Inter- and intra-examiner reliability of nerve conduction measurements in normal subjects

Ann Neurol. 1991 Dec;30(6):841-3. doi: 10.1002/ana.410300614.

Abstract

Nerve conduction studies are widely employed in evaluating patients with peripheral nerve disease and are often used serially to measure disease progression or to assess a therapeutic intervention. We determined the inter- and intra-examiner reliability of electrophysiological data by performing serial nerve conduction studies on 7 normal subjects. A high degree of intra-examiner reliability was present, but significant inter-examiner differences were found. Our results suggest that if nerve conduction studies are to be used longitudinally, they should optimally be performed by a single examiner to minimize the degree of variability associated with different examiners.

Publication types

  • Comparative Study

MeSH terms

  • Electromyography
  • Humans
  • Longitudinal Studies
  • Neural Conduction*
  • Observer Variation*
  • Random Allocation
  • Reference Values
  • Reproducibility of Results