Basic concepts of needle electromyography

Jee-Eun Kim; Jin Myoung Seok; Suk-Won Ahn; Byung-Nam Yoon; Young-Min Lim; Ki-Han Kwon; Kee Duk Park; Bum Chun Suh

doi:10.14253/acn.2019.21.1.7

Journal List > Ann Clin Neurophysiol > v.21(1) > 1121236

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Kim, Seok, Ahn, Yoon, Lim, Kwon, Park, Suh, and and on behalf of the Korean Society of Clinical Neurophysiology Education Committee: Basic concepts of needle electromyography

Special Article

Ann Clin Neurophysiol 2019;21(1):7-15.

Published online: 20 January 2019

DOI: https://doi.org/10.14253/acn.2019.21.1.7

Basic concepts of needle electromyography

Jee-Eun Kim^1,^∗, Jin Myoung Seok^2,^∗, Suk-Won Ahn³, Byung-Nam Yoon⁴, Young-Min Lim⁵, Ki-Han Kwon⁶, Kee Duk Park⁷, Bum Chun Suh⁸; and on behalf of the Korean Society of Clinical Neurophysiology Education Committee

¹ Department of Neurology, Seoul Medical Center, Seoul, Korea

² Department of Neurology, Soonchunhyang University Cheonan Hospital, Soonchunhyang University College of Medicine, Cheonan, Korea

³ Department of Neurology, Chung-Ang University Hospital, Chung-Ang University College of Medicine, Seoul, Korea

⁴ Department of Neurology, Seoul Paik Hospital, Inje University College of Medicine, Seoul, Korea

⁵ Department of Neurology, Asan Medical Center, University of Ulsan College of Medicine, Seoul, Korea

⁶ Department of Neurology, Hallym University Dongtan Sacred Heart Hospital, Hwaseong, Korea

⁷ Department of Neurology, Mokdong Hospital, Ewha Womans University School of Medicine, Seoul, Korea

⁸ Department of Neurology, Kangbuk Samsung Hospital, Sungkyunkwan University School of Medicine, Seoul, Korea

Correspondence to The Korean Society of Clinical Neurophysiology Daeil Building 1111, 12 Insadong-gil, Jongno-gu, Seoul 03163, Korea Tel: +82-2-2291-2290 Fax: +82-2-737–6531 E-mail: kscn@kscn.or.kr

^∗ These authors contributed equally to this work

Received 28 June 2018 Revised 4 July 2018 Accepted 4 July 2018

This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0) which permits unrestricted non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

Abstract

Clinical evaluations, nerve conduction studies, and electromyography play major complementary roles in electrophysiologic diagnoses. Electromyography can be used to assess pathologic changes and localize lesions occurring in locations ranging from motor units to anterior-horn cells. Successfully performing electromyography requires knowledge of the anatomy, physiology, and pathology of the peripheral nervous system as well as sufficient skill and interpretation ability. Electromyography techniques include acquiring data from visual/auditory signals and performing needle positioning, semiquantitation, and interpretation. Here we introduce the basic concepts of electromyography to guide clinicians in performing electromyography appropriately.

Keywords: Electromyography, Electrodiagnosis, Needles, Neuromuscular diseass

References

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Fig. 1.

Types and recording area of electromyography needles. (A) A concentric needle and its recording field (side view). A wire that acts as the active electrode runs through the center of the needle shaft (white), and the shaft acts as the reference electrode. (B) A monopolar needle and its recording field (side view). The needle tip without a Teflon coating acts as the active electrode, and an additional reference electrode needs to be attached to nearby skin.

Fig. 2.

Parameters for the morphology evaluation of motor-unit action potentials.

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