• Bert U Kleine, Werner A Boekestein, Ilse M P Arts, Machiel J Zwarts, H Jurgen Schelhaas, and Dick F Stegeman.
• Donders Institute for Brain, Cognition and Behaviour, Department of Neurology, Radboud University Nijmegen Medical Centre, Nijmegen, The Netherlands. kleineb@kempenhaeghe.nl
• Clin Neurophysiol. 2012 Feb 1; 123 (2): 399-405.

ObjectiveTo compare the prevalence of fasciculation potentials (FPs) with F-responses between patients with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) and patients with benign fasciculations.MethodsIn seven patients with ALS and seven patients with benign fasciculations, high-density surface EMG was recorded for 15 min from the gastrocnemius muscle. Template matching was used to search for pairs of FPs with a repetition within 10-110 ms.ResultsInterspike interval (ISI) histograms were constructed from 282 pairs of benign fasciculations and from 337 FP pairs in ALS. Peaks attributable to F-waves were found at latencies of 32 ms (benign) and 35 ms (ALS). Five patients with benign fasciculations and four patients with ALS had FPs with F-waves.ConclusionsF-waves of FPs occur in both conditions - therefore they are not diagnostically helpful.SignificanceF-waves confirm the distal origin of FPs for an individual axon. The occurrence of these FPs in a benign condition suggests that the generation of ectopic discharges in the distal axons is not specific to progressive neurodegeneration.Copyright © 2011 International Federation of Clinical Neurophysiology. Published by Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.

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