Quick question

Would an emg/ncs pickup on atrophy? I had one in January of this year that came back normal with the exception of carpal tunnel, but I have dents in my thenar muscle that seem to be getting worse.

'Dents' aren't atrophy.

Atrophy follows after the nerves have died and the muscles shrink since they're no longer being stimulated.

My legs look like I was just released from a nazi concentration camp and my hand look like they should be hanging off a skeleton.

That's atrophy.

Can atrophy start that way? The dents seem to be progressively getting larger. Would an emg show atrophy?

No. The entire muscle shrinks, not dents.

The EMG would show denervation. Atrophy is due to long term denervation.
A clean emg means no als, so quit looking for it.

GregK said:

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Atrophy follows after the nerves have died and the muscles shrink since they're no longer being stimulated.
...

Click to expand...

Shenaemurphy, do you have a paralyzed muscle? In ALS, a muscle is paralyzed, limp and useless for some weeks or months before atrophy occurs, as Greg said.

In ALS, you don't just get atrophy. You get paralysis first. Any doctor can look at the muscle and determine if your muscle is atrophied or not.

As Greg said, if you had a clean EMG, you don't have ALS.

Thank you both so much for your candid replies.