title: The diagnostic value of electromyography in infantile hypotonia.
abstract: There is controversy over the usefulness of electromyography (EMG) in the examination of hypotonic infants with suspected neuromuscular disease. We compared the initial EMG findings of 51 such children under 1 year of age with their final clinical diagnoses determined by independent means. The EMG predicted the final diagnosis in 82% of infants less than 4 months of age and 85% of those over 4 months of age. Botulism was correctly identified by EMG in nine of 11 cases. The EMG diagnosis was identical to that obtained by muscle biopsy in 64% of cases in which biopsy was done, and diagnosis obtained by the two methods were inconsistent in only 14%. Electromyography is a sensitive and noninvasive diagnostic tool for the diagnosis of neuromuscular disease in infantile hypotonia.
mesh_terms: D004576:Electromyography; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D007231:Infant, Newborn; D009123:Muscle Hypotonia / Q000175:diagnosis*