There are three different types of muscle cells in the human body: striated, cardiac,
and smooth muscle. In routine clinical studies, the electrical activity of cardiac
muscle (electrocardiography, ECG) and of striated muscle (electromyography, EMG) has
been registered for decades. The electrical activity of smooth muscle organs, such
as the ureter,
4
uterus,
24
colon,
18
,
28
duodenum,
1
gaster,
17
trachea,
12
gall bladder,
13
and vessels,
11
has been registered mainly in a laboratory setting. Smooth muscle EMG did not find
widespread clinical use because the previously mentioned organs required surgical
exposition before EMG could be performed. In 1988 Gerstenberg and Wagner described
registration of the electrical activity of the cavernous smooth muscle.
3
,
26
Subsequently, corpus cavernosum EMG (CC-EMG) attracted much scientific attention
because the information on cavernous autonomic innervation and smooth muscle function
was crucial for therapeutic decision making in erectile dysfunction.
2
,
14
,
21
,
26
These clinical studies were corroborated by experimental data,
8
,
15
,
16
suggesting an important role for CC-EMG in the diagnosis of erectile dysfunction.Conflicting reports appeared in the literature on normal and abnormal CC-EMG recordings
owing to a missing consensus on the basic principles of the examination and the recording
parameters. To unify the efforts to improve CC-EMG and to allow reproducible and comparable
recordings, consensus meetings were held and internationally accepted standards agreed
upon.
9
,
22
Currently, there is a broad consensus among European centers involved in research
on CC-EMG. Interest in broader urologic or sexologic areas remains limited owing to
a lack of financial resources, and available therapeutic options for many causes of
eractile dysfunction dramatically have reduced the need for diagnostic procedures.To read this article in full you will need to make a payment
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Article info
Footnotes
Address reprint requests to Christian G. Stief, Department of Urology, Urologische Klinik, MHH, D-30623, Hannover, Germany, e-mail: stief.christian@mh-hannover.de
Identification
Copyright
© 2001 W. B. Saunders Company. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
