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Ulnar nerve conduction velocity in injured baseball pitchers
Shun-Hwa Wei1, Yeu-Jeng Jong, Ya-Ju Chang
1Graduate Institute of Rehabilitation Science and Technology, National Yang Ming University, Taipei, Taiwan.
Objective:
To compare the ulnar nerve conduction velocity (NCV) of baseball pitchers without elbow injury to baseball pitchers with elbow injury and to persons who do not play baseball.
Design:
Cross-sectional.
Setting:
Hospital rehabilitation department.
Participants:
Eight college baseball pitchers without elbow injury, 8 age-matched controls who did not play baseball, and 8 college baseball pitchers with a history of elbow injury with tenderness over the cubital tunnel area.
Intervention:
Supramaximal electric stimulation was applied superficially to the ulnar nerve at the wrist, below the elbow, and above the elbow of both the dominant and nondominant arms of all subjects. M waves were recorded from the abductor digiti minimi muscles.
Main Outcome Measures:
The ulnar NCV was calculated separately for the across-elbow and below-elbow segments. The ulnar NCVs of both arms of the 3 groups were compared by using a 2-way (arm by group) analysis of variance, with a statistical significance level of P less than .05.
Results:
The ulnar NCVs were 64.40+/-7.34m/s, 54.97+/-8.67m/s, and 59.18+/-4.10m/s for the pitchers without injury, pitchers with injury, and the subjects who were not pitchers, respectively. The pitchers without injury were significantly faster than the other 2 groups. For pitchers without injury, the ulnar NCVs of the dominant arm were significantly faster than those of the nondominant arm (56.26+/-2.63m/s). No significant difference was found between the dominant and nondominant arms for the group of injured pitchers and for the group of subjects who were not pitchers.
Conclusions:
The ulnar NCVs of the injured pitchers did not appear to be abnormal, but were suboptimal in comparison with the noninjured pitchers. The above-normal NCVs observed in the noninjured pitchers may be the result of an adaptation to trauma associated with ball throwing.
