Jeliota
Active member
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- Jul 3, 2007
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Doctors have a difficult time diagnosing ALS. The average time from the onset of symptoms to diagnosis is 13 months. Some people come in so far advanced that they are diagnosed rather quickly. Others come in with very few symptoms and have to endure the process of ruling everything else out, often times enduring a wrong diagnosis along the way. Something along the order of 55% of all patients diagnosed with ALS go through unnecessary surgeries (spinal, carpel tunnel, etc.) prior to being diagnosed.
This being said, experienced doctors are very very good at diagnosing benign fasciculations. This is demonstrated in several studies, most notably the Mayo Clinic study, where none of the patients diagnosed with BFS were later determined to have ALS. The problem in ALS diagnosis has nothing to do with fasciculations. It is almost always related to trying to determine the exact cause of small peripheral neuropathies, nerve recruitment, etc. It would be completely inaccurate to assume that the patients who present with fasciculations as their only symptom are being diagnosed with benign fasciculation syndrome or being brushed off as okay. I’m not saying that this absolutely never happens, but it is exceedingly rare. Experienced neurologists will tell you that anomalies will almost always show up on the EMG/NCV in these cases. They won't know what's causing the anomalies, but they will know that something is wrong.
I post this here only because there are so many people these days who are obsessed with twitching and ALS. This is because twitching is extraordinarily common and because Google loves an incurable disease. I’m very confident in saying that if you only have twitches and have been given a clean bill of health by a competent neurologist that you should stop worrying about ALS.
This being said, experienced doctors are very very good at diagnosing benign fasciculations. This is demonstrated in several studies, most notably the Mayo Clinic study, where none of the patients diagnosed with BFS were later determined to have ALS. The problem in ALS diagnosis has nothing to do with fasciculations. It is almost always related to trying to determine the exact cause of small peripheral neuropathies, nerve recruitment, etc. It would be completely inaccurate to assume that the patients who present with fasciculations as their only symptom are being diagnosed with benign fasciculation syndrome or being brushed off as okay. I’m not saying that this absolutely never happens, but it is exceedingly rare. Experienced neurologists will tell you that anomalies will almost always show up on the EMG/NCV in these cases. They won't know what's causing the anomalies, but they will know that something is wrong.
I post this here only because there are so many people these days who are obsessed with twitching and ALS. This is because twitching is extraordinarily common and because Google loves an incurable disease. I’m very confident in saying that if you only have twitches and have been given a clean bill of health by a competent neurologist that you should stop worrying about ALS.