Validity and reliability of a point‐of‐care nerve conduction device in diabetes patients

• Published in: Journal of diabetes investigation Vol. 10; no. 5; pp. 1291 - 1298
• Main Authors: Shibata, Yuka, Himeno, Tatsuhito, Kamiya, Taeko, Tani, Hiroya, Nakayama, Takayuki, Kojima, Chika, Sugiura‐Roth, Yukako, Naito, Ena, Kondo, Masaki, Tsunekawa, Shin, Kato, Yoshiro, Nakamura, Jiro, Kamiya, Hideki
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Japan John Wiley & Sons, Inc 01-09-2019; John Wiley and Sons Inc; Wiley
• Subjects: Action potential; Diabetes; Diabetes mellitus; Diabetes Mellitus, Type 1 - complications; Diabetic Neuropathies - diagnosis; Diabetic Neuropathies - etiology; Diabetic neuropathy; Diabetic polyneuropathy; Electrodiagnosis - instrumentation; Electrodiagnosis - methods; Electromyography; Female; Follow-Up Studies; Humans; Japan; Male; Middle Aged; Nerve conduction; Nerve conduction study; Nervous system; Neural Conduction - physiology; Original; Patients; Peripheral neuropathy; Point-of-Care Systems - standards; Point‐of‐care device; Polyneuropathy; Prognosis; Reproducibility of Results; Studies; Sural nerve; Validity; Velocity; Japan; United States > US; Nerve conduction study; Diabetic polyneuropathy; Point-of-care device
• ISSN: 2040-1116; 2040-1124
• DOI: 10.1111/jdi.13007

Aims/Introduction
Although nerve conduction study (NCS) using a standard electromyography system (EMGS) is considered to be the gold standard in evaluating diabetic polyneuropathy, this examination requires expensive equipment and well‐trained technicians. We aimed to validate a point‐of‐care device, NC‐stat/DPNCheck™, that has been developed for widespread use of NCS in diabetic polyneuropathy.
Materials and Methods
Diabetes patients underwent two kinds of NCS: DPNCheck™ and electromyography system. Inter‐/intrarater reliability of DPNCheck™ were also determined by the intraclass correlation coefficient.
Results
A total of 57 patients were evaluated. The parameters of NCS between the two methods correlated well (r = 0.7734 for the sural nerve conduction velocity, r = 0.6155 for the amplitude of sural nerve action potential). The intraclass correlation coefficients were excellent (intrarater: the velocity 0.767, the amplitude 0.811; interrater: the velocity 0.974, the amplitude 0.834).
Conclusions
The point‐of‐care device has excellent reproducibility and good agreement with standard electromyography system. The device might be useful to evaluate diabetic polyneuropathy.
The point‐of‐care device has excellent reproducibility and good agreement with standard electromyography system. The device could be useful to evaluate diabetic polyneuropathy.