European Journal of Biomedical and Pharmaceutical Sciences

NERVE CONDUCTION PARAMETERS OF LOWER LIMBS OF HEALTHY INDIVIDUALS: EFFECT OF ANTHROPOMETRIC VARIABLES

Subedi P.*, Thakur D., Khadka R. and Paudel B. H.

ABSTRACT

Background: Nerve conduction studies (NCS) are conventionally performed with electromyography (EMG), which is electro diagnostic studies, provides a comprehensive evaluation of suspected nerve, muscle and/or neuromuscular impairment. Several studies had shown a significant effect of anthropometric variables on nerve conduction variables. Thus, we would like to study the nerve conduction parameters of lower limbs and also, to study the effect of anthropometric variables on it. Objectives: To study the nerve conduction parameters of lower limbs and to study the effect of anthropometric variables on it. Material and methods: This study was done on twenty seven consenting male healthy volunteers of age 21-35 years selected from BPKIHS by a convenient sampling method. Anthropometric variables such as age, height, weight, BMI were recorded. Motor and sensory nerve conduction parameters of lower limbs were recorded using standard techniques in Neurophysiology Lab II, Department of Basic and Clinical Physiology, B.P Koirala Institute of Health Sciences, Dharan, Nepal. The data obtained were entered into MS Excel sheet and further analyzed using SPSS 11.5. Descriptive analysis was done. Pearson’s correlation was applied between anthropometric and nerve conduction variables. Results: Mean age, height, weight, BMI and lower limb length of subjects were 26.78±3.87 years, 169.30±6.91 cm, 67.96±7.38 kg, 23.66±1.61kg/m2 and 98.74±5.23 cm respectively. Similarly, mean and SD were derived for nerve conduction parameters. Height showed a significant positive correlation for latencies of most of the examined motor nerves (p<0.05) while a negative correlation with conduction velocities with bilateral common peroneal and left tibial nerves (p<0.05). Subjects with higher weights showed longer latencies while lesser conduction velocities than those subjects with lower weights (p<0.05). Left tibial nerve conduction velocity showed a negative correlation with BMI. Conclusion: Height, weight and BMI showed a significant relationship with nerve conduction parameters of lower limbs in healthy subjects. Thus, these factors must be considered while reporting nerve conduction studies.

Keywords: Anthropometric, nerve conduction studies.