Electrical impedance myography for the assessment of children with muscular dystrophy: a preliminary study

Electrical impedance myography (EIM) provides a non-invasive approach for quantifying the severity of neuromuscular disease. Here we determine how well EIM data correlates to functional and ultrasound (US) measures of disease in children with Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD) and healthy subjects. Thirteen healthy boys, aged 2-12 years and 14 boys with DMD aged 4-12 years underwent both EIM and US measurements of deltoid, biceps, wrist flexors, quadriceps, tibialis anterior, and medial gastrocnemius. EIM measurements were performed with a custom-designed probe using a commercial multifrequency bioimpedance device. US luminosity data were quantified using a gray-scale analysis approach. Children also underwent the 6-minute walk test, timed tests and strength measurements. EIM and US data were combined across muscles. EIM 50 kHz phase was able to discriminate DMD children from healthy subjects with 98% accuracy. In the DMD patients, average EIM phase measurements also correlated well with standard functional measures. For example the 50 kHz phase correlated with the Northstar Ambulatory Assessment test (R = 0.83, p = 0.02). EIM 50 kHz phase and US correlated as well, with R = -0.79 (p < 0.001). These results show that EIM provides valuable objective measures Duchenne muscular dystrophy severity.