A word of caution is in order: In manually resisting the patient’s attempts to contract the large and powerful trunk and girdle muscles, the examiner may fail to detect slight degrees of weakness, particularly in well-muscled individuals. These muscle groups are best examined by having the patient use the muscle groups for their intended purposes: squat and kneel and then assume the erect posture, arise from and, walk on toes and heels, and lift a heavy object (e.g., this textbook) over his head. The strength of muscles of the hand can be quantified with a dynamometer; for research purposes, similar but more sophisticated devices exist for other muscle groups (see Fenichel et al). Nonetheless, the examiner should not dismiss the patient’s complaint of weakness simply if it cannot be substantiated by the examination.
Changes in the Contractile Process
These processes relate to qualitative changes in muscle contraction. In the myasthenic states there is a rapid failure of contraction in the affected muscles during sustained or repetitive activity. For instance, after the patient looks upward at the ceiling for a few minutes, the eyelids progressively droop; closing the eyes and resting the levator palpebrae muscles cause the ptosis to lessen or disappear. Similarly, holding the eyes in a far lateral position will induce diplopia and strabismus. These effects, in combination with restoration of power by the administration of neostigmine or edrophonium, are the most valuable clinical criteria for the diagnosis of myasthenia gravis, as described in Chap. 46.
The opposite of the myasthenic phenomenon, an increment in power with a series of several voluntary contractions is a feature of the Lambert-Eaton myasthenic syndrome, which is associated in approximately 50 percent of cases with small cell carcinoma of the lung. The same increment occurs in botulism. In both instances there is an increase in the amplitude of compound muscle action potentials on the nerve conduction studies obtained following brief exercise (10 to 15 s), or at high rates of repetitive nerve stimulation (20 to 50 Hz), as described in Chap. 46.
Other abnormalities may be discovered by observing the speed and efficiency of contraction and relaxation during one or a series of maximal actions of a group of muscles. In myxedema, for example, stiffness and slowness of contraction in a muscle such as the quadriceps may be seen on change in posture (contraction myoedema) and by direct percussion of a muscle, and there is an associated prolonged duration of the tendon reflexes. Slowness in relaxation of muscles is another feature of hypothyroidism, accounting for the complaint of uncomfortable tightness of proximal limb muscles. A curious rippling phenomenon in muscles may be the result of several processes and occurs as an inherited autosomal dominant trait. After a period of relaxation, stiffening and rippling occur in the contracting or stretched muscles.
A prolonged failure of relaxation following contraction of a muscle is characteristic of myotonia, which typifies certain diseases: myotonia congenita, myotonic dystrophy, and paramyotonia congenita (attached to Eulenburg’s name). True myotonia, with its prolonged discharge of membrane action potentials, requires strong contraction to elicit, is more evident after a period of relaxation, and tends to disappear with repeated contractions as discussed further in relation to the ion channel disorders of muscle in Chap. 46. This persistence of contraction is demonstrable also by tapping a muscle (percussion myotonia), a phenomenon easily distinguished from the electrically silent local bulge (myoedema) induced by tapping the muscle of a myxedematous or cachetic patient and from the brief fascicular contraction that is induced by tapping a normal or partially denervated muscle; the latter is referred to as idiomuscular contraction. In paramyotonia congenita one observes paradoxical myotonia, which refers to an increase in the degree of myotonia during a series of contractions (the reverse of what happens in the usual type of myotonia).