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Comparison of Automated versus Traditional Nerve Conduction Study Methods for Median Nerve Testing in a General Worker Population
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3 2015
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Source: PM R. 2014; 7(3):276-282
[PDF-375.78 KB]
Details:
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Alternative Title:PM R
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Personal Author:
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Description:Objective
To investigate the validity of automated nerve conduction studies compared to traditional electrodiagnostic studies (EDS) for testing median nerve abnormalities in a working population.
Design
Agreement study and sensitivity investigation from two devices
Setting
Field research testing lab
Participants
Active workers from several industries participating in a longitudinal study of CTS.
Methods
Sixty-two subjects received bilateral median and ulnar nerve conduction testing across the wrist with a traditional device and the NC-stat automated device. We compared intermethod agreement of analogous measurements.
Main outcome measurement
Nerve conduction study parameters
Results
Median motor and sensory latency comparisons showed excellent agreement (intra-class correlation 0.85 and 0.80 respectively). Areas under the receiver operator characteristic curves were 0.97 and 0.96 respectively, using the optimal thresholds of 4.4ms median motor latency (sensitivity 100%, specificity 86%) and 3.9ms median sensory latency (sensitivity 100%, specificity 87%). Ulnar nerve testing results were less favorable.
Conclusion
The automated NC-stat device showed excellent agreement with traditional EDS for detecting median nerve conduction abnormalities in a general population of workers, suggesting that this automated nerve conduction device can be used to ascertain research case definitions of CTS in population health studies. Further study is needed to determine optimal thresholds for defining median conduction abnormalities in populations that are not seeking clinical care.
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Source:
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Pubmed ID:25463687
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Pubmed Central ID:PMC4372480
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