Di Fabio, Roberto and Castagnoli, Claudio and Madrigale, Andrea and Barrella, Massimo and Serrao, Mariano and Pierelli, Francesco (2013) Requests for electromyography in Rome: a critical evaluation. Functional Neurology, 28 (4). pp. 281-284. ISSN 1971-3274
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Abstract
To date, there exist no data reporting the level of suitability of requests for electromyography examinations (EMGs) in Rome. The records of 1,220 consecutive patients (age: 57.6±15.0 years; 400 M, 820 F) in two neurophysiology laboratories were collected and analyzed. In total, 1,317 EMGs were requested, mainly by general practitioners (GPs) (57%) and orthopedic specialists (18%). The most common diagnoses were L4-L5 radiculopathy (22%) and carpal tunnel syndrome (21%); 332 examinations (25%) were normal. 68% of requests were not accompanied by any specific query. The concordance between initial hypothesis/final post-EMG diagnosis was low (<20%). When a specific query was indicated, the initial suspicion was confirmed by EMG in 54% of GP requests and 64% of requests by specialists (p=0.03). No difference in diagnostic ability was found between specialists (p>0.05). In 17% of cases, the EMG was deemed diagnostically useless by the neurophysiologist, which seems to indicate potentially suboptimal prescription of EMGs.
| Item Type: | Article |
|---|---|
| Uncontrolled Keywords: | electromyography, diagnostic ability, requests, Rome |
| Subjects: | 600 Tecnologia - Scienze applicate > 610 Medicina e salute (Classificare qui la tecnologia dei servizi medici) |
| Depositing User: | Marina Spanti |
| Date Deposited: | 17 Dec 2015 13:03 |
| Last Modified: | 17 Dec 2015 13:03 |
| URI: | http://eprints.bice.rm.cnr.it/id/eprint/10941 |
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