EMG Test Specialists Serving in Metro Detroit Area in Clinton Township & St. Clair Shores, MI

Get the best diagnosis and treatment for your neuromuscular disorders at Michigan Neurology Associates & Pain Consultants

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Specialized Features Offered at Michigan Neurology Associates & Pain Consultants

Advanced diagnostic and treatment technology
Top-rated full service clinical neuroscience facility
Board-certified and subspeciality trained doctors
Optimized turnaround time
Quality and reliable on-site lab and imaging services
Online appointments

Assured Treatment of Your Nerves and Muscles(Neuromuscular System) Based on Our Advanced Electrodiagnostic Tests

The specialists at Michigan Neurology Associates & Pain Consultants treat a full range of medical conditions related to nerve damage and muscle disorders. To enable them to provide the best treatment plan for our patients throughout the Metro Detroit area, both centers at Clinton Township and St. Clair Shores, MI, are equipped with the most advanced on-site lab and diagnostic equipment and technology including Electromyography (EMG) and Nerve Conduction (NVC) diagnostic procedures.

We are open Monday through Friday. Our trained technicians perform the EMG and other diagnostic testing procedures to provide you with accurate and timely results that better inform our doctors to plan the course of treatment and also shared with your primary care doctor.

What is an EMG?

Electromyography (EMG) is an electrodiagnostic procedure that assesses the health of your muscles and the nerve cells that control muscle activity. It is used to identify several simple nerve entrapment syndromes like carpal tunnel syndrome, spinal nerve root injury(radiculopathy) or generalized nerve disorder(polyneuropathy). The test is routinely performed in conjunction with the Nerve Conduction Velocity (NCV) for the comprehensive results.

For the EMG test, our technician provider inserts a thin needle testing shock (at the intensity of a “carpet shock”) fitted with an electrode directly into the muscle to record the electrical activity that the muscle tissue exhibits in certain disease states.

Why Do I Need an EMG?

If when your doctor at Michigan Neurology Associates & Pain Consultants performs a physical examination detects symptoms suggesting a neuromuscular disease, they may recommend an EMG for an accurate diagnosis of your condition. The symptoms include:

Pain in the limbs
Muscle pain or cramping
Muscle weakness
Numbness and tingling sensations
Involuntary muscle movements (fasciculations)

An EMG is effectively used to diagnose several nerve dysfunctions, muscle dysfunctions, or conditions in which there are nerve-to-muscle signal transmission issues such as:

Carpal tunnel syndrome or peripheral neuropathies: disorders of the nerves outside the spinal cord
Myasthenia gravis: a disease that affects the connection between the nerve and the muscle
Polio or amyotrophic lateral sclerosis(ALS): disorders in the motor neurons located in the brain or spinal cord
Muscular dystrophy or polymyositis: rheumatica or dermatomyositis
Herniated disk in the spine: a nerve root disorder

EMG is also used to rule out several other conditions that may display similar symptoms.

What Can I Expect During an EMG?

Depending on the treatment area, our technician will ask you to sit or lie down and to disrobe if needed. They then will attach a ground electrode to your skin then clean the area to be stimulated while then recording from the nerve or a related muscle site. Only the physician will insert the needle electrode. The needle used for the EMG procedure is similar to the fine needles used in acupuncture and is Teflon-coated, causing little to no discomfort once inserted through the skin.

The electrode under the skin records the electrical activity of the muscles, so during the procedure your doctor may ask you to contract and release your muscles a few times to study its effects on the muscle activity and their control. The test can be completed within 30 minutes.

Other Types of Electrodiagnostic Testing

Electrodiagnostic medicine allows sensitive, objective testing that increases the accuracy of a specialized neurological exam. We also offer other electrodiagnostic testing procedures such as:

1. Evoked potential (EP) studies: measures the electrical activity in your brain in response to different stimuli such as light, sound, and nerve stimulations. They also check the connectivity along the myelinated pathways in your brain and spinal cord. These tests diagnose several conditions such as tumors, multiple sclerosis (MS), or other spinal cord or nerve root-related diseases.

At Michigan Neurology Associates & Pain Consultants, our team uses three types of evoked potential studies for the correct diagnosis of diseases. They are:

Visual evoked potential (VEP) test Measures the electrical signals from your retina to your visual cortex as they produce electrical responses to visual stimuli. It can sensitively diagnose optic nerve disorders that negatively impact your eyesight and could benefit from prompt treatment.
Brainstem auditory evoked response (BAER) test Measures the electrical signals the auditory pathway in your brain produces in response to sound stimuli and helps diagnose disorders of the auditory nerve, auditory pathway, and brainstem-related issues.
Somatosensory evoked potential (SSEP) test Measures the time taken by the nerve signals to travel from your peripheral nerves to the brain via the spinal cord and can diagnose disorders within the brain and the spinal cord.
Videonystagmography (VNG) tests Measures the physiologic integrity of the balance(vestibular) system and is used in diagnosing the cause of symptoms for vertigo, imbalance, unexplained falls, or a false sense of motion which may be due to inner ear disorder or involves the vestibular nerve and any of the associated brain stem connections.