EFFICACY OF CERVICAL NERVE TENSION ASSESSMENT SCREENING TOOL AMONG SUBJECTS WITH CERVICAL RADICULOPATHY

Background In cervical radiculopathy inflamed and damaged nerve roots alters the neurological function. Numbness, weakness, radiating pain from neck to shoulder, arm, hand or fingers. Electro diagnostic studies plays crucial role to diagnose disorder of nerve and muscle but it is expensive and has a large set up. Portable nerve conduction devices are very easy to use, simple and inexpensive, cost effective means of measurement. There are very limited scales of android application and portable screening tool for nerve conduction study .Aim and objectives 1. To study and find the efficacy of cervical nerve tension assessment screening tool among subjects with cervical radiculopathy.2 To compare the readings of ulnar and median nerve conduction velocity by using newly developed cervical nerve tension assessment screening tool with the conventional electro diagnostic device on healthy as well as cervical radiculopathy subjects materials and methodology There were 124 participants they were allocated into two group with 62 participants each. Group A was of subjects with Cervical Radiculopathy and group B was of healthy individuals and they were diagnosed by standard existing NCS device and simultaneously by newly developed screening tool which is portable. Nerve conduction and latency were outcome measures in both devices for median and ulnar motor nerves. At the end data were analysed and the values of new device were compared with existing device to check the accuracy. Result: There is a perfect and significant correlation was observed between Existing and Portable devices in all parameters. Value for median and ulnar nerve latency and conduction velocity in both the groups is <0.001 meaning very significant. Conclusion Cervical Nerve Tension Assessment Screening Tool among Subjects with Cervical Radiculopathy can be alternative to the existing NCS device. The readings of cervical nerve tension assessment screening tool matches with the standard existing device of NCS.