Abstract
Percutaneous needle biopsy was carried out in 75 patients with various neurological and muscle diseases and its usefulness as a diagnostic procedure was evaluated. The subjects consisted of 34 cases with myopathies, 22 lower and 6 upper motor neuron diseases, and 13 unlocalized or miscellaneous diseases. The ages were from 2 months to 35 years. Seventyseven percent of the patients were less than six years of age. The material obtained was processed routinely for histological, histochemical and electron microscopical examinations.
The results were as follows:
1. The muscle volume obtained by needle biopsy was sufficient for studies in 64 cases (85%), insufficient in 8 (11%), while in 3 cases no samples were obtained.
2. Histological staining properties were excellent in all samples examined. In histochemical preparations, staining was judged as good in 61 cases, but poor in 11 with inappropriate freezing procedure.
3. In 33 cases, both the needle and open biopsies were carried out simultaneously, and the morphological findings of each specimen were compared. There were no significant differences between them histologically as well as histochemically. Electron microscopic examinations provided also an identical information each other in seven cases studied till now.
4. The authors recognized that the method of needle biopsy has many advantages over open biopsy as a routine diagnostic procedure of neuromuscular disorders in infants and young children, but a few disadvantages such as requirement of technical skillfulness and inappropriateness for the histogram construction were also noticed as well.
