Agreement between clinical examination and quantitative tests of neurologic function among 384 subjects

Background Quantitative neurological tests are often cheaper and easier tha n clinical examinations, and provide continuous data which may discriminate between,een exposed and nonexposed groups with more sensitivity than dicho tomous (normal/abnormal) examination data. Methods We compare clinical examinations and analogous quantitative tests f or arm tremor postural sway, and vibrotactile sensitivity (finger and toe), for 384 subjects. Results The " abnormal " clinical outcomes studied weve relatively common ( range, 3-36%), and did not result in impairment of daily activity for affec ted subjects. All the quantitative rests were reasonably good predictors of the corresponding clinical outcome. The most predictive test was for toe v ibrotactile sensitivity. The probability of an abnormal clinical result for those in the worst quartile for the toe test was 0.63, compared with 0.36 for all subjects. Conclusions Our results suggest that certain quantitative rests might be us ed in epidemiologic studies instead of a physical examination. Published 20 01 Wiley-Liss, Inc.(dagger).