A comparison of EMG and muscle biopsy in ICU weakness.

Background: Patients can become weak in ICU from various etiologies and mechanisms. Establishing the diagnosis is invaluable for prognostic determination and specific management. We evaluated the relative contributions of clinical, laboratory, electomyographic studies (EMG), and percutaneous muscle biopsy (MB) in determining the cause of muscular weakness that developed in a series of patients while in ICU.