title: Stimulus duration and pain in nerve conduction studies.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  It is generally believed that a shorter stimulus duration is less painful in nerve conduction studies (NCS). We investigated whether a shorter duration stimulus is actually less painful when the same physiological effect, such as supramaximal stimulation, is achieved in motor NCS.
  
  
  METHODS
  The tibial nerve was stimulated at the ankle in 14 control subjects and the median nerve at the wrist in 20 subjects. Two stimulations of different durations were given blindly, and each subject was asked to report which was more painful.
  
  
  RESULTS
  A 0.2-ms-duration stimulus was significantly less painful than those with longer or shorter durations for the tibial nerve. For the median nerve, the 0.05- and 0.2-ms durations were equally less painful than a 1-ms-duration stimulus.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  As a common duration for motor NCS, 0.2 ms seems appropriate, because the tibial nerve stimulation was more painful than the median nerve stimulation.
authors.affiliation: Department of Neurology, Teikyo University School of Medicine, 2-11-1 Kaga, Itabashi-ku, Tokyo 173-8605, Japan.
authors.forename: Akiko
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Tamura
authors.forename: Masahiro
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Sonoo
authors.forename: Satoshi
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Hoshino
authors.forename: Tomoko
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Iwanami
authors.forename: Hiroyuki
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Shimada
authors.forename: Takami
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Miki
authors.forename: Teruo
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Shimizu
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D004558:Electric Stimulation; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008475:Median Nerve / Q000503:physiopathology*; D008875:Middle Aged; D009431:Neural Conduction / Q000502:physiology*; D010146:Pain / Q000503:physiopathology*; D010147:Pain Measurement; D011930:Reaction Time / Q000502:physiology; D013979:Tibial Nerve / Q000503:physiopathology*