Questions Your Doctor May Ask - and Why!
During a consultation, your doctor will use various techniques in his assesment of the symptom: Muscle cramps.
These may include a physical examination or other medical tests.
Your doctor may ask several questions when assessing
your condition. It is important to remember that your consultation is a two-way process and any extra information
you can share with your doctor may help them with their diagnosis.
Some of the questions your doctor may ask are listed below:
- How long have you had muscle cramps?
Why: to determine if acute or chronic.
- What exactly do you mean by cramps?
Why: Cramps are painful muscle spasms.
- Which muscles in the body are involved?
Why: e.g. Forearm cramps suggest motor neurone disease. Cramp in the legs are common, especially at night and after exercise. Cramps in the legs are only occasionally a symptom of disease, in particular salt depletion, lack of blood flow to a muscle and disease of a muscle (myopathy). Writer's cramp is the specific compliant of an inability to perform the motor act of writing.
- When do the cramps occur?
Why: e.g. at night, in bed, after exercise.
- Is there a simple explanation for the muscle cramps?
Why: e.g. exertion, exercise, excessive perspiration, heat exhaustion, heat stroke, pregnancy.
- Exercise history?
Why: excessive physical exercise and excessive perspiration may cause muscle cramps.
- Fluid intake?
Why: dehydration may cause muscle cramps.
- History of injury or trauma?
Why: muscular injury may cause cramps.
- Risk factors for leg muscle cramps?
Why: e.g. pregnancy, motor neurone disease, low sodium, hemodialysis, renal failure, diabetes, dehydration, thyroiditis, after exertion in a hot environment (heat cramps).
- Risk factors for peripheral vascular disease?
Why: e.g. cigarette smoking, high blood pressure, high cholesterol, diabetes, atrial fibrillation, family history - may indicate intermittent claudication as cause for leg pain (leg pain is not typical leg cramps).
- Past medical history?
Why: e.g motor neurone disease, kidney failure, diabetes, thyroiditis.
- Medications?
Why: some diuretic medications may cause muscle cramps.
Questions your doctor may ask about related symptoms:
Sometimes, other symptoms may be present and may help your doctor analyse
your condition. These may include:
- Symptoms of polymyositis and dermatomyositis?
Why: e.g. muscle weakness, especially in thighs and upper arms, muscle aches, muscle cramps, joint pain, Raynaud's phenomenon, difficulty with swallowing. Dermatomyositis also features a characteristic violet colored rash over the eyelids, forehead, cheeks, hands, knees and elbows.
- Symptoms of chronic renal failure?
Why: e.g. tiredness, reduced appetite, insomnia, frequency of urination, nausea, vomiting, muscle cramps.
- Symptoms of Diabetes mellitus?
Why: e.g. frequency of urination, excessive thirst, weight loss (especially in Type 1 Diabetes mellitus), tiredness, fatigue, increased infections especially of the skin and genitals, blurry vision, muscle cramps.
- Symptoms of progressive muscular atrophy?
Why: e.g. muscle wasting and weakness usually beginning in the small muscles of one hand and then spreads throughout the arm, wasting soon follows on the opposite side, muscle cramps may occur. Muscle fasciculations (irregular contractions of small areas of muscle which have no rhythmical pattern) are present at rest but not during voluntary movement).
» Next page: Types of Muscle cramps
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