DIAGNOSIS CHECKLIST
for Muscle spasms

Why: to determine if acute or chronic.

Why: The word spasm may be used by people to describe muscle cramps, tics, twitches, chorea and seizures. Cramps are painful muscle spasms. Tics are brief, repeated stereotyped movements. Chorea is a continuous flow of jerky movements, flitting randomly from one limb or part to another; each movement looks like a fragment of a normal movement. Seizures may involve muscle stiffness and jerking.

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. Tics most commonly occur on the face, neck or hand.

Why: e.g. at night, in bed, after exercise.

Why: e.g. muscle cramps may be caused by exertion, exercise, excessive perspiration, heat exhaustion, heat stroke or pregnancy.

Why: excessive physical exercise and excessive perspiration may cause muscle cramps.

Why: dehydration may cause muscle cramps.

Why: muscular injury may cause cramps or tics.

Why: e.g. pregnancy, motor neurone disease, low sodium, hemodialysis, renal failure, diabetes, dehydration, thyroiditis, after exertion in a hot environment (heat cramps).

Why: e.g motor neurone disease, kidney failure, diabetes, thyroiditis; tics occur in post encephalitis lethargica; obsessive compulsive disorder is associated with Gilles de la Tourette syndrome; Causes of chorea are Huntington's disease, Sydenham's chorea, systemic lupus erythematosus, Wilson's disease, thyrotoxicosis, polycythaemia and neuroacanthosis; hemifacial spasm may be related to acoustic neuroma, Paget's disease, Bell's palsy.

Why: some diuretic medications may cause muscle cramps; some medications may cause tics; some medications may cause chorea such as L-dopa and contraceptive steroids.

Why: e.g. muscle weakness, especially in thighs and upper arms, muscle aches, muscle cramps (spasms), 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.

Why: e.g. tiredness, reduced appetite, insomnia, frequency of urination, nausea, vomiting, muscle cramps (spasms).

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 (spasms).

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).

Why: e.g. muscle tics with irrepressible, explosive, occasionally obscene language.

Why: e.g. preference for cooler weather, increased appetite, heart palpitations, increased sweating, nervousness, irritability, diarrhea, lack of menstrual periods and proptosis (forward displacement of the eyeball). May sometimes cause chorea type movements.

Why: e.g. irregular spasm of the facial muscles on one side of the face including twitching of the eye, usually occurring in middle-aged women.