Chonnam Med J.  2001 Dec;37(4):383-388.

The Significance of Echogenicity in Denervated Skeletal Muscle

Affiliations
  • 1Department of Rehabilitation Medicine, Chonnam National University Medical School & Research Institute of Medical Sciences, Kwangju, Korea.
  • 2Department of Neurosurgery, Chonnam National University Medical School & Research Institute of Medical Sciences, Kwangju, Korea.
  • 3Department of Radiology, Chonnam National University Medical School & Research Institute of Medical Sciences, Kwangju, Korea.
  • 4Department of Orthopedic Surgery, Chonnam National University Medical School & Research Institute of Medical Sciences, Kwangju, Korea.
  • 5Department of Biomedical engineering, Chonnam National University Medical School & Research Institute of Medical Sciences, Kwangju, Korea.

Abstract

We want to know the diagnostic significance of ultrasonography and the relationship between the neuropathy severity and echogenicity in patients with unilateral denervated neuropathy which has not been well established until now. We performed case-control study in twenty two patients with unilateral denervated neuropathy and ten normal volunteers. First, we classified the patients into the three grades according to the severity of muscle atrophy and sensory dysfunction on physical examination and classified into the five grades according to the results of electrodiagnosis. Second, we measured the ratio of lesion-to-sound side muscle echogenicity in patient group and the ratio of left-to-right side muscle echogenicity in normal group respectively and compared the echogenicity ratio in patient group with standardized echogenicity ratio in normal group and compared the degree of denervation with echogenicity. There were no significant side-to-side differences of echogenicity in normal group. Comparing the ratio of echogenicity of left-to-right side in normal group with the ratio of echogenicity of lesion-to-sound side in patient group, the result showed significantly high echogenicity ratio in the affected muscle of patient group. However, there was no significant association between the ratio of echogenicity and the grade of physical examination. It was also found that the ratio of echogenicity according to the severity grade of electrodiagnosis had no significance. Conclusively we did think that ultrasonography didn't reflect on the severity of denervation but could be used for the auxiliary method for the diagnosis of denervated muscle.

Keyword

Ultrasonography; Denervated muscle; Echogenicity

MeSH Terms

Case-Control Studies
Denervation
Diagnosis
Electrodiagnosis
Healthy Volunteers
Humans
Muscle, Skeletal*
Muscular Atrophy
Physical Examination
Ultrasonography
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