I am not trying to get on Pole's case for his post but I think it is important on this board to have the whole story before posting something that you know in advance will cause problems. I do realize that not everyone has access to every medical journal cited on the internet, but a better approach might be to ask on the board if someone can get the complete article for you before giving out partial information.
I read Pole's post and went to the hyperlink which is an abstract of a short article in the journal Neurology. So I went to my library and checked out the Whole article. What the abstract fails to mention is that this man (61 years old) had a markedly abnormal EMG from the first time he was tested (increased insertional activity, fibrillations, positive sharp waves and diminished interference pattern). This was in August 1983, but his weakness didn't begin until summer of 1984 (four years prior to onset of fasciculations).
The bottom line here is that this patient had an abnormal EMG from the first time it was tested and severely abnormal (with denervation) when he was retested at the onset of weakness.
If anything this should reinforce to everyone that an EMG will show abnormalities well in advance of weakness and should comfort those folks that had a normal EMG early in the course of their symptoms!
Once again Pole I'm not picking on you specifically, I'm just suggesting what might be a better approach for all of us in future posts.