While waiting for EMG..

[Jacoby83]

I had a quick question while I wait for an EMG. Unfortunately, the wait time is pretty significant and I am left with thoughts.
I will preface this post with confirmation that I did read the sticky before posting- my question actually relates to a subthread that was highlighted in the sticky.
A bit of background on my symptoms:
Twitching in all four limbs (because of course I am here because of twitching)
No significant weaknesses..

My question: Within the sticky that I read, a sub link was provided that described the accuracy of EMGs and its ability to discover failing nerves well before the arrival of weakness. The author went further and described that our bodies go through a process of re-nervation and adjusted muscle compensation (essentially muscles compensating for another's failure), making it a bit more complicated to notice weakness. Now, its my understanding that twitching as it relates to ALS is driven by denervation. Given the information above, specifically the bodies attempt to re-nerve and compensate for muscle failure- wouldn't twitching before weakness seem prevalent?

Thank you

 

[Nikki J]

No. and you are mixing up two things I think. The process of denervation and reinervation on emg is one thing and is a failed attempt of the body to compensate for the dead and dying motor neurons. If it were successful then ALS wouldn’t be a problem.

the compensation of other muscle groups for a failed muscle of muscles is an entirely separate process. Just because other muscles can compensate doesn’t mean there is no detectable weakness. If someone has foot drop and can not lift up their forefoot but their other leg muscles work they will compensate by either swinging their leg out or doing a high step gait both will keep the dropped foot from dragging but it is still dropped. There are a million ways our bodies compensate. The foot drop one is both classic and very noticeable

the hallmark of ALS is clinical weakness. The twitch first group is very small. The benign twitch group is very very very large

 

[Jacoby83]

Thanks Nikki!
This was the thread that i quoted (or tried to quote), which was embedded in “Before you post” sticky.

EMG weakness and atrophy

Re: Rhythman Update One comment on EMG, weakness and atrophy. ALS is a disease of the motor nerves that carry signals to muscles. One of the first things that happens as the nerve cells weaken is that they withdraw connections from the muscle fibers. However initially this does not cause...

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