Muscle Nerve

Introduction The correlation between monofilament testing, symptom surveys and electrodiagnostic studies for the diagnosis of axonal polyneuropathy has not been well studied. This study was to assess the agreement between these procedures in a non-random sample of volunteers. Methods The evaluated procedures included electrodiagnostic tests of the sural nerve, monofilament testing of the great toe, a symptom survey and a body diagram. Kappa coefficients, sensitivity and specificity, using nerve conduction as a ‘gold standard’, were used to determine the agreement between various combinations of procedures. Results Poor agreement (Kappa values: −0.12 ~ 0.44) and sensitivity (sensitivity<30%) were found for all combinations of symptoms and monofilament results in comparison with sural peak latency and amplitude. Discussion Overall, the results demonstrated a low discriminatory power for the screening procedures for identifying persons with impaired sural nerve function. The results highlight the need for further development and evaluation of screening methods for distal neuropathy in population-based studies.

22499091

PMC3335757

Journal Article

CDC Public Access