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. 2018 Mar 19;55(1):36-39.
doi: 10.5152/npa.17023. eCollection 2018 Mar.

Electromyography in Pediatric Population

Elif Kocasoy Orhan  1 , Leyla Baysal Kiraç  1 , Pınar Yalinay DİKmen  2 , Zeliha Matur  3 , Mustafa Ertaş  1 , A Emre Öge  1 , Feza Deymeer  1 , Jale Yazici  1 , M Barş Baslo  1
Affiliations

Electromyography in Pediatric Population

Elif Kocasoy Orhan et al. Noro Psikiyatr Ars. .

Abstract

Introduction: Electrodiagnostic evaluation provides an important extension to the neurological examination for the evaluation of pediatric neuromuscular disease. Many pediatric neuromuscular diseases are analogous to those seen in the adult. However, the relative frequency of these illnesses varies greatly when different age populations are compared. The purpose of the present study is to provide a retrospective analysis of children referred to our electromyography (EMG) laboratory for electrophysiological examinations.

Methods: We retrospectively reviewed electrodiagnostic records of patients aged between 0-15 years, from January 2004 to June 2013. Patients were classified as having plexopathy, nerve root lesions, polyneuropathy, myopathy, mononeuropathy, anterior horn cell disease, neuromuscular transmission disorder, facial nerve palsy, and other rare disorders.

Results: We reviewed totally 5563 pediatric records, which was on the average 578 studies per year. It was about 14% of the all EMG examinations performed in our laboratory. When we looked at all the procedures, 3271 of the records included needle EMGs, 170 of them were single fiber EMGs, 100 of them were repetitive nerve stimulations, and 52 of them were evoked potentials. The results were normal in 55% of the cases. As a result of electrophysiological examinations, the common diagnoses were: plexopathy (28.6%), polyneuropathy (7.4%), and myopathy (6.6%) in patients aged 0-5 years (41.2% of all records); myopathy (9.4%), PNP (8.5%), mononeuropathy (6.4%), and plexopathy (5.9%) in 6-10 years (28.2% of all records); PNP (11.3%), myopathy (6.6%), and mononeuropathy (5.6%) in 11-15 years (30.6% of all records).

Conclusion: Infants and toddlers mostly suffered from brachial plexopathy which can be prevented by proper obstetrical management. Nerve conduction studies and EMG yielded diagnostic importance for demyelinating neuropathy and myopathy in patients older than 6 years of age.

Keywords: EMG; differential diagnosis; electrophysiology; neuromuscular; pediatric.

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Conflict of interest statement

Conflict of Interest: No conflict of interest was declared by the authors.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Distribution of the investigations by year
Figure 2
Figure 2
Distribution of the pathological diagnoses by age group
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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