Electromyography (EMG) charts electrical activity in your muscles. This study is useful in providing objective information about neuromuscular and neurosensory function. EMGs may also provide the earliest evidence of return of neuromuscular activity (regeneration), thus helping to determine prognosis. EMGs performed serially provide information regarding disease activity or progression, or treatment effectiveness, and are most often useful to determine:
- Carpel tunnel syndrome
- Thoracic outlet syndrome
- Facial weakness or facial pain
- Guillian Barré
- Muscular dystrophies, myopathies and polymyositis
- Periodic paralysis
- Peripheral neuropathy
- Radiculopathies
- Trauma
Nerve Conduction Studies (NCS) are performed by placing surface electrodes over a particular nerve or a muscle innervated by that nerve, and using electrical stimulation to activate the nerve. When the nerve is stimulated, the patient feels a tingling sensation. A physician specializing in electrodiagnostic medicine evaluates the data collected. Patients referred for NCS testing suffer from nerve conditions, which produce numbness, tingling, pain or loss of sensation, or neurological diseases affecting primarily the peripheral nervous system.