Muscle cramps Assessment Questionnaire

Why: to determine if acute or chronic.

Why: Cramps are painful muscle spasms.

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.

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

Why: e.g. exertion, exercise, excessive perspiration, heat exhaustion, heat stroke, pregnancy.

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

Why: dehydration may cause muscle cramps.

Why: muscular injury may cause cramps.

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. 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).

Why: e.g motor neurone disease, kidney failure, diabetes, thyroiditis.

Why: some diuretic medications may cause muscle cramps.

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.

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

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.

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).