Muskelultraschall in der neurologischen Diagnostik – ein Überblick

Abstract

In the eighties and nineties of the last century some interesting reports focused on ultrasound of the muscle in diagnostics of neuromuscular disorders. Different authors found changes in echo intensity and architecture of muscle as well as fasciculations. Unfortunately these findings mostly had no pathognomoneous aspect and were very common. Furthermore developments in imaging of muscle with MRI displaced myosonography from common diagnostics; it got lost in hibernation for about 15 years. But in the first decade of 20th century new high-resolution probes tremendously improved this technique. On the one hand it is actually possible to illustrate the muscle and the circumfluent tissue much better than before; on the other hand changes in echo intensity can be proved in detail caused by grey scale analysis. Furthermore high resolution sondes are able to detect fasciculations and fibrillitations as well. Together with the well known advantages– as velocity, cost and availability – these results could install ultrasound as a confirmed component in the diagnostic of neuromuscular disorders. In the following overview the actual possibilities and the future options of myosonography will be demonstrated.