Human Botulism Studied With Single-Fiber Electromyography

Clinical spectrum of botulism

“…Single-fiber EMG studies typically, but not consistently, reveal increased jitter and blocking, which become less marked following activation. 40,87 Jitter is due to a variable delay at the synapse and is a measure of the safety factor of neuromuscular transmission. 87 Paradoxically, in 2 recent cases of wound botulism, increased jitter was found at high discharge rates.…”

F responses studied with single fibre EMG in normal subjects and spastic patients.

“…In contrast, the F response is always preceded by an identical M response and has a jitter only slightly greater than that of the M response, usually less than 50 ,ts ( Fig. 1) (Trontelj, 1973a;Schiller and Stalberg, 1977).…”

Stimulation single-fiber EMG in infant botulism

“…Others have studied volitional SFEMG in adults with type B botu- lism. 7,26 To our knowledge, there are no reports of infant botulism of either type, or adults with botulism type B, studied with S-SFEMG. Although volitional SFEMG study showed improvement in jitter at higher rates of activation, 7,26 Mandler and Maselli 13 reported the opposite finding.…”

“…7,26 To our knowledge, there are no reports of infant botulism of either type, or adults with botulism type B, studied with S-SFEMG. Although volitional SFEMG study showed improvement in jitter at higher rates of activation, 7,26 Mandler and Maselli 13 reported the opposite finding. They attributed their unexpected finding either to special characteristics of type A botulinum neurotoxin (see below) or to patchy nonuniform affection of nerve terminals.…”