Detection of Single Muscle Fiber Movements (Fibrations) in SMA Type I by High Resolution Ultrasound

Introduction: Movements of a group of muscle fibers innervated by a single motor unit (fasciculations) are detected by clinical inspection, electromyography and ultrasound. Up to now movements of single muscle fibers are realized just by electromyography and can be called fibrillations. We tried to analyze single muscle fibers by a new ultrasound technique and that was when we saw movements of single muscle fibers. Method: We examined three infants with spinal muscular atrophy (SMA) type I and typical deletion in the survival motor neuron (SMN) gene and ten children with other neuromuscular diseases by means of…