Neurophysiological methodologies: diagnosis of peripheral nerve disease and asse

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Curr Opin Investig Drugs. 2010 Jan;11(1):72-9.

Neurophysiological methodologies: diagnosis of peripheral nerve disease and

assessment of pharmacological agents.

Cheah BC, Kiernan MC.

Prince of Wales Medical Research Institute, Barker Street, Randwick, NSW 2031,

Australia.

Recent developments in the field of neurophysiology have led to the refinement

of neurophysiological techniques, enabling clinical investigators to assess

neuropathy patients with greater precision. In addition to conventional nerve

conduction studies and electromyography, novel axonal excitability techniques

and quantitative sensory testing may be used to improve diagnosis and to

characterize and serially monitor peripheral nerve disorders. A significant

expansion in the number of clinical trials being conducted for neurological

indications has increased the impetus to further develop neurophysiological

measures that reflect the responsiveness to drug therapies. Measures such as

motor unit number estimation and the neurophysiological index may facilitate the

advancement of compounds in the drug discovery pipeline. This review summarizes

several electrodiagnostic and neurophysiological techniques, both conventional

and novel, highlighting recent advances that are relevant to disease diagnosis

and the assessment of patient response to treatment strategies.