Quadriplegic areflexic ICU illness: Selective thick filament loss and normal nerve histology
Areflexic quadriplegia that occurs in the intensive care unit (ICU) is commonly ascribed to critical illness polyneuropathy based upon electrophysiology or muscle light microscopy. However, electron microscopy often documents a selective thick filament loss myopathy. Eight ICU patients who developed...
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Published in | Muscle & nerve Vol. 26; no. 4; pp. 499 - 505 |
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Main Authors | , , |
Format | Journal Article |
Language | English |
Published |
New York
Wiley Subscription Services, Inc., A Wiley Company
01.10.2002
Wiley |
Subjects | |
Online Access | Get full text |
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Summary: | Areflexic quadriplegia that occurs in the intensive care unit (ICU) is commonly ascribed to critical illness polyneuropathy based upon electrophysiology or muscle light microscopy. However, electron microscopy often documents a selective thick filament loss myopathy. Eight ICU patients who developed areflexic quadriplegia underwent biopsy. Seven patients had received steroids, and 2 had also received paralytic agents. Electrodiagnostic studies revealed absent or low‐amplitude motor responses in 7. Sensory responses were normal in 5 of 6 and absent in 1. Initial electromyography revealed absent (n = 3), small (n = 3), or polyphasic (n = 1) motor unit potentials, and diffuse fibrillation potentials (n = 5). In all 8, light microscopy of muscle revealed numerous atrophic‐angulated fibers and corelike lesions, and electron microscopy revealed extensive thick filament loss. Morphology of sural and intramuscular nerves, and, in one autopsied case, of the obturator nerve and multiple nerve roots, was normal. Although clinical, electrodiagnostic, and light microscopic features mimicked denervating disease, muscle electron microscopy revealed thick filament loss, and nerve histology was normal. This suggests that areflexic ICU quadriplegia is a primary myopathy and not an axonal polyneuropathy. © 2002 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Muscle Nerve 26: 499–505, 2002 |
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Bibliography: | istex:EF22F5A1B2E840DD365190843C959B39DBAEFA02 ArticleID:MUS10233 ark:/67375/WNG-VX4QVVT2-W ObjectType-Article-2 SourceType-Scholarly Journals-1 ObjectType-Feature-1 content type line 23 |
ISSN: | 0148-639X 1097-4598 |
DOI: | 10.1002/mus.10233 |