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

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.