Minor atrophy and spasticity in the same limb?

[Corriel]

Hi everyone, my seemingly neverending arm saga hit an odd turn yesterday during a massage.

It has been 3 months since my last massage and my RMT noted some "minor" muscle atrophy near my bicep. Previous to this that same bicep often had increased tone so I thought if any muscle would get weak it would be the opposing tricep.

I do take 20 mg of Baclofen daily and have noticed that the frequency of the tone is less than it had been but a couple of months ago I noticed an occasional crease below the bicep in the skin that came and went with tightness and the RMT couldn't find anything there.

This is my dominant arm so lack of use shouldn't be a factor and I plan to ask my neuro about all of this when I see him next month but I was wondering if anyone could help me understand how this sort of thing happens. To say I am perplexed is putting it mildly and atrophy seems like a really bad sign to me no matter how mild.

Thanks!
Corrie

[Corriel]

Thanks ladies!

Alex, I have an appointment already at the rehab centre that I occasionally go to. They have a weird OT/PT set up there and PT does legs and OT does arms. Go figure. My appointment is for some cognitive assessments but I will make sure she knows about this latest development so we can act sooner rather than later.

ess, I actually hadn't considered that my neuro wouldn't know what to do/care to do anything and that's a darned good point. When I had the hand and arm weakness earlier this year he didn't seem to think it was MS related since my MRIs don't show a c-spine lesion so all he did was offer steroids and do a nerve conduction study. He's left me dangling since then, hence my appointment next month.

JJ, like you this just seems like a very odd location. The tone has always been in the bicep and I understood that it could make my tricep weak since it was the opposing muscle but it wasn't the tricep that had atrophy and in my stunned state when it was noted that it didn't occur to me to ask what that area was called.

I know which exercise she asked me to do and said that the muscle barely contracted when I did it so I'm hopeful the OT next week can provide some more info. All I know is that it is very close to the bicep so it didn't make sense to me either being that close to a muscle with increased tone.

Somehow, I think this connects to the issue I had earlier this year when that hand got extraordinarily weak and my neuro noted the upper arm was weak too. I got a lot of the strength back in a relatively short time but no more than 85% and that's where it has stayed.

Thanks again and I will let you know how I make out next Thurs at the rehab center.

Corrie

[supermum_ms]

I know that there are two types of muscle atrophy, disuse and neurogenic and MSers experience both. Unlike disuse atrophy that happen's over time the neurogenic type is suppose to be sudden.

MS effects the nerves that control muscle function, causing muscle weakness, spasticity, low or clonic tone etc and the way I sorta understand it, is that if the nerve is not getting through to the muscle it can result in isolated muscle fibre shrinkage and atrophy. I actually thought that increase tone ie spasticity in a specific muscle would be less likely to atrophy, i probably don't understand this issue well enough sorry!

Cheers.........JJ      

[essdipity]

I agree with Alex. A good PT who understands neurological diseases is the person to see. Neuros very likely don''t have the specific knowledge about muscles that PTs do, nor do most of them have the interest.

Keep us posted.

ess

[HVAC]

The atrophy is just MS. If it were me I would try to get into PT a soon as I could. Atrophy happens fast. My MS side is actually my stronger side which I can't figure out. It is a weird disease.

Alex