The usefulness of electrodiagnostic consultation in an outpatient clinic

The aim of this study was to record all patients referred to a private outpatient clinic for electrodiagnostic consultation during one calendar year. The demographic data of the patients, the specialty of the referring physicians, the referral diagnosis, the electromyographic (EMG) diagnosis and the concordance of referral and EMG diagnosis among all the referring physician's specialties were recorded. There were one thousand patients (385 men and 615 women). 65.7% of the patients were referred from orthopedists and 22.4% from neurologists. EMG was normal in 498 patients (49.8%). Abnormal in 47.3% of the patients referred by orthopedists and 58.9% of those referred by neurologists. Carpal tunnel syndrome (CTS) was the most frequent electrophysiological diagnosis (26.8%), followed by polyneuropathy (8.9%), radiculopathy (7.1%) and mononeuropathy (4.6%). In this study electrodiagnostic consultation was abnormal in only half of the referred patients. The high proportion of normal EDX tests in this study denotes the need for more accurate clinical diagnosis in order to reduce the time spent and resources. The orthopedist is the initial physician to whom patients with neuromuscular symptoms are seen in the majority of cases. Neurologists seem to be more familiar with neuromuscular symptoms and diseases.