CONDUCTION-VELOCITY DISTRIBUTIONS COMPARED TO FIBER SIZE DISTRIBUTIONS IN NORMAL HUMAN SURAL NERVE

Compound action potentials (CAPs) were recorded from the sural nerve o f healthy volunteers, A mathematical technique (inverse modeling) was used to compute conduction velocity (CV) histograms from the data, Res ults were compared to the morphology of age-matched normal sural nerve biopsies, Coefficients of variation (CoVs) revealed the statistical r elationship between morphological data (diameter histograms) and elect rophysiological data (CV histograms and conventional CAP parameters), No differences were found for the thick fiber group when comparing the CoVs of the diameter histogram parameters with the corresponding CV h istogram parameters. Apparently, the same inherent biological interind ividual variability is encountered, The CoVs of the CVs of the CAP's m ain phases are in good agreement with the CoVs of the estimated mean v elocity of the thick fiber group, Inverse modeling increases the relia bility of the estimation of the number of active fibers as compared to direct CAP amplitude interpretation. (C) 1995 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.