Electroneuromyography

Stimulation ENMG allows you to determine where there is a violation of the propagation of impulses along nerve fibers, for example, in areas of the body from the neck to the hand or from the lower back to the foot. Stimulation ENMG is used to diagnose peripheral nerve damage and differentiate nerve damage from muscle or spinal cord damage (for example, in neuritis/neuropathies, plexopathies, tunnel syndromes, polyneuropathies), as well as to assess neuromuscular junction disorders (for example, in myasthenia gravis). To do this, electrodes are applied to the projection areas of nerves and their corresponding muscles on the patient's body and stimulation is performed using short electrical discharges, while the passage of a nerve impulse through various parts of the body is recorded. The advantages of the method are non-invasiveness, speed and ease of execution. The short duration and form of the electric discharge stimulus is safe even for patients with pacemakers and can be performed on all patients without exception. In particular, the American Association of Neuromuscular and Electrodiagnostic Medicine reports that there are no current contraindications to stimulation and needle EMG in pregnant women and patients with pacemakers.

Unlike stimulation EMG, needle electromyography is an invasive procedure that uses a single-use thin needle electrode inserted by a doctor into several different muscles to identify local or generalized pathology of nerves, their plexuses and the muscles themselves. Needle insertion may be accompanied by minor soreness, which does not require any special anesthesia and is well tolerated by most patients.

During the examination, the doctor performing electromyography decides which muscles need to be examined in order to make a diagnosis. Electrical stimulation is not required in this study. Needle EMG data is converted into audio and graphic information using an electromyograph device, which is further analyzed and interpreted by a doctor. This technique allows you to more accurately determine the level and stage of damage in most pathologies of the peripheral nervous system, as well as help in the diagnosis of acquired and hereditary muscle pathologies such as myositis, muscular dystrophy.

Evoked visual potentials is a non-invasive study that registers an impulse in response to a visual stimulus and allows you to evaluate the conduction along the optic nerves and structures of the brain.

Electrodes are applied to the occipital region of the head, and visual stimulation is performed by looking at a monitor screen with black and white cells, the so-called "checkerboard pattern".

Evoked auditory potentials is a method that registers an electrical potential from the auditory nerve of the brain in response to a patient's sound stimulation through headphones. This method allows you to identify the pathology of the auditory nerve and brain. Visual and auditory potentials are often used to diagnose and evaluate therapy for multiple sclerosis.

Somatosensory evoked potentials (SSPs) is a diagnostic method that records electrical responses from the limbs, spine, and head in response to electrical stimulation of the motor and sensory nerves of the arms and legs. Such a study is mainly used to assess the conduction of the spinal cord and brain, as well as nerve structures in the cervical-brachial and lumbosacral plexuses. SSRIs help in the diagnosis of multiple sclerosis, degenerative-dystrophic diseases of the spine (osteochondrosis) and other pathologies of the central and peripheral nervous systems.