Quantitative thermal sensory testing in patients with monomelic amyotrophy.
BACKGROUND
Quantitative thermal sensory testing (QST) is a non-invasive method to assess somatic small fibre dysfunction, which is not evaluated with routine nerve conduction studies (NCS). Monomelic amyotrophy (MMA), is a pure motor disorder with no sensory abnormalities on routine NCS, and has not been evaluated using QST.


OBJECTIVE
Present study aimed to evaluate somatic small fibre involvement in MMA patients. Forty patients with MMA with no sensory abnormalities or routine NCS were evaluated using QST for thresholds of cold sensation (CS), warm sensation (WS), cold pain (CP) and warm pain (WP), using method of limits. These were compared with 40 age-matched controls.


RESULTS
No abnormalities in thresholds for CS, WS, CP and WP were found in MMA group as compared to controls.


CONCLUSIONS
QST thus failed to demonstrate any abnormality. Hence we conclude that MMA is a pure motor disorder, with no involvement of somatic small sensory fibres (A delta and C).
Joshi
D
D
Department of Neurology, All India Institute of Medical Sciences, Cardiothoracic and Neurosciences Centre, Ansari Nagar, New Delhi-110029. d_joshi73@yahoo.co.in
Bhatia
M
M
Singh
S
S
Goyal
V
V
Srivastava
T
T
Shukla
G
G
Padma
M V
MV
Behari
M
M
D000328:Adult; D016022:Case-Control Studies; D003080:Cold Temperature; D004576:Electromyography; D005260:Female; D006358:Hot Temperature; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D016472:Motor Neuron Disease / Q000503:physiopathology*; D009413:Nerve Fibers, Myelinated / Q000502:physiology*; D036421:Nerve Fibers, Unmyelinated / Q000502:physiology*; D009431:Neural Conduction / Q000502:physiology; D012684:Sensory Thresholds / Q000502:physiology; D013697:Thermosensing / Q000502:physiology*