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Laryngeal Electromyography: Are the Results Reproducible?
Agrício N Crespo1, Paulo A T Kimaid1, Almiro José Machado Júnior1
1Department of Othorynolaryngology, Medicine School, UNICAMP, Campinas, São Paulo, Brazil.
Unlabelled:
Laryngeal electromyography (LEMG) is an auxiliary diagnostic technique that is used to study neurologic diseases that affect the larynx. This study aimed to verify the reproducibility and accordance of LEMG findings obtained by different approaches applied to the same intrinsic laryngeal muscle in patients with neurologic disorders of the larynx.
Study Design:
This study is prospective, blind, randomized, and controlled.
Methods:
Forty subjects (20 males and 20 females) aged between 21 and 78 years underwent LEMG of the thyroarytenoid muscles by different techniques, with a total of 120 insertion sites for analysis. The electrophysiological findings were grouped as follows: (1) equal LEMG findings; (2) different LEMG findings but in agreement on the same electromyographic pattern; and (3) different LEMG findings and in discord on the same electromyographic pattern.
Results:
We found 5% discordance in the LEMG findings between the sites analyzed.
Conclusions:
LEMG is an important and useful technique, but caution must be taken to avoid misinterpretation and the wrong muscle approach.
