S101. A novel automatized F-wave MUNE method: A preliminary analysis

Introduction The aim of this study was to test a novel automatized F-wave MUNE method by comparing its results with those elicited with the manual method performed in patients with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) and healthy controls. Methods Ninety F-waves elicited with supramaximal stimuli were recorded from thenar and hypothenar muscles in 10 ALS patients and 4 healthy controls. For manual analysis, F-waves with the same amplitude, latency and shape were selected visually by the same examiner. For automatized analysis, similar signals were grouped according to latencies of negative and positive peaks and peak-to-peak amplitudes in MATLAB by using the original software developed for this study. The mean amplitudes of F-waves repeating more than once were defined as sMUPs and MUNE value for each case was calculated by dividing the CMAP amplitude by mean sMUP amplitude. Results Data of two healthy controls and 1 ALS patient were excluded from the analysis since no repeater F-waves were detected by one of the methods. sMUP and F-wave MUNE values calculated by both methods were found to be highly correlated (Spearman’s rho, p μ V and 406.55  μ V, respectively in thenar muscles and 412.53  μ V and 332.77  μ V in hypothenar muscles). Similar F-wave MUNE values were also calculated by using both methods (26.00 and 28.58, respectively in thenar muscles and 36.04 and 30.18 in hypothenar muscles). Conclusion Our automatized F-wave MUNE method seems to be promising in reflecting motor unit numbers in the hand muscles in patients with ALS and healthy controls.