Fibromyalgia is a disease shrouded in mystery. Doctors have a hard time distinguishing its characteristics, and fibromyalgia diagnosis is even more challenging to pin down. However, recent research published in the European Journal of Rheumatology revealed that many patients who suffer from fibromyalgia also showed signs of neuromuscular hyperexcitability (NMH), which is characterized by frequent muscle spasms and the inability to control musculoskeletal movement.
If the two conditions are indeed connected, physicians may be better able to diagnose patients with fibromyalgia by testing for NMH.
The Ischemia-Hyperpnea Test
Research performed for the study, entitled "Ischemia-hyperpnea test is useful to detect patients with fibromyalgia syndrome," sought to determine the efficacy of using the ischemia-hyperpnea test (IHT), which is ordinarily used to detect NMH, in diagnosing patients with fibromyalgia.
145 patients who had already received a fibromyalgia diagnosis submitted to an electromyography (EMG) test that medical professionals use to help decide whether or not patients may be suffering from fibromyalgia. It helps find alterations in muscle activity, from which doctors can determine whether the muscle pain symptoms match those of fibromyalgia.
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| Common sources of discomfort for fibromyalgia patients. Source: ssa.gov |
The EMG helped to rule out the possibility of muscle or nerve damage. Patients then underwent the IHT to find out if they experienced NMH. The results found that 62.52% of patients who took the EMG and came out without muscle or nerve damage also tested positive for NMH. Only 22.76% came out negative, and the remaining were borderline. At nearly 63%, the patients whose EMG and NMH correlated were a strong majority.
What Do the Results Mean?
The researchers didn't stop at evaluating the IHT as an instrument for diagnosing fibromyalgia. They also evaluated the patients' quality of life, disabilities, state of happiness, pain scores, and the quality of their sleep. They found that patients who tested positive on the IHT also indicated serious fatigue, low vitality, low social capability, and poor mental clarity.
Major symptoms such as muscle spasms tend to interfere with daily life for patients who deal with fibromyalgia. There are treatments available, but testing for fibromyalgia and diagnosing patients with the disease make it troublesome for even highly trained physicians to create individualized treatment plans.
If the correlation between neuromuscular hyperexcitability and fibromyalgia proves to be a strong one, medical professionals can expect to have an easier time offering treatments for pain and muscle spasms to patients who would otherwise be unable to receive an accurate diagnosis.
Treatments plans could help patients learn to lead normal lives and continue to improve the potential of alternative testing to target fibromyalgia. An evolved understanding of the disease may someday allow researchers and doctors to discover a singular cause that could help wipe out the disease for good, but there are still many small steps necessary to reach such a lofty goal.
