Diagnostic value of electrophysiological tests in patients with sciatica

(C) Munksgaard 2000. Objectives - To assess the diagnostic value of electro physiological tests in patients with sciatica. Materials and methods - The diagnostic value of electrophysiological tests were evaluated in 25 patient s with monoradicular sciatica. The electrophysiological study included derm atomal somatosensory evoked potentials, electromyography, F-wave latencies, H-reflexes and motor and sensory nerve conduction determinations. The resu lts of the electrophysiological examinations were evaluated blindly, and th e test results were analysed separately by a receiver operating characteris tic (ROC) analysis. Furthermore, the 5 modalities were evaluated jointly an d analysed by a decision-analytic regret function. Results - A high predict ive value was found for the II-reflex examination, but low for the other mo dalities. When the 5 modalities were evaluated jointly, a non-significant d ecrease in expected regret from the pre-test situation of 0.96 to a value o f 0.93 in post-test situation was revealed. Conclusion - Electrophysiologic al testing is not sufficient as stand-alone examination in patients with sc iatica.