title: Two novel methods to assess ulnar nerve conduction across the elbow.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  Nerve conduction studies (NCS) are used as an electrodiagnostic method for diagnosing ulnar neuropathy of the elbow (UNE). The purpose of this study was to determine normal and reliability values of across elbow ulnar nerve conduction velocity using two novel methods.
  
  
  METHODS
  Ulnar nerve conduction studies were performed on both upper extremities of 104 healthy subjects. Two different techniques were used to evaluate ulnar nerve function at the elbow: Technique 1 (W-BE-AE) determined mixed NCV across the elbow indirectly while Technique 2 (BE-AE) measured conduction time directly. Twenty subjects returned within one week for re-testing to generate reliability data.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The mean NCV for the BE-AE segment using Technique 1 was 59.68m/s (±8.91m/s). The mean peak latency for the BE-AE segment using Technique 2 was 2.03ms (±0.24ms). The interrater and intrarater reliability intraclass correlation coefficient (ICC) for Technique 1 was 0.454 and 0.756, respectively. For Technique 2, the interrater and intrarater reliability ICC was 0.76 and 0.814, respectively.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  This study identified normal values for ulnar nerve conduction across the elbow with reliability ranging from poor to good, depending on the technique. These two novel techniques provide alternative methods to traditional techniques to measure ulnar nerve conduction across the elbow.
authors.affiliation: Department of Physical Therapy, University of Texas Health Science Center, 8403 Floyd Curl Dr. MSC 6247, San Antonio, TX 78229, United States. Electronic address: ernstg@uthscsa.edu.
authors.forename: Gregory
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Ernst
authors.affiliation: Promotion Physical Therapy, Westover Hills Medical Park, 10415 State Hwy 151, Ste. 101, San Antonio, TX 78251, United States.
authors.forename: Jennifer
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Canales
authors.affiliation: Baylor University Medical Center, Vaughn Department of Physical Medicine, 3500 Gaston Ave, Dallas, TX 75246, United States.
authors.forename: Elizabeth
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Garcia
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D004550:Elbow / Q000294:innervation* / Q000502:physiology*; D004568:Electrodiagnosis / Q000379:methods* / Q000592:standards; D004576:Electromyography / Q000379:methods / Q000592:standards; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D018482:Muscle, Skeletal / Q000503:physiopathology; D009431:Neural Conduction / Q000502:physiology*; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D014459:Ulnar Nerve / Q000502:physiology*; D055815:Young Adult
keywords: Ulnar nerve conduction; Ulnar neuropathy elbow