The importance of sample size for the estimation of F wave latency parameters in the peroneal nerve

We studied the peroneal nerve F waves in 20 healthy subjects and 20 patients with neuropathy to assess the effect of sample size on the accuracy of measurements of the following F wave latency parameters: F wave minimum latency, mean latency, median latency and F chronodispersion. The values obtained from a large sample (65-110 F responses) were compared with the corresponding values from smaller samples of 10, 20 and 40 responses. The results indicated that equally accurate measurements for all parameters were provided by larger F wave samples in patients, compared with healthy subjects. Amongst the various parameters, FchR required the largest and FLmean the smallest sample, in order to achieve results of the same accuracy. A sample of 40 fulfilled the requirements for all F wave latency parameters of the peroneal nerve in almost all subjects, a finding which is in good agreement with that of a similar study for the ulnar nerve.