[Clinical, electromyography and pathologic-anatomic studies in myopathy--a contribution to rational diagnostic...

A total of 189 patients underwent clinical, electromyographical and patho-anatomical examination (by muscle biopsy). 102 of the patients suffered from myopathy, 45 patients from neurogenic muscle diseases. 31 patients were suffering from chronic renal insufficiency and 11 patients from chronic alcoholism. The statistic elaboration of the findings was done by the multivariate analysis of variance (MANOVA) and discriminant analysis, in order to determine the diagnostic value of single parameters of investigation and to demonstrate diagnostically effective parameter combinations for diagnosing myopathies. Employing the discriminant function for the differentiation of myopathies and neurogenic muscle diseases yielded in patients with chronic renal insufficiency predominantly (30 cases) references to a neurogenic lesion of the proximal muscles and in the patients with chronic alcoholism relatively often (6 cases) references to a myogenic lesion of the proximal muscles.