The Nerve and Muscle Center offers an on-site nerve and muscle pathology laboratory. Muscle and Nerve biopsies are indicated for the diagnosis of certain muscle, nerve and systemic diseases. The purpose is to get tissue samples for analysis.

The tissue is frozen and a piece is saved for possible future studies and another sample for possible electronic microscopic studies. The frozen sections are stained and reacted for different reagents to disclose different pathological processes.

Muscle tissue may be sent out for detailed genetic and molecular studies if needed The procedure is done under local anesthesia and the interpretation is performed by Dr. Shaibani. The report is sent to the referring physician within 2 weeks or sooner.

Muscle and nerve biopsies are usually done Wednesday mornings. Information is sent out to the patients upon scheduling and post operative instructions are given after the consent is signed the day of surgery.

Our laboratory is proud to be certified by CLIA and the American Academy of Neurology.

Muscle Biopsies

Muscle biopsy is important for the diagnosis of many disorders such as:

  1. Dermatomyositis
  2. Polymyositis
  3. Inclusion Body Myositis
  4. Muscular Dystrophies
  5. Metabolic Myopathy|Metabolic Myopathies
  6. Mitochondrial Myopathies
  7. Amyloid Myopathy
  8. Vasculitis
  9. Congenital Myopathies
  10. Parasitic Myopathies

For muscle biopsy, the biceps or quadriceps of the non dominant side are you usually chosen.

Nerve Biopsy

For nerve biopsy, we usually biopsy the non dominant sural or superficial peroneal nerves. 
Nerve tissue is frozen and stained with several reagents. A piece is cut into one milimiter thickness samples after stained with Toluidine to delineate the shape, size, and other characteristics of the axons and myelin structures. 
Nerve biopsies are not as commonly indicated as muscle biopsies and the causes of many neuropathies can be diagnosed without a nerve biopsy.

The main indications of nerve biopsiey are:

  1. Vasculitis, Systemic or Confined to the PNS
  2. Amyloidosis. Even in this case, Systemi Amylodisis can be less invasively diagnosed with rectal or abdominal subcutaneous fat aspiration
  3. Leprosy
  4. Questionable CIDP with inconclusive NCS or normal CSF.