Diseases / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000503:physiopathology; D011128:Polyradiculopathy / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000503:physiopathology; D011843:Radiculopathy / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000503:physiopathology