Introduction: Critical illness myoneuropathy (CIMN) or intensive care unit (ICU)-acquired weakness (AW) is a common cause of weakness in ICU patients. Guillain-Barre syndrome (GBS) is also a common cause of acute neurological weakness in the ICU. It is diagnosed by clinical features, nerve conduction studies (NCS), and muscle/nerve biopsies.
Methods: The short tau inversion recovery (STIR) muscle magnetic resonance (MR) images of seven patients with suspected CIMN and seven GBS patients over a 5-year period from February 2015 till May 2020 were analyzed.
Results: All seven patients with CIMN showed diffuse muscle edema, predominating in the lower limbs. Only one patient with GBS showed abnormal magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) changes (14%) and MRI was normal in 86%. The sensitivity of MRI to detect CIMN was 100%, whereas the specificity was 85.7%. Thus, the positive predictive value (PPV) of MRI in this situation was 87.5% and the negative predictive value (NPV) was 100%.
Conclusion: Muscle STIR imaging may help to differentiate between CIMN and GBS.
How to cite this article: Maramattom BV. Screening Power of Short Tau Inversion Recovery Muscle Magnetic Resonance Imaging in Critical Illness Myoneuropathy and Guillain-Barre Syndrome in the Intensive Care Unit. Indian J Crit Care Med 2022;26(2):204-209.
Keywords: Critical illness myoneuropathy; Critical illness myoneuropathy and magnetic resonance imaging; Critical illness myopathy; Magnetic resonance imaging; Magnetic resonance imaging critical illness polyneuropathy; Magnetic resonance imaging muscle imaging; Magnetic resonance imaging muscle in intensive care unit.
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