Neural-scan

wscott said:

Hey everybody,

Have you heard of Neural-scan?

http://www.ndanerve.com/

What do you think of it?

Is anybody using it?

They had a booth at the ISIS meeting in Salt Lake City and it drew a lot of attention.

I'm very skeptical......

Click to expand...

And you should be.

The only paper evaluating it was published in 2002 in the Internet Journal of Anesthesiology. They claimed higher sensivity than physical exam. The methodology was rather unique: the "gold standard" for determining whether there was nerve root pathology was an abnormal epidurogram. In other words, the device was more sensitive in predicting abnormal epidurograms.

How the epidurograms were determined to be abnormal was not specifically stated. I can't imagine how one would quantitate that and I have not seen that used as the standard before. I have no idea why they didn't compare this technique to EMG/NCV, or why they didn't use MRI w/contrast to determine epidural fibrosis instead of epidurography with its inherent flaws.

http://www.ispub.com/ostia/index.php?xmlFilePath=journals/ija/vol6n1/nerve.xml

It apparently is the next generation Neurometer now controlled for impedence. Not being an electrodiagnostician, the impromtu presentation and use on one of the docs there was impressive, although I am not sure what one would do with the data. It determines independently C fiber and A-delta conduction delays, which may be useful for CTS and entrapment neuropathies, but so is standard NCV. They claim to be able to detect small fiber pathology when large fiber EMG studies are normal. The physiatrist in my practice shares your concerns.....
The biggest selling point is that you have a 6 month money back guarantee...