1. Multi-dimensional electrical impedance myography of the tongue as a potential biomarker for amyotrophic lateral sclerosis.
- Author
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Alix, James J.P., McDonough, Harry E., Sonbas, Buket, French, Sophie J., Rao, D. Ganesh, Kadirkamanathan, Visakan, McDermott, Christopher J., Healey, T. Jamie, and Shaw, Pamela J.
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AMYOTROPHIC lateral sclerosis , *ELECTRIC impedance , *MANN Whitney U Test , *MUSCLE diseases , *ELECTRICAL impedance tomography , *FEATURE selection - Abstract
• Novel electrical impedance myography system uses electrodes on both surfaces of the tongue. • The device produces reliable data, even in inexperienced hands. • The results differentiate between healthy and ALS muscle and reveal disease change over time. In amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) bulbar disease biomarkers are lacking. We evaluated a novel tongue electrical impedance myography (EIM) system, utilising both 2D and 3D electrode configurations for detection of tongue pathology. Longitudinal multi-frequency phase angle spectra were recorded from 41 patients with ALS (baseline, 3 and 6 months) and 30 healthy volunteers (baseline and 6 months). ALS functional rating scale-revised (ALSFRS-R) data and quantitative tongue strength measurements were collected. EIM data were analysed for reliability (intra-class correlation coefficient; ICC) and differences between patients and volunteers ascertained using both univariate (Mann-Whitney U test) and multivariate techniques (feature selection and L2 norm). The device produced highly reliable data (pooled ICC: 0.836). Significant EIM differences were apparent between ALS patients and healthy volunteers (P < 0.001). EIM data demonstrated a significant relationship to tongue strength and bulbar ALSFRS-R scores (P < 0.015). The EIM recordings revealed a group level longitudinal change over 6 months and consistently identified patients in whom symptoms or tongue strength changed. The novel EIM tongue system produces reliable data and can differentiate between healthy muscle and ALS-related disease. Tongue EIM utilising multiple frequencies and electrode configurations has potential as a bulbar disease biomarker in ALS. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
- Published
- 2020
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