Department of Neurology, Rambam Medical Center, Haifa, Israel.
Sackler Faculty of Medicine, Tel Aviv University, Tel Aviv, Israel.
J Neuromuscul Dis. 2023;10(5):925-935. doi: 10.3233/JND-230052.
The normal limits of nerve conduction studies are commonly determined by testing healthy subjects. However, in comprehensive real-life nerve conduction electrodiagnostic (EDX) evaluations, multiple nerves are tested, including normal nerves, for purposes of comparison with abnormal ones.
This study aims to evaluate the average values of normal nerve conduction studies in a large population and examined the influence of age and sex.
EDX parameters were extracted from an electronic database of studies performed from May 2016 to February 2022. Established normal values were used to determine the classification of a nerve study as normal.
We identified 10,648 EDX reports with 5077 normally interpreted nerve conduction studies (47.6%) of which 57% (n = 2890) were for females. The median age of studies with no abnormalities was 45.1 years (range < 1 to 92) overall and 42.5 years (range: 0.16 -89.5 years) for males and 47.5 years (range:<1 -91.7) for females. Correlations between age and amplitude, latency, and velocity (p < 0.001) were observed in most nerves. Amplitude correlated negatively with age in adults in all nerves with a mean of -0.44 (range: -0.24 to -0.62). However, in the pediatric population (age < 18 years), amplitude as well as velocity increased significantly with age. In the adult cohort, sex differences were noted, where females had higher mean sensory nerve action potentials in ulnar, median, and radial evaluations (p < 0.001). In older patients (aged > 70 years) with normally interpreted EDX studies (845 records of 528 patients), sural responses were present in 97%.
This real-life study confirms that advanced aging is associated with decreased nerve conduction amplitudes, increased latency, and the slowing of conduction velocity. The findings also indicate higher sensory amplitudes and conduction velocities in females. Sural nerve responses were identified in most adults over age 70.
神经传导研究的正常范围通常通过测试健康受试者来确定。然而，在全面的现实生活中的神经传导电诊断（EDX）评估中，为了与异常神经进行比较，会同时测试多条正常神经。
本研究旨在评估大量人群中正常神经传导研究的平均值，并研究年龄和性别对其的影响。
从 2016 年 5 月至 2022 年 2 月进行的研究电子数据库中提取 EDX 参数。使用既定的正常值来确定神经研究是否正常。
我们共鉴定了 10648 份 EDX 报告，其中有 5077 份正常解释的神经传导研究（47.6%），其中 57%（n=2890）为女性。无异常的研究的中位数年龄为 45.1 岁（范围 1-92 岁），男性为 42.5 岁（范围：0.16-89.5 岁），女性为 47.5 岁（范围：1-91.7 岁）。在大多数神经中，年龄与振幅、潜伏期和速度之间存在相关性（p<0.001）。在所有神经中，成人的年龄与振幅呈负相关，平均为-0.44（范围：-0.24 至-0.62）。然而，在儿科人群（年龄<18 岁）中，振幅以及速度随年龄显著增加。在成年队列中，观察到了性别差异，女性在尺神经、正中神经和桡神经的评估中具有更高的感觉神经动作电位平均值（p<0.001）。在年龄较大（>70 岁）且 EDX 检查正常的患者（528 名患者中有 845 份记录）中，97%的患者存在腓肠神经反应。
本真实生活研究证实，随着年龄的增长，神经传导的振幅会降低，潜伏期会增加，传导速度会减慢。研究结果还表明，女性的感觉振幅和传导速度更高。大多数年龄超过 70 岁的成年人都存在腓肠神经反应。
