Neuromuscular Disease News

SAN DIEGO — The use of electromyograms and nerve conduction studies are essential to excluding alternative diagnoses and confirming muscle disease when evaluating patients with suspected myopathic disorders, according to a presentation at the 2019 Congress of Clinical Rheumatology West.

Patients with LMNA gene mutations are likely to develop life-threatening neuromuscular or cardiac conditions, according to study results published in the Annals of Internal Medicine.

DESTIN, Fla. — Handheld dynamometry, a new, inexpensive and quantitative compact device, proved reliable and effective in evaluating muscle strength in a large cohort of patients with idiopathic inflammatory myopathies, and could serve as an objective alternative to manual muscle testing, according to a presenter at the 2019 North American Young Rheumatology Investigator Forum.

Multiple system atrophy — whose worldwide awareness day is commemorated every Oct. 3 — includes disorders that historically had been referred to as Shy-Drager syndrome, olivopontocerebellar atrophy and striatonigral degeneration, according to the NIH.

For some patients with myositis, an early diagnosis can mean the difference between life and death, according to Bob Goldberg, executive director of the Myositis Association.