Update – Neurophysiologische Methoden zur Bestimmung der Anzahl motorischer Einheiten in menschlichen Muskeln

The motor unit number is still the ideal measure for describing disease progression in diseases with loss of motor units. The absolute number of motor units as well as their course over time allow not only the description of disease-progression but also give information about regeneration mechanisms - on the one hand, reinnervation by collateral sprouting, and on the other hand, reinnervation by axon growth. An exact determination of the number of motor units is unfortunately not yet possible, but an estimation of functional motor units can be carried out with electrophysiological methods. Older methods for motor unit number estimation (MUNE) are extremely time consuming and often involve high outlay costs for equipment and investigator experience. The MUNIX method, first described in 2004, is easy to implement and far less time-consuming. MUNIX is very well suited for describing motor unit number loss if motor unit loss is known. However, recent investigations show that MUNIX cannot be used as a diagnostic method perse