MEDIAN SENSORY DISTAL AMPLITUDE AND LATENCY - COMPARISONS BETWEEN NONEXPOSED MANAGERIAL PROFESSIONAL EMPLOYEES AND INDUSTRIAL-WORKERS

To test for associations between occupation and median nerve dysfuncti on, measures of median motor and median and ulnar sensory amplitude an d distal latency were compared among three populations: control subjec ts without occupational exposure to highly forceful or repetitive hand exertions (N = 105), industrial workers with hand/wrist symptoms (N = 103), and asymptomatic industrial workers (N = 137). Mean sensory amp litudes were significantly smaller (p < 0.05) and motor and sensory di stal latencies were significantly longer (p < 0.001) in the industrial ''asymptomatic hand'' population compared to the control population. Prolongation of median relative to ulnar latency was significantly lon ger in the asymptomatic industrial population (p < 0.05). Results were most plausibly explained by differences in checklist identified ergon omic stressors. Median sensory amplitudes were significantly smaller ( p < 0.01) and latencies longer (p < 0.05) for industrial workers with exposure to high grip forces compared to those without. Exposure miscl assification may have reduced power to detect statistically significan t differences between exposed and nonexposed population groups. (C) 19 93 Wiley-Liss, Inc.