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Abstracts of the 8th Meeting of the Italian Peripheral Nerve Study Group: 8
Author(s) -
Moscato G,
Maritato P,
Calabrese R,
Maestri M,
Manfredonia F,
Baglini O,
Siciliano G,
Sartucci F
Publication year - 2003
Publication title -
journal of the peripheral nervous system
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1
H-Index - 67
eISSN - 1529-8027
pISSN - 1085-9489
DOI - 10.1046/j.1529-8027.2003.00008.x
Subject(s) - amyotrophic lateral sclerosis , anterior horn cell , medicine , motor unit , electromyography , spinal cord , basal (medicine) , physical medicine and rehabilitation , anatomy , disease , psychiatry , insulin
A process of motor units (MU) rearrangement may compensate the loss of motor neurons in spinal cord anterior horns in Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS), at least in the early stages of the disease. Standard electromyography is unable to precisely quantify these pathological changes. Recently, Motor Unit Number Estimation (MUNE) has been introduced in clinical practice in order to provide a quantitative measure of the process as well as short‐ and long‐term follow‐up data. We investigated 8 male patients (mean age ± SD: 64 ± 10.9 yrs, range 45–78) affected by definite or probable ALS according to El Escorial Criteria. In order to quantify the total number of motor units, MUNE was performed during the diagnostic work‐up (basal, T0), after three (T1) and six months (T2), in abductor digiti minimi (ADM) and tibialis anterior (TA) muscles. We found a significant decrease in the mean number of motor units (16.6% at T1 [p < 0.002] and 37.9% at T2 [p < 0.04]), recording from ADM, while the decrease in mean and maximal area did not reach the statistical significance at the same time intervals. Similarly, we found a significant decrease in the mean number of motor units (20.6% at T1 [p < 0.008] and 40.3% at T2 [p < 0.0006]), but not in the mean and maximal area, recording from TA. According to previous data, we found about a loss of about 50% motor units in both the muscles six months after diagnosis. We conclude that MUNE is a useful tool to quantify MU loss in ALS and may result helpful in following the course of ALS and in predicting the prognosis.