[The "Functional -QEMG" method -- a substantial progress in electromyography (EMG)].
In contradistinction to the traditional quantitative EMG, our new "Functional-QEMG" method provides new information about structural and functional changes in the whole population of active motor units (MUs) in various neuromuscular disorders. Individual motor unit action potentials (MUAPs) and the interference pattern (IP) recordings are analyzed not as complementary measurements but as one integral test. Such a complex of EMG signals is submitted to a non-linear dynamic analysis determining interrelationships between an active MU size and its functional properties. Structural changes in MU size represent the primary destructive process, while the resulting changes in MU functional properties due to a compensatory mechanism (a secondary restorative process) provide new and very useful diagnostic information. All EMG data are processed online and automatically classified by a special computer-assisted diagnostic program as either a normal or pathological (myogenic or neurogenic) EMG recording. At the same time severity of muscle damage is assessed. This article illustrates how both the efficacy and limitations of compensatory mechanisms are related to structural damage in various neuromuscular disorders. The "Functional-QEMG" method application in clinical practice for over ten years has evidenced that this new approach is a turning point in improving the EMG diagnosis. This automatic method provides online reliable answers to most of the questions facing an electromyographer in daily routine investigations.
Kopeć
Jerzy
J
Kliniki Neurologicznej A.M. w Warszawie. jkopec@amwaw.edu.pl
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D004576:Electromyography / Q000295:instrumentation*; D019054:Evoked Potentials, Motor / Q000502:physiology; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D018482:Muscle, Skeletal / Q000503:physiopathology; D009468:Neuromuscular Diseases / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000503:physiopathology