Quote:
Originally Posted by Nicknerd
Hey Alice,
This might be a really weird question, but where would the needle be inserted for SFEMG if a person has respiratory weakness? I know that for me, they put the needle in my forehead because I had facial weakness (or maybe they were checking my ocular muscles, not sure...I didn't have ptosis or dv at the time the testing was done, though)...This is why I think that it would be odd to use SFEMG in a case where a person has mainly respiratory weakness, just because I have no idea where they'd put the needle...I'm prollly totally missing something....But it seems that if that is the case (that it wouldn't be possible to measure that sorta weakness with that sorta test), they should base the diagnosis on symptoms, response to meds. and/or blood tests (if the weakness is isolated to the breathing area)...
|
Hi Nicky,
sorry for missing your question before.
your question is not weird at all, but actually very smart and reasonable.
and you are right that it is somewhat odd to examine the occular muscles of someone who is mostly having respiratory problems, but this is in fact what they do, as they can't do a SFEMG of the respiratory muscles.
they can do a RNS of the diaphragm, but the accuracy of this test is quite low, and requires a very experienced person to do that.
they can also measure the force generated by the diaphragm directly, using magnetic stimulation of the phrenic nerve (the nerve that innervates the diaphrgm). but this is only done in very few places in the world, requires a specialized center with expertise in neuromuscular respiratory problems, and is a somewhat invasive procedure.
alice