Correlation between muscle atrophy on MRI and manual strength testing in heredit

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J Clin Neurosci. 2010 Apr 15

Correlation between muscle atrophy on MRI and manual strength testing in

hereditary neuropathies.

Del Porto LA, Nicholson GA, Ketheswaren P.

Department of Molecular Genetics, Concord Repatriation General Hospital,

Concord, New South Wales, Australia.

MRI shows areas where muscle has been replaced by fat, a process which occurs in

neuropathies. The purpose of this study was to investigate the usefulness of MRI

in assessing disease severity in Charcot-Marie-Tooth (CMT) and hereditary motor

neuropathy (HMN) compared to manual muscle testing (MMT).

MRI and MMT correlated well (Spearman's rank correlation coefficient 0.910,

0.789-1.0). MRI was useful to document the extent and pattern of muscle atrophy

and fat replacement and to determine the level of denervation.

In addition, nerve length dependent denervation was confirmed in both CMT and

HMN.

MRI will be useful to confirm MMT findings and may be helpful for diagnosis of

early or subclinical disease, as well as to further investigate the mechanisms

of hereditary neuropathies.