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PubMed1975

Behavioral assessment of peripheral nerve function.

Behavioral psychophysical techniques were used to obtain strength-duration curves for the ulnar nerve at both threshold and suprathreshold levels. The functions well match those obtained with electrophysiologic procedures, but overcome many of the difficulities associated with traditional electrodiagnosis. An alternate means of presenting the data provides a parameter, the critical duration, that describes the ability of the stimulated nerve to integrate or summate energy over time. The very brief criticial duration for normal ulnar nerve and the similar functions at threshold and suprathreshold levels suggest possible mechanisms for the transduction and coding of percutaneous electrical stimuli.

Acoustic Stimulation↗

PubMedDate not supplied

An upper body musculoskeletal assessment instrument for patients with work-related musculoskeletal disorders: a pilot study.

OBJECTIVES: To examine the reliability and validity of a new outcome measure, the Upper Body Musculoskeletal Assessment (UBMA). DESIGN: Twenty subjects physician-diagnosed as having work-related musculoskeletal disorders (WRMD) and ten healthy subjects were assessed using the UBMA on three separate occasions. All subjects with WRMD attributed their injury to equipment use on their job. RESULTS: The WRMD group had significantly higher UBMA scores on the side of equipment use than on the other side (p <0.01), whereas the healthy group had similar scores on both sides (p> 0.05). UBMA scores for the WRMD group were significantly greater on both sides of the body than scores for the healthy group (p<0.01). Only one test occasion was required to produce excellent reliability coefficients (ICCs>0.88). Although group reliability was excellent, changes of 24% for patients with WRMD and 44% for healthy subjects would be required for confidence that UBMA scores for individual patients on the side of equipment use had changed from baseline. CONCLUSIONS: Although testing on one occasion produced reliable UBMA scores, healthy subjects could be distinguished from patients with WRMD, and the side of equipment use could be distinguished from the other side in patients with WRMD, prediction of individual UBMA scores was poor. In its present form, the UBMA is useful for making decisions about groups but not about individual patients. Modifications of the current UBMA are required to reduce measurement error.

Adult↗