[Evaluation of electromyographic recordings in the detection of Duchenne's dystrophy carriers]

The purpose of this work was to compare the possibility of detecting subtle changes in muscular bioelectric activity which are observed in some carriers of Duchenne dystrophy gene using two methods: routine quantitative electromyography and automatic EMG recording (with ANOPS computer). Twenty-one confirmed dystrophy-gene carriers were examined Two muscles were studied in each case: m. biceps brachii and m. quadriceps femoris. There was no difference between the detectability of reduced potential durathion with both methods, but automatic recording made possible a much more accurate determination of the percent of polyphasic potentials. For example, using automatic recording 16.5% of polyphasic potentials were found in the quadriceps femoris muscle of carriers and 15.3% in the biceps brachii muscle, while in routine electromyography these values were respectively 9.9% and 8.9%. This parameter is particularly useful for recognition of very early and slight pathological processes--because of that automatic EMC recording seems to be superior to routine quantitative EMG in the detection of Duchenne dystrophy carriers in whom only very small changes may be expected. In the investigations carried out as yet the authors observed that the introduction of automatic EMG recording raised the detectability rate of gene carriers by 18.9% in relation to the rate of detection by means of CPK determination (previously the EMG raised this rate only by 5 to 9%).