[One year follow-up study of symptomatic cases of ulnar neuropathy at the elbow in a rural population].
OBJECTIVE
This study examined the natural history of symptomatic patients who did or did not display abnormal results on nerve conduction studies (NCS).


METHODS
Forty hundred fifty adults were selected among a total of 578 residents who participated in the health examination in a rural Korean district. A symptom questionnaire and NCS were used to diagnose ulnar neuropathy at the elbow (UNE). There were 6.4% of the subjects with UNE, 5.1% of the subjects showed symptoms without a NCS, and 84.2% of the subjects who were asymptomatic. One year later, 20 symptomatic limbs with an abnormality on the ulnar NCS and 22 symptomatic limbs without any abnormality in the ulnar NCS were enrolled in a follow-up study. The natural history of UNE was evaluated by examining the changes in the clinical and electrodiagnostic examinations.


RESULTS
The 1-year follow-up of the enrolled limbs found that for the symptomatic limbs with an abnormality on the NCS, the degree of severe of the clinical grade changed from 20% to 10%. In contrast, for the symptomatic limbs that were without any abnormality in the NCS, the change of the severe degree of the clinical grade was from 0% to 18.2%. Also, for the electrodiagnostic change, only symptomatic limbs without NCS abnormalities showed significant changes in motor latency, amplitude and conduction velocity at the 1-year follow-up.


CONCLUSIONS
The 1-year follow-up study revealed symptomatic limbs that were without any abnormality on the ulnar NCS were more likely to progress than the symptomatic limbs with an abnormality on the ulnar NCS.
Sim
Young-Joo
YJ
Department of Rehabilitation Medicine, Chonbuk National University.
Lim
Hyun-Sul
HS
D004550:Elbow / Q000294:innervation*; D004568:Electrodiagnosis; D005260:Female; D005500:Follow-Up Studies; D006801:Humans; D007723:Korea / Q000453:epidemiology; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009431:Neural Conduction; D012424:Rural Population; D012720:Severity of Illness Index; D020424:Ulnar Neuropathies / Q000503:physiopathology*