Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2020 Aug;131(8):2017-2022.
doi: 10.1016/j.clinph.2020.04.161. Epub 2020 May 21.

Denervation findings on EMG in amyotrophic lateral sclerosis and correlation with prognostic milestones: Data from a retrospective study

E Fileccia  1 , S De Pasqua  2 , G Rizzo  3 , V Di Stasi  4 , V Vacchiano  2 , P Avoni  3 , I Bartolomei  5 , F Pastorelli  5 , R Plasmati  5 , V Donadio  4 , F Salvi  5 , R Liguori  3 ; BoReALS group
Affiliations

Denervation findings on EMG in amyotrophic lateral sclerosis and correlation with prognostic milestones: Data from a retrospective study

E Fileccia et al. Clin Neurophysiol. 2020 Aug.

Abstract

Objective: To verify whether the finding of denervation activity on EMG at the time of diagnosis has a prognostic value in amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS).

Methods: We retrospectively studied all the patients discharged with a diagnosis of ALS between January 2009 and January 2017. 92 patients met the inclusion criteria. We mainly verified three prognostic targets:All EMG examinations were reviewed and a denervation score (DS) was calculated. The association of DS with clinical milestones was analysed, adjusting for disease duration, age , sex, and clinical phenotype.

Results: We found a significant association between bulbar DS and time to NIV/tracheostomy (HR: 3.34, 95% CI: 1.49 to 7.48, p = 0.002) and with survival (HR 3.633, 95% CI 1.681-7.848, p = 0.001), regardless of the clinical phenotype. Furthermore, we found a significant influence of a general DS on survival (HR: 2.62, 95% CI 1.335-5.160, p = 0.005).

Conclusion: EMG assessment could be of value not just for ALS diagnosis but also for its intrinsic prognostic value.

Significance: EMG could provide additional information about the rate of progression of ALS as early as the diagnosis is made.

Keywords: ALS; Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis; Denervation; EMG; Motor neuron disease; Prognosis.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

Declaration of Competing Interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper.

Comment in

  • Needling the future in ALS.
    de Carvalho M. de Carvalho M. Clin Neurophysiol. 2020 Aug;131(8):1973-1974. doi: 10.1016/j.clinph.2020.05.017. Epub 2020 Jun 3. Clin Neurophysiol. 2020. PMID: 32561171 No abstract available.

Publication types

LinkOut - more resources