Lecture Details

Critical illness neuropathy and myopathy
Gerald Cooray

I completed my medical degree at Uppsala University, Uppsala, 2006. I did a PhD in clinical neuroscience at Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm, 2010. Specialist training in Clinical Neurophysiology was done at Karolinska University Hospital, Stockholm. I worked for 2 years as a consultant at the same hospital before moving to Great Ormond Street Hospital in 2020.

This is a study investigating acquired muscle paralysis in patients treated in intensive care with invasive ventilation1. We describe the results of electrophysiological and biochemical investigations in an attempt to further characterize the cause of the muscle paralysis into either myopathic or neuropathic origin. 142 patients from (Akademiska Universitetssjukhuset, Uppsala and Karolinska Universitetssjukhuset, Stockholm) were included in the study and investigated using nerve conduction and needle electromyography studies together with biochemical analyses of myosin- actin ratios. The correlation between the diagnostic tests are described and discussed. We will present suggestions on which diagnostic tests are useful in investigating patients with acquired weakness. Furthermore, we will give a short survey on our experience at Great Ormond Street Hospital, London, with the electrophysiological presentation of acquired weakness in the intensive care setting for paediatric patients with either COVID-19 or Paediatric Inflammatory Multisystem Syndrome.