Electrodiagnosis

Electrodiagnosis is the evaluation of the body’s neuromuscular systems using a variety of different techniques.  The most common symptoms that electrodiagnosis can help evaluate are pain, weakness, and numbness.  These problems are often due to nerve entrapment, injury or disease and diseases of muscles.

Specific syndromes that can be diagnosed include carpal tunnel syndrome, ulnar neuropathy at the wrist and elbow, spinal nerve compression, peripheral neuropathy, and Lou Gehrig’s disease.

What Happens During an Electrodiagnostic Evaluation?

A basic electrodiagnostic evaluation includes a physician obtaining a history, doing a directed physical examination and performing nerve conduction studies and needle electromyography.

• Nerve conduction studies involve stimulating the nerves with low level electricity and recording the response to the stimulus from the nerve itself or the muscle it supplies.
• Needle electromyography involves evaluating the electrical activity in muscles at rest and with muscular contraction, using a fine needle electrode placed in the muscle.

The physician will then correlate the data with the patient’s symptoms and physical findings and try to reach a diagnosis. The discomfort from these studies is mild and usually well tolerated.