Neuromuscular Disease
Program Description
The Neuromuscular Clinic specializes in the diagnosis and management of patients with neuromuscular diseases. These include diseases of the anterior horn cell or motor neuron, peripheral nerves, neuromuscular junction and muscle. Specific expertise in our clinic includes the diagnosis and management of patients with diseases of:
- Peripheral nerves including hereditary neuropathies, acquired demyelinating neuropathies such as the Guillain-Barré syndrome (GBS), multifocal motor neuropathy with conduction block and chronic inflammatory demyelinating polyneuropathy (CIDP)
- Neuromuscular transmission including myasthenia gravis (MG) and the Lambert Eaton myasthenic syndrome (LEMS)
- Muscle including the inflammatory myopathies, toxic myopathies and hereditary myopathies including myotonic disorders, channelopathies and muscular dystrophies
Program Offering
- Access to a variety of methods of investigating neuromuscular diseases including electrophysiological testing (EMG and NCS), nerve and muscle biopsies with neuropathological interpretation and genetic testing
- Outpatient percutaneous core muscle biopsies performed by physicians in the neuromuscular clinic
- Open muscle and nerve biopsies performed by neurosurgeons
The neuromuscular clinic is closely associated with the EMG laboratory at University Campus. The EMG laboratory studies over 3000 patients a year, often for complicated disorders of peripheral nerve, neuromuscular transmission or muscle. There is also a close relationship with the ALS clinic, to which referrals of patients with motor neuron disease are often directed.
Program Faculty
Neurologists
- Timothy Doherty - MD, PhD, FRCP(C)
- Kurt Kimpinski - MD, PhD, BSc
- Michael Nicolle - MD, FRCPC D PhilChristen Shoesmith - MD, FRCPC
- Christen Shoesmith - MD, FRCPC
- Michael Strong - MD, FRCP(C), FANN, FCAHS
- Shannon Venance - MD, PhD, FRCPC
