NORMATIVE DATA FOR MEDIAN AND ULNAR NERVE CONDUCTION AND F?WAVE RESPONSE AMONG HEALTHY INDIVIDUALS

Electrodiagnostic (EDX) medicine has been in existence since the 1940s. EDX physicians and technologists perform nerve conduction studies (NCS) and needle electromyography to evaluate disorders of the peripheral nervous and musculoskeletal systems. In the past few decades, EDX instrumentation and signal processing have benefitted greatly from technological advancements in computing and electronics1. Nerve Conduction Studies (NCS) are useful in evaluating the functions and diseases of the peripheral nerves. NCS help in delineating the extent and the distribution of neural lesions and they distinguish two major categories of peripheral nerve diseases: demyelination and axonal degeneration2. Performing NCS on nerves and deciding whether the results fall within an expected range of normal values with a statistical level of precision is fundamental to EDX medicine. With the steady improvement and the standardization of these methods, they have become reliable tests in clinical settings. They are now widely used, not only for the precise localization of lesions but also for the accurate characterization of peripheral nerve functions3. NCS involves the activation of nerves with small, safe electrical impulses over multiple points on the skin of limbs and thereafter measuring the obtained responses. NCS is diagnostically helpful in patients suspected of having almost any kind of peripheral nervous system disorder including disorders of nerve roots, and peripheral nerves2,3,4 . The technique consists of electrical stimulation of nerves and the recording of the evoked potentials, either from the muscles or from the nerves themselves. Technical factors impart the accurate measurement of NCS parameters for motor and especially sensory nerves with machine settings can contribute to variability in NCS testing. High- and low-frequency filter settings affect both onset latencies and amplitudes and the Specification of these testing parameters are necessary to ensure high-quality study2,3 . For the upper limb, the median and the ulnar nerves are the most tested nerves in individuals who were carefully screened by using standard distances. In our study, we are looking to establish the normal NCS data for the median and the ulnar nerves in normal healthy individuals aged between 18 – 60 years