Needle Biopsy of Skeletal Muscle in the Diagnosis of Myopathy and the Clinical Study of Muscle Function and Repair

Publisher Website
Google Scholar
Abstract
CONSIDERABLE use has been made of needle biopsy for diagnostic and investigative purposes in recent years.1 However, many organs in man, including liver, kidney, and brain, are unsuitable for direct functional studies based on repeated biopsies, and hence the relation between structure, function, and underlying biochemical processes, particularly in disease, has remained obscure. An understanding of the essential "metabolic" function of many organs has evolved with an understanding of the underlying chemical processes, investigated in animals and determined in man generally by indirect methods. The function of muscle is to produce force and to do work — properties that may . . .