title: Clinical profile of Monomelic Amyotrophy (MMA) and role of persistent viral infection.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  The objective of our study was to describe the clinical characteristics, electrophysiology, MRI features and conduct viral assays in patients with Monomelic Amyotrophy (MMA) and follow them up over one year.
  
  
  METHODS
  Consecutive patients with MMA who attended the Neurology services from April 2013 to March 2014 were included. Age and sex matched controls were taken for the purpose of viral assay analysis. The clinical evaluation was repeated at six months and one year.
  
  
  RESULTS
  109 cases and 109 controls were included in the study. The patients were predominantly males (98.2%; n=107/109) and had involvement of upper limbs (83.5%; n=91/109). 26 (23.8%) patients with clinically unilateral involvement had bilateral neurogenic changes in the electromyography. Serological assays of Japanese E, West Nile Virus, and Poliovirus 1, 2 and 3, HIV 1 and 2 were negative in all the cases and controls.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Patients with MMA are predominantly young males with upper limb wasting and weakness. MRI of the cervical cord is normal in most of the patients (67.9%). The present study did not find any evidence of the association of viral infection in MMA.
authors.affiliation: Department of Neurology, Neurosciences Center, All India Institute of Medical Sciences, Room number 707, Ansari Nagar, New Delhi 110029, India. Electronic address: deeptivibha@gmail.com.
authors.forename: Deepti
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Vibha
authors.affiliation: Department of Neurology, All India Institute of Medical Sciences, New Delhi, India.
authors.forename: Madhuri
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Behari
authors.affiliation: Department of Neurology, All India Institute of Medical Sciences, New Delhi, India.
authors.forename: Vinay
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Goyal
authors.affiliation: Department of Neurology, All India Institute of Medical Sciences, New Delhi, India.
authors.forename: Garima
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Shukla
authors.affiliation: Department of Neurology, All India Institute of Medical Sciences, New Delhi, India.
authors.forename: Rohit
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Bhatia
authors.affiliation: Department of Neurology, All India Institute of Medical Sciences, New Delhi, India.
authors.forename: Achal Kumar
authors.initials: AK
authors.lastname: Srivastava
authors.affiliation: Department of Neuro-biochemistry, All India Institute of Medical Sciences, New Delhi, India.
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Vivekanandhan
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D016022:Case-Control Studies; D020805:Central Nervous System Viral Diseases / Q000150:complications*; D004576:Electromyography; D004664:Encephalitis Virus, Japanese / Q000302:isolation & purification; D005260:Female; D005500:Follow-Up Studies; D007839:Functional Laterality; D006678:HIV; D006801:Humans; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging; D008297:Male; D009431:Neural Conduction / Q000502:physiology; D017955:Poliovirus; D012720:Severity of Illness Index; D014897:Spinal Muscular Atrophies of Childhood / Q000150:complications* / Q000821:virology*; D014902:West Nile virus; D055815:Young Adult
keywords: Amyotrophy; Clinical features; Electrophysiology; MRI; Monomelic; Viral infection