Nerve conduction velocity

Injury	Disease	Nutrition	Poison

Symptoms	Surgery	Test	Special Topic

Nerve conduction test

Overview

Risks

Results

Nerve conduction velocity

Alternative Names:

NCV

Normal Values:

NCV is related to the diameter of the nerve and the normal degree of myelination (the presence of a myelin sheath on the axon) of the nerve. Newborn infants have values that are approximately half that of adults, and adult values are normally reached by age 3 - 4.

What abnormal results mean:

Most often, abnormal results are caused by some sort of neuropathy (nerve damage or destruction) including:

Demyelination (destruction of the myelin sheath)
Conduction block (the impulse is blocked somewhere along the nerve pathway)
Axonopathy (damage to the nerve axon)

Some of the associated diseases or conditions include:

Alcoholic neuropathy
Diabetic neuropathy
Nerve effects of uremia (from kidney failure)
Traumatic injury to a nerve
Guillain-Barre syndrome
Diphtheria
Carpal tunnel syndrome
Brachial plexopathy
Charcot-Marie-Tooth disease (hereditary)
Chronic inflammatory polyneuropathy
Common peroneal nerve dysfunction
Distal median nerve dysfunction
Femoral nerve dysfunction
Friedreich's ataxia
General paresis
Lambert-Eaton Syndrome
Mononeuritis multiplex
Primary amyloid
Radial nerve dysfunction
Sciatic nerve dysfunction
Secondary systemic amyloid
Sensorimotor polyneuropathy
Tibial nerve dysfunction
Ulnar nerve dysfunction

Any peripheral neuropathy can cause abnormal results, as can damage to the spinal cord and disc herniation (herniated nucleus pulposus) with nerve root compression.

Review Date: 4/28/2005
Reviewed By: Chitra R. Uppaluri, M.D., Clinical Assistant Professor of Medicine, Saint Louis University, St. Louis, MO. Review provided by VeriMed Healthcare Network.

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