Sural nerve conduction: Amplitude and distal latency of sensory nerve action potential

Background: The sensory nerve action potential (SNAP) is an important factor in the electro diagnostic evaluation of a patient with suspected peripheral neuropathy. Sural nerve is the most frequently studied nerve in the electrophysiology. For proper diagnosis sural sensory conduction abnormalities, a reference data are required for each electrophysiology laboratory.

Aims and Objectives: The aim of the study was to find out normative reference data of amplitude and distal latency (DL) of sural SNAP for Northern Kerala population. 

Materials and Methods: The study was designed as cross-sectional and observational study and analysis of values was done using SPSS version 16. A total of 250 healthy subjects of age 15–50 from Northern Kerala participated in the study which included equal number of males and females. 

Results: Normative reference data for sensory amplitude and DL were derived in the present study. Sensory amplitude was more and DL was found to be less in female population, indicating faster nerve conduction in female. 

Conclusion: The reference data derived here can be utilized to detect any abnormality sural nerve sensory conduction. The gender effect on sural nerve sensory conduction parameters can be attributed to the height difference, as nerve conduction velocity is inversely proportional to height.