What does the medical abbreviation EMG mean?

Answer 1

EMG stands for: (1) electromyelograph, (2) electromyography, and (3) electromyogram. Respectively, these are: (1) equipment used to test the electrical activity of skeletal muscles, (2) a procedure or process of testing the electrical activity of skeletal muscles, and (3) the record of a test of the electrical activity of skeletal muscles. Because the electrical activity of muscle cells depends upon their health, these are used in the detection of "myopathies." A myopathy is any disease of muscle cells. Because the functioning and health of skeletal muscle cells also depends upon the activity of the "nerves" that control them, electromyelography is normally performed with a nerve conduction study, which evaluates the functioning of nerves. In other words, since a "myopathy" may be caused by a "neuropathy," a nerve conduction study is normally performed whenever electromyelography is. A neuropathy is a disease caused by damage to neurons (sometimes called "nerve cells") in either the "central nervous system" (brain and spinal cord) or the "peripheral nervous system" (outside of the brain and spinal cord). A group of neurons that are covered with the insulating material, "myelin," and which course together are called a "tract," within the brain and spinal cord, but, elsewhere, they form the cordlike structures known as "nerves."