Upper limb nerve conduction parameters of healthy young adults

Abstract

Across sectional study was done among to measure the upper limb nerve conduction parameters in median and ulnar nerves. Age, height, weight and BMI of healthy volunteers were recorded. Nerve conduction study was performed to measure Distal Latency (DL) (ms), Proximal Latency (PL) (ms) and Conduction Velocity (CV) (m/s) in both motor and sensory of Median and Ulnar nerves in 99 individuals at University of Jaffna. The mean ages were 21.4 ± 1.2, 21.7 ± 1 in males and females respectively. There were significant differences between males and females in PL and DL of motor and sensory nerves, but not CV except for left motor ulnar and right sensory ulnar nerves (p<0.05). NCS parameters between left and right limbs were not statistically significant. Mean of median motor DL, PL, and CV were 3(±0.4), 7.4(±0.6), 62.7(±4) in males and 2.8(±0.3), 6.8(±0.6), 61.7(±5.4) in females respectively while the respective parameters in Ulnar motor nerves were 2.2(±0.2), 7.4(±0.6), 64.8(±5.5) in males and 2.1(±0.1), 6.9(±0.6), 66.6(±6.3) in females. Mean DL, PL and CV of sensory median were 2.8(±0.2), 6.6(±0.4), 69.7(±4.6) and 2.6(±0.3), 6.9(±0.6), 70.9(±7.9) in males and females respectively while the respective values in Ulnar sensory were 2.4(±0.3), 7.5(±0.6), 67.4(±5) in males and 2.2(±0.3), 6.9(±0.6), 71.9(±6) in females. Height had significant (p<0.05) correlation with latencies but not CV. CV was faster in sensory than motor nerves (p <0.001).Our results establish normal NCS values for Median and Ulnar nerves in young healthy adults enabling better interpretations of NCS.