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THE BASICS OF ELECTROMYOGRAPHY

K R Mills

ii32

J Neurol Neurosurg Psychiatry 2005; 76(Suppl II):ii32–ii35. doi: 10.1136/jnnp.2005.069211

E
lectromyography (EMG), the recording of electrical activity in muscle, should be regarded as
an extension of the clinical examination. It can distinguish myopathic from neurogenic
muscle wasting and weakness. It can detect abnormalities such as chronic denervation or
fasciculations in clinically normal muscle. It can, by determining the distribution of neurogenic
abnormalities, differentiate focal nerve, plexus, or radicular pathology; and it can provide
supportive evidence of the pathophysiology of peripheral neuropathy, either axonal degeneration
or demyelination. EMG is an obligatory investigation in motor neurone disease to demonstrate
the widespread denervation and fasciculation required for secure diagnosis.

c EMG METHODOLOGY

Recordings are made with a disposable concentric needle electrode inserted into the muscle. A
fine wire in the axis of the needle is insulated from the shaft, the end of the needle being cut at an
acute angle. The area of the recording surface determines the volume of muscle that the needle
can ‘‘see’’. Conventional EMG needles record from a hemisphere of radius of about 1 mm. Within
this volume there are some 100 muscle fibres. The many hundreds of muscle fibres belonging to
one motor unit are distributed widely throughout the cross section of the muscle and, therefore,
within the pick-up region of the needle there may be just 4–6 fibres of a single motor unit.
Analysis of the waveforms and firing rates of single motor or multiple motor units can give
diagnostic information.
Electromyographers are skilled at interpreting both the appearance of muscle activity and
the sound of the activity transmitted through a loud speaker. Normal resting muscle is silent.
Patients often have difficulty completely relaxing a muscle. The motor unit activity associated
with incomplete relaxation is distinguished from abnormal spontaneous activity by its
rhythmicity. Motor units when first recruited or on the point of being de-recruited fire regularly
at 6–10 spikes per second. Voluntary firing caused by incomplete relaxation can often be silenced
by passively changing the posture of the limb or by slight activation of the antagonist. Voluntary
motor units never fire as single isolated discharges, a useful point in distinguishing them from
fasciculations.

SPONTANEOUS ACTIVITY
Fibrillation, positive waves, and complex repetitive discharges
After an acute nerve transection, nerve fibres degenerate from the site of the lesion distally.
Muscle fibres themselves remain viable but after a period of 7–10 days become supersensitive
and fibrillations will be detectable. Acutely denervated muscle fibres have acetylcholine receptors
over the whole of the muscle fibre membrane rather than these being limited to the
neuromuscular junction. The effect is to make the fibre supersensitive with the result that it
discharges spontaneously. This is detected by the EMG needle as a single fibre discharge or
fibrillation (fig 1A). Fibrillation is not visible through the skin and is an electrical sign not a
clinical sign. Positive sharp waves have the same origin as fibrillation and have the same
significance. They arise when the needle tip damages a fibre and spontaneous action potentials
propagate up to the needle tip and then are extinguished. Fibrillation may persist for many
months after a nerve lesion. Any nerve lesion, complete or partial, from the spinal motor neurone
to the intramuscular nerve branches can give rise to fibrillation. Fibrillations are not found
_________________________
exclusively in neurogenic disease, however; they also occur in inflammatory and dystrophic
Correspondence to: muscle disease.
Professor Kerry R Mills, Complex repetitive discharges begin and end abruptly, may persist for several minutes (or until
Department of Clinical
Neurophysiology, King’s the electromyographer gets bored), have a constant frequency between 1–100 Hz, and consist of a
College Hospital, Denmark stereotyped group of single fibre potentials. The minimal jitter between potentials suggests that
Hill, London SE5 9RS, UK;
[email protected] they arise by ephaptic transmission between adjacent fibres. They occur predominantly in
_________________________ neurogenic disease.

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NEUROLOGY IN PRACTICE

Fasciculation ‘‘ping’’ sound from the EMG machine. Neuromyotonia occurs

Fasciculations arise from the discharge of part or the whole of in autoimmune anti-voltage gated potassium nerve axon
a single motor unit (fig 1C). They are larger and more channelopathy and Morvan’s syndrome.
complex than fibrillation potentials. Fasciculations are
isolated discharges that recur at irregular intervals, usually Myokymia
in the order of several seconds. Fasciculations near the This is the regular or irregular discharge of groups of motor
surface of a muscle may be visible at the skin; those deep units producing the clinical appearance of flickering in the ii33
within the muscle and detected by an EMG needle are not. muscles. It occurs in a wide variety of conditions, notably
Fasciculations are not under voluntary control, a useful point with brain stem neoplasms or demyelination and subclini-
in distinguishing them from motor units discharging due to cally in episodic ataxia type I. EMG is useful in distinguishing
poor relaxation. Fasciculations probably arise within the fine myokymia from fasciculation, neuromyotonia and myoclo-
terminal arborisation of a single motor axon within the nus.
muscle. It has been shown, for example, that there may be
more than one generator of a single fasciculation as MOTOR UNIT RECRUITMENT
evidenced by subcomponents of the potential occurring in a Patients requested to activate minimally a muscle are usually
different order on different discharges. Fasciculations occur able to recruit a single or a few motor units. Motor units have
in motor neurone diseases, other neurogenic diseases such as a recruitment frequency of 6–10 Hz and are recognisable by
radiculopathy and neuropathy, thyroid disease, and periph- the constancy of the waveform of each discharge (fig 2). A
eral nerve hyperexcitability syndromes, and may be benign. number of parameters of motor unit potentials can be
The significance of fasciculations is judged by the company measured; this is achieved by triggering the sweep of an
they keep in the muscle; benign fasciculations are not EMG machine by the potential crossing of a threshold and
accompanied by denervation changes but malign fascicula- displaying the potential in its entirety. Amplitude, duration,
tions usually are. number of phases (changes in direction), and firing rate are
useful. When the patient makes a stronger contraction, more
Myotonia motor units are recruited and potentials overlap and interfere
Clinical myotonia is accompanied by myotonic discharges on with each other; hence this is sometimes referred to as the
EMG (fig 1D); once heard, never forgotten. Discharges are interference pattern. Recruitment pattern is now the pre-
provoked by needle movement, tapping the muscle and after ferred term. At maximal voluntary activation, a full recruit-
a short voluntary contraction, and vary in frequency and ment pattern is produced which fills the baseline. A reduced
amplitude producing the characteristic ‘‘dive bomber’’ sound. pattern occurs when despite maximal activation, which of
They occur in muscle fibre membrane channelopathies, course must be assessed clinically, areas of baseline without
including dystrophia myotonica, congenital myotonias, prox- activity can still be seen.
imal myotonic dystrophy, and hypokalaemic periodic paraly-
sis. Reduced recruitment
A clinical judgement must be made by the electromyographer
Neuromyotonia on the significance of reduced recruitment. Muscle contrac-
Neuromyotonia arises from hyperexcitability of single per- tion limited by pain, a patient just not trying, an upper motor
ipheral motor axons either before or after they branch within neurone lesion, motor conduction block, or chronic partial
the muscle, and is characterised by doublet, triplet, or short denervation may all cause a reduced recruitment pattern. The
bursts of high frequency discharge (fig 1B) of motor unit, last is distinguished, most obviously by the sound of the
partial motor unit, or single fibre potentials which produce a activity, by the presence of large motor units firing at high

Figure 1 Abnormal spontaneous

activity. (A) Fibrillations (*) and positive
sharp waves (**) in an acutely
denervated hand muscle. (B) Single,
doublet, triplet, and multiplet motor unit
neuromyotonic discharges. Bursts of
discharge are irregular in frequency and
the intra-burst frequency of discharge is
up to 200 Hz. (C) Fasciculations in the
tongue in a patient with amyotrophic
lateral sclerosis. The single discharges
are irregular and occur on a
background of ongoing EMG activity
caused by poor relaxation. (D) Myotonic
discharges in a patient with dystrophia
myotonica. There is a characteristic
waxing and waning in frequency.

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NEUROLOGY IN PRACTICE

diagnostic or prognostic information. In acute inflammatory

demyelinating polyneuropathy (Guillain-Barré syndrome
(GBS)), if as is usually the case, the predominant cause of
weakness is conduction block, EMG shows merely a reduced
recruitment pattern of motor units of normal appearance. If,
however, there has been secondary axonal degeneration, or if
ii34 the case is an example of the rarer axonal form of GBS, then
fibrillations are seen indicating axonal loss. Clearly, later in
the evolution of GBS, the finding of signs of axonal loss imply
a rather poorer prognosis for the recovery of function.
Similarly, in chronic demyelinating neuropathy—for exam-
ple, chronic inflammatory demyelinating polyradiculoneuro-
Figure 2 Recruitment patterns during maximal voluntary contraction pathy (CIDP)—axonal loss, as evidenced by fibrillations and
of the deltoid muscle in (A) a healthy subject, (B) a patient with spinal signs of chronic reinnervation on EMG, indicate a less than
muscular atrophy, and (C) a patient with polymyositis. Note the favourable prognosis for recovery of function. Vasculitic
different amplitude calibrations. neuropathies usually produce pain, and nerve conduction
studies and EMG are again used in combination to
rates. A fluctuating voluntary effort is accompanied by demonstrate acute, usually single, nerve lesions. In the acute
sporadic recruitment of motor units and is easily recognised stage of a vasculitic nerve lesion, the nerve remains excitable
by an experienced electromyographer. distal to the lesion and it appears on nerve conduction studies
as conduction block. Only after the nerve has begun to
Early recruitment degenerate do the axons become inexcitable distal to the
In primary muscle disease, recruitment of motor units is lesion and EMG signs of acute denervation appear. Axonal
described as early—that is, early in the progressive recruit- degeneration type peripheral neuropathies often produce
ment of motor units with increasing force of contraction. fibrillations in distal foot muscles. Indeed, occasionally this
Even when the patient only produces a low force contraction, can be the only sign of a neuropathy. Caution is required,
the recruitment pattern is full. In florid primary muscle however, as even in healthy elderly subjects fibrillation can
disease, early recruited motor units combine to produce a be found in small foot muscles, presumably as a result of the
characteristic high frequency sound on the EMG machine. traumas of everyday life.

Motor unit potentials ENTRAPMENT NEUROPATHY

By isolating the discharge of single motor units by triggering Again, in most of the common entrapments, carpal tunnel
and delaying the display, parameters of the motor unit syndrome, ulnar nerve lesions at the elbow, and common
potential can be measured. Motor unit parameters vary with peroneal nerve lesions at the fibular head, nerve conduction
the muscle being examined. Amplitude, duration, and studies are the principal diagnostic techniques. A number of
number of phases may be measured. Chronic re-innervation less common entrapments, however, are not amenable to
is associated with high amplitude, long duration motor unit diagnosis with nerve conduction measurements, and locali-
potentials with a normal number of phases. As a rule of sation depends on an EMG demonstration of a particular
thumb, motor unit potentials are less than 2 mV in distribution of abnormality. For example, median nerve
amplitude, and have a duration of 10–5 ms with 3–4 phases. lesions in the upper arm, those involving the anterior
In chronic partial denervation where intramuscular sprouting interosseous branch, and the common type at the wrist can
and re-innervation has occurred, amplitudes may be 10– be distinguished by EMG of the pronator teres (from the
20 mV and durations 20–30 ms. In primary muscle disease, highest branch), finger and wrist flexors, and abductor
motor unit potentials are small and of short duration; typical pollicis brevis. The anterior interosseous branch is purely
values would be 0.5 mV and 5–10 ms. Polyphasicity can be motor and therefore sensory action potentials from the
seen in a wide number of situations, but muscle disease and median innervated fingers are normal. Similarly, the differ-
the early stages of re-innervation are the most common. entiation of radial from posterior interosseous nerve lesions
rests on the finding of EMG abnormalities in triceps and
Tremor brachioradialis in the former but not in the latter. Thirdly,
Simple surface EMG recordings can easily be used to measure although the sciatic nerve can be stimulated electrically,
the frequency of tremor. A 4 second, say, length of record is nerve conduction is difficult to interpret and EMG is the only
taken and the number of tremor bursts counted. In one means to differentiate sciatic lesions from S1 lesions by
condition, primary orthostatic tremor, the findings are so showing in the latter EMG signs of denervation in the
characteristic as to be diagnostic. If recordings are made from muscles innervated by the superior and inferior gluteal
leg muscles, on standing, a highly synchronised tremor at a nerves (glutei).
frequency of 14–18 Hz is seen; this disappears on sitting.
A number of clinical scenarios in which EMG is of proven BRACHIAL PLEXUS LESIONS
use are now presented. Upper limb muscles can be sampled by EMG to determine the
distribution of dennervation changes and determine whether
PERIPHERAL NEUROPATHY they accord to the root, cord, trunk, and nerve innervation to
By and large, neurophysiological diagnosis of peripheral provide localisation of brachial plexus lesions (table 1). The
neuropathy is achieved by nerve conduction studies which same logical principles as are employed in clinical examina-
can differentiate the two major types—axonal degeneration tion pertain—except that EMG has the added bonus of
and demyelinating. EMG, however, can give additional showing abnormality in clinically unaffected muscles. For

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NEUROLOGY IN PRACTICE

Table 1 Innervation of upper limb muscles

Muscle Nerve Cord Trunk Roots

Supraspinatus Suprascapular – Upper C4,C5, C6

Deltoid Axillary Posterior Upper C5, C6
Biceps Musculo-cutaneous Lateral Upper C5, C6
Brachioradialis Radial Posterior Upper C5, C6
FCR Median Lateral and medial Upper and middle C6, C7, C8 ii35
EDC Radial Posterior Lower and middle C7, C8, T1
Triceps Radial Posterior Upper C7, C8, T1
APB Median Medial Lower C7, C8
FCU Ulnar Medial Lower C8, T1
FDI Ulnar Medial Lower C8, T1

APB, abductor pollicis brevis; EDC, extensor digitorum communis; FCR, flexor carpi radialis; FCU, flexor carpi
ulnaris; FDI, first dorsal interosseous.

example, a posterior cord lesion of the brachial plexus would document the existence of an upper motor neurone lesion;
show denervation in deltoid, triceps and EDC, but biceps this is especially useful in those cases of ALS presenting as an
would be normal. initially pure lower motor neurone syndrome (progressive
muscular atrophy).
MOTOR NEURONE DISEASES More chronic motor neurone diseases, either inherited (for
In the absence of a reliable marker for idiopathic amyotrophic example, spinal muscular atrophies) or acquired (for
lateral sclerosis (ALS), EMG forms the cornerstone of example, poliomyelitis), are characterised by pronounced
diagnosis. Conditions that simulate ALS must be eliminated chronic partial denervation changes evidenced by large (15–
and there must be clear evidence of widespread denervation 20 mV) simple shaped motor unit potentials with little if any
before a secure diagnosis can be entertained. The conditions fibrillation.
simulating ALS include cervical myelopathy with radiculo- The two above examples typify the way prognostic
pathy which can easily produce upper motor neurone estimates are made in ALS. The balance between acute
features in the legs with lower motor neurone features in denervation and the effects of re-innervation influences the
the arms, and multifocal motor neuropathy with conduction degree to which acute (fibrillation) and chronic (large motor
block in which reflexes are usually retained and fascicula- units) changes are found on EMG.
tions may be evident. In the former, it is clearly mandatory to
show evidence of a lower motor neurone component in
PRIMARY MUSCLE DISEASE
muscles innervated by nerves emerging above the foramen
In general, the EMG in primary muscle disease of any origin
magnum. Thus trapezius, sternomastoid, and the tongue are
is similar and making distinctions between, say, hereditary
examined for evidence of fasciculation and/or chronic partial
and acquired myopathy is difficult. Motor unit potentials are
denervation. The tongue is particularly important because of
small and spiky and the recruitment pattern becomes full
its frequent involvement in ALS. The submental approach to
with just a small contraction. In inflammatory muscle disease
the tongue is preferred and the needle position adjusted or
where there is active degeneration of muscle fibres, fibrilla-
‘‘tuned’’ with a slight activation of the tongue by asking the
tions may be seen, but this is not universal or specific. In
patient to press the tongue gently against the bottom teeth.
muscle diseases which show large variation in fibre diameter,
Complete relaxation of the tongue is rarely achieved, but
such as the muscular dystrophies, there may be large motor
fasciculations can sometimes be recognised by the fact that
units on a background of small spiky units, presumably
they occur as an isolated discharge and are much larger than
arising from large diameter fibres. In cases of Lambert-Eaton
the ongoing voluntary activity (fig 1C). A partially denervated
myasthenic syndrome (LEMS), the EMG can look myopathic
tongue often produces the characteristic sound of high
because so many muscle fibres have neuromuscular block;
firing rate motor units even though the amplitudes may
the EMG becomes more normal if the patient is able to
not be excessively large. In multifocal motor neuropathy,
maintain a voluntary contraction. In any case where a
conduction block, usually in the innervation of a small hand
myopathic EMG is found, LEMS should be considered and
muscle and usually not at a common entrapment site, is
should be investigated by measuring the amplitude of a
demonstrated by motor nerve conduction studies.
compound muscle action potential evoked by nerve stimula-
Fasciculations in multifocal motor neuropathy (MMN) are
tion before and after exercise.
focal and occur only in muscles showing conduction block;
indeed, they are believed to arise at the focal area of block.
Muscles that are clinically unaffected in MMN show no REFERENCES
EMG abnormality, in contrast to ALS where clinically 1 Aminoff, MJ. Electromyography in clinical practice. 3rd ed. New York:
Churchill Livingstone, 1997:1–630.
unaffected muscles commonly show fasciculations and 2 Brown WF, Bolton CF, eds. Clinical electromyography. Boston: Butterworth-
partial denervation. Heinemann, 1993:1–810.
The best approach to ALS is to show normal motor and 3 Delisa JA, Lee HJ. Manual of nerve conduction and surface anatomy for
needle electromyography. Philadelphia: Lippincott, Williams and Wilkins,
sensory nerve conduction in the arms and legs and then to 2004:1–301.
use EMG to demonstrate widespread fasciculations and 4 Dumitru D, Amata, A, Zwarts M. Electrodiagnostic medicine. Amsterdam:
Elsevier, 2002:1–1524.
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The basics of electromyography

K R Mills

J Neurol Neurosurg Psychiatry 2005 76: ii32-ii35

doi: 10.1136/jnnp.2005.069211

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