Muscle MRI in adult myopathies

The use of MRI in patients with neuromuscular disorders has multiple purposes and advantages. Actually muscle MRI should be part of the normal diagnostic procedure together with CK measurement and neurophysiological (NCV, EMG) examinations in more or less all patients.

For diagnostic purposes all muscular dystrophies and many other progressive myopathies have certain patterns of muscles that are more and other muscles which are less involved with fatty degenerative changes. These patterns can be used for the diagnostic interpretation in relation to other findings, including genetic results. Inflammatory muscle diseases go with edema of the muscle tissue which can be visualized by fat suppression sequences.

The different degrees of muscle involvement can also be used for the optimal targeting of the muscle biopsy in order to obtain maximal information from the procedure.

MRI has been extensively studied as an outcome measure in genetic muscle diseases and provides an objective tool for therapy trials but also for the regular clinician the therapeutic effect of treatments in inflammatory muscle disease can be readily monitored by muscle MRI.

And a normal muscle MRI study may also provide powerful information in relation to subjective symptoms.