Direct measurement of human sympathetic nerve conduction velocity

✍ Scribed by Masahide Kondo; Satoshi Iwase; Tadaaki Mano; Shigeki Kuzuhara

• Publisher: John Wiley and Sons
• Year: 2003
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 97 KB
• Volume: 29
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0148-639X
• DOI: 10.1002/mus.10490

✦ Synopsis

Abstract

We evaluated a method for direct measurement of conduction velocity (CV) in sympathetic nerves in humans using a double‐recording method of skin sympathetic nerve activity (SSNA) by microneurography. SSNA in the tibial nerve was recorded simultaneously at proximal and distal sites in the popliteal fossa (short‐distance study) or at the popliteal fossa and ankle (long‐distance study). In both studies, CVs were determined by dividing the interelectrode distance on the skin by the difference in conduction time between the rising‐phases (rising‐phase analysis) or peaks of the integrated bursts (peak‐to‐peak analysis). The measurement using long distance and peak‐to‐peak analysis had the highest accuracy; it is an orthodromic conduction measurement, is unrelated to eliciting stimulus, has high temporal resolution, and is not affected by the effector organ conditions. The average CV of resting SSNA was 0.93 ± 0.09 m/s. Muscle Nerve 29: 128–133, 2004