Key features include:
- The logical thinking process in every step of the diagnosis,
enabling readers to refine their own rationale in electrodiagnosis
- Challenging cases raising difficult yet interesting issues to electromyographers
- Three tables of contents to easily find interesting cases again
Edited by
Tai Ryoon Han, MD, PhD
Professor, Department of Rehabilitation Medicine
Seoul National University College of Medicine
Seoul National University Hospital
Preface
The value of experience is not in seeing much, but in seeing wisely.
(William Osler, 1894)
The start of this book, Electrodiagnostic Medicine in Practice: 50 Challenging Cases, can be traced back 25 years ago, when we embarked on a weekly electromyography case conference.
During the discussion on challenging cases of the previous week, it was the difficult and intriguing questions in the conference that made all our colleagues logic-based and technically refined. In recent decades, the diagnostic armamentarium available to physicians who treat patients with neuromuscular diseases has increased exponentially. Accordingly, our case conference has become more colorful with laboratory results, imaging studies and various genetic tests. However, we found that without a well-trained logical process, even a lot of information can lead to nowhere and sometimes to the wrong place.
Although there are excellent books of case studies, there is a paucity of literature on the purpose of a refinement of logic in electrodiagnostic medicine. For this purpose, we intentionally added a logical thinking process in every step of the diagnosis. Readers can follow the thought patterns of the contributors. Another unique feature of this book is its comprehensive coverage on the presented cases. It covers the initial presentation to the clinical course after adequate treatment or during regular visits. In addition, each case presents the results of the laboratory tests and imaging studies as well as the history and physical examination.
As noted in the title, the cases presented herein are challenging not simply because they are uncommon or unusual, but because they raised difficult issues to electromyographers. Although typical textbook cases are good educational materials for beginners, they are not intellectually interesting enough for experienced clinicians. This book poses challenging questions for physicians, fellows and residents who have practical experience in the diagnosis and treatment of patients with neuromuscular diseases. I hope this book will help readers refine and fine-tune both their understanding and practice.
The 50 cases are organized according to the presenting symptoms. Cases that manifested as focal problems of the upper and lower extremities are presented initially, followed by cases with generalized symptoms. Pediatric cases are placed in the end. The following three tables of contents are provided for the convenience of identifying the cases of concern: 1) table of content with the primary symptoms (in numerical order of case number), 2) with the final diagnosis and interesting aspects (in numerical order), and 3) with the final diagnosis (according to the disease categories).
Each case consists of pairs of unfolding information about the case and the subsequent development of a differential diagnosis. A list of differential diagnoses is made and revised after a dex_scription of the history, physical examination and laboratory results, electrophysiological data, and additional studies. The discussion and references were kept succinct.
I am very grateful to the contributors for their devotion to this book. In particular, I want to acknowledge the following colleagues for their reviews and comments: Byung-Mo Oh (one of the contributors), So-Ra Baek, Joon-Beom Hong, Jong-Yub Lim, and all the residents in our department. Special thanks go to the staff of Koonja publishing company.
Tai Ryoon Han, MD, PhD
Seoul, Korea
